Slovakia latest flashpoint for anti-gypsy feeling

By Jan Cienski in Warsaw and Tom Nicholson in Bratislava

Published: August 10 2009 03:00 Last updated: August 10 2009 03:00

Tensions between Slovak nationalists and the country's large Roma minority escalated over the weekend when riot police had to break up an anti-gypsy march in the country's east.

About 200 members of the far-right Slovenska Pospolitost (Slovak Brotherhood) pelted police with rocks and bottles on Saturday in the eastern Slovak town of Sarisske Michalany.

The mostly shaven-headed young men were protesting against what they termed "Roma terror" in Slovakia. Five policemen were injured, along with two skinheads, and more than 30 arrests were made.

The march was called after Roma teenagers were accused of beating up an elderly man last week. The victim lost an eye and suffered a fractured skull and broken facial bones. Two boys, aged 15 and 16, are in custody on assault charges.

The unrest in Slovakia is part of a regional increase in attacks on Roma minorities by far-right groups, which began before the economic crisis but seems to have become worse as the region's economies have plunged into recession.

The Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre says there have been firebombings and shootings against gypsies in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary over the past 18 months, and that eight -people have died.

In Hungary, police have set up a task force to catch what they believe is a gang targeting gypsies. Maria Balogh, who is thought to be the sixth victim of the group, was buried on Friday. Her 13-year-old daughter was wounded in the attack in which she died and remains in hospital.

In the Czech Republic, relations have become so poisonous that Canada re-imposed visa requirements for Czech citizens after hundreds of Roma applied for asylum.

Gypsy migrants in Italy, many of them from Romania, have also been the targets of attacks by local mobs.

Slovenska Pospolitost was formed in 1996 and is led by Marian Kotleba, a former secondary school teacher, who was among those arrested on Saturday.

Several gypsy organisations sent an open letter to Slovak authorities and to the European Commission, demanding action.

"The fear, which we - the Roma - feel when observing the situation in neighbouring Hungary, Italy and other countries of the European Union make us fear for our lives and the lives of our children, whom we send to schools, shops and streets in fear - only because we are Roma," reads the letter, according to Tasr, the Slovak news agency.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009.

Catholic bishops in US ban Japanese reiki

Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Tuesday 31 March 2009

Reiki, an alternative Japanese therapy with a growing band of followers in the west, is "unscientific" and "inappropriate" for use in Catholic institutions, according to America's bishops.

Guidelines issued by the committee on doctrine at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warn healthcare workers and chaplains that the therapy "lacks scientific credibility" and could expose people to "malevolent forces".

The document also claims that for a Catholic to believe in reiki presents "insurmountable problems".

Reiki means "universal life energy" and was developed by the theology professor Dr Mikao Usui at the turn of the 20th century, from Buddhist beliefs and Sanskrit teachings. The client lies on a couch, clothed and relaxing, while the therapist's hands rest lightly on the body in a special sequence. Clients often report heat and tingling sensations.

The church's guidelines state: "A Catholic who puts his or her trust in reiki would be operating in the realm of superstition, the no man's land that is neither faith nor science. Superstition corrupts one's worship of God by turning one's religious feeling and practice in a false direction."

The document goes on to state that since reiki therapy is incompatible with Christian teaching and scientific evidence, "it would be inappropriate" for Catholic institutions, such as healthcare facilities and retreat centres, or people representing the church, such as chaplains, to promote or provide support for it.

Reiki master Judith White, who is a Christian, said the bishops had misunderstood the therapy. "There is so much bad information about reiki, anti-Christian information, on the internet," she said. "It says we channel spirits and that's not true. Reiki balances energy in the same way as acupuncture or reflexology. I know of two nuns in the Philadelphia area, one who runs a retreat centre, who have done wonderful work. The bishops weren't talking to women like that."

Tamil Nadu’s gypsies demand right to vote

March 25th, 2009 - 3:34 pm ICT by IANS

Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu), March 25 (IANS) Over 100 tribals of Tamil Nadu’s Narikkorava (gypsy) community held a demonstration here Wednesday, demanding the right to vote, police said.

“This near illiterate gypsy tribe could not cast their votes so far due to their nomadic character, though they were issued ration cards 10 years ago. We are assuring them all help this time,” a police official said after persuading the tribals to give up their protest.

“We have a history going back thousands of years and are as much citizens of this nation as others. Yet, we have been marginalised, termed untouchables and (have) never voted. Now we want to assert our rights,” a spokesman of the group, Domba Raja, told IANS.

The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said the poll panel will look into the community’s grievances.

“We are particular that nobody should be denied the right to vote and will take immediate action if representations from this group reaches us directly or the district administration,” Gupta told IANS on phone from Chennai.

The tribe’s origins are traced to European Roma gypsies and to several others from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa, according to accounts published by Edgar Thurston in 1909.

According to the police, most members of the tribe live in Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala. They used to be trappers and hunters, but hunting has now been banned. One of their traditional handicarfts is the making of bead garlands.

Racist Leaflets Inspire Hatred for Minority

A story sent to me from September 30, 2005

By Irina Titova
Staff Writer

Human rights experts are worried by rising racist trends after leaflets calling for violence against Roma were circulated in the city of Pskov, 280 kilometers south of St. Petersburg, in September.

“We are calling for Russia to be cleaned up! No To Gypsy Drug Barons! Save Your Children!” read the leaflets posted at the city’s bus stops, the St. Petersburg branch of non-governmental human rights group Memorial reported Wednesday.

The leaflets accused the Roma of drug trafficking and compared them to spiders.

“Pskov residents! The most terrible disease of our times — drug addiction — is spreading in our city. Taking advantage of the authorities’ negligence, gypsy families have organized the unrestricted and widespread sale of drugs in Pskov. Every day, more and more of our children get become captives of drugs,” one of the leaflets read.

The leaflets were signed by a movement calling itself Free Russia, which called for Pskov residents to provide lists of names and addresses of Roma living in the city.

The leaflets also stated that police statistics cite Roma as being Russia’s “most active drug traders.”

The leaflets have alarmed Pskov Roma, who are afraid to go out, fearing they could be attacked, said Olga Abramenko, coordinator of the Northwest Center For Social and Juridical Defense of Roma at St. Petersburg’s Memorial, on Wednesday.

“The leaflets were absolutely racist, nationalist and aggressive. And it is not true that according to police statistics Roma are the main drug traders [in Russia],” Abramenko said.

The distribution of leaflets took place not long after the kidnapping and murder of a Roma man, Vladimir Berezovsky, on Aug. 30, leading to fears that the two events are linked.

A few days after the murder, another local Roma man, Alexander Mikhailov, was beaten up after attackers questioned him about his ethnicity.

