Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

More on the Russian Murder of 28 Roma

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In the occupied Ukrainian territory, the Russian military shot 28 Roma for poisoning a company of Russian soldiers with vodka. This was stated in an intercepted conversation of one of the Russian soldiers and was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of the Ukraine.

A Russian soldier tells his wife about the lawlessness that is taking place in the territories occupied by Russia.

“Do you know what chaos is happening in the cities here? The military police recently shot 28 gypsies, put them against the wall and shot them because they gave vodka to our military and poisoned them, the whole company,” the Russian says in a conversation. The military of the Russian Federation adds that there were 96 people in the company, and now there are less than fifty left.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Roma, and Domestic Violence

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Over 200 victims of domestic violence have received legal assistance from mobile teams of lawyers and Roma mediators in the regions of Stara Zagora, Veliko Tarnovo and Varna, the Ministry of Justice informed.  A total of 40 lawyers, together with Roma mediators, tour the remote settlements and Roma neighborhoods in the three regions, so as to shorten the distance as much as possible with the people who need to protect their rights, but do not know how.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Roma Cookbook

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Peter Pollak, the former plenipotentiary for Roma in Slovakia published a cookbook of Roma cuisine. As Peter Pollák writes right at the beginning of the book, food should serve as a destroyer of even the biggest barriers. While preparing this book, he is said to have encountered the usual prejudice in Slovakia about how Roma cuisine mainly consists of eating dogs. According to him, he flipped through 2,000 pages of various Romani cookbooks and found no mention of “barking” food there.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Russians Kill 28 Roma

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A telephone conversation of a Russian soldier in the Donbas was intercepted by the Ukrainians. Apparently, Russians shot 28 Roma for having “poisoned” them with Vodka.

Another war crime.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Racism

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Seems that racism against Roma is difficult to eradicate. Latest case, a Czech Journalist who shouted abuse at a Romano Journalist was forced to apologise but still claims that “Cikan”, the Czech equivalent of “Gypsy” is not derogatory.

There is still work to do.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Poland

Romani Rose and Auschwitz Council

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Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is a new member of the International Auschwitz Council. The Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki appointed him to the committee. The Council advises the Polish government on all matters relating to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Other members include Yad Vashem Chairman Dayan and World Jewish Congress President Lauder. Rose warned that nationalists and right-wing extremists in many European countries were trying to deny and relativize the crimes of the Holocaust against six million Jews and 500,000 Sinti and Roma. Every form of Holocaust denial and falsification of history must be opposed. Education programs specifically for young people at historical sites of persecution and extermination are important “to counteract anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism and racism in our societies,” Rose explained.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Spirit

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We know the finalists of the 14th Roma Spirit award! Among all the 138 selected applications for the award, the Roma Spirit Committee has chosen 21 exceptional organizations, employers, personalities, municipalities and actions that contribute to the construction of equal chances for all!

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine, the War, and Roma

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This is not good in any way: Articles in the Ukrainian press about Roma being arrested while trying to cross the border illegally to Hungary. In each of the cases at hand, this concerned young men or even conscripts. This is bad as it gives the impression that Roma are not pro-Ukrainian, which is far from the reality, and even in one case, that they help people fleeing conscription.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Ghettoes

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According to the Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019, up to two-thirds of Slovak Roma (300,000) live in segregated settlements outside or on the outskirts of villages, but also on a single street, in an apartment building or in a housing development within villages. In general, those settlements that are further away from the villages are in a worse condition. According to some experts, the settlements must disappear if the Roma from this environment are ever to integrate into society. “There is a lot of scientific evidence that segregation and ghetto life are incompatible with social integration,” says Marek Hojsík, who monitors Roma integration policies in EU states at the Central European University in Budapest.

However, settlements are not actually disappearing, but expanding. If a municipality or city with a Roma settlement builds apartments for Roma, according to SME findings, this happens directly in the settlements.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Minorities

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The interesting story of a Slovenian village, Dobrovnik,  where Slovenes are the minority and where Hungarians and Roma are present. During the local mayoral and local elections, there are three electoral commissions, and as many as seven ballots were in front of the voters. Ironically, the village will have to elect a Slovene minority representative in the village administration, a unique case in Slovenia.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Ticking Bomb?

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An incendiary article about the “ticking Roma social bomb in Dolenjsko”. In Brief, the mayors of this region of Southeastern Slovenia complain that the central government is not doing enough, and that effectively, the situation deteriorates. So far so good, but these mayors also hold Roma responsible for a large part of the problem, saying they are not sending their children to school, do no efforts, and generally tend to be criminals. They had petitioned the government earlier in the year to harden the delivery of social help to Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Extremism and Attacks Against Roma

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The most frequent victims of extremist attacks in the physical world in 2020 and 2021 were members of the Roma ethnic group. This is stated in the Monitoring Report on the State of Extremism in the Slovak Republic for the period of 2020 and 2021 and the update of the tasks of the Concept of Combating Radicalization and Extremism until 2024.

