Roma Virtual Network - On-line Bulletin - 30 August 2010
Roma Virtual Network
ROMA VIRTUAL NETWORK
On-Line Bulletin 30/08/2010
September 6th... The Infamous French Summit against Roma!
Stop the ethnic cleansing policy of the French government!
28/08/2010 - Roma brothers and sisters, friends of all ethnic groups, all those committed to the principles of equality and discrimination in our societies, we call to join our international protest series organized simultaneously on September 6th at 11:30 a.m. (Bucharest time). The protest is initiated and supported by the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania Roma community leaders from Bihor, Botosani, Braila, Brasov, Constanta, Dolj, Hunedoara, Iasi, Ilfov, Neamt, Salaj, Timisoara counties, in response to the summit organized by the French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris.
Read more on http://www.acrr.ro/index.php?page=stire&id_stire=70
PROTESTS in Paris, Belgrade, Vienna on September 4, 14:00 CET
Against discrimination of Roma people!
27/08/2010 - There is expansion of new wave of racism toward Roma in Europe. During the last year six Roma were killed in Hungary by extremist right groups; in Slovakia, Romania and Italy there is a permanent pressure on Roma. In UK Roma are evicted even from their property, the land they own, they are expelled from Denmark; and the last statement of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy is an approval on state and political level of Roma persecution. On 4th of September in Paris, on Place de la Republique, at 14,00 pm CET protest will take place.
Racist attacks and repression toward Roma is becoming serious problem on European level. Therefore, we are going to hold the solidarity protests in Vienna and Belgrade on 4th September at 14, 00 CET. We are inviting the other European cities to join and in front of EU buildings to say “Stop racism and the social discrimination of Roma people around Europe!”
Join and say “Stop racism”!
By George Soros
New York, 23/08/2010 - The Roma have been persecuted across Europe for centuries. Now they face a form of discrimination unseen in Europe since World War II: group evictions and expulsions from several European democracies of men, women, and children on the grounds that they pose a threat to public order.
Last week, France began to carry out plans to expel all non-French Roma, implicating them as a group in criminal activity, without any legal process to determine whether individuals have committed any crime or pose a threat to public order. These French actions follow Italy’s “security package” of 2008, which described so-called “