The Pskov city prosecution has opened criminal investigations into both the murder and the attack, but neither have been solved, Abramenko said.

Abramenko also said Memorial could not be sure if the nationalist group Free Russia exists in reality.

Boris Pustyntsev, co-head of St. Petersburg’s human rights Citizen Watch said that some Roma do to turn to crime as they are unable to find lawful employment due to discrimination. He stressed, however, that not only gypsies are dealing in drugs.

“When someone has no other way to make money, he often gets involved in crime. That’s not just the case with Roma — it also happens with Russians and people of other ethnicities,” Pustyntsev said.

Barnet councillor Brian Coleman condemned for 'stay away gypsies' comments on BBC show

7:20am Monday 23rd March 2009

By Kevin Bradford

A Barnet councillor attracted controversy yesterday after claiming gypsies should “stay put in Ireland”.

The often outspoken Greater London Authority member for Barnet and Camden, Brian Coleman, condemned the traveller community during a debate on the BBC’s Politics Show about the potential for increased gypsy sites across London boroughs.

It came as the Greater London Authority prepares to discuss the results of the London boroughs’ gypsy and traveller accommodation needs assessment 2008, which suggests 553 new permanent pitches are required across the capital in the next five years.

Proposals could see up to 13 sites built in the borough, and managed by Barnet Council, to match the increased demand.

But speaking on the Sunday morning show, Mr Coleman said he would not welcome “one single site” in the borough, and claimed they would not be accommodating communities that had been in the UK for decades, but instead a group of people “who offer to Tarmac your drive”.

He said: “Successive councils in Barnet, Labour-controlled and Conservative, have examined the borough thoroughly and found no suitable sites.

“I do not know any councillor of any mainstream political party who would support traveller sites in their ward.

“We’re not talking traditional gypsies here, we’re not talking about this romantic vision of gypsies in attractive caravans, we’re talking about the itinerant Irish traveller community who come over and want to resurface people's drives and repair their roofs.

“This is a commuter who comes over from Ireland looking for work that should frankly stay put in Ireland.”


Father Joe Browne, chairman of the Irish traveller movement, who was also on the panel, said there is a shortage of legal sites in London which impacts negatively on gypsy groups, and went on to condemn Mr Coleman’s comments.

“I’m shocked Brian would take that attitude,” he said.

“It’s simply unacceptable to say they should stay where they are.”

Andrew Slaughter, Labour MP for Ealing Action and Shepherds Bush, responded on the show by branding Mr Coleman “loudmouthed” and saying the comments were “inflammatory and quite disgraceful”.

He said: “[The comments] would be completely unacceptable when talking about any other ethnic minority.”

Pope urges Romans to "welcome" immigrants

Richard Owen in Rome

Pope Benedict condemned "discrimination" at a council meeting with the mayor of Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI today condemned "intolerance and discrimination" and urged residents of Rome to be more welcoming towards foreign immigrants during an historic visit to the Campidoglio, the Rome city hall on Capitol Hill.

Pope Benedict - only the third pontiff to attend a Rome city council meeting, after Paul VI and John Paul II - greeted a crowd of well-wishers, including a group of Roma gypsy children holding up a "No to Racism" banner, gathered on the Campidoglio piazza in front of the office of Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome.

Since gaining office in elections nearly a year ago which marked a shift to the Right both nationally and locally Mr Alemanno, a former neo-Fascist youth leader, has cracked down on crime and illegal immigration, dismantling illegal gypsy camps in the grimmer Rome suburbs. A series of rapes in the capital has been blamed on immigrants - above all Romanians - and has led to a series of vigilante attacks on targets ranging from vagrants to Romanian-owned businesses.

The perceived crime wave by immigrants has also given rise to "neighbourhood watch" patrols by residents, some authorised by the local authorities but others mounted autonomously by right wing groups. Addressing a special session of the city council in the Julius Caesar council chamber the Pope - whose titles include Bishop of Rome - said Rome had always been "a welcoming city, especially over the past centuries".

Growing immigration however had made it a "multi-ethnic and multi-religious metropolis where sometimes integration is difficult and complex". He added: "Rome will find the force to ensure that everyone respects the rules of civil co-existence and to reject every form of intolerance and discrimination". It would do this if it relied on "its ancient roots, based on Christian faith" as well as the "rule of law," he said.

The pontiff did not refer directly to recent incidents such as an attack by 20 masked men who beat up four Romanians at a kebab restaurant near a suburban park where a 14-old girl was raped, allegedly by two Romanians. Police say DNA tests have yet to prove that two Romanian men arrested for the rape were involved in it.

Instead Pope Benedict referred to "episodes of violence deplored by all which manifest a deeper unease." He said that "our city, like the rest of Italy and humanity as a whole" was facing "unprecedented cultural, social and economic challenges". Rome was increasingly populated by "people who come from other nations and belong to different cultures and religious traditions".

Mr Alemanno said the city planned to establish a centre for teenagers from troubled backgrounds which would be named after Pope Benedict in honour of his visit and as a sign of the council's "commitment to integration".

The German-born Pope, who before being elected pontiff lived for two decades in the Borgo, the medieval quarter adjoining St Peter's, as the Vatican's head of doctrine, said he had become "a little bit Roman" himself.

The last visit by a pontiff to the Campidoglio was that of John Paul II in 1998. Relations between the Vatican and the city of Rome have been complex ever since the end of papal rule and the formation of a united Italy in 1870. Relations between Italy and the Holy See were formally settled by the Lateran Pact of 1929, which defined relations between the two sovereign states. However some secular-minded and even anti-clerical residents continue to resent the influence of the Vatican in Italian affairs.

Giving and taking away

Phil Chamberlain The Guardian, Wednesday 25 February 2009

Travellers' rights champion recognised for forthright campaigning faces a battle of her own over eviction from her home

Bridgette Jones will be at Buckingham Palace next month to collect an MBE for service to her community.

A week later she will be at the high court hoping that her home outside Canterbury will not be taken from her.

"They give you a medal with one hand and they try and take your home away with the other," she says.

Jones, known to everyone as Bridie, has championed Traveller rights for the last 15 years. During that time she says that overt racism against Gypsies and Travellers may have diminished in the UK but discrimination still exists - nowhere more so than in planning regulations. Since 2001 she has been fighting to stay on the plot of land that she, her son, daughter and seven grandchildren call home.

"It has been seven long and depressing years," she says. "We have been given planning permission by the county council and by two inspectors but some villagers have set up a group to stop us and they keep appealing. It is very aggravating. You have children born and bred on that land."

