AHF and the Central East European Coalition (CEEC)

3/5/2008 - American Hungarian Federation Participates in Meetings With Senator Obama’s and Senator Clinton’s Foreign Policy Advisors...The Central and East European Coalition (CEEC), comprised of 19 national organizations representing more than 22 million Americans, including the American Hungarian Federation (AHF), discussed a number of policy issues with presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton’s advisor, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  Also present at the meeting was Mark Brzezinski and Lee Feinstein, Senator Clinton’s campaign National Security Director a Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Deputy Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Thereafter, on Friday, February 29 the CEEC met with Anthony Lake, Ph.D., senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Barack Obama. [read more]

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3/3/2008 - American Hungarian Federation Raises Issue of Vojvodina Hungarians With Senator Senator Clinton’s Foreign Policy Advisor, Ron Asmus...[3/4/2008 - CEEC Press Release] On March 3 representatives of the 19 member organizations of the Central and East European Coalition (CEEC) spoke via conference call with Dr. Ron Asmus, foreign policy adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign. The discussion, which was a follow-up to a meeting with Secretary Madeline Albright and Senator Clinton's Campaign National Security Director, Lee Feinstein held last week in Washington, DC, touched upon numerous issues of concern to the member organizations of the CEEC. [read more]

3/29/2006 - The American Hungarian Federation helps organize congressional reception with the Central East European Coalition (CEEC). The CEEC is a coalition of 18 national ethnic groups. The CEEC was a major player in the first round of NATO's enlargement and promotes democratic development in the region. The CEEC operates by strict consensus because of the great diversity of members.

The reception's main focus was concerns over political developments in Belarus, the former Soviet Republic, and Russia`s support for the policies of President Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition says President Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for more than a decade, has become increasingly authoritarian, suppressing free speech and jailing democratic dissenters.

With elections in Belarus the main topic of concern, CEEC member Iryna Vidanava delivered a speech urging democratic reform. She wrote, "This election and the events after it are a victory for the Belarusian people. It is a victory of freedom of spirit, of a strong desire for democracy and freedom. The regime has suffered a defeat because the people overcame fear to express and defend their opinions in the face of overwhelming state propaganda, intimidation and repression. The regime is afraid of our people: it destroyed a tent city with 500 kids in the dark of night, sent thousands of armed troops to beat peaceful demonstrators, and put more than 2,000 people in prison. Lukashenka has not appeared in public since, and his inauguration has been postponed. The authorities do not disclose the number or names of those arrested." [download her speech]

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3/16/2006 - The American Hungarian Federation participates in protest over anti-democratic developments in Belarus. In a show of solidarity with fellow CEEC members, demonstrators gathered in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Washington, DC on March 16 to protest against the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko, and to offer support for the people of that country. A week earlier, Belarusian opposition leader Vincuk Viacorka, was arrested. Later that evening, a candlelight vigil was held by students and supporters at Georgetown University.

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5/11/2005 - AHF reacts to President Bush's call for democratic reform in Belarus and urges the President to make a symbolic gesture by participating in 1956 commemorations in Hungary:

The Washington Times
Letters to the editor
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050510-084731-7448r.htm>

President Bush's acknowledgment on May 7 in Riga that the "captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history" was a bold and historically accurate statement ("Bush urges elections in Belarus," Page 1, Sunday).

Mr. Bush, who did not mince words in Riga, should make another highly symbolic gesture to underscore his message that the freedom of small nations should not be expendable. He could do this by participating in the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, to be held in Budapest next year. The Hungarian Revolution was the first major challenge to Soviet imperialism in Central Europe after World War II.

While the world watched, a small nation desperately sought to regain its freedom and succeeded in threatening the badly shaken Soviet leadership, unmasking the true nature of Soviet-imposed communism, turning former apologists of Stalinism worldwide and contributing to the collapse 34 years later of the Soviet system and Russian domination of Central and Eastern Europe.

That collapse completed the liberation of all of Europe -- a liberation postponed by the division of the continent 60 years ago. Celebrating the Hungarian Revolution would commemorate the triumph of freedom and democracy over totalitarianism and constitute a fitting capstone to the Moscow celebrations this month.

Mr. Bush's participation would be greeted with great enthusiasm by Central and Eastern Europeans who were deprived of freedom for decades as a result of "one of the greatest wrongs of history" and would strengthen America's ties with its new allies.

FRANK KOSZORUS JR.
President
American Hungarian Federation
of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.

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• Hungary's Accession to NATO: An expanded report
  7/17/2007
• NATO Enlargement and Minority Rights
  3/29/2004

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