A veritable civil war almost broke out in November 2009 in Sajóbábony, which lies ten kilometers from Miskolc.

"At that point all we heard from the district police officer was "Hurry, they're at each other's throats," related the policeman sent from the county seat as a backup on the day of the event at the Municipal Court of Miskolc. "A crowd of thirty to forty surrounded a red car and about twenty of them who were carrying shovels, rakes, wooden sticks, iron pipes and pitchforks started battering and beating the car while shouting. We tried to protect the people in the car by driving back the attackers with rubber truncheons. We ordered them to stop what they were doing but at first this had no effect. Luckily, they couldn't break in the car's windows completely because they were made of safety glass. The Suzuki driver put his foot down and reversed and the people in the car managed to escape," recalls the uniformed officer. 

Mutual fear

In the darkness the police officer did not initially notice that there were other people behind the car where supporters of Jobbik had gathered together. In the meantime, a crowd of Roma were approaching from the direction of the town. The level of tension was so high that the police could not immediately pursue the perpetrators and it took until after midnight for them to calm the nerves of the Gypsies returning to their campfires as well as some members of the Magyar Gárda [Hungarian Guard] waiting on the edge of town.  

Sajóbábony, which is situated near Miskolc, has a population of 3,000, 800 of which are Gypsies living in ghetto-like exclusion. Since 2006 ethnic tensions have developed into a mutual state of fear: in that year a young Roma man killed an elderly person after burgling his house with his three accomplices. The mayor turned to Parliament and called for the restitution of the death penalty and the murderer was sentenced to twenty years of penal servitude. However, this left the Gypsy population in fear of their lives and six people were killed before those charged with manslaughter were caught in August 2009, three months before the events in Sajóbábony.    

Jobbik (and along with them the now banned Hungarian Guard) were invited to Sajóbábony by the Socialist local government representative on 14 November, i.e. one day before the car incident. The passengers of the red Suzuki were also there: Natália T., her mother and elder brother had some organisational tasks to attend to and at the same time members of the Roma community were demonstrating in front of the local school. Later on Ernő Kállai, the parliamentary commissioner for minority rights, was not able to judge - as it turns out in his report - whether they felt wronged by not being admitted to the forum or, on the contrary, they were protesting against the forum.

On the following day members of the local minority attacked and injured the local shopkeeper, who instituted the event, and later the local leader of Jobbik was threatened with his life. However, the most alarming consequence of these events is that neither party turned to the police but instead both the Roma and Jobbik (at the same time the Hungarian Guard) called in reinforcements from other settlements. According to the Barikád.hu portal the Hungarian Guard mobilised a "brigade". The activists set off for Sajóbábony at once.     

Although the nine Roma accused were led into the courtroom in shackles, anyone who believes that the three injured parties saw this as satisfactory amends for what they suffered would be mistaken. One of the most astonishing moments of the trial so far was when Natália T. was overcome with nerves and burst into tears as a result of the judge questioning her for two hours and threatening that legal proceedings would be taken against her if she provided false testimony.

The judge, Sarolta Bodnár, complained that she had to work hard to extract a testimony from the injured parties. However, Natália T. did relate how 30 to 40 men jumped from the platform of a truck some of them shouting "You'll die, Hungarians!". She also told how the window next to her elder brother was broken in with an axe and how the blade had lodged into the side of the headrest of her brother's seat.      

She appeared to be tongue-tied when she was questioned about with whom, on whose invitation and how many people she came with to Sajóbábony. She reacted to the questions as if she was afraid that her words would later be used against her and she would be accused of racism. "Of what ethnic origin were they?" asked the judge. Pause. "Of Hungarian ethnic origin? Were they Gypsies?"

"Maybe they were Hungarians, or maybe they were Gypsies. I can't remember," replied Natália T. "I do not believe that you can't remember since you have been going to the police for one and a half years now. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is also a crime if you do not tell the court what you know. Were they Hungarians or were they ethnic Gypsies?" asked the judge. "Gypsy." "All of them?" "Yes." The dialogues that took place in the Sajóbábony trial were previously unimaginable in a Hungarian court of law.    

Years for one word

The judge delved into the details in this way because this was the second time the Public Prosecutor had brought a charge against ethnic Gypsies for a racially motivated attack on Hungarians. It was by no means a matter of indifference to the accused if they had to defend themselves against a charge of "simple" disturbance of the peace or against a hate crime.  

The difference between the two kinds of crime was made palpably clear by the first case which closed in October last year: the Roma involved in this case were convicted because three weeks after the double murder at Tátárszentgyörgy they had attacked a car near their house in Miskolc. According to the judge proof that the crime was racially motivated was provided by the words "Death to the Hungarians" inscribed on a stick and by the accused having shouted "Beat the stinking Hungarians!" Although nobody was injured, the nine men were sentenced to a total of 41 years imprisonment. (This was partly because several of the accused had previous convictions).   

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the amendment to the penal code effective from February 2009 allows exactly those types of charges to be brought that had actually ignited protest from some representatives of the legal defense. Before the above amendment it had only been possible to impose hasher punishment upon those who committed violent acts against members of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups but for example the people who attacked the gay parade could not be punished in this way. "There are groups and communities in society that can be victims of discrimination and violent acts, and these crimes must be punished equally harshly," reads the explanation of the amendment submitted by Tibor Draskovics, former minister for law enforcement. The legislators did not even remotely expect the new statute to be applied in defense of the majority, let alone in defense of members of the ultra right.

This is all a surprising turn-around since according to legal defence organisations minorities are not properly protected in Hungary. In November last year Amnesty International condemned Hungary because the authorities had not applied the full scope of the law in protecting the Roma in crimes committed against a member of a community. According to information supplied by the Chief Prosecutor, in 2008 eight people were charged with attacking a member of a community, in 2009 the number was seven and last year it was 12. According to legal defense organisations these numbers are a mere fraction of the racially motivated attacks that actually took place. 

The Társaság a Szabadságjogokért [Hungarian Civil Liberties Association] maintains that the police do not devote sufficient attention to attacks against the Roma. Among the examples they cited the most serious was the double murder case in Tatárszentgyörgy, where the first police reports described the event as a fire caused by a short circuit. Only after EP Viktória Mohácsi was invited by the relatives of the victims to the crime scene was it established that the house had been set on fire by Molotov cocktails so that the fire would drive the little boy and his father from the house allowing the perpetrators to shoot them both dead in the head. 

Changing decisions

It is conspicuous that in the charge submitted against Gypsies for six cases of murder and five injuries there was no mention of any kind of race crime. The prosecution's approach may be explained by the use of the term ‘vile motive' in the charge, which also comprises the element of racial motive.  

However, to the layman it is not clear why in the case of the Tiszavasvár teacher murdered in Olaszliszka in 2006, the call to "Kill the Hungarian" did not qualify as a vile motive.

These examples from Eastern Hungary indicate that local legal defense groups not only fail to solve the problem of ethnic tensions but in fact exacerbate them, regardless of the skin colour of those who organise them. It was only rapid police intervention in Sajóbábony that prevented a tragedy from occurring. It is no coincidence that after the change in the government the police have taken demonstrative measures to consolidate the trust placed in them. For example, in Ózd the town and its outlying areas have been patrolled by police with dogs and even on quads several times. In addition, the Prime Minister announced that the government would not allow the Hungarian Guard to commit act of violence, and this has had a calming effect on the Roma communities. Of course official measures alone cannot solve the problem of ethnic tensions. Moreover, there are other difficult circumstances to consider; for example, in the Sajóbábony case six out of the nine accused already have criminal records.