Through her work with the Canterbury Gypsy Traveller Support Group, Jones gets a lot of calls from Travellers about similar planning problems.

"In some cases it is just ethnic cleansing," she claims. "In Basildon the council is spending £3m on bailiffs to evict Travellers from a site. There are 300 children on that site and some are sick and some are dying. We're supposed to be in a credit crunch and yet they spend all this money to put people off their own land."

Jones began volunteering back in 1992, working with young people in Kent. She found then that ethnic minority children didn't access traditional youth services so she tried to open up the services to the whole community.

"I've always tried to break down barriers and build bridges," she says. "When I get a phone call now I try to make sure they get the right services and go to the right people. It's about bringing people around a table and discussing problems."

When Jones got the letter in the post back in October with the royal motif on it, asking if she would accept an MBE she thought it was a joke. A follow-up letter inviting her to the palace in March was met by "complete out-and-out shock".

Jones has been to Downing Street to petition for Traveller rights on several occasions, but she just plans on enjoying this trip. She is saving her energy for the high court battle.

"People get very angry when they see what is happening in Italy with [Roma]Gypsies," she says , "but I don't think people know that it [discrimination] is on their own doorstep."

Thousands protest gov't boycott of conservative daily

By Hungary Around the Clock

Over 2,000 people demonstrated on Friday afternoon against Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's call to cut off state advertising in and subscriptions to Magyar Hírlap over a commentary that referred to the Roma killers of Romanian handball player Marian Cozma as "murderous animals".

Addressing the gathering outside the Prime Minister's Office on Kossuth tér, Magyar Hírlap owner Gábor Széles called Gyurcsány incompetent as prime minister and said he will go down in history as having caused more damage than 1950s dictator Mátyás Rákosi. Széles accused Gyurcsány of ruining the economy, the countryside and health care and of pushing Roma into misery.

Farkas Flórián, representing Roma group Lungo Drom, said the newspaper comments were not offensive to Gypsies and that Gyurcsány, by hiding behind Gypsies, had violated freedom of the press and expression by calling for a boycott of Magyar Hírlap.

Editor István Stefka said Gyurcsány intended to shut his newspaper's mouth. Lawyer Krisztina Morvai, MEP candidate for the far right Jobbik party, called Gyurcsány "an insane Nero" whose action had again united people.

Zsolt Bayer, author of the commentary, said Gypsies have been called by that name for 700 years and this must remain so as "they are our friends". At the same time those who attack teachers, as well as murderers, robbers and thieves who happen to be Gypsies should also be called by that name, he said.

Government spokesman Dávid Daróczi told reporters elsewhere that the call for a boycott was the right decision, as it was borne out by the tone set by those addressing the rally, and the way they spoke about the state of public affairs.

Roma leader blames politicians for anti-Gypsy sentiments

By MTI

The head of Hungary's National Roma Self-Government (OCO) blamed parties in parliament for the anti-Roma sentiments experienced lately in Hungary at a press conference held in Budapest on Thursday.

Orban Kolompar was speaking in response to a debate in the press over the past few months about the existence of "Gypsy crime" or whether the ethnic background of criminals should be noted in connection with crime. The issue flared up again when suspects of the stabbing of international handball players last weekend were said to be part of or associated with a gang of Roma criminals.

Police have not found evidence for this connection, but they did take testimonies from witnesses and former gang associates which suggested a link.

The government has disassociated itself from the use of the term "Gypsy crime" and for membership of an ethnic minority to be singled out in crime statistics.

Kolompar said parties have been noncommittal about the problems of the Roma and were partly responsible for a collective blame for crimes on the Roma community. He added that they have done nothing to help the Roma create a credible political representation for dealing with important economic and social problems among their community.

Kolompar called on the Roma to think about how they see the next ten years for themselves.

He said the remarks by opposition leader Viktor Orban on Wednesday regarding Roma and crime were unfortunate.

Orban said there was no "Gypsy crime" but there were criminals that belong to the Roma minority and the serious crimes committed by Roma was on the rise, which cannot be ignored.

Kolompar asked the help of the media in "creating a normal human atmosphere which focuses primarily on the person, not political interests."

He said parties should support a Roma programme, to be designed by OCO, which would help bring about peace in society. He added that there were plans for a three-way agreement between the OCO, police and the National Association of Civil Self-Defence to train 3,000 Roma and non-Roma civil self-defence personnel as well as social workers to help improve communication among citizens.

‘Time Bomb’ Ticks in Hungary as Roma Tension Rises (Update1)

By Zoltan Simon and Balazs Penz

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary is contending with rising resentment toward its Roma, or Gypsy, population as the economy sinks and unrest grows.

A police chief who last month blamed Roma for crime in his city was fired by the government, then reinstated after more than 1,000 people protested. Anti-Roma demonstrations also erupted in western Hungary last weekend after media reports that Roma men were responsible for the murder of a local athlete. A court in December banned a two-year-old uniformed nationalist group sworn to tackle what it called “Roma crime.”

As in other European countries, Hungary’s Roma live in the poorest areas and endure the highest rates of unemployment, said Janos Ladanyi, director for the Center of Social, Regional and Ethnic Conflicts in Budapest. Clashes will become more frequent as the economic crisis engulfs the region, unless the rule of law can be enforced, he said.

“This is a time bomb,” said Ladanyi. “I hope the alarming events of the past few weeks will make the sensible majority and especially the political elite recognize that we can’t go down this road. This road is a dead end. It leads to the Balkans.”

The government is trying to balance public resentment and the need for order. Justice Minister Tibor Draskovics on Feb. 8 ordered police to increase patrols and the cabinet the same day decided to direct extra funds to security forces.

Need to Act

“We have to act while we can, not wait until the prejudices and the urge to vigilantism distil into unmanageable social phenomena,” Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, 47, wrote on his Web site. “We have to act against violence most decisively.”

The opposition Fidesz party, which is leading the governing Socialist Party in opinion polls ahead of elections next year, said the government should focus more on catching criminals than on worrying about prejudice.

“We have to tell it like it is: the number of serious crimes committed by people of Gypsy origin is rising at an alarming pace,” Fidesz said in a statement yesterday. “We demand that the government, instead of finding excuses based on the origins of the perpetrators, find the perpetrators and protect the rights and interests of the victims.”

The situation isn’t helped by the decline of what was once eastern Europe’s economic dynamo.

Unemployment probably rose to 8.3 percent in January, the highest in at least 10 years, according a Bloomberg survey of economists. Official data is due on Feb. 27.

IMF Aid

Last year, the government was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund to avert a debt default, and the economy is forecast to contract as much as 3 percent this year.

