§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his discussions with the Prime Minister of Hungary in relation to the safety of the ethnic Hungarians living in northern Yugoslavia, and on the concerns of the Hungarian Prime Minister about the threat to ethnic Hungarians from Serbian military forces and paramilitaries positioned near their homes.[85900]
§ The Prime Minister[holding answer 8 June 1999]I met the Hungarian Prime Minister in Downing Street on 15 April. We discussed the situation of the ethnic Hungarian community in Vojvodina. Mr. Orban said that a substantial number of ethnic Hungarians had left the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in recent years for Hungary. He expressed concern that the rights of the ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina were inadequate and that the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had deliberately resettled Serb refugees in areas which hitherto had an ethnic Hungarian majority.
I reaffirmed the United Kingdom's support for the democratisation of the whole of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as the best way to safeguard the rights of all its citizens.