Saturday at the World Congress of Rusyns

Maramorosh/Sighetu, 24 June 2007 (RuthenPress) – The Aleksander Duhnovyc Prize for the best book written in the Rusyn language in the last five years was awarded at the World Congress of Rusyns to three young authors from Serbia.

A three-member jury chose a book of poetry by Natasa Ribovic, Slavko Vinaji and Ivan Medjesi, and jury member Vasilj Homa presented the award Saturday night in Sighetu.

On Saturday, the 9th World Congress of Rusyns worked in five commissions and their chairpeople reported on recent activities. They spent the afternoon working on the text of a resolution of the Congress’s delegates.

Saturday afternoon the World Forum of Rusyn Youth met, at which aside from news on their members’ work two youth organizations, from Croatia and Romania, were accepted as members of the Forum. A new president of the World Forum of Rusyn Youth, Slavko Zagorski of Poland, was also elected.

In the Congress program on Saturday was also the unveiling of a memorial plaque commemorating the nearly 100 Rusyns who in the beginning of the 20th century for religious reasons were arrested and tried by the Austro-Hungarian state.

- I am happy that we are in Romania for the first time and have the opportunity to meet with Rusyns from Maramures and Sighetu who were separated from the other Rusyn communities for a long time. Now we have the opportunity to speak and exchange experiences, President of the World Council of Rusyns Dr. Paul Robert Magocsi told RuthenPress.

The delegates’ Saturday work ended with a proposed Congress resolution that will be adopted today at the final meeting of the 9th World Congress. The decision to hold the 10th World Congress of Rusyns in Ruski Kerestur in 2009 will also be confirmed today.

Today, 24 June, the 9th World Congress of Rusyns ends with a meeting of the newly-elected World Council made up of representatives of Rusyn organizations from nine countries of Europe and North America. Dr. Paul Robert Magocsi was once again elected president of the World Council of Rusyns, and Djura Papuga was elected vice-president.