Daily Archives: August 1, 2014

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.08.2014 Trial: racist Facebook posts against Rroma

Published by:

Several Austrian newspapers report on a court case against the members of an anti-Semitic Facebook-group, who, in a series of messages against the Rroma openly called for violence against the minority: “Because of racist comments on Facebook about a tumultuous confrontation between locals and members of the Roma on September the 2nd, 2013 in Bischofshofen, on Wednesday seven out of eight accused men aged 18-39 years stood on trial. Some of the accused who are mostly coming from Salzburg are accused to have called for violence” (Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/I). Through extensive research work, the authorities were able to reconstruct all entries of the Facebook group that were deleted after the initiation of the lawsuit. The eight-mentioned members of the group were accused of racist abuse and demagoguery. Seven of them are now standing trial where they had to justify their hostility: ““Molotov cocktails” ought to have been thrown into the camp of the Roma and “the riffraff should be exterminated”, coud be read there. A defendant actually requested the “final solution” the [prosecutor] Neher stated disgustedly. These comments were visible to the 2,442-members of the Facebook group, the prosecutor blamed the accused. One asked for violence against the Roma and they were “insulted in inhumane, hurtful way. […] The reproached offenses are punishable by a sentence of up to two years” (Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/I). Most of the respondents replied that they didn’t mean it seriously and got carried away by the other entries. This raises the question as whether one can in any context be “not serious” with such inhuman statements. Telling is that most of the accused considered themselves immune from prosecution in the anonymity of the internet and didn’t expect any consequences for their actions. Only one of the accused was effectively present at the physical confrontation near the ski jump in Bischofshofen. During the riots the youths provoked around 200 Rroma who camped legally on the grounds near the ski jump. After initial verbal attacks the conflict quickly degenerated into a physical pogrom. As the Kurier (2014) communicated on the evening of July the 30th, all the accused were sentenced to suspended sentences of imprisonment, the maximum amounted to four years (compare Die Presse 2014, ORF 2014, Salzburg 24 2014, Salzburger Nachrichten 2014/II).

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.08.2014 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria: Rroma settlement evicted

Published by:

Clashes between the police and resident of the Rroma district of Stara Zagora occurred following the decision of the mayor Zhivko Todorov to evict the residents of 55 homes. The eviction began on the morning of July the 21st. The houses had been built without the necessary permits. Residents and sympathizers formed a human chain and a barricade to prevent the authorities from evacuating the homes. Three policemen were injured in the clashes, as the residents threw bricks at the police. Two demonstrators were subsequently arrested. The administration mobilised nearly 1,000 police officers to ensure the safety during the eviction. Immediately after the evacuation of the residents, the destruction of the houses began. The owners of the houses wanted to claim their rights at the European court of human rights. Mayor Zhivko Todorov answered that there is no way to legalise the buildings since they are located on private land of the Borova Gora park. The residents called the administration to provide them with alternative housing. They said that they are willing to pay for water and electricity. The Sofia Globe (2014) reports that the city of Varna plans to evacuate 200 more homes built illegally (compare Daily Mail 2014, Der Standard 2014, Novinite 2014 I/II/III/IV, Sim 2014). In Bulgaria one has to state that the uncompromising destruction of informal Rroma settlements hinders a long-term integration of the minority that suffers from high levels of discrimination and marginalisation. In Bulgaria there are an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 Rroma. Many of them are integrated and are not mentioned in the public debate about the minority.

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.08.2014 Rroma murders in Hungary: suppression instead of commemoration

Published by:

On the occasion of the fifth commemoration day of the last murder in a series of racially motivated killings in Hungary, Verseck (2014) reports on the legacy of the events. The assessment is sobering: The murders are still predominately kept quiet: repression and hatred dominate instead of commemoration. On August the third 2009, a Rromni and her daughter were shot in their home by right-wing extremists. In the previous months four more Rroma had already been killed and 55 people were injured, some seriously: “Today, five years after the last murder, public commemoration is practically non-existent in Hungary. “Both to the members of the former socialist-liberal government, in whose tenure the murders were committed, as well as to the current government under Viktor Orbán, the subject is embarrassing”, says the former liberal member of parliament József Gulyás. In 2009, he led a parliamentary inquiry committee on the Roma murders. […] However, many things should be accounted for. Similar to the case of the NSU-murders, Hungarian authorities played an inglorious role during the series of murders: intelligent services kept knowledge about the perpetrators secret. Hints into far-right milieu were followed too late, investigation findings were not centralised in time and compared. […] The surviving victims didn’t hear any apology so far from the representatives of the former socialist-liberal government.” After all, Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources, initiated victim support for the survivors, who were paid between four and seven thousand Euros. Nevertheless, the living conditions for most of them remain precarious: many of them live without running water, gas or sewage connection. The convictions of the perpetrators are continuously delayed. The judge of the first instance has not handed in a written verdict about his trial, which is why the subsequent proceedings against the accused cannot be continued. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the judge.

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

01.08.2014 Nanterre/Aulnay-sous-Bois: more Rroma settlements evicted

Published by:

In Nanterre and Aulnay-sous-Bois in the Paris suburbs, more illegal Rroma settlements were evicted following court decisions. The settlement in Nanterre housed 300 to 400 people and was located on a wasteland near a highway and a railway line. When the security forces started the evacuation, there were still about 150 people present on the premises. The prefecture of Nanterre said they had pre-booked 123 hotel beds, from which only nine people wanted to make use of. The lawyer of the Rroma, Julie Launois-Flacelière, applied to the European Court of Human Rights and called for the suspension of the evacuation. However, this had no effect. The city council communicated that maintaining a slum near a highway was not desirable either for the affected families or for the city. In Aulnay-sous-Bois an informal Rroma camp was also evicted. It encompassed about 400 people, including around 100 children, the majority of Romanian origin. François Siebecke, from a local charity, criticised that months of work for the children’s schooling and access to medical care had been destroyed by the eviction. According to the prefecture of Aulnay-sous-Bois, none of the displaced persons demanded alternative accommodation. In the summer months, the number of evictions usually rises significantly. On one side, this has to do with seasonal factors, since one usually admits the residents of the settlements a limited right to remain because of cold winters. On the other hand, some judges consider the enrolment of Rroma children in their decisions and wait with the evictions until the school year has ended (compare Hubin 2014, Le Parisien 2014 Libération in 2014, RTL France 2014). It has to be emphasized that the governmental evacuations of informal settlements significantly complicate a long-term integration of the Rroma migrants. Although the forced evictions solve the short-term problems of the local communities, the actual problems for those affected still remain. Mostly, after a very short period, new informal camps are established at other locations. Through the media focus on illegal settlements, the public gets the impression that there are only Rroma belonging to the lower class, who are poorly educated. However, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 invisible Rroma live in an integrated and unobtrusive way in France, many since several generations. They are totally disregarded in the public debate. Rroma should not to be equated with an underclass. They belong to all social classes.

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.08.2014 Montpellier: integration village will not be realised

Published by:

Dubault (2014) reports on the status of the planned Rroma integration village in Montpellier. Hélène Mandroux,  the reigning socialist mayor of the city until the spring 2014, had initiated the project together with her assistant. The integration village would have cost around 2 million Euros: 20 motivated families, especially willing to integrate themselves would have been selected and been actively supported in their search for work, in improving their language skills, in their children’s education, and in the integration into the community. The newly elected mayor Philippe Saurel and the local council of Montpellier who were voted in the spring of 2014 have shut the project down. The costs are too high, the hoped-for success of the project too uncertain, they stated. Dubault states that stopping the project didn’t cause too much consternation among the collective in support of the Rroma. Most of the other integration projects in the Paris region were also characterised by failure, she concludes. These pessimistic estimates are contradicted by success stories like those of Indre (Loire-Atlantique), which was able to announce almost exclusively positive assessments of its integration project (compare Barbier 2014 Mouillard 2014 I/II). Aid agencies have accused the authorities and politics of deliberately not wanting to promote the integration of the immigrant Rroma, but rather wanting to deport them. In the French media and the French public, one never hears of the estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma living in an integrated fashion, who form part of French society since generations and contribute to it. They are present examples that integration is possible.

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Poland

01.08.2014 Holocaust: “the saver in the long skirt”

Published by:

In an impressive article Hreczuk (2014) reports on the fate of the Romni Alfreda Markowska (Noncia) and of more than 50 men and women who owe her their lives. The reason for the article is the 70th day of remembrance of the evacuation of the Gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The systematic mass murder in the Gypsy camp cost nearly 20,000 people their lives. Markowska, whose entire family was murdered by the Nazis, worked with her husband for the Todt organisation who installed railway tracks in the occupied territories: “When somebody told Noncia about a group of Roma who was killed in a nearby forest, all her terrible memories came back. “When she heard that she went there immediately”, says Parno [one of the rescued]. In the remains of the camp in the woods, Noncia finds a child. It is her first. […] On that day, Noncia decides to rebuild her large family. Within a radius of 100 kilometres, she goes everywhere where the Nazis have murdered. She smuggles children out from the trains. She never gets discovered. “Nationality did not matter to Noncia”, says Parno. Some time later, when Noncia and her husband moved behind the front to the west, as far as Gorzow, they also took lost children from there. German children. […] Noncia is now almost 90 years old and too sick to receive unknown visitors. In 2006, she received the second highest civilian honour of Poland, the Polonia Restituta with a star. But she never received compensation for her persecution. Her little pension is barely enough for life and for pharmaceuticals.” This memorable article shows the importance of civil courage and action against the passive acceptance of prevailing circumstances.

Bulgaria Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe North Macedonia Romania

01.08.2014 Halle: alliance against right refutes prejudices against Rroma

Published by:

In response to racist abuse against Rroma on the street and on the Internet in Halle (Silverhöhe), the “alliance against the right” has issued a statement in which it refutes the racist prejudices against Rroma and gives context around the the xenophobic slogans: “Apparently, for quite some time now there were prejudices against several Roma families who rented apartments in Silberhöhe. In the Facebook group, anti-Roma prejudices are connected with inhuman comments and calls for violence. The spraying of anti-Roma and Nazi slogans and symbols in Silberhöhe in the night of July 18th, 2014, we see as a direct result of the coverage of the Facebook group” (Halle Spektrum 2014). A detailed refutation of the common stereotypes about Rroma and “poverty immigrants”, with whom the minority is often mistakenly equated follows: Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. The authorities have experienced no increase in crime, as members of the demagogic Facebook group claimed. Most children of Rroma immigrants go to school and are required to do so by German law. The prejudice of not wanting education is therefore also not true. Another racist stereotype is the accusation that Rroma only migrate to Germany to exploit social benefits and that the majority does not work. This prejudice is also refuted by critical studies: to receive social funds one has to provide evidence of previous work and of payments to social security. One is not automatically entitled to social benefits. In addition, there are also many well-qualified immigrants who are members of the middle class or even the upper class. Mistakenly, it is always assumed that immigrants from Eastern Europe are only Rroma: but there also are many ethnic Bulgarians, Romanians, Macedonians, Serbs, etc. Rroma constitute only a minority in these countries (Halle Spektrum 2014 I/II). An estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma live in Germany. The vast majority of them is integrated, has a steady job, pays taxes and lives in Germany since several generations.

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.08.2014 Baden-Württemberg: demand for a realistic Rroma image in schools

Published by:

Several German local newspapers report on the meetings of the council for the affairs of German Sinti and Roma in Baden-Württemberg. After a first meeting, the expert group stated that it wishes a realistic depiction of the Sinti and Roma in Baden-Württemberg’s schools. So far, the students were mainly taught clichés but not a critical, realistic picture of this minority: “[Daniel] Strauss criticised that the stereotypical image of the “Gypsy” is still widely used. If Sinti and Roma are at all a topic in lessons, they are often depicted as victims. Although there are many creative people [among them], not all of them out themselves as members of this minority. In addition, the future of the graves of Sinti and Roma who survived National Socialism was a central point of the discussion. The council agreed to maintain these graves in the long run. Their number in Baden-Württemberg is estimated at about 300” (Südwest Press 2014/I, compare Die Welt 2014, Südwest Presse 2014/II, SWR 2014). The predominantly pejorative stereotypes that ascribe the Rroma a culturally based delinquency and with hierarchical clans, are a projection on the minority of alleged knowledge that has prevailed the media and the public as the dominant narrative about the Rroma. However, these stereotypes are largely wrong. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups, many are well educated, settled and belong to the middle class.

rroma.org
en_GBEnglish (UK)
de_DEDeutsch fr_FRFrançais en_GBEnglish (UK)