Recent Romnews postings
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Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 17:52:29 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Recent Romnews postings
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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Recent Romnews postings
Unloved "black Czechs"
The problem of the Roma is a stumbling block along the path to Europe
Prague / CZECH REP. (RNN Correspondent) April the 16th 1998
They are called the "black Czechs". Most of them came once from
Slovakia to Bohemia and Moravia. They settled - or to say it clearer -
they were admitted to the towns and villages that had been left by the
German refugees after 1945. The communistic regime tried to "make the
new human beings" and at the same time to erase the memory of the past
of the border districts. They forbade the migration of the Roma and
favoured them with flats and houses. But it did not work. The
Roma-ghettos soon looked like American slums and became social focal
points. Children who were of school age were immediately put in
special schools. Czechs and Roma watched each other distrustfully.
With the introduction of market and competition there arose another
trial for the "Blacks" and "Whites". To-day there are about 70% of
the 500.000-600.000 Czechian Roma unemployed. The rate of crime
increased. Extreme right groups persecuted the Roma. In early
February skinheads threw a 26 years old woman into a river and drowned
her. Human right groups have found out, that about 17 people have been
killed by racist attacks since 1990. In 1997 many Roma emigrated
mainly to Canada, after a Prague radio station had spoken of
"conditions like in paradise". However, the Canadian authorities sent
back most of them.
Now the Catholic Church has sided with the Roma. Last Sunday they read
a pastoral letter in all churches. The bishops said that the Roma
should feel that they will not be left alone. Indifference towards
racist terror means a support of the criminals. It is the duty of the
church to contribute to a complete integration of the Roma. But even
the bishops cannot offer a magic formula because not even the "little
integration" has succeeded.
In the meantime the conflict has become an international political
matter. The European Parliament and the US-Congress are concerned. The
problem of the minorities could become a stumbling block for Prague
along its path to Europe and NATO. The Sudeten German community have
already warned Czechia of a participation in the EU. The problem had
been put aside under the government of Vaclav Klaus, but now it has
been at least recognized. Vladimir Mlynar (32), minister without
portfolio, set a sign: "Black Czechs" belong to his closest
collaborators.
----------------------------------
Resolution for the right to stay for the Roma
Presentation of a resolution draft - Proposal will be the topic of the
Council on Wednesday
Muenster / GERMANY (RNN Corrspondent) March the 20th 1998
The Council of the City of Muenster will decide on Wednesday (25
March) about the unlimited "right to stay" for the Roma. The day
before, this topic is on the agenda of the Foreigner Council
(Auslaenderbeirat).
Due to the draft the Council pleads for a right to stay for the Roma
refugees, as long as they must expect inhuman conditions in former
Yugoslavia, and discrimination and persecution due to their
nationality. All participants of a round of talks under town mayor
Marion Tuns agreed to the draft. Representatives of both coalition
partners, the Foreigner Council, and representatives of the
Administration had come to this discussion. The draft of the
resolution reminds of the particular situation of the Roma who were
already persecuted during the period of the National Socialsm. "Rules
of the foreigners rights must be applied very
sensitively, but the Foreigners Law fulfills this only
insufficiently". The status of the residence of the Roma is determined
only by the Federal Foreigners Law and is not a sole municipal
decision. Therefore, the Ministers of the Federal States have been
asked to make use of the possibility of integration, as long as the
Roma are exposed to danger in their home country and as long as no
human conditions of life are given there (minimum of health standard,
participation in public life, school education). The administration
has been urged to exhaust all chances in
favour of the stay of the Roma families.
--------------------------
Protest of numerous organisations against Roma deportation
We do not want to inactivate the law but to make human use of it
Meunster / GERMANY (RNN Correspondent) April the 18th 1998
"If the law is not effective for Roma", then Volker Maria H�gel of the
Refugee Council announces resistance. Moreover, the German laws
deprive the Roma of their rights. After some Roma had demonstrated
against the deportation to former Yugoslavia on Wednesday, the
representatives of numerous organisations formulated their demands.
At the same time approx. 100 Roma loudly drew the attention to their
demands, when the new accommodation wing of the North Rine Westfalia
institute of the fire brigade was opened, a ceremony in which also the
minister of the interior, Franz-Josef Kniola, participated.
H�gel called the arguments of the City of M�nster for the deportation
of Roma to Macedonia and Kosova cynical, when they say that there
exists a medical system.It is at the same time wellknown that Roma are
not permitted to this system. Reynir
Vailhjamsson (organisation for support of asylum seekers) asks of the
City to do everything "even up to civil disobedience" to stop further
deportations. However, Spyros Marinos (Foreigners Council of the City)
said that he has noticed that all chances to obtain the right to stay
for the Roma are being exhausted.
Anna Laumeier (Procedure information place) regrets that so many
people are sent back who have been living here for 8 or 10 years and
who have become "integrated".
Brigitte Derendorf of Amnesty International demanded a complete
deportation stop to Kosova, "a crisis place with a disastrous
situation of human rights".
The GAL-representative Stefan Riese appealed to the town council to
judge the UNO-human rights convention higher than the Foreigners Law.
In four Dutch places they have decided this way and no Roma finds
himself compelled to leave the country.
"Our hope is a political solution", says Alexandra Hippchen of the
Protestant Student Community (ESG), "with which the law will not be
outsmarted but applied decently. "It is inhuman when mothers have to
tell their children who were born in
Germany that they do not belong here".
----------------------------
Roma in Romania
Bucharest / ROMANIA (RNN Correspondent) April the 22nd 1998
Shunned as society's outcasts, Roma will be given more places in
schools and higher education, Romania's education minister says.
Andrei Marga said he would introduce "a mechanism of positive
discrimination favoring Roma in state education institutions".
Marga said Friday he would set aside places in schools, professional
schools and higher education institutes for Roma. "Their number is
growing but many of them are unqualified, which could produce negative
social results," Marga said.
Officially, there are less than half a million Roma living in Romania.
However many do not register their race because of discrimination, and
they are thought to number as many as 3 million.
Under communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Roma were obliged to
attend school. Since 1989 when communism collapsed, that is no longer
the case, and Romani leaders report that illiteracy and crime have
risen.
----------------------------
Sinti and Roma demand money from Switzerland
Bern / SWISS (RNN Agency) April the 23nd 1998
The Central Committee of the German Sinti and Roma has requested from
Switzerland to pay a non-recurring sum of 2,000 Swiss francs each to
1,560 survivors of the Nazi regime. Out of the 1,560 applications 870
have been entered in a list with details of their destiny and
indigence.
The Swiss holocaust funds, where 280 millions Swiss francs have been
paid in by the three Swiss main banks, the National Bank, and other
firms, is earmarked fo indigent victims of the holocaust.
------------------
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