The material states that right-wing extremism is the most dominant form of extremism on the territory of the Slovak Republic, while it represents on average up to 97.4 percent of all cases of criminal prosecution for crimes of extremism.

The international Engage project consisting of a team of social psychologists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences and experts from partner organizations from Hungary and Spain presented ways to better the attitudes of the majority towards the Roma. In this regard, they recommend expanding mutual contact between the Roma and non-Roma populations.

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

Tetovo – North Macedonia and Multiple Languages

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In Tetovo, North Macedonia, it is better to be able to speak the languages ​​of its neighbours: Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish, Romanes or Serbo-Croatian. This mutual knowledge is the basis of social and professional relations. And the Roma are, as often, the champions of multilingualism!

Tetovo is certainly one of the most multicultural cities in North Macedonia. According to the last census in 2021, it has 84,770 inhabitants, including 60,460 Albanians, 15,529 Macedonians, 1,885 Roma, 1,746 Turks, 256 Serbs, 189 Bosniaks and eleven Vlachs.

Many speak several languages ​​in addition to their own, so they can communicate with neighbours and friends from other communities. In the streets of Tetovo, one hears Macedonian, Albanian, Romanes, Turkish or Serbo-Croatian. The Roma community is the most multilingual, perhaps because its children cannot be educated in their mother tongue in Tetovo and have to attend lessons in Macedonian, Albanian or Turkish.

Nezir Huseini, for example, speaks the languages ​​of all the communities of Tetovo. In addition to Romanes, he speaks Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, but also English and German. “Romanes is my mother tongue, but I speak Albanian because I studied it in primary school. I always spoke Macedonian and Turkish and, as I studied in a military academy in Belgrade, during the time of Yugoslavia, I improved my Serbo-Croatian. Finally, I learned English and German, which I speak, read and write fluently,” he explains.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Mayors

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A record number of Roma mayors won in the municipal elections. In the next election period, there will be 52 of them.

For comparison – in 2010, there were only 12 of them. Despite the growing number, Roma are only slowly getting involved in local government affairs.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Forced Sterilisations

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The scandalous reluctance of the Ministry of Health to compensate victims of forced sterilizations is reflected in the still deeply rooted racism in Czech society.

The Association of Women Victims of Illegal Sterilization has been fighting for compensation for affected women for several decades. Romnja were sterilized because they are Romani. Compensation for this is hampered by some officials for the same reason.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Discrimination in Education

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Marek Tatar (28), a Czech Rom, is currently studying transcultural communication in his third year at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové and works as a programmer in IT. Hi path to higher education was not smooth. He faced bullying in elementary school, overheard a conversation between two of his teachers in the school corridor about the fact that they didn’t want a gypsy at school, which prompted him to stop his studies. Fortunately, he was convinced by his family to do at least the minimum, which allowed him later to start studies.

It shows how discrimination and racism early on can disadvantage children from minorities for their entire lives. Fortunately, there are also example like him.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Sterilisations

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Some comments to the recent judgement denying a Romni compensation for forced sterilisations even though the medical record indicates that the reason was she was Romani. The Czech Human Right Commissioner reacts.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Discrimination

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An interview with dental hygienist Daniela Patkaňová. For years she has been working as a dental hygienist in one of the facilities in Prague. It originally comes from Svidňik, Slovakia. Her journey to the dentist’s office was far from straightforward. She started in the field of sales, went to the Czech Republic for work and later also to Great Britain. It was there that she completed her education and started as a dental nurse. Although she encountered rejection in the areas of housing and employment because of her Roma status, she did not give in. What was decisive for her was the meeting with associate professor Mariá Bartoňová, with whom she still works.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Ljubljana’s Mayor and Racism

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Zoran Janković, the current mayor of Ljubljana, Slovenia, is trying to be re-elected for the fifth time in a row and also to get a majority in the city council to govern. He is however involved in a controversy about the burial of Roma from Ižan, victims of the Nazis and of the Partisans in Ljubljana’s cemetery. He is opposing the burial and has now been officially accused of racism by the Assembly for the Republic who published a harsh statement: By not burying the Roma from Ižan, he showed a level of racism hitherto unknown in Ljubljana, that he despises the sanctity of life by abusing cemeteries, that he incited intolerance and hatred with his political appearances.

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