Category Archives: Slovenia

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Maribor and Roma

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Maribor and Roma

In Maribor the Romano Pralipe Roma Association presented the challenges and opportunities of the Roma community. The initiative for a joint action plan with local institutions received support. The president of the association, Fatmir Bechiri, pointed out that approximately 3,500 Roma live in Maribor and the wider area, so cooperation with the local community is of key importance.

“If there were no local community, the position of Roma in Maribor would be greatly weakened,” he said. He also stressed that Roma in Maribor want to show activity and willingness to cooperate: “Roma in Maribor are more active and want to cooperate, they do not have the same problems as elsewhere in Slovenia.” Bechiri called for greater responsibility within the community: “The Roma community must engage as much as possible for its family. The most important things are the children’s school obligations, as well as taking care of operating costs and good cooperation with the local community.”

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Slovenia: Mayors and Government

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Slovenia: Mayors and Government

The mayors of Novo Mesto, Kočevje, Ribnica and Črnomelj have harshly condemned the video of Minister of Labor Luka Mesco, which he recorded in the Roma settlement of Pušča in Prekmurje. According to them, it contains false and offensive statements. In it, the minister says, among other things, that we have mayors in Dolenjska who have been in office for 20 years, but have never even been to a Roma settlement. He holds Pušča, a model Roma settlement, up as an example regarding kindergarten attendance and employment, and says that this should be transferred to Dolenjska. The mayors demand explanations for his statements, especially which mayor he was talking about and why he has not done anything to solve the Roma problem in three years. They also invite him to Roma settlements in southeastern Slovenia, but not to film where things are functioning.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

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Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

The mayors of Novo Mesto, Črnomelj, Kočevje and Ribnica have once again stressed the need for increased employment of Roma before a session of the government working group for addressing Roma issues. In their assessment, work is not paying off for the majority of the Roma population due to “disincentive social legislation”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

A Massacre

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A Massacre

According to the article, early in the morning on Sunday, July 19, 1942, partisans from the Bela Kranjska Detachment surrounded the Roma settlement of Kanižarica pri Črnomelj. They woke up the still sleeping residents and ordered them to gather on the road, while at the same time they began to burn down their homes. Only a few managed to escape, and all the rest were driven past Dragovanje vas towards Doblička Gora and Mavrlen on a rainy Sunday morning.

Two days later, all these prisoners, including women and children, including babies, were killed in the forest near Mavrlen. According to an Italian report, 61 Roma were taken away at that time, but some reports believe that there were many more.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Assistant

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Roma Assistant

The Slovene government has specified what “Roma Assistants” in the context or primary schools are. One outraged lady was complaining that this was discriminatory, and got the full legal explanation of this job and its description.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Community Centres

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Slovenia and Community Centres

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has selected four projects for the establishment of nine centres across the country within the framework of a public tender for co-financing a network of multifunctional Roma centres, worth a total of 4.9 million euros.

Two of these will also start operating in Pomurje, in the area of Lendava and Murska Sobota, by the end of this year.

One can rightfully ask if those projects will really further integration in view of the current mood in the country about Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

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Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

The Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has responded to the accusations of the regional civil initiative of South-Eastern Slovenia, which claims that the ministry is not active enough in solving the Roma issue.

The ministry emphasizes that the Roma issue has long been the subject of shifting responsibility between the local and state levels. Nevertheless, they highlighted some concrete activities that have been implemented. Minister Mesec is the first to actively tackle this issue, namely leading an informal government interdepartmental coordination, whose work is bringing visible changes. Important changes have been introduced in the field of education, where the Primary School Act has been amended, and the Kindergarten Act is also in the process of being amended. Roma assistants are now present in schools and kindergartens.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

In the settlement Žabjak near Novo mesto, Roma attacked and stoned utility workers yesterday while performing a mandatory public service – collecting waste, announced the director of Komunala Novo mesto Bojan Kekec.

Not one of those articles asks the question as to why these attacks occur. Seems that this is what they consider as “normal” among Roma.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

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Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

Regional Civil Initiative demands decisive measures from the Minister of Labour, Luka Mesco regarding Roma. They want the Slovenian government to adopt a law proposed by some mayors of the Southeast of the country which would curtail social help depending on school attendance, and “goodwill from the part of Roma. They request action from the central government.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The editorial office of Moja Dolenjske received a letter from the Roma Association Vstani, Roma Child, which is based in Murska Sobota. In it, they threatened the portal with criminal charges if, when reporting on criminal acts involving individual Roma, they do not stop stating that the criminal acts were committed by Roma.

The association is convinced that when writing, they should keep silent about the fact that the criminal acts were committed by Roma, as this would unjustifiably stigmatize the entire Roma community, but at the same time they believe that reporting should be based on the act and not on emphasizing that it was committed by Roma. They also state what proper reporting should be like, and suggest some titles such as: Police handle case of theft and violence, Police investigate morning attack and Three men suspected of attacking utility workers.

