Caught in Vojvodina: The plight of ethnic Hungarians

The Kosovo crisis has created an extremely precarious situation for ethnic Hungarians who live in Vojvodina, the northern portion of Serbia on the border of Hungary. And the danger comes from both NATO bombs and the hostility of Serb citizens who resent ethnic Hungarians because it is "their" NATO planes that are bombarding the Serb homeland. (Hungary is one of three Central European countries that has recently joined NATO.)

A few days ago I talked to a student who had just visited his home in the predominantly ethnic Hungarian city of Subotica in Vojvodina told me of sitting out an air attack that was aimed at a military establishment but ended up hitting nearby residential areas. At the same time, press reports tell of graffiti that have appeared in Vojvodina warning ethnic Hungarians to get out of Serbia before it is too late.

Some historical background: Through the First World War, Vojvodina was the southern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, which included Serbian and German minorities. After 1920, when Vojvodina was ceded to the Serbian Republic within the state of Yugoslavia—a state created at the Paris peace talks following World War I—Hungarians formed the largest minority in the Serbian-dominated region.