At the commemoration ceremony for the Romani victims of the Holocaust in Budapest yesterday, Rita Izsák, United Nations Independent Expert on minority issues, herself of Hungarian Roma origin, reminded those in attendance that it was three years ago to the day since Maria Balogh was murdered in her bed, and her 13-year-old daughter seriously wounded, in a gun attack by neo-Nazis in the village of Kisléta. Izsák called on states to do more to challenge “a rising tide of hostility and discrimination against Roma in Europe that shames societies.”
This theme was echoed in commemorations right across Europe paying tribute to victims such as Maria Settele Steinbach. The haunting image of nine-year-old Settele, as she peered out of the cattle car of a train bound for Aushwitz-Birkenau, moments before the doors were locked and bolted, was captured on film in May 1944. This became one of the most reproduced, tragic iconic images of the Holocaust. For decades, Settele was described in the literature as the unnamed Jewish girl in a headscarf. Continue reading Porrajmos: Remembering Dark Times
Category Archives: Posts in English
Czech town issues ban to keep order, local Roma protest
Roma from Krupka Monday criticised a newly issued decree, under which people must not sit on the grass or steps in some parts of the small Czech town, and they want to stage a protest against the ban on September 5.
„Benches were removed from our housing estate and our kids have nowhere to play, they have no playground. There was money only for a camera system to monitor us,“ said Josef Miker, one of the local Roma who plan to organise the protest.
„We believe it is an attempt to drive Roma from the streets or make life difficult for them and make them leave Krupka,“ Miker said.
The decree bans people from bringing tables, benches and chairs as well as barbecues to the streets and parks-like areas of the town’s central square and its two housing estates.
It was approved in late June to keep the town calm and tidy.
Krupka Mayor Zdenek Matous said the decree was issued because locals complained about loud music and fires made in public areas. He added that Roma were among those who filed the complaints.
„None of the decent people should mind the decree,“ Matous said.
Krupka has become known due to suspected vote buying in the 2010 municipal elections. The elections were abolished twice as a number of poor locals, mostly Roma, were paid for casting their votes and supporting a given political alliance. Some critics of the elections then indicated that Matous was behind the corruption.
Only the third elections held last autumn were successful. Matous defended his post in them.
Far-right groups repeatedly organised marches and meetings criticising Romani crime in Krupka.
In spring 2011 the police dispersed a Romani crowd that wanted to block the way for an extremist march heading to their housing estate. The extremists then highlighted a case of an underage boy beat up and raped by two Romani youths in the area two years ago.
Source: Prague Daily Monitor
Date: 14.08.2012
2 .pdf’s by the ERRC concering violence against roma
Roma relocation scores Romania mayor a major vote win
Baia Mare mayor wins more votes than any mayor in country
A Romanian mayor, criticised by rights groups for relocating Roma gypsy families and building a concrete wall to separate off a Roma neighbourhood, scored the biggest share of the vote in local elections, official data showed on Thursday.
Catalin Chereches, the incumbent 33-year-old mayor of Baia Mare, won 86 percent in Sunday’s election, which was held just days after local authorities relocated dozens of Roma families to the administrative buildings of a dismantled copper plant.
Rights groups have criticised Chereches’s policies and accused him of trying to set up a ghetto.
They say the construction of the 1.8 metre (six feet) high wall last year between a Roma neighbourhood and a main road amounted to institutional racism and the new housing for relocated families was of poor quality and lacked sufficient kitchens and bathrooms. Continue reading Roma relocation scores Romania mayor a major vote win
Roma moved ‘like pawns on a chessboard’ under Rome’s ’Nomad Plan’
With summer holidays upon them, many school-children in Rome are about to enjoy a few months respite from study.
But for Roma children living in the Tor de’ Cenci camp, on the city’s southern outskirts, the last day of school may instead bring the bitter taste of a forced move and uncertainty about which school will take them next year.
We spent two days in Tor de’ Cenci talking with people living there. Most of them told us they don’t want to leave, but they seem resigned to the fact that the camp will be closed anyway, whether they consent or not.
Tor de’ Cenci is very close to a residential neighbourhood, so for some 15 years Roma living there have enjoyed easy access to basic services such as local doctors’ practices and shops.
And with their children attending local schools they have enjoyed a degree of social inclusion that is rare for Roma communities. Continue reading Roma moved ‘like pawns on a chessboard’ under Rome’s ’Nomad Plan’
Extremist Plans To Destroy Roma Settlement
In March, head of the extreme People’s Party-Our Slovakia (LS-NS), Marian Kotleba, announced his plan to get rid of land-squatting Roma families by buying or acquiring the land they had erected their shanty houses on and then tear them down.
Kotleba now plans to go ahead with the move, after being donated around 800 m2 of land under a Roma settlement in Krasnohorske Podhradie. The nearby Krasna Horka castle was recently partially burned down by a fire, with blaming fingers being pointed at Roma children from the settlement of around 800 people.
The settlers say they are willing to sit round the table with the new owner and discuss the option of buying the land off him, says community head Ludovit Gundar, possibly naive to what is going on, as the original owner also refused to sell the land to them, donating it instead to Kotleba.
