Category Archives: Posts in English

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Czech town of Rotava rents right-wing extremists meeting space

Romani residents of the Czech town of Rotava are expressing their dissatisfaction with the fact that the Workers‘ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) will be holding an event there. News server iDNES.cz reports that the town hall has rented out its „Slovanský dům“ cultural center to the party for an event on 28 January. Local Romani residents consider the meeting planned in Rotava by party chair Vandas to be a provocation.

Mayor Iva Kalátová argued to iDNES.cz that the hall was not being rented by the town, but by the cultural and information center itself, and that there was no reason to reject the party if what will be held there is a meeting. „We do not have the right to ban it,“ the mayor said.

Kalátová’s statement makes it seem as if the cultural and information center is an independent entity and as if the mayor had no influence over the decision. However, Hana Mašková of the center claims to be just an employee. She says the center is linked to the municipality and she cannot take independent decisions: „Madame Mayor and the other town councilors knew about this rental,“ Mašková elucidated to news server Romea.cz.

Kalátová made a statement to news server Romea.cz about the rental at the start of January. When asked for a statement on what the DSSS had posted on their website about the upcoming event, she replied: „I don’t follow the DSSS website. However, the town, as the owner of those spaces, has the right to rent them to those who are interested. The DSSS was interested.“ Deputy Mayor Jan Šedlbauer commented on the rental at the start of January as follows: „I personally know nothing about this rental of space to the DSSS. Madame Mayor is responsible for those decisions.“

„This is unnecessary, things are calm in Rotava. We will not be protesting against their event. It does worry us that the town has given the Workers‘ Party permission and rented the Slovanský dům to it. That’s bad news,“ Robert Koky of the Romani association Meta told iDNES.cz. Last fall Meta declared that it intended to get children off the street and improve the situation inside the Romani community.

Quelle: Romea.cz
Stand: 20.01.2012

Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Hundreds gather for anti-Roma rally in Varnsdorf

Some 200 people yesterday attended a meeting in support of a local family that was allegedly attacked by Romanies in Varnsdorf on January 1, and they criticised the Town Hall for not solving the security situation in the town.
The protesters blame politicians for not having reported on the incident truthfully. Local politicians namely said after the attack that the man may have caused the injuries himself under the influence of alcohol and that the assault was not recorded by a camera-monitoring system.
None of the assaulted family’s members came to the meeting on the square in Varnsdorf.

However, a daughter of the allegedly attacked man thanked the participants for their support in a latter that the organisers read loud.
Five Romanies allegedly assaulted her parents outside the Sport dormitory in Varnsdorf in the night on January 1. The police classified the act of one of the perpetrators as racially motivated.
Local residents criticised the town management for passivity.
They recalled that the Town Hall promised after the previous protests last August and September to open a police station outside the Sport dormitory but it has no done it yet.
The Town Hall says it is to be opened next week.

Crime has been rising lately in towns in northern Bohemia’s Sluknov area, known for tense relations between the majority population and Romanies. Local residents blame Romanies for the crimes, mainly frequent thefts and assaults.
„No one is dealing with it. Then anti-Romany moods arise. And these protests are their consequences,“ said Josef Masin, who organised a meeting in the nearby Rumburk on August 26, 2011, which stirred up a wave of anti-Romany protests in the Sluknov area.
Almost 1000 people took part in the so far largest rally held in Varnsdorf on September 10. Policemen prevented the protesters from approaching Romanies‘ dormitories. Supporters of extremist movements also took part in the event.
Some extremists attended yesterday’s meeting. A flag of the far-right Workers‘ Party of Social Justice (DSSS), successor to the abolished Workers‘ Party (DS), appeared in the crowd. Police monitored the meetings, but they did not have to interfere.

Quelle: Prague Daily Monitor
Stand: 16.01.2012

Abschiebung und Asyl, Antiziganismus auf politischer Ebene, Frankreich, Fundstücke, Posts in English

Roma under fire in French election campaign

Another 100 hundred days and the French presidential campaign will come to a head. Never far away from the political disputes among the top contenders is immigration. And the Roma, along with irregular migrants, are once again centre stage.

