Ambrosio Spinola
12-25-2005, 07:00 AM
Weird how this is still happening in 2005
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-12-24T074949Z_01_MOL428096_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-SLOVAKIA-UKRAINE-VILLAGE.XML&archived=False
VELKE SLEMENCE, Slovakia (Reuters) - Anna Pasztor cried as she embraced a cousin who lives only a few hundred metres down the street, but whom she had not met for over 20 years because of the fortified border wall dividing the village.
The ethnic Hungarian village, now split between Ukraine and Slovakia, had been divided since 1945 when a wall marking the new Soviet-Czechoslovak border sliced through its main street, breaking families apart and cutting off the school and cemetery from half the residents.
On Friday, after 60 years of separation, the Ukrainian and Slovak governments opened a pedestrian border crossing in the twin village, Velke Slemence in EU member Slovakia, and Maliy Selmentsi in Ukraine.
As Ukrainian folk and pop music blasted from loudspeakers, ministers cut a ribbon in the Slovak and Ukrainian national colours, symbolising the destruction of the wall that separated two states and 1,100 villagers.
"We wanted this border crossing to be opened for Christmas," said Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Pal Csaky, himself an ethnic Hungarian, as he celebrated an event made possible by the greater openness of the new Ukrainian government.
"This wrenched my heart, it should have happened earlier," said Pasztor as she lined up to get her Slovak passport stamped and walk across to her relatives on the Ukrainian side.
Almost all the villagers are ethnic Hungarians and some speak only Hungarian. In Hungarian, the two sides of the village are called Nagyszelmenc (Slovakia) and Kisszelmenc (Ukraine).
Those now in their 80s have been citizens of four different states -- Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Slovakia or Ukraine -- without leaving the village.
Hungarian until the end of World War One, when Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory and millions of citizens, the village was part of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1938, when Nazi Germany occupied the country.
The Soviet Army conquered the area in 1944, and the peace treaty ending World War Two resulted in a new boundary cutting right through the village.
The Soviet Union fortified the border with dramatic speed, bisecting the village in a single day with the bulk of a five to six metre high wall with electric sensors and watchtowers.
"TERRIBLE TERROR"
Villagers on the Soviet side were subject to a curfew and were not allowed to communicate with friends and relatives on the Czechoslovak side, even by shouting across the border.
"There was terrible terror," said Zoltan Jelcsak, who lives on the Ukrainian side. "They would come into the house at night to check the soles of our boots to see if we had been outside because they were afraid we would cross over."
"I was born in 1921, I went to school there, my father's grave is there, within 200 metres, the two villages shared a school and had one cemetery," said Jelcsak.
For some, a short visit to relatives across the street on that day turned into a six-decade stay in a different country.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Maliy Selmentsi became part of newly independent Ukraine, and Velke Slemence went to Czechoslovakia, then to Slovakia when it became independent in 1993.
But the nationalism of the new states ensured that the border wall stayed in place, and villagers had to travel 50 kilometres (30 miles) to reach the other side of the street.
For many of the poor residents of Maliy Selmentsi, the high price of a passport and visa ruled out the trip altogether. That may not change much, because Ukrainian citizens need a visa to travel to EU countries.
Although Velke Slemence is far from Slovakia's economic hub, it is at least part of a country whose economy is growing at over 6 percent a year and is catching up with richer EU states.
For those on the Ukrainian side of the street, an EU standard of living is decades away. Average monthly wages in Ukraine are about $150, compared with $500 (289 pounds) for Slovak workers.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-12-24T074949Z_01_MOL428096_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-SLOVAKIA-UKRAINE-VILLAGE.XML&archived=False
VELKE SLEMENCE, Slovakia (Reuters) - Anna Pasztor cried as she embraced a cousin who lives only a few hundred metres down the street, but whom she had not met for over 20 years because of the fortified border wall dividing the village.
The ethnic Hungarian village, now split between Ukraine and Slovakia, had been divided since 1945 when a wall marking the new Soviet-Czechoslovak border sliced through its main street, breaking families apart and cutting off the school and cemetery from half the residents.
On Friday, after 60 years of separation, the Ukrainian and Slovak governments opened a pedestrian border crossing in the twin village, Velke Slemence in EU member Slovakia, and Maliy Selmentsi in Ukraine.
As Ukrainian folk and pop music blasted from loudspeakers, ministers cut a ribbon in the Slovak and Ukrainian national colours, symbolising the destruction of the wall that separated two states and 1,100 villagers.
"We wanted this border crossing to be opened for Christmas," said Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Pal Csaky, himself an ethnic Hungarian, as he celebrated an event made possible by the greater openness of the new Ukrainian government.
"This wrenched my heart, it should have happened earlier," said Pasztor as she lined up to get her Slovak passport stamped and walk across to her relatives on the Ukrainian side.
Almost all the villagers are ethnic Hungarians and some speak only Hungarian. In Hungarian, the two sides of the village are called Nagyszelmenc (Slovakia) and Kisszelmenc (Ukraine).
Those now in their 80s have been citizens of four different states -- Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Slovakia or Ukraine -- without leaving the village.
Hungarian until the end of World War One, when Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory and millions of citizens, the village was part of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1938, when Nazi Germany occupied the country.
The Soviet Army conquered the area in 1944, and the peace treaty ending World War Two resulted in a new boundary cutting right through the village.
The Soviet Union fortified the border with dramatic speed, bisecting the village in a single day with the bulk of a five to six metre high wall with electric sensors and watchtowers.
"TERRIBLE TERROR"
Villagers on the Soviet side were subject to a curfew and were not allowed to communicate with friends and relatives on the Czechoslovak side, even by shouting across the border.
"There was terrible terror," said Zoltan Jelcsak, who lives on the Ukrainian side. "They would come into the house at night to check the soles of our boots to see if we had been outside because they were afraid we would cross over."
"I was born in 1921, I went to school there, my father's grave is there, within 200 metres, the two villages shared a school and had one cemetery," said Jelcsak.
For some, a short visit to relatives across the street on that day turned into a six-decade stay in a different country.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Maliy Selmentsi became part of newly independent Ukraine, and Velke Slemence went to Czechoslovakia, then to Slovakia when it became independent in 1993.
But the nationalism of the new states ensured that the border wall stayed in place, and villagers had to travel 50 kilometres (30 miles) to reach the other side of the street.
For many of the poor residents of Maliy Selmentsi, the high price of a passport and visa ruled out the trip altogether. That may not change much, because Ukrainian citizens need a visa to travel to EU countries.
Although Velke Slemence is far from Slovakia's economic hub, it is at least part of a country whose economy is growing at over 6 percent a year and is catching up with richer EU states.
For those on the Ukrainian side of the street, an EU standard of living is decades away. Average monthly wages in Ukraine are about $150, compared with $500 (289 pounds) for Slovak workers.