Over the past year in Slovakia there have been several cases of Roma settlements being razed to the ground by local authorities as well, something that Amnesty International drew attention to recently. In Kosice 80 Roma were moved into tents after they had their homes crushed in May of last year, then in June the town of Ziar nad Hronom did the same, moving the unsettled dwellers into porta-cabins. A similar fate currently hangs over around 90 families in Plavecky Stvrtok near Bratislava.
Source: The Daily.sk
Date: 12.06.2012
Roma abuse: Calls for inquiry as Oxfam report uncovers discriminatory treatment
PUBLIC officials have been accused of “institutional racism” in a hard-hitting report into the treatment of immigrant workers seeking a new life in Scotland.
The report, commissioned by Oxfam, says members of the large Roma community in Glasgow have been systematically threatened and lied to by government employees while long delays in payments of legitimate benefits have led to high levels of child poverty.
Evidence of discrimination and prejudice against the most marginalised ethnic group in Europe is contained in the report written by the Govanhill Law Centre (GLC), which investigated how more than 60 Roma families living in the city were dealt with by the DWP and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The lawyers who carried out the investigation said the way many Roma were treated was contrary to the UK government’s legal obligations and amounted to unlawful and unequal treatment. Continue reading Roma abuse: Calls for inquiry as Oxfam report uncovers discriminatory treatment
Combating Anti-Gypsyism: Nothing Less Than Zero Tolerance Will Suffice
One key theme of the United Nations Development Program’s 2003 report Avoiding the Dependency Trap was that „providing Roma with opportunities to develop their talents and make free choices of their own should be at the core of Roma inclusion.“ The point was that legal frameworks for rights protection are a necessary but insufficient precondition for sustainable integration. There must too be complementarity with an approach that focuses more broadly on development opportunities for Roma.
The impact of the human development paradigm was reflected in the priorities of the Decade of Roma Inclusion back in 2005, and more recently in the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) up to 2020. But the complementarity got lost somewhere along the way, and issues of racism and discrimination have been smothered somewhat by a softer EU emphasis on social inclusion and societal cohesion.
While the European Commission mulls over submissions by Member States in response to the Framework there has been precious little discussion about what is meant by „integration.“ Everyone’s talking integration, but too often the model in mind differs very little from assimilation. Following the attacks on multiculturalism emanating from the mainstream right, and the electoral successes of far-right populist parties across democracies old and new, perceptions of integration are increasingly being driven by an assimilationist rationale. Continue reading Combating Anti-Gypsyism: Nothing Less Than Zero Tolerance Will Suffice
Neo-Nazis strike Romani activist in the head with cobblestone during Prague demonstration
Roughly 150 supporters of the right-wing extremist Workers‘ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) and the Workers‘ Youth (Dělnická mládeže – DM) gathered on 1 May to demonstrate in Prague. The right-wing radicals threw cobblestones and glass or plastic bottles at counter-demonstrators objecting to their neo-Nazism who marched past just after 15:00 near Na můstku street. One of the cobblestones struck a Romani activist from the Hate is No Solution initiative, Jozef Miker. The aggressive neo-Nazis also injured three police officers. One neo-Nazi was arrested for assaulting an officer.
The ultra-right supporters gathered at 14:00 at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, where several people gave speeches. DSSS chair Tomáš Vandas opened the demonstration by criticizing Czech PM Petr Nečas (Civic Democrats – ODS) for preserving his existing cabinet through the support of the Public Affairs (VV) MPs who want to see Deputy Prime Minister Karolína Peake (VV) stay in office. Vandas said the PM would do better to call early elections. He then went on to give his usual remarks, attacking Romani people and also news server Romea.cz. During its on-line reporting of the demonstration in real time, news server iDNES.cz said the DSSS leader made the following deceptive claims: „Tomáš Vandas is criticizing police reform, wiretapping, and says he is bothered by government support for news server Romea.cz.“ Continue reading Neo-Nazis strike Romani activist in the head with cobblestone during Prague demonstration
Slovakia: Fascist party head acquires land beneath Romani settlement near Krásná Hôrka castle
The head of the People’s Party „Our Slovakia“ (Lidová strana Naše Slovensko – LSNS), Marián Kotleba, who is notorious for making controversial statements, has now carried out the threats he made to authorities after Krásná Hôrka castle caught fire earlier this year. News server Tvnoviny.sk reports that Kotleba has succeeded in acquiring the land on which the Romani settlement in the village of Krásnohorské Podhradie is located. The settlement is not far from the castle, which is a landmark.
Kotleba has acquired an 800 square meter lot on which three or four illegally constructed dwellings now stand. As of yesterday, he can make use of the land. The previous owner, a village resident, has agreed to transfer it to him. Slovak media are reporting that Kotleba wants to destroy the illegal constructions erected on the land by settlement residents. He has been planning this ever since 10 March when the castle caught fire, allegedly because two Romani children were trying to light cigarettes. Continue reading Slovakia: Fascist party head acquires land beneath Romani settlement near Krásná Hôrka castle