On Tuesday (10 January), France’s interior minister Claude Gueant boasted to reporters France had surpassed its deportation quota for 2010 by 4,000.
Around 32,000 people were forced to leave last year. Among them were a couple thousand Roma, rounded up and shipped primarily to Romania and Bulgaria.
The Roma round-up drew fire from the United Nations and EU justice and fundamental rights commissioner Viviane Reding – „Discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin or race has no place in Europe,“ she said at the time.

France, however, is quietly continuing its deportation policy of the disenfranchised EU citizens.
President Sarkozy’s hard-line against one of Europe’s most maltreated minorities appeals to the sensibilities of the country’s far right voters.
Socialist contender Francois Hollande’s poll lead in the presidential elections has dropped from around 35 percent in December to 27 percent, just four points ahead of Sarkozy. Always a menace, Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate is at a steady 17 percent.

Along with Gueant, Sarkozy decided last year to ban begging throughout the more affluent Parisian neighbourhoods. The ban was supposed to end this January. It has since been extended to the summer, reports The Guardian newspaper.
Paris‘ socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, called the ban a PR stunt designed to stigmatise a part of the population.
Sarkozy has also promised to stamp out illegal Roma camps and deport them. He also drew a direct correlation between crime and immigration.
Most of France’s 15,000 Roma eek out desperate lives in the Paris and Marseille outskirts. At the Paris North Station, Romanian police officers stroll the tarmacs alongside their French counter-parts. In Marseille, some entire Roma families live on the streets. Elsewhere, Roma camps are being bulldozed with no alternative shelter given.

Many are turned away from homeless shelters and denied access to basic medical attention, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.
„The situation of the Roma in Marseille is desperate,“ Jean Francois Corty, the director of the NGO’s French mission told this website, adding that the French government is prioritising security over public health.
France, along with all other EU states, has agreed to set up an EU framework designed to facilitate Roma access to education, employment, health care, housing and basic related services.
„There is a real violence against the Roma in France,“ continued Corty.
„The political class do not consider the impact of their actions on the public health. The access to public health care is severely restricted not only to the Roma but also to immigrants without papers. It has made their lives unbearable.“

Quelle: EU Observer
Stand: 13.01.2012

Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Romani woman murdered in Prague, locals allege perpetrators are Nazis

Three youths who have recently confessed to murdering a Romani woman in the Prague 3 district of Jarov were not first-time offenders but had previously assaulted a homeless couple not far from a trail that leads from a local housing estate there into a wooded area. Local residents say the youths did not attack homeless people only, but basically anyone they felt like targeting.

„All three of them are young guys who have been getting ready to do something like this ever since they were little. It doesn’t even really surprise me. The oldest assailant is from a broken home and his mother evidently couldn’t manage him. He’s done whatever he wanted. Everyone knew they had been in conflicts with the homeless people. A year ago they threw stones at them. One of them is also part of a group that attacked me when my wife and I were out for a walk,“ a local resident told news server Romea.cz, who did not want his name published out of fear for his safety.

Other homeless people in the area confirmed the frequent assaults, openly describing the attackers as sympathizers of right-wing extremist movements who have been giving the Nazi salute in the streets. Another local resident also confirms that claim. „They attacked me when I was walking my dog. They sit on the benches here. There are always between two to six of them. They drink cheap wine there. I know they sometimes made racist remarks. Once my neighbor and I walked past them and my neighbor was playing music on his mobile phone. They immediately started assaulting us, they even threatened to punch me. I defended myself verbally, as I instruct my students to do. One of them was older and more heavy-set, the others were younger and smaller. I went to elementary school with one of them, they attended the remedial classes. In my opinion they’re just stupid Nazi wannabes,“ the man told Romea.cz. Continue reading Romani woman murdered in Prague, locals allege perpetrators are Nazis →

Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Shooting of Roma man stokes tensions

Unresolved New Year’s Eve death increases division in North Bohemia

Tanvald, north Bohemia

For the Roma minority of Tanvald, a quiet town of 10,000 in north Bohemia’s Jizerské Mountains, the Jan. 7 burial of 22-year-old Ladislav Tatár required by-the-books organization. Observed by a population fearing retribution for a mysterious New Year’s Eve shooting that left Tatár dead and his older brother injured, community leaders sought to ensure no clashes marred the funeral and memorial march, despite a martial atmosphere that has pervaded the town since the incident.

