01.08.2014 Rroma murders in Hungary: suppression instead of commemoration

On the occasion of the fifth commemoration day of the last murder in a series of racially motivated killings in Hungary, Verseck (2014) reports on the legacy of the events. The assessment is sobering: The murders are still predominately kept quiet: repression and hatred dominate instead of commemoration. On August the third 2009, a Rromni and her daughter were shot in their home by right-wing extremists. In the previous months four more Rroma had already been killed and 55 people were injured, some seriously: “Today, five years after the last murder, public commemoration is practically non-existent in Hungary. “Both to the members of the former socialist-liberal government, in whose tenure the murders were committed, as well as to the current government under Viktor Orbán, the subject is embarrassing”, says the former liberal member of parliament József Gulyás. In 2009, he led a parliamentary inquiry committee on the Roma murders. […] However, many things should be accounted for. Similar to the case of the NSU-murders, Hungarian authorities played an inglorious role during the series of murders: intelligent services kept knowledge about the perpetrators secret. Hints into far-right milieu were followed too late, investigation findings were not centralised in time and compared. […] The surviving victims didn’t hear any apology so far from the representatives of the former socialist-liberal government.” After all, Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources, initiated victim support for the survivors, who were paid between four and seven thousand Euros. Nevertheless, the living conditions for most of them remain precarious: many of them live without running water, gas or sewage connection. The convictions of the perpetrators are continuously delayed. The judge of the first instance has not handed in a written verdict about his trial, which is why the subsequent proceedings against the accused cannot be continued. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the judge.