Marian Cozma, 26, a Romanian national handball player, was stabbed to death in front of a dance club in the town of Veszprem in western Hungary on Feb. 7. Two of the three suspects were detained in Austria late the next day, Hungarian police said in a Feb. 9 statement. The third is being sought.

“Everyone in the whole wide world knows that those murderous animals were Gypsies,” wrote columnist Zsolt Bayer in daily Magyar Hirlap. “A huge number of Gypsies have given up on coexistence and given up on their humanity.”

Gyurcsany ordered state institutions to cancel subscriptions to the daily, his office said in a statement yesterday.

‘Discrimination and Persecution’

Albert Pasztor, the police chief in Miskolc, claimed at a Jan. 30 press conference that all the December and January burglaries in the city of 180,000 were committed by Roma. Draskovics reinstated him after street protests from a crowd estimated at 1,500 by state-run MTI news agency.

With about 10 million people, the Roma have made up the European Union’s largest ethnic minority since the bloc started expanding eastward in 2004. The EU operates an integration program, with traineeships and funding for anti-discrimination groups, according to the European Commission’s Web Site.

“Roma communities in Europe have long faced discrimination and persecution,” the site said.

Rob Kushen, managing director of the European Roma Rights Center, blames the media and growing support for nationalist political parties for fueling hatred.

“What you have is a political climate that plays up ethnic tensions and attempts to demonize the Roma minority,” said Kushen, whose center is in Budapest. “That’s a serious concern. You create the climate for an increase in tension.”

Members of the nationalist group, Magyar Garda, wore 1930s- style uniforms and armbands. It was established in 2007 by the nationalist party Jobbik, which has organized a demonstration for Feb. 13 in Budapest to protest “Roma crime.”

Flag Wavers

During the past two years, members marched in Budapest and villages with a large Roma population under a red-and-white striped flag similar to one used by Hungary’s Nazi-allied government in World War II. The group was banned in December for inciting fear among minorities.

The biggest population of Roma in Europe is in Romania, estimated at as much as 2.5 million people, according to the Roma rights center.

The Roma in Hungary number 200,000 to 700,000, or 2 to 7 percent of Hungary’s 10 million people, Ladanyi said. While many don’t state their ethnicity in the census, about 40 percent are considered “permanently excluded” from society, he said.

“My concern is for the 15 percent or so of Roma who have managed to leave the shantytowns, who are trying to join the middle class but whose tentative grip may slip now during the economic crisis,” said Ladanyi.

To contact the reporters on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net Balazs Penz in Budapest at bpenz@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: February 11, 2009 06:08 EST

Tensions rise over Italy’s gypsy migrants

By Guy Dinmore and Gabriella Bianchi

Published: January 26 2009 20:29 Last updated: January 26 2009 20:29

A political storm has erupted around Italy’s gypsy community after a series of recent attacks prompted Silvio Berlusconi, the country’s prime minister, to suggest deploying 30,000 troops nationwide to combat crime blamed on gypsies and other immigrants.

Europe’s open borders have led to a flood of Romanian gypsies into Italy, straining municipal services and stirring political tensions. Some church groups estimate 50,000 Romanian gypsies have arrived in recent years, adding to thousands of Balkan gypsies who had fled the former Yugoslavia. Many live in squalid conditions condemned by human rights groups.

Mr Berlusconi suggested the extra deployment of troops in response to the highly publicised cases of two women reportedly gang raped near Rome. Police have not publicly identified their suspects as gypsies.

But Carabinieri police units have searched 47 settlements and other places for the suspected rapists and one “Romanian” was arrested, local media said.

Police also intervened after a neo-fascist group demonstrated in Guidonia near Rome – where the rapes took place – during which thugs attacked Romanian and Albanian immigrants.

The possible troop deployment follows the decision last summer by the prime minister’s tough-on-crime ruling coalition to order 3,000 troops to back up police last summer, mainly in the fight against organised crime and illegal immigration.

Ignazio La Russa, defence minister, said today that Mr Berlusconi’s proposal remained a “hypothesis”, to be discussed further in high-level talks on Thursday.

Gypsy activists are investigating allegations that units of the Folgore parachute brigade were involved in making arrests and breaking up illegal shacks used by gypsies on Rome’s Via Gordiani last week.

An army spokesman said a unit of Sardinian grenadiers had been involved in checking identities of some 70 gypsies in an illegal camp.

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, made his second inspection tour of camps near Rome this month.

He was visibly shocked at meeting with a Romanian who called herself Marinella, living in a tent with her two children, in the midst of rats and a swamp caused by torrential rain.

“The situation is unacceptable,” he told the Financial Times. “Nothing has changed since my last report in July. In fact living conditions are even worse. So much talk and media attention but nothing happens. This is a display of inept policy.”

Meanwhile, an official poster campaign sponsored by Gianni Alemanno, mayor of Rome, is boasting of “6,216 expulsions in 2008” and taking credit for a “20 per cent fall in crime”.

Formerly a neo-fascist, Mr Alemanno campaigned on a promise to crack down on crime, illegal immigrants and gypsies, capitalising on emotions that were running high after the murder of a woman by a Romanian gypsy near a railway station.

Mario Mori, a retired general who is security adviser to the mayor, sought to distinguish actual policy from the heat of last April’s elections.

Mr Mori said the 6,216 expelled by the prefect of the interior ministry were mostly illegal immigrants from north Africa and only a few had been gypsies.

He noted there was no national legislation on “regulating” gypsies and that policy had been left to individual cities.

Mr Alemanno wants to erase unauthorised camps and build new “maxi-camps” for gypsies who have the “right” to stay in Italy by proving they are EU citizens. Those without papers are liable for expulsion.

Mr Hammarberg said today: “I am concerned about reported plans to use soldiers for evicting Roma (gypsies) from their settlements.

“If evictions are necessary at all they should be conducted humanely and only after a satisfactory alternative for housing is found and offered.”

Nazareno Guarnieri, head of an organisation that represents gypsies, said: “They say we like living in camps. They invented camps. None of us lived in camps before. We want homes.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Italy wraps up its round up of the Roma

October 29, 2008, 13:09

Widespread negative public opinion of Roma gypsies recently prompted Italy’s conservative government to launch a controversial profiling campaign as part of a pledge to crack down on street crime and curb crime levels.

The internationally condemned measure, which included the fingerprinting and photographing of Roma minors and adults living in nomadic camps across the country, received enormous support from Italians, who have increasingly expressed fears over a rise in violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants, and gypsies, in particular.

Roma gypsies are routinely accused of, stealing, prostitution and child abduction, as well as a range of petty crimes, and their camps are widely seen as a breeding ground for crime and violence, where Roma children are ‘trained’ to become habitual criminals.

