The Romanian Defense Ministry invited on Wednesday its Hungarian counterpart to discuss the issue of military graveyards in general and that of the Úz valley one in particular, Romanian new agency Agerpres reports.
According to the invitation, a meeting should take place in the capital, Bucharest between June 24-28, based on the agreement the two countries signed on March 5, 2008 regarding the mutual care of military graveyards and monuments on the other’s territory and in the spirit of the 1996 Hungarian-Romanian friendship agreement signed in Temesvár/Timișoara in 1996.
The Romanian side will be represented by the National Office of Heroes’ Cult, ONCE. That office published on Wednesday a report regarding the status of the Úz valley graveyard and the number of Romanian soldiers buried there. It said that there are a total 11 Romanian war heroes entombed there, far less than the 149 figure vehiculated by the mayor of Dormánfalva/Dărmănești, whose village illegally erected 50 concrete crosses in the graveyard.
The report also said that both the earlier improvements made by the Csíkszentmárton/Sânmartin Ciuc – the legal administrator of the cemetery – and those made by Dormánfalva lacked proper authorization, but it concluded that “the aspects regarding the territorial and administrative between the Bacău (Bákó) and Harghita (Hargita) counties have any effect on the multinational nature of the military graveyard, nor on the obligations stemming from national legislation and international treaties of which Romania is part of”.
The Hungarian side has yet to respond to the invitation.
Title image: Concrete crosses illegally erected by the Dormánfalva council in the Úz valley military graveyard.
