Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Lithuania News Eastern Europe

Lithuanian Folklore and Roma

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Ištvan Kvik, the well-known Lithuanian singer and leader of the Romano ensemble “Sare Roma”, is mostly known for Roma songs. He is now venturing in the Lithuanian folklore. Looking at Lithuanian folk songs from a different perspective, he says that they can also be given a fierier Roma touch. He also says that anyhow, Roma music has always been influenced by local music.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Auschwitz: Education

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The memorial museum Auschwitz-Birkenau will launch a new online education entitled “Roma – the experience of extermination”. It is part of their current work in raising awareness about the Roma Genocide during the Holocaust.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia, Minorities and Bi-Lingual Rights

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Whether bilingual boards will be placed on public institutions in the Međimurje municipality of Orehovici, where around 33 percent of the population is made up of members of the Roma national minority, is a question that has yet to be answered. According to the law, this should be the case.

Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of the National Plan for the Inclusion of Roma recently discussed this topic, MP Veljko Kajtazi told Hina, noting that none of the representatives of Orehovice Municipality were present at the session of that committee, although they were invited.

“This is most likely a message that they don’t care. They scared Roma in for example by telling them that the guaranteed minimum compensation would be abolished if there were bilingual signs, that it would be worse than in Vukovar, and the locals told them all sorts of things,” said Kajtazi. He added that his point of view is that the law, especially the constitutional one (Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities), must be implemented and that a dialogue should be established on how to implement the right to bilingualism.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma and the Judicial System

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Another article in the Slovak press about the bias that Roma face in the judicial system.

Anti-Roma racism is not only widespread in society, Roma are discriminated against at all levels of criminal proceedings. This follows from research reports published by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). The report states that accused Roma face discrimination at every stage of criminal proceedings by the police, judges, prosecutors and often their own defence lawyers.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Miss Slovakia

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A young Romni student from Nitra is among the 12 finalists for this year’s Miss Slovakia contest.

She is twenty years old and, in addition to her studies, she is also an activist. “I am a member of the Roma Youth Leadership Academy, where we are currently preparing the third Congress of young Roma men and women. This event will be run under the auspices of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma communities,” she said.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Police Brutality in Košice

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The very long story of the police brutality against Roma in Košice which started in 2009 and saw Roma who had sued the police being brought to court is finally coming to an end. The European Court of Human Rights who had condemned Slovakia in the process awarded 20’000 EUR to each of the Roma.

At long last!

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Education, and Roma

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The Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová came to the village of Toporec in the district of Kežmarok to see the impact of education on Roma. In that village, education is very important to Roma and the impact on their lives is visible: They live much better than their less educated brethrens.

The president considers the village of Toporec to be an example for the whole country.

News Eastern Europe Romania

Interview with Alina Şerban

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An interview with the actress, screenwriter, director, and Romani activist Alina Şerban who wishes to have more time for travelling, more time for herself this coming year. She says “The biggest dream for this year would be to travel more, to give myself time to breathe and develop without work. Until now, I didn’t really know how to do this without work, because work saved me. But looking back, I don’t know how I spent my years, I just see a lot of work. I hope to enjoy life more this year.”

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

ERRC Reports

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Two reports by the European Roma Right Centre highlight the discrimination of Roma in the justice systems of both the Czech and Slovak Republics.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland: Interview

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Gerard and Sylwia Linder are a married couple working for the integration of the Roma-Polish community. They run the Jamaro Association, thanks to which children from both communities can go on holidays or holidays together. On Dzien Dobry TVN they told what their life together looks like and how the combination of two families from different cultures (Polish and Romani) looks like from their perspective.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Brawl

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Exactly what one doesn’t need. A brawl between Roma families in Sofia’s central railway station. According to an eyewitness, a group of men of Roma origin attacked two boys with clubs and metal pipes.  One boy called his relatives, who came and the fight escalated. Police and gendarmerie arrived at the scene.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Auschwitz Museum on Roma

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An online educational session prepared by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust will be devoted to the Roma Holocaust. It will take place on February 23, the Auschwitz Museum announced.