A survey conducted in May 2008 by Italian daily, La Repubblica, revealed that 75 per cent of Italians thought “nomads” were “a problem”. Most believed that the best way to deal with the gypsy problem was to “clear out gypsy camps and expel those found there”. Increasing intolerance among Italians has triggered a number of violent acts against gypsies. From April to July 2008, an estimated eight gypsy camps were razed to the ground in arson attacks.

Such ethnic intolerance soon permeated policymaking. At the height of the Roma profiling scheme in August 2008, police and soldiers routinely entered camps unannounced. They took fingerprints and photos of inhabitants, including minors, and expelled those without valid identification or permits. On several occasions, they forcibly evicted the members of illegal settlements, destroying their homes and personal possessions without offering assistance or providing alternative housing.

"They would come in the middle of the night, make us get out of bed and ask to see our identification. It was horrible. Why can’t they come once to see if we need help or to bring us clean water? Italians think we are all criminals and treat us badly, but it’s not true”, says a female inhabitant of one of Rome’s oldest and biggest settlements, the Casilina 900.

Most Italians who live near gypsy camps are against them, claiming they pose health risks. A woman who lives near a gypsy camp on the outskirts of Rome maintains, “They constantly burn their trash and other waste. It is toxic for the rest of us who live in the area. The camp is dirty and ugly. They should be given an area to live in that has sanitary facilities and basic services”.

Almost from the start, Italy’s census and fingerprinting scheme was admonished worldwide for being ethnically-based and discriminatory. From Roma activists to the United Nations and the Catholic Church, opponents of the campaign launched stinging accusations of xenophobia.

For months, the European Commission put pressure on Italy to carry out its profiling scheme in accordance with human rights laws, forcing policymakers to put an end to their fingerprinting and expulsion campaigns. In a complete policy turnaround, majority leaders now claim their main aim is to put gypsy children in schools and provide sustainable housing for gypsies living in unauthorised settlements.

Fact Box:

• Approximately 160,000 Roma live in Italy, 70,000 of whom are Italian citizens.

• Approximately one third of Italy’s Roma live in illegal settlements that lack running water, electricity and adequate sanitary facilities. Many of these Roma, often referred to as ‘gypsies’ or ‘nomads’, do not have residency permits.

• Running from July 15 to October 15, the Roma census was carried out in 167 camps in Rome, Naples and Milan (124 unauthorised camps; 43 authorised camps) by members of the Italian Red Cross.

• Census data shows that 5,436 camp inhabitants are children, only 20 per cent of whom have had basic schooling.

• Italian officials estimate that some 13,000 gypsies have fled the country, in an effort to ‘avoid identification’.

Brenda Dionisi for RT

Shute Woods: Travellers appeal for tolerance

devon.editorial@archant.co.uk
22 October 2008

AS residents call for those pitched at Shute Woods to be moved on, the travellers have asked people to be tolerant and understand they are just 'surviving'.

Eight caravans pitched at the beauty spot have caused outrage in Kilmington and nearby villages, but the travellers feel people are being prejudiced and that they are the victims of discrimination.

One of the travellers, Paul, told the Herald he has had a petrol bomb thrown at him in the past.

Danny Steed spoke of stones being hurled at him and, while at Shute, Claire said people had passed by swearing.

Claire, 32, who said she comes from gypsy family but now is more 'new age traveller', said: "We're just normal people, but we don't live in a house.

"My son had lots of problems growing up and was called 'traveller kid' at school.

"He left school in the end because of the bullying and was self-taught."

Paul, 46, who has been a traveller since 15, added: "We're blamed for everything bad, from thieving to drugs, to prostitution.

"We keep ourselves to ourselves.

"We don't go looking for trouble - it comes to us."

The travellers said living at the site was a case of 'surviving' and, while they did not pay council tax, they did pay other taxes and had to work hard to get by.

Danny Steed, 33, said: "If I didn't live in a mobile home, I would be on the streets. It's just surviving."

However, he added there were attractions to living as a traveller, namely the sense of community.

"I left home at 17 and haven't looked back," he said. I've met different people, lived in different places, and now I've ended up here.

"It's like living with an extended family.

"I love the people I'm living with and we help each other out. I'm quite happy.

"We want to get on with people - some like us, some don't.

"I don't think people realise how hard it is living like this. But if people want to tarnish us all with the same brush that's their problem."

Paul added: "People who live in council houses don't know their next door neighbour. We are family."

When asked if he preferred to be referred to as a traveller or a gypsy, he said: "I'm an individual, just like anybody else."

The close-knit community is currently in mourning over the death of 65-year-old Monty, who died over the weekend.

"He will be sadly missed," said Paul. He said a wake would be held to mark his life. He told how Monty had worked for Save the Children and was known as a 'gentleman', suggesting people should not be judged by their property.

Axminster resident Paul Haywood, who has been closely following the planning application for gypsy pitches at Raymond's Hill, said: "They are easy scapegoats.

"It's tricky - they have to have somewhere to go. Sometimes they get a hard time from their own actions, but tarnished as a group with a very big brush."

During a parish council meeting at Kilmington, chairman Michael Collier said authorities were trying to move the travellers on but it was understood travellers had to be treated carefully.

Kilmington resident Ted Dutton said he did not know of anyone who was happy the travellers were there.

He said: "I'm categorically not in favour of the travellers staying there - they just ruin the site everywhere they go. They live free and don't pay taxes.

"But a lot of people are frightened to open their mouths.

"We are very tolerant and relatively decent people. We can't stop them from staying there but, if they mess the countryside, we shouldn't have to pay for it."

Devon County Council said the travellers were on land owned by the council and government guidance said they should meet travellers' and gypsies' needs, just as it does for settled communities.

A spokesperson said: "Devon County Council is working with district, borough and city councils to address the housing, educational, social and welfare needs of gypsies and travellers in Devon.

"The council is not a housing authority, but it still has statutory responsibilities to ensure that people have access to education, social care and welfare advice.

Roma student offers beacon of hope

By Barnaby Phillips, Europe correspondent

A few months ago, I travelled to Naples, in Italy, to report on hostility against the Roma, or Gypsy, people.

Neapolitans blamed the Roma for a crimewave, and burnt down one of their camps.

The story was posted on You Tube by Al Jazeera:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MlMFRamBVsk

Here is a sample of some of the comments posted in response; "gypsies are just parasites", "gypsies cannot adapt to a modern way of living and will never be welcome", "only a dead gypsy is a good gypsy", and so on.

Many comments are not printable, but you get the drift.

Now, it iss true that the anonymity of the internet has a depressing tendency to encourage people to publish offensive views.