Tanvald Mayor Petr Polák had summoned national anti-conflict police to prevent the type of ethnic clashes that erupted elsewhere in north Bohemia during the late summer of 2011. These officers looked on as a crowd of 300-plus accompanied Tatár’s coffin to the hilltop cemetery, somberly observing traditional Roma rituals. Six men bore Tatár’s coffin out of the church, knocking it superstitiously against the threshold to ensure the deceased’s soul would not return. Others navigated mourners and supported devastated family members, some of whom lost consciousness during the ceremony.

„A Roma funeral is a serious thing,“ Tatár’s older cousin, Ladislav Husák, later commented. „They thought it might turn into a demonstration, but it was absolutely impossible that anyone’s behavior would be out of line at such an important event, even if what we are dealing with here was basically an execution.“

That word, „execution,“ was a term Tanvald’s Roma community used frequently to describe Tatár’s death, raising the hairs of local officials who fear the tragedy may cause regional ethnic violence to spill over into their small towns. Continue reading Shooting of Roma man stokes tensions →

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, außerhalb Europas, Posts in English

Jerusalem’s gypsies struggle for recognition

Jerusalem’s Domari (also known as Romani or Gypsy) have lived in historic Palestine for over 500 years. Many fled during the 1967 War, ending up in refugee camps, and the community now numbers 60 to 70 families. Palestinian Romanis face a slew of social issues, including poverty, high illiteracy rates, and racism from both Israelis and Palestinians.

Documentation

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Schweden

Woman loses flat ‚because she was Roma‘

A woman from Sweden claims to have lost her rental property after the contract was already signed and keys had been exchanged, following pressure from the other tenants to not let a member of the Roma people live in the building.

“The other tenants would move out if I moved in,” said Tuija Svart to Sveriges Television (SVT).
Svart and her teenage daughter had returned to Sweden after staying for a year in Finland, and had been looking for a flat near her other daughter.
She went to look at an advertised apartment and decided that she liked the flat.
According to SVT, she then signed a contract, got the keys and changed her address over the internet. But while in the moving van, the landlord rang her and said that she couldn’t move in after all.

“He said that I had a different background,” Svart told SVT.
Svart told SVT that it was the first time she felt discriminated against in Sweden for being a member of the Roma people.
Her daughter Samira was also upset about what happened.
“Mainly I felt angry. And sad as well. It felt a bit like if my dreams were crushed,” she told SVT. Continue reading Woman loses flat ‚because she was Roma‘ →

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Fundstücke, Italien, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus

Italy needs to make things right for the Roma

The Italian authorities must act immediately to combat discrimination against Roma and provide redress for those affected by the widespread human rights violations perpetrated under the illegal state of emergency.

Amnesty International’s call comes after the Council of State, the highest administrative court in the country, ruled unlawful the 2008 decree declaring a state of emergency in relation to nomad settlements (the “Nomad Emergency”).

Amnesty International’s report ‚Zero tolerance for Roma’: Forced evictions and discrimination against Roma in Milan, released today, describes how under the “Nomad Emergency” the authorities have been able to close down authorized and unauthorized Romani camps in Milan in derogation of laws that protect human rights.

“Declaring a baseless state of emergency targeting an ethnic minority and maintaining it in force for three and half years is a scandal. The nomad emergency was illegal and discriminatory under international human rights law; it should have never been declared,” said Valentina Vitali Amnesty International’s researcher on Italy. Continue reading Italy needs to make things right for the Roma →

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Slowakei

Slovakia: Residents demand town take care of „whites“ only, not Romani residents

The Romani Press Agency (Romská tlačová agentura – RTA) in Slovakia reports that non-Romani residents of the Podsadok quarter in the town of Stará Ľubovňa have sent an open letter to the town leadership expressing their bitterness over activities undertaken to address the situation of local Romani residents. The letter was sent in response to the town’s decision to purchase a building in Podsadok to serve as a school for local Romani children. The total population of the town is 16 400, 2 000 of whom are of Romani origin.

