Recent Romnews postings
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Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 07:29:45 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Recent Romnews postings
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Recent Romnews postings
Czechian Skinheads chase Roma
Usti Nad Labem, Prague, Rockycany/CZECH REP. (RNN Coorespondents and
Agency) August the 28th 1998
"We saw the wall on television for the first time", says Roma Josef
Lacko (37). It is going to be built to separate some blocks of houses
where Roma live from those detached houses where Czechians live. Since
the town government of Usti nad Labem announced this plan to exclude
the Roma, Josef Lacko and his friends have become famous.
The Roma are not very popular in Czechia. Not only the right-wing
extremists make propaganda for the exclusion of the Roma, but also
members of the civil ODS plead for it. According to a public opinion
poll, one out of four Czechs is intolerant towards different races, 16
% do not tolerate different nationalities. Two thirds said that they
have mental reservations towards Roma. This attitude was extremely
high in North Bohemia, that has also a very high unemployment. 90% of
the Czechians would like to get the Roma out of their country.
According to the Roma National Congress , there have been more than
2000 racist encroachments during 1990 - 1998.
The Centre for the defence of Roma rights and the Czechian media often
report on acts of violence. In September 1993 four Roma were chased
into a river by 40 skinheads. When they tried to reach the bank, they
were beaten and driven back. At last one 17 years-old Roma drowned. In
June 1994 a Roma in West Czechia was arrested and taken to a hospital
at night. When his family aksed about him by telephone, they were told
that he had fallen over. The man died of a gun-shot wound in his head.
A report of the government said that the police was innocent. In
February 1998 (Romnews Reported http://www.romnews.com/a/17-98.html) a
26 years old female Roma of the place Vrchlabi, mother of four
children, was maltreated by skinheads and thrown into the Elbe, where
she drowned. 300 Roma and Czechs as well as Dagmar Havlova, the wife
of president Havel, attended her funeral.
The skinheads bear names as "Blood and Honour", or "White Arian
Resistance", or "National Assembly of Fascists". Their number is
estimated at 5.000. Among the police officers there are symphatizers
or even members of the skinheads, says a report of a government
commission, that deals with the Roma of the country. According to
another report, 62,5% of the police officers believe that the Roma
themselves provocate racist offences by their bad reputation.
The 18 years old skinhead, who killed the black student from Sudan,
was sentenced to more than 14 years imprisonment. The Czech government
has announced to issue a a report on the situation of the human rights
in Czechia in March 1999: a plan of 18 items, reaching from an
education programme to the search for racist publications. Even in
Usti nad Labem a learning process has begun: when it turned out that
the complaints of the Czech neighbours about the noise pollution and
vast amounts of rubbish were justified, Roma representatives came from
other places to offer assistance for self-help to the Roma.
----------------------
Roma vigil in Budapest
Budapest/HUNGARY (RNN Correspondent)
On the night of August 2nd-3rd Hungarian Roma held a vigil outside the
national parliament building in commemoration of 4,500 Hungarian Roma
murdered in 1944. In order to make room for incoming Jewish prisoners,
SS guards rounded up Roma held in Auschwitz-Birkenau and told them
that they were being moved to another camp. They were gassed that
night instead.
The annual vigil in Budapest has become an opportunity to remember and
mourn all Roma Holocaut victims, numbered at approximately 500,000. At
least 50,000 came from Hungary, which to-day has a Roma population of
some 50,000, 5% of the total population. Of the 23,000 Roma taken to
Auschwitz, only 2,000 survived. The ceremony was attended by Hungarian
president Arped Goencz.
------------------
Even the Police steers clear of the drug-hell of Madrid
Madrid/SPAIN (RNN Correspondent) August the 28th 1998
La Rosilla, in the utmost south of Madrid is one of the worst place of
this kind. This "caravaning of dying people" is only 15 minutes away
form the city of Madrid. "It is an offence of the human dignity",
writes "El Mundo". The estate was built 6 years ago to give gypsy
families a place to live. It became the centre of drug dealing in the
beginning of 1997, when in other disctricts of the town the dealing
had been forbidden. Now, every day hundereds of junkees arrive here by
train.