But, reporting for Al Jazeera from Europe, I've been surprised by the widespread and deep-rooted prejudice against the Roma.

In Greece, and elsewhere, I'm often taken aback by remarks from otherwise broadminded people.

Sometimes it seems that the one form of racism that is still socially acceptable is that against the Roma.

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'Racist' slurs mar gypsy consultation

Published Date: 27 March 2008
Location: Bedford

By Paul Fisher

Council says it can't publish more than 3,000 responses to a document seeking views on where to put new traveller caravan pitches in Mid Beds.

'Racist' comments from more than 3,000 residents have overshadowed a public consultation on plans to provide new pitches for travellers in Mid Bedfordshire.

Mid Beds District Council asked its taxpayers' for their views late last year – but of the 3,500 responses received, only 400 can be published.

The overwhelming majority refer to criminal activity or feature other racist remarks, the authority has said.

The council, which needs to find 25 more caravan pitches for travellers under the Government's Local Development Framework, has now been forced to extend the consultation period until May, to allow residents to submit revised opinions.

Cliff Codona, chairman of the National Travellers Action Group, said the consultation just proved the type of racism the gypsy community regularly faces.

He said: "There is racism against travellers and I think you could not have picked a better area of the country to prove that fact. It is nothing to do with gypsies or travellers, it is just everyone jumping on the bandwagon. However it should not stop the council following through Government legislation that says traveller sites should be provided. They should get on with it and provide sites that are desperately needed. Every time plans are put on hold it gives people time to put the boot in."

Mid Beds District Council is now writing to the 3,100 people who submitted unacceptable comments to ask whether they would like to resubmit their views, but based on planning issues and not stereotypes.
Mark Hustwitt, spokesman for the council, said: "It would not be responsible for us to publish any racist responses.

"If someone objects because of a planning reason, like being against a development because it is on a greenfield site, then we will publish it, but we cannot discriminate against any group because of stereotypes.

"No-one would now say someone should not get planning permission because they are black or gay; this applies equally to gypsies and travellers.

"I must say we were very surprised at the response. I think it is one of those areas where people find it acceptable to be racist and they are wrong."

The 400 comments that are acceptable will be published on the council's website this week.

The council will look at the preferred sites for development in May.

Mr Hustwitt added: "There are already many gypsy families living quietly in Mid Beds who are part of their communities. We are obliged to find 25 sites in Mid Beds to help control unauthorised encampments."

Bedford Borough Council is is under the same Government obligation to provide between ten and 15 new pitches for travellers across the borough. It expects to announce a consultation period soon.

The full article contains 479 words and appears in n/a newspaper.

Last Updated: 27 March 2008 3:01 PM

Travellers' tales

We need to know who our Gypsy pupils are...

Janette Owen
Tuesday March 11, 2008
The Guardian


In June, schools across the country will have the opportunity to take part in the first Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, aimed at raising awareness and exploring the history, culture and languages of these communities. But the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) hopes that the themed lessons will have an additional impact.
According to the schools minister Lord Adonis, many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are among the lowest-achieving in our schools and the situation is not improving. Fear of prejudice and bullying has meant that many children and families are too scared to identify themselves, and without that knowledge schools are unable to apply for the extra support and funding that is available to help them.

The DCSF has produced a document, called The Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children and Young People, which aims to persuade schools and local authorities to stamp out prejudice and ensure that the children get the extra support they deserve.

What can governors do to boost this initiative? They need to support the head in identifying which families need help. The guide says: "Schools and local authorities cannot comply with their duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 unless they are aware of the ethnicity and cultural diversity of their school population."

It suggests schools try to recruit governors from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds. Governors should devise strategies to encourage parents to volunteer, and not feel they lack the skills required.

The vulnerability of these pupils must be recognised in the school's behaviour and anti-bullying policies. According to the guide: "It is equally important for schools to have, within their anti-bullying policy, examples of racist terminology pertinent to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities."

Heads should provide governors with information on racist incidents at least annually and ideally once a term. Governing bodies are required to inform their local education authority annually of incidents.

Adonis says: "Children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities should feel safe and cherished in school, and therefore parents and pupils will be proud to identify themselves. Schools now have a duty to promote community cohesion, and this is a real issue for their attention."

The Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children and Young People can be downloaded from the online publications section of teachernet.gov.uk.
Education.governor@guardian.co.uk

How a malicious press and ailing welfare system make new demons

By Torcuil Crichton

SLOUGH IS famous for two things - a damning piece of poetry, "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough, it isn't fit for humans now", and as the dystopian location for The Office.

Between John Betjeman and David Brent the place doesn't impinge much on the national consciousness but in the past week it has became the setting for a parable about modern Britain. There are only seven basic plot lines, so it's inevitable that this fable relied on an earlier work of fiction.

First the facts - at early dawn on Thursday, January 24, 400 police officers shoulder-charged their way into 17 addresses in Slough and discovered 68 Roma children sleeping within, 10 of whom they took into care.

The media were invited along (well, I wasn't) to record the officers as they carried the poor, pixillated children to apparent safety. The headlines had been written before the first door was smashed down. This was a raid, the police briefed, to rescue gypsy children, who were of Romanian nationality, who had been trafficked into the UK by unscrupulous adults for a life of juvenile crime.

These were, we were told on the front page of the London newspapers, the modern-day Artful Dodgers, trained to deprive you of your mobile phone and wallet quicker than it would take to ask for more gruel.

The story, from then on, was a rewrite of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist with which, in its musical and televisual style, if not its original literary form, we are all familiar.

We have, incidentally, in these last three sentences slipped into fiction because it emerged later in the week that all but one of the nine children taken into custody has been returned to the Roma community in Slough and none of the 24 adults arrested at the scene has been charged with child-trafficking offences. Some were charged with minor immigration offences and three were charged with handling stolen mobile phones. One, 25-year-old Gheorge Mazarxhes, was jailed for eight weeks after he admitted handling a stolen phone. It looks, at the very least, that there might have been a misunderstanding.

The furious Roma adults in Slough, where there is a long-established Romanian community, insist that in extended gypsy families it is common for children not to live with their parents. It's bad enough, they say, to be stigmatised across Europe as thieves without being tarred as child traffickers too.

The Romanians are puzzled as to why they cannot get proper access to those arrested - 15 Britons detained in a suburb of Bucharest would have a UK counsel within 24 hours - and also why the police made such a hoo-ha about the operation. They suspect that the raid was not so much about disrupting a child trafficking ring in Britain and more about the irresistible lure of the newspaper headline.

