" Every nation's homeland is sacred. If you destroy one, you mutilate

the entire human race." These words were spoken on the pulpit of the

Notre Dame Cathedral, some 80 years ago, by Father Gratry. He was

talking about the Trianon Treaty, which dismembered the 1000 years old

kingdom of Hungary. During the last 80 years, the Hungarians did not

forget the loss of their homeland, and never will, just as the Jews did

not forget the loss of theirs for some 2000 years. Just as Nazism was

not born in Germany but in Versailles, so the tragedy of the Balkans

can all be traced back to Trianon, where from the fragments of Hungary,

the successor states of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and greater Romania

were created. These artificial formations forced Albanian Muslims to

live with Serbs and compelled Czechs to live with Slovaks. It takes

time for historic events to reveal their consequences. It took nearly

80 years for these creations of Trianon, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia,

to self-destruct and as a result, to de-stabilize Central Europe. That

process is not nearing it's end, it is only beginning! Trianon cut

mercilessly into the flesh of compact Hungarian populations. Hundreds

of towns were separated from their suburbs; villages were split in two;

communities were deprived of their parish churches or cemeteries;

townships were cut off from their railroad stations and their water

supplies. A 1000-year-old European country was made into an invalid. In

the process, 35% of all Hungarians were turned into foreigners within

the towns, which were built by their fathers. Hungarians became

Europe's largest minority and in the "free for all" even Austria

obtained some parts of the old kingdom. The new borders were not drawn

on the basis of plebiscites. By ignoring the ethnographic borders, the

dismemberment of the 48 million Austro-Hungarian empire resulted in the

creation of 16 million ethnic minorities. These minorities were not

emigrants who voluntarily left their old country, but people who never

moved from their home towns and became foreigners, because the borders

were redrawn around them. President Wilson asked for a Danubian

Confederation to replace the Monarchy and wanted to draw the internal

borders within it, on the basis of self-determination through

plebiscites, but his views were disregarded. On March 31, 1919, he

called the proposed dismemberment of Hungary absurd, but was overruled

by the French. As a result, the United States Congress refused to

approve the Treaty of Trianon, but the treaty was implemented (mostly

by the French) anyway. When the Wends and Slovenes of the Murakvz

protested their separation from Hungary, when the Ruthenians expressed

their desire to remain part of the kingdom which they shared for a

thousand years, when the Swabians of the Banat protested their

annexation into Romania, their requests been all denied. There was only

a single instance where self-determination prevailed: The city of

Sopron was allowed to hold a plebiscite and voted to remain part of

Hungary. In any society, the acid test of civilization is the respect

for minority rights. The successor states, which were created,

validated the words of Tacitus: "We hate whom we hurt." They attempted

to solve their minority problems, through denationalization, ethnic

cleansing, deportations, expulsions, transfers, dispersions and many

other forms of uprooting. Hungarians had to choose between their

nationality and their property. Because of intimidation and coercion,

350,000 Hungarians decided to leave all their possessions behind and

flee to rump Hungary. (This number exceeds the number of Serb refugees

who have been driven out of Kraina by the Croatian army.) The

possessions of Hungarian communities were also targeted. In Romania

alone, Hungarians lost 1,665 schools and universities, including the

world famous Janos Bolyay University. After 1956, when the heroic

children of Budapest mortally wounded Communism, the rulers of the

successor states used the uprising as a pretext to speed up the forced

assimilation of their Hungarian minorities and things got even worst

for Europe's largest minority. It was after the Hungarian Revolution,

when the remaining autonomous Hungarian regions of Transylvania in

Romania and Vojvodina in Yugoslavia been abolished. Today, the over 3

million Hungarians have no autonomy at all, although it has been

guaranteed by the Great Powers in 1920, again in 1945, and once more by

the European Parliament, in 1993, in Article 11 of Decision 1201. After

1989, there was a short period of hope, when the Hungarian bishop,

Laszló Tökés, was temporarily heralded as an all-Romanian national

hero, for leading the successful revolution against Ceaucescu, or when

Miklss Duray, the Hungarian leader of Charter 77, was released from

jail in Slovakia. Unfortunately, this did not last. By 1991, the

formerly Communist leader, Milosevits of Yugoslavia, once again turned

to anti-Albanian and anti- Hungarian propaganda to distract attention

from economic problems and things got even worst as Serbia settled the

Serb refugees from the Kraina into the Hungarian towns of Vojvodina.

One wonders, if there is a limit to the patience, of this largest group

of European minorities, the Hungarians and what will happen, when that

limit is reached? Problems do not solve themselves accidentally. Those

who want a better future must first have a plan, a concept of that

future. For the stability and prosperity of Central Europe, that plan

should start with autonomy for all the minorities of the region and

could eventually aim for a large and therefore stable, voluntary

federation. History teaches us, that the Balkans became unstable

whenever a power vacuum evolved in the Danubian Basin. It also teaches

us, that peace and prosperity resulted, when LOCAL power existed there.

The wise learn from the mistakes of history, instead of repeating them.

Only mindless bureaucrats worship the status quo. The rest of us know,

that if something is broken, it should be fixed. What is needed in

Central Europe is NOT the permanent stationing of NATO troops, but

local power, based on some form of a strong Danubian Federation. But

before that can even be be contemplated, it is essential to guarantee

the cultural autonomy of all ethnic groups in the region. Ten years

ago, Mr. Milosevits rescinded the autonomy of TWO provinces: Kosovo and

Vojvodina. It is unfair to disregard the plight of the Hungarian and

other minorities of Vojvodina, just because their struggle is

non-violent. The international press should give equal coverage and the

international community should give equal support to the collective

human rights and autonomy of both the Albanians in Kosovo and the

Hungarians in Vojvodina. It would be fitting, if on the 80th

anniversary of the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and

after the resulting terrible suffering of three generations of some 20

millions of innocent ethnic minorities, we would start the process of

rebuilding. It would be even more fitting, if in this process of

rebuilding, we would not be creating hostile and unviable mini-states,

but would aim at a stable and powerful Federation of Central Europe.