For many months nobody had taken note of this place. It became popular
by
chance: "El Mundo" found in this place the former boxing hero
Policarpio Diaz. They had taken a photograph of the ex-European
champion when he was waiting in a
queue to get his used jab changed for a clean one. The 30 years-old
man who had earned 30 millions Peseta in the Eighties, lives here in
an old car. After he had lost the fight against Pernell Whitaker seven
years ago, things were going downhill with him. Now he hires out tents
for junkees for 1000 Pesetas. The public was shocked about the
photographs. Politicians demanded to pull down the whole estate.
Others said, that then the drug dealing would only change the place.
The police is helpless. There have even been attempts to lynch
policemen. The chief of the police "would not go for a walk here,
neither armed nor unarmed". One year ago the police had stopped the
drug supply, but soon given up, when addicts had been in all places
and streets looking for drugs and some had been killed.
---------------------------
Czech racists - the republicans
Prague/CZECH REP. (RNN Correspondent) September the 1st 1998
The first appearance of the chairman of the Czech republicans,
Miroslav Sl�dek, was a shock for all delegates of the new Czech
parliament. "Among our citizens there is the opinion that gypsies
should be criminal responsible from their birth on, because that is
their greatest crime", he said and added that gypsies should be
criminal responsible from 10 years of age. According to the Czech
constitution, members of the parliament cannot be punished for their
speeches, at most they might pay for a "disciplinary measure" an
amount up to 31.200 crowns (1.733 DM).
It was the second time that the aggressive chief of the Czech
right-wing extremists attracted attention. During the past parliament
election he had gained profit from his prejudice towards Roma as well
as from the primitive "anti germanism". A week ago, Sl�dek had been in
a TV-discussion. His opponent, the well-known journalist and delegate
of the Social Democratics, Pavel Dost�l, had presented documents that
showed that Sl�dek had been eagerly seeking a cooperation with the
German Reps. He had attended their events and spoken for the benefit
of the Sudeten Germans. He had said that his party had been suppressed
in the former Czechoslovakia because of its positive attitude towards
the agreement of Munich of 1938. He had also met Franz Sch�nhuber and
had urgently asked financial aid of him. However, Sch�nhuber did not
send money, but only propaganda material. Sl�dek was offended and his
politics became extreme anti-German. His politics as a
"defence of national interests" and his extremism towards Roma brought
him profit and votes. The reps also penetrated the border clubs with
this attitude. This organization declared that its main purpose is "to
prevent the germanizing not only of the Czech border area but of the
whole country" and that this aim has been supported by a few parties
only, i. e. the left-wingers and the reps. The cooperation of the
extreme anti-communistic reps with the communists in the question of
"the defence of the national interests" seems also very strange.
The Roma organizations have got up a petition with the aim to prohibit
the reps because of their racism. The delegate Dost�l has much
attention. His republican colleagues cry "white Czechia" on him, and
many people are suddenly interested in his descent. "I am a gypsy
Jew", says the dark-skinned man with the curly hair.
----------------------
Leaflets bring a Roma to Court
Wattenscheid/GERMANY (RNN Agency) August the 29th 1998
In a leaflet Martin W. accused the female leader of the social welfare
office in Wattenscheid to execute the laws under contempt for human
beings. This caused him a lot of trouble. Now the 43 years old man was
up for trial for insult and defamation. Not only with his leaflet but
also personally he had accused the staff of the social welfare office
to approvingly accept the death of refugees. The case was that of a 68
years old Roma, who had asked for asylum in Bochum during the war in
Yugoslavia. When the man became seriously ill, the social welfare
office refused to pay him any money and even refused to allow him
hospital treatment. When the man had a heart attack in July 1997, he
was yet told to leave the country. "Normally, people go to a cure
after having suffered of a heart attack. He can as well go back to his
home country", the social welfare office had said.
For Martin W., a member of the Roma-supporting group, is this a
scandal. But instead of complaining at the authorities, he had
designed the leaflet: "The willing executors of Kanther". This was too
much, said the judge. However, of holiday reasons, the trial has been
adjourned.
----------------------
Challenge to classification by race
Munich/GERMANY (RNN Agency) September the 3rd 1998
A formal legal complaint has been filed against the way Roma resident
in the German Land of Bavaria have files compiled on them as
"Gypsies". Roma campaigners, including two Holocaust survivors,
maintain that to classify some German citizens differently from others
on the grounds of ethnic background is unconstitutional and also
violates international anti-racism agreements. This practice,
described as a hangover from Nazi classifications, is found only in
Bavaria, where it is held to aid police work. Roma activists reject
the Bavarian government's claims and have asked for a legal decision
on the practice.
----------------------
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