It was a story that was deemed simply too good to miss, maybe because someone in the police too readily believed the negative propaganda these same newspapers spout each day about immigrants to the UK. It looks as if the police were caught in a self-fuelling circle of deceit, but what was initially paraded as a triumph in the newspapers has been a revealed as a farce.

The police carry on defending themselves by saying it would be wrong to conclude that no child trafficking was involved just because no-one was charged with the offence. That's not the kind of argument that would stand up in court, although you do have to have some sympathy with the police because there is no single law against child trafficking, which makes it difficult to prosecute without relying on a whole series of immigration and sex abuse laws being invoked.

Meanwhile, Slough is left to pick up the pieces. The Roma have been a very visible presence in the town for years and the place has a reputation for a more liberal attitude towards immigrants than the Daily Hate would find acceptable. But overcrowding and lack of legal income means the Roma are not great neighbours.

Around the established Roma community house prices are said to have tumbled. But then how do you fit 15 people into a three-bedroom house and not cause a nuisance? And aren't there laws on multiple occupancy that ought to be enforced before police start looking for child traffickers?

The local shopkeepers complain about Roma children shoplifting all the time and of women begging in the streets with their children in tow. People walking down Oxford Street complain of that too and it has to be said that training your children to beg in the street is almost as reprehensible as training them to thieve.

But thanks to our dysfunctional relationship with the European Union the Roma, like all Romanians, are only half welcome here anyway. As members of an ascension state the Romanians are free to enter Britain but they cannot take up any unskilled work, as most other eastern Europeans can.

Fearing another "Polish invasion" when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, Britain limited the rights of these citizens in this country.

There are worries in parts of England about overstretched public services being further strained by immigration but allowing Romanians to work legally in the UK would turn them into service-supporting taxpayers and make a latter-day Dickensian existence less likely.

EU Parliament: Anti-Gypsy prejudice, discrimination widespread in EU

© AP
2008-01-31 16:15:52 -

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Anti-Roma sentiments are widespread in the European Union, often leading to racist attacks, abuse and police harassment, the European Parliament warned Thursday.EU member states must increase their efforts to integrate Roma and prevent «ghettoization» in estates, slums and camps, where there are no hygiene and safety standards and a large number of children die in accidents, EU lawmakers said in a resolution.

They called on the European Commission to give one of its members the responsibility for coordinating an EU-wide policy on Roma and urged it to promote Roma staff within its routinely called on the countries to do more to end the marginalization of the Roma population, setting aside millions in EU aid programs the member states can use to bolster education, housing and job programs _ to little effect in many places.

Roma are now one of the largest, poorest, and fastest growing minorities in Europe, with a total population on the continent estimated at between 7 and 9 million.

Extremist group holds anti-crime rally in Hugnary, critics call it an attack on Gypsies

2008-01-18 21:22:05 -

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - A small extremist group rallied Friday in the Hungarian capital to protest what it said was a rising crime rate, but which critics said was a veiled attack on the country's Gypsies.

Some 50 members of the Hungarian Guard and around 200 supporters attended the short, torch-lit march to a high school near where an 18-year-old student was attacked last week by a 17-year-old classmate described in Hungarian media as a Gypsy. The victim reportedly suffered a skull fracture and died shortly after returning home.

The Guard was formed last year and has about 700 members. Its uniform has elements which resemble those used by the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi, World War II militia.
Budapest prosecutors have asked a local court to disband the Guard because of legal irregularities.

President Laszlo Solyom last month refused to meet with the group, describing an earlier rally as «immensely damaging,» saying they created an atmosphere which made it more difficult for Gypsies _ or Roma _ to integrate into Hungarian society.

On Friday, a Guard's official said the anti-crime rally wanted to call attention to «real problems in society ... for which the current political elite is responsible.

«We don't aim to solve these problems by violent means and we don't want to be police, that is a duty of the state,» Istvan Dosa said. «But there is an ethnic bomb ticking in the country which can explode at any time.

After Dosa's speech, a woman read out a list of crimes committed in Hungary in the past months _ at least some of which are known to have involved Roma. Some Guard supporters shouted «Gypsy criminals» and «Gypsy crimes» after every description _ even though the reader never used those words herself.

There are an estimated 600,000-800,000 Roma among Hungary's population of 10 million. They are among the poorest and least educated citizens. While there are no official statistics, U.N. Habitat, a humanitarian agency, estimated that up to 60 percent of male inmates in Hungarian prisons are Roma.

Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky said the Guard's protest was actually aimed at «intimidating the Roma living in Budapest «(Friday's) act is aimed against democratic values, human rights, tolerance and the religious and ethnic minorities until now living peacefully in Budapest,» Demszky said in a statement ahead of the march.

Gypsy wins a day in Greek court

The European Union's top court has condemned Greece for violating the European Convention on Human Rights in a case filed by a woman who suffered a miscarriage after abuse by Greek police in 2001.

By Kathy Tzilivakis, Thursday, January 10, 2008

The European Court of Human Rights has dealt a severe blow to Greek law enforcement and the country's justice system, ordering Greece to pay 21,000 euros to a Roma (Gypsy) woman who said she was kicked in the back and stomach while pregnant by a police officer during a raid on a makeshift settlement in the western Athens industrial suburb of Aspropyrgos six years ago.

Human rights campaigners have hailed the ruling as a landmark victory in the fight against police brutality against Gypsies and other visible minorities in Greece. The police tactics in the raid in Aspropyrgos in 2002 sparked heated criticism from local and international human rights organisations. But it was not an isolated incident. It was one of many reported cases of police targeting Gypsies in Greece.

"This is the fourth conviction in 2007 related to police violence [against Gypsies]," said Panayotis Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, a local rights watchdog. "This indicates that there is a serious problem of police violence and impunity. It also shows there is institutional racism in the Greek police. The Greek Helsinki Monitor has repeatedly called on the state to deal with such cases before they reach the European court."

In the case reviewed by the Strasbourg-based human rights court, Fani-Yannula Petropoulou-Tsakiri, 28, testified that police ignored her pleas for urgent medical assistance and allegedly herded her onto a police van with other Gypsies who had been arbitrarily arrested. Tsakiri, who was 10 weeks pregnant, suffered a miscarriage. Today she lives in Amfissa with her four children.

According to a report published by the Swiss-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) about the 2002 raid, "Officers ordered Roma [Gypsy] individuals to lie face down on the ground while they aimed their guns at them. Other officers entered into almost every home - in some circumstances by force - in search of both drugs and hiding [Gypsy] persons. Once all the individuals were gathered outside their homes, officers began to threaten and harass the group while they waited for transport vehicles. During this time, reports indicate that bullets were fired in the air, while several incidents of police brutality were also registered."

