Hungarians Protest Plan to Raze Romanian Villages

At least 50,000 Hungarians, many carrying torches and candles, marched quietly past the Romanian Embassy to protest a plan to demolish thousands of Romanian villages.

The rally Tuesday night was the largest unofficial demonstration in Hungary since an anti-Soviet uprising was crushed in 1956. Police protected the embassy compound but did not interfere.

The protest was organized by a dozen opposition and other unofficial groups, but it was officially authorized by police in this Communist country.

“Observers, watching the crowd and listening to the slogans chanted, felt the demonstration was pervaded not only by discipline, the knowledge of representing a just cause . . . but an awareness of Central European consciousness. . . , “ the government newspaper Magyar Hirlap said today.

Before the march to the embassy, about 30,000 people gathered on downtown Heroes’ Square to hear speeches denouncing the forcible resettlement plan.

The proposed plan to raze about 7,000 of Romania’s 13,000 villages, which would affect hundreds of communities of people of Hungarian and German heritage, has strained Hungarian-Romanian relations.

“The demonstration reflected the anxiety Hungarian society feels about the fate of the villages in Romania and the fact that it is not accepting that ‘bulldozer policy’ as a government policy in these concluding years of the 20th Century,” the government newspaper said.

The crowd moved slowly past the Romanian Embassy, shouting protests, then marched back to the square, laying flowers at monuments to Hungarian kings.

They also heard a message of solidarity from Lech Walesa, the leader of the banned Polish free trade union.

Banners denounced the resettlement and scores of demonstrators held up signs of place names in Hungarian, German and Romanian that they fear will vanish from the map.