The town council approved the purchase of the EUR 16 600 property in October. Mayor Michal Biganič told the RTA the building will be run by the Private Technical High School (Soukromá střední odborná škola) in Kežmark and will make it possible for Romani children who have not completed their elementary educations to acquire skills as masons and seamstresses.

Some non-Romani residents of Podsadok disagree with the town’s position, writing the following in the open letter: „We absolutely disagree with the town buying real estate in our neighborhood and literally building a paradise on earth for the Roma there. We have already lost the House of Culture, which once was used for funeral receptions, neighborhood meetings and weddings, but which is now being used as a youth club. We used to have a cinema and a library as well. The town has decided to gift that space, which was built by our (white) fathers and forefathers, to the Roma for a community center – naturally, without anyone taking any interest in the opinion of the white residents in the neighborhood. We unequivocally disagree with this and now, since we do not have a single representative on the Municipal Council to take an interest in us and defend our interests, we will very firmly defend ourselves against any accommodating steps toward the Roma that might be to the detriment of us, the white residents.“

The authors of the letter warn the town leadership that they will vocally oppose helpfulness toward the Roma: „We believe there has been enough indolence and that we must take action against the people who are slowly but surely pushing us out of our homes. How many young people have been forced to resolve their housing situations by taking out mortgages, or subletting expensive rentals, even though they own single-family homes that they cannot use thanks to their dark fellow-citizens? No one is asking where we the money for our housing comes from. Only the Gypsies‘ affairs are dealt with.“

The signatories have called on the town leadership to start doing something „for us, the white people“ too: „We, the citizens of the local area of Podsadok and Mýtna street, unequivocally disagree with the establishment of a school at the bakery in our neighborhood, and we are also against the town bringing Gypsies from the surrounding area into Podsadok. We further demand that the House of Culture be given back to the white residents of Podsadok, and if cannot be returned, then the bakery should be turned into a supplementary House of Culture for white people, as a youth club for white youth. We are warning you, Mr Mayor, and we are warning the members of the town council that as of now, we will put up great obstacles to your activities aimed at improving the standard of living of the Gypsies if those activities target the territory of Podsadok and are to the detriment of the standard of living of us, the white minority.“

The town of Stará Ľubovňa is involved in several projects to aid Romani residents and has raised money for that purpose from various sources. According to Mayor Biganič, the town will receive EUR 90 000 as part of the Community in Motion project for the activities of the community center in Podsadok. The project is part of a larger one linked to the introduction of E-pay cards. All 15 of the representatives present at the town council meeting on the project voted to approve it.

The head of the municipal authority, Anton Karni, told the Slovak daily Korzár that the residents of Podsadok don’t have it easy and that the town is willing to discuss their problems with them. However, in his view the purchase of real estate for the purposes of running a school, as the representatives decided, is a good solution. „Some pupils will be able to re-qualify there and learn a profession. It is always better for them to spend time at school, otherwise they could get involved in bad things,“ Karni said.

Quelle: Romea.cz
Stand: 27.11.2011

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Sonst in Europa, Staatlicher Antiziganismus

Conditions Faced by Roma People – from Bad to Worse

Roma leaders are alarmed at the growing discrimination faced by their people in Europe, especially because of the anti-gypsy stance taken by many political parties, which blame the ethnic minority group for a wide range of social ills.

On a two-day visit to Lisbon this week, Dezideriu Gergely, executive director of the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), and the group’s legal adviser, Lydia Gall, spoke out against the terrible housing conditions faced in Portugal by the Roma, also known as gypsies or Romani.

The most overtly anti-gypsy policies are seen in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia, Gall said. But, the activist added, in terms of the housing situation, „Portugal is not so different from those countries.“

Gergely, citing in particular the cases of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, said that „what we have found is that in many countries, the situation of the Romani communities is getting worse instead of better.“

In many European countries, „there are parties that have identified the gypsies as the target of their attacks, through increasingly aggressive and dangerous language – and not only the extreme right but also conservative and centrist parties,“ he added. Continue reading Conditions Faced by Roma People – from Bad to Worse →