The ruling

The court held unanimously that there had been a violation of article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights concerning the lack of an effective investigation into Tsakiri's allegation and that there had been a violation of article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken in conjunction with article 3.

"The court finds that the failure of the authorities to investigate possible racial motives for the applicant's ill-treatment, combined with their [discriminatory] attitude during the investigation, constitutes discrimination with regard to the applicant's rights which is contrary to article 14 taken in conjunction with article 3 in its procedural limb," said the ruling.

However, the court ruled, by six votes to one, that there had been no violation of article 3 concerning her allegation that she had been the victim of police brutality.

As explained in the ruling, the decision of the six judges (including one from Greece, Christos Rozakis) was based on the fact that the circumstances in which Tsakiri's bleeding had occurred on 28 January 2002 "were not entirely clear". The medical report only stated that she had bled and suffered a miscarriage. No reference was made to bruises, injuries or any other cause of the bleeding.

The one dissenting opinion was voiced by Loukis Loucaides (Cypriot), the president of the court. Loucaides says he does not share the opinion that there was no violation of article 3 as regards the alleged ill-treatment inflicted by police.

"The applicant stated her complaint in a coherent and convincing manner," said Loucaides in his dissenting opinion. "She explained that she had been kicked on her back and, as a result, had felt an intense pain in the abdominal area and started bleeding. There followed a miscarriage... What I cannot understand is why the majority did not believe her story, without even finding a concrete, well-founded reason why she must have lied. In fact, the evidence does not disclose any such reason. The fact that the medical report produced by the applicant made no reference to bruises and to any possible causes of the bleeding does not detract from the truthfulness of the applicant's complaint."

Loucaides also stressed that the majority decision could be "very dangerous in the sense that it may cause injustice to individuals like the applicant, whose evidence may not by itself be taken seriously because of police prejudice as regards their status".

He also said it may "encourage the police to use unacceptable methods of investigation, amounting to ill-treatment in respect of persons like the applicant or other persons who do not have any eyewitnesses to corroborate their complaints of ill-treatment."

Kathy Tzilivakis writes for the Athens News and appears here with permission.

Dare to Ask: Gypsies are victims of stereotype

By PHILLIP MILANO, The Times-Union

Question

I'm a real gypsy (Roma). People label us as petty thieves and criminals and claim we are filthy and dumb. Why?
cOnFuSed-ChiK, 20, Florida

Replies

I'm an English Romany gypsy. I studied business at college. Good gypsies are not shown for being the clean, decent people we are. The scummy gypsies get seen for thieving, etc. The media picks up on the bad stuff.
Shirley, 24, England

In Spain, gypsies are treated badly, but in a way, I can see why. We lived on the U.S. Air Force base. Things would always get stolen by the gypsies who lived on the vacant lot down the road - even our BBQ.
Jade, 16, Sydney, Australia

Where I live, "gypsies" are usually engaged in scams and thieving, frequently against vulnerable elderly people. Not all people who identify as gypsies or Roma engage in this kind of conduct, but those are not the ones you hear about.
Sue, Chicago

When I traveled to Romania several years ago, I was amazed at the horrific way the Roma people were treated. For the Romas' part, I witnessed many involved in harassment of foreigners and stealing. I also met several college-educated, wealthy Roma. The "true Romanians" (forgive the term) summarily dismissed the Roma as awful, terrible beasts beneath consideration or hope.
Tinuviel, 37, female, Albuquerque, N.M.

Expert says

And you should've seen the comments we didn't print.

Gypsies - a preferred term is Roma - have traveled a tough road these past thousand years.

Fast-forward through lots of history to the 14th century. By then they'd migrated to the Balkans and were wrongly thought to be from Egypt (hence the name "Gypsy"), when in fact their origins were India, said Zoltan Barany, a University of Texas professor who specializes in ethnopolitics.

They were darker-skinned, fiercely protected their cultural identity . . . and were quickly persecuted. Meanwhile, all the land was already spoken for, so they developed skills they could practice on the go, such as mending, entertaining or working at fairs, said Barany, author of The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics.

"No one wanted them, and they chased them away. . . . With no means of survival, of course they were going to steal, but it's not that it's in their genes."

Unfortunately, they're still shunned across the globe.

"They've gone through incredible amounts of discrimination and marginalization for centuries, partially because of hostility of the host country and partly because of their own inability or unwillingness to integrate."

It doesn't help that too many gypsy families don't value education, with many Roma youth telling Barany and other researchers they don't see college as their most viable option.

"If you look at the socioeconomic conditions of Roma, you see every major cause [for their plight]: poverty, overpopulation and lack of education."

Continue cross-cultural dialogue at www.yforum.com, or mail questions and replies to Phillip Milano, The Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231.

Spanish gypsy widow takes her case to the European Court of Human Rights

Oct 17, 2007 - 6:59 PM

El Mundo newspaper reports on Wednesday of the case of a gypsy woman who has been refused a widow’s pension by the state because she and her husband married gypsy style. María Luisa Muñoz is now taking her claim to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after seven years of fighting in the courts in Spain have proved unsuccessful.

She married Mariano Jiménez in 1971, and had six children with him before his death in December 2000. The INSS National Social Security Institute refused her application for a widow’s pension, on the grounds that she was not his spouse, despite his many years of paying into the system.

María Luisa’s first claim to a social court in Madrid was upheld, but was later overturned by a higher court on an appeal placed by the INSS. Her last resort was the Constitutional Court, where all but one of the magistrates voted in the court’s ruling earlier this year that she had not suffered discrimination because of her race.

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a non-profit organisation which works for the promotion of the Roma community and who are giving their legal support to María Luisa in her claim, says her situation is a clear example of discrimination and a ‘violation of human rights.’

The FSG also points out that the couple’s marriage took place some years before the 1978 Constitution, at a time when laws which expressly discriminated against the gypsy people were still in force.

Ongoing struggle for equality

Racist discrimination - ugly reality in the EU. Two generations of gypsy representatives take part in the fourth of five 'Crossed Portraits', a series marking 50 years of the EU

2007 is the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. A European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) was created in Vienna at the beginning of the month, complementing the work of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia founded in 1998. The gypsy community is the EU’s most important minority and they are struggling hard to put an end to prejudice.

January’s Eurobarometer, dedicated especially to the issue of discrimination in honour of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, says that two-thirds of Europeans see discrimination based on ethnic origin as the most wide-spread form in the Union. Also, although 65% of Europeans believe that the presence of different ethnic origins can enrich national culture, 64% believe that ethnic discrimination has increased in the last 5 years. The study also shows that most Europeans believe that gypsies are at a social disadvantage, although the percentages vary from country to country.

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