Well, they are right …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

Another one of those articles. It states: “Living with members of the Roma community in southeastern Slovenia, which includes Dolenjska, Bela Krajina and the Kočevsko-Ribniško area, is very difficult. Not because citizens are hostile or in any way hostile to the Roma, but because some of the latter are gaining momentum in committing criminal and other violent acts.”

And of course, the government is not doing anything.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma Projects

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Slovenia and Roma Projects

The Slovene government is opening 9 new multi-purpose centres for Roma in August. In addition to the 20 million, an additional 5.5 million euros will be allocated for this. This article is a violent diatribe against these projects, saying that they do nothing to prevent “Roma criminality” and are a waste of money.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

In early July, three Roma brutally beat-up a 72-year-old farmer Anton Čemažar in a field on the outskirts of Ljubljana. This caused a great deal of controversy. Now, the farmer and his family have suffered their first disappointment: the Ljubljana District Court has rejected a request to investigate a fourth person involved, who led the attackers to Čemažar’s field and drove them away after the violent act, in a vehicle without license plates. The investigating judge and the pre-trial panel believe that the driver did not know what was really happening, but was merely taking the perpetrators fishing, so there is no reasonable suspicion of his complicity.

This is the law, but here the result is that in Slovenia, they say that Roma are not subject to it. Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Commemorations

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Slovenia: Commemorations

Several articles in Slovenia about the August 2nd commemoration of the genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust. With an interesting one as to whether use “porajmos” (don’t) or “Samudaripen” (better) top denote it.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Commemoration

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Slovenia: Commemoration

A long article about the background of the August 2nd commemoration of the Genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust. This in a country where Roma are definitively discriminated against, and a country which claims not having persecuted them during the war.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

Another one of those articles, where the government is accused of not doing anything against Roma criminals. In this case, this followed another attack – apparently by Roma – in the Šentjernej area. The government is accused of not maintaining order, not arresting the perpetrators, etc.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The Slovene government called a press conference, which was attended by the Minister of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Luka Mesec, Minister of Education and Training Vinko Logaj, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Helga Dobrin, and State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice Andreja Kokalj following attacks by Roma on Andrej Breček from Mihovice near Šentjernej, a mayor with controversial views on Roma, and on 70-year-old Anton Čemažar in Ljubljana.

They presented how individual departments are addressing the challenges related to the Roma community. They rejected accusations that the government is not taking any action during this mandate. They emphasized that cooperation between departments has actually strengthened in the last year and that for the first time, Roma issues are being addressed comprehensively and systematically.

However, they agree that the situation we are witnessing is the result of decades of neglect of these challenges by the state and local communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Illegal Houses

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Slovenia: Illegal Houses

The Novo Mesto Municipality recently wanted to implement the decision of the building inspection and demolish illegal construction in the Roma settlement of Žabjak, but the police and the social work centre prevented it from doing so, Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni revealed on TV Odmevi on Wednesday.

He also said that the state will have to decide whether we will have one legislation for everyone or not.

The police did not want to provide security during the demolition because not all legal conditions were met, and the Social Welfare Department opposed the demolition of one of the houses because a Roma family with several children lived in it and assessed that the demolition would cause additional social hardship that it would have to deal with.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

In a statement to the media today, Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar condemned the violence committed by members of the Roma community against individuals. He stressed that every act of violence is unacceptable, unnecessary and condemnable.

“All criminal acts of violent attacks on individuals, both the mayor of the municipality of Ribnica and the two attacks in Šentjernej and near Ljubljana, have been investigated. The Slovenian police have arrested the perpetrators. Some are in custody. The police here have successfully investigated these criminal acts. I condemn this kind of violence committed by representatives of the Roma community against individuals. This is unacceptable. I believe that the justice system will do what is necessary,” he said.

Even he is slowly but surely ethicizing crime. This is bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma in Slovenia

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Roma in Slovenia

The Slovenian Roma Community Association Umbrella-Dežnik and the European Roma Organization ERO have called for an end to the political incitement of intolerance towards the Roma community in an open letter. Criminal acts are not caused by the Roma community, but by individuals, warns the president of the Slovenian Roma Association Jožek Horvat Muc.

As members of the Roma community, we are deeply saddened and concerned that the entire Roma community has to suffer due to the recent actions of individual Roma, which we strongly, strongly condemn and distance ourselves from. It is unacceptable that incidents of individuals are used as an excuse to spread collective guilt and stigmatization. Crime has no nationality, and it must not have an excuse,” the Association of the Roma Community of Slovenia Umbrella-Dežnik and the European Roma Organization ERO wrote in an open letter.

They are right!

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