Montenegro and Roma

Elvis Beriša, the founder and executive director of the NGO “Phiren amenca” comments last week’s scandal when the Montenegrin cultural network promoted the project Montenegro without divisions – with a photo of young people in national costumes, where Roma were presented in utility company workers uniforms:

“I believe that we haven’t had a more obvious example of discrimination and anti-Gypsyism in Montenegro for a long time. The CKM campaign and the portrayal of the Roma community in it is the definition of antigypsyism. Presenting an entire national community as workers of a utility company surpasses all recorded cases of stereotypes and prejudices that we could see in the public space. It is simply incomprehensible that the organizers could not consult with the Roma community about the best way to present it in the campaign. If, as they say, they could not find the national costume of the Roma, they could present them in ordinary everyday clothes. Anything would be better except for what they ended up doing.