“The Roma were recognized by the German Nazis as enemies of the Third Reich, therefore they were sentenced to isolation and extermination. In February 1943, their deportation to KL Auschwitz began. A family camp called Zigeunerlager was established in Birkenau. The Roma incarcerated there came mainly from territories of Germany, Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and occupied Poland. The Zigeunerlager existed until August 2, 1944. At that time, about 4,200-4,300 men, women and children were loaded onto trucks and taken to the gas chamber” – reminded Dr. Maria Martyniak, responsible for the projects educational in the museum.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Beating

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A video of a young girls severely beating another one in total indifference of most other people around has gone viral in the Czech Republic. The Romano Journalist Patrick Banga reacts.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma in the Czech Republic

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A discussion with the Romano journalist Patrick Banga about Roma in the Czech Republic. Officially, according the Census, there are only 20’000 Roma even though the government acknowledges that there are at least 250’000.

The article makes a few incorrect statements: Roma appeared in the Czech lands, in Bohemia and Moravia as early as the 13th century. They are thus there since 800 years. Unfortunately, during World War Two, most of the Czech Roma were deported and only a handful survived the Holocaust. Roma from Slovakia were resettled in what is now the Czech Republic by the communist regime after the war, which created a problem when Czechoslovakia split, as the Czech did not want to grant citizenship to those Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Lety Memorial

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More on the upcoming memorial on the site of the former concentration camp for Roma in Lety, in the Czech Republic.

In just one year, the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia should stand in Lety u Písek. The company Protom, which won the tender, undertook to complete the monument in 345 days.

Minister of Culture for the ODS Martin Baxastated:

“It was an event that was forgotten for decades, now the construction of the memorial here in Lety has been inaugurated. It will create a place that will be a permanent reminder of what happens when we slacken in our efforts to defend the values of freedom and democracy.”

The construction of the monument will cost less than one hundred million crowns. The winner of the indoor and outdoor exhibition competition should be announced this month. The Museum of Roma Culture would like to open the monument in 2024. The German government has also promised the museum funding for the outdoor exhibition. Norwegian funds will also contribute 26.5 million crowns to the memorial.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Lunik IX Children Choir

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Ondrej Ferko leads the Devjatkakare čhave choir, with almost 40 children from the Luník IX housing estate in Košice. They performed during the Pope’s visit to Slovakia and in the television competition Czechoslovakia has talent. “In three years, we have destroyed stereotypes for other educators, who thought that nothing could be done with these children. And we also destroyed the children’s self-doubt,” says Ferko.

At the beginning, Milan Dulina, director of the Ľ Elementary School, also joined the work. Together with choirmaster Ferko, they explain, among other things, how they work with promising singers and also how artistic training has changed the results of children at school.

Ferko added “Roma children are not born knowing how to sing well, it takes a lot of hard work”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Series

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Alžbeta Ferencova, an actress, singer, dancer, who plays the main character in the series “Iveta”, talks about the portrayal of Roma in the series and about her great-grandmother, the first Roma writer Elena Lacková, in an interview.

The series Iveta opens up Roma topics in Slovakia, such as racism, stereotypes and eastern Slovakia. It was filmed by the Czech director Jan Hřebejk. The mayor of Trebišov, who was offended by the portrayal of his city, has also spoken out.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Demonstration

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In the Stodolní Street in the center of Ostrava in the eastern part of the country, about a hundred Roma demonstrated in the early evening on Wednesday. They protested against the fact that security guards of some bars in this area allegedly physically attack Roma visitors for no reason, and the police allegedly do nothing about this violence. The crowd reached the nearby police station.

The event was called by Roma activist David Mezei. “There were two such cases in January alone, when the security guard beat up a young visitor for no reason just because he is Rom. It doesn’t work like that anymore. The police only save money, but they never investigate anything,” Mezei was angry, with other participants of the demonstration shouting in agreement.

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