Despite efforts, numerous obstacles remain to Roma inclusion in Mitrovica, exacerbated by the divisions between Kosovo and Serbia. At a learning centre, students from the community are bearing the brunt of these ambivalent policies.
Sejnur Veshall of the United Roma Party said that in the future Kosovo government, the emphasis should be on the spiritual heritage of the Roma, which he said is deep and deserves a more adequate presentation to the people of Kosovo.
Wishful thinking, unfortunately …
Thousands of children from the Roma and Ashkali communities are excluded from the education system, despite all strategies aimed at increasing their inclusion. Some of them attend Serbian schools, where they learn with texts that foster ethnic divisions and stereotypes. This situation raises concerns about integration and inter-ethnic coexistence in Kosovo.
“This Friday, December 13, at 7Arte we welcome you for a musical evening with Gipsy Groove, a fantastic group known for their dynamic music that combines traditional Roma sounds with reggae, ska, and funk,” the announcement states. The event takes place in Mitrovica, Kosovo.
For young people from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, the Student Resource Centre opened its doors on Wednesday and the Additional Support for University Studies programme was launched. This initiative, led by representatives of these communities, was hailed as proof of the belief in the transformative power of education.
With a part of this musical opus, the International Day of Roma Language and Culture was marked by the ensemble “Egnatia”. The program included poetry in the Romani language as the chosen form for its promotion.
Members of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities face discrimination in hiring processes, and even when they do get a job, they face an environment of exclusion, as they often become the object of ridicule and insults, due to their ethnicity. They mainly do temporary work, and usually manual labor, maintenance and street vending. Civil society activists say the situation is no better than in the private sector, even in the public sector, where quotas for marginalized communities are often abused.
In two neighborhoods of Fushë-Kosovo, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities face a lack of basic services. However, activists from a non-governmental organization have launched a project aimed at transforming these settlements. The problem in this case is the properties whose owners appear to be Serbs.
An article on the local government of Bujanovac, an ethnically mixed town in Kosovo. The article bemoans the absence of Roma representatives in the assembly, which in addition is boycotted by the Serbs.
A sad story of what nationalism does to the Balkans.
Roma NGOs from Kosovo and Serbia are collaborating all the while the respective majority populations are increasingly at odd.
The liberalisation of Schengen visas for Kosovo residents is a huge ray of hope for Roma in that country. However, there are quite a few Roma who have no identity papers in Kosovo.
Roma gathered today in Gračanica, Kosovo, at a protest organized by the Association of Roma in Kosovo “Opre Roma”, due to the beating of a Rom by the Kosovo Police.
The Language Centre of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Pristina is planning to open a course where basic Romani language will be taught for the first time, the Kosovo media reports.
A reportage in Mitrovica, Kosovo, among Roma. It is bad and is not improving, 15 years after the declaration of independence.
An article about all the others (i.e. non-Serbian) minorities in Kosovo, and mostly on Roma. The situation is still not good, with unemployment, discrimination, and emigration.
The municipality of Prizren in Kosovo decided that Romanes would become an official language of the municipality. This is rather surprising, when one think that many of the Roma living there were expelled after the war and that racism against Roma is still very much prevalent in Kosovo.
The OSCE is launching a new strategy for advancing the rights of Roma in Kosovo. Well, a bit late in the game. No one in Europe did anything when Roma were expelled from Kosovo right after the war.
As long as this has not been acknowledged, these strategies will yield little if any results.
A couple of Kosovo Roma who had been in Germany for many years were facing deportation to Kosovo. They are now allowed to stay.
A few articles in the Balkan press on the celebrations of Erdelezi or Đurđevdan – simply Saint Georges day in the orthodox calendar – which fell on May 6th, and is celebrated by all Roma in the Balkans.
Unfortunately, 20 years after having expelled a large majority of Roma, Kosovo remains Roma averse and racism against the minority is rampant.
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