Transcarpathian Hungarians call to introduce OSCE mission to the region

The Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (Karpataljai Magyar Kulturalis Szovetseg - KMKS) has urged to introduce into the region a special OSCE monitoring mission, similar to the one operating in the Donbass. A statement of the organization on the issue is published by the local newspaper Zakarpattya online.

As RIA Novosti-Ukraine reports, József Barta, the first deputy head of the Transcarpathian regional council, who is also the deputy chairman of the KMKS, informed on March 5 that representatives of the OSCE mission arrived in Transcarpathia. The reason for the visit was two attacks on the Hungarian Culture Center in Uzhgorod.

"Their delegation is headed by Giorgio Zeljković, and I talked to him. We discussed several issues, including a terrorist attack against the office of the Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia. We agreed that after the monitoring, he would suggest to his bosses that OSCE representatives would work permanently in Transcarpathia," the official said.

The KMKS also expressed its indignation in the second statement as the Constitutional Court of Ukraine had revoked the law "On the Basics of the State Language Policy". The organization believes that such a decision will lead to "a significant restriction of the rights of national minorities to use their native languages."

As EADaily reported earlier, the office of Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association in Uzhgorod was set on fire on February 4 and 27. The other day the head of the National Police of Ukraine Sergey Knyazev said that law enforcers detained five people suspected in the attack. According to him, "the probable organizer, a foreigner, is put on wanted list."

At the same time, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, has traditionally blamed the whole thing on Moscow and stated that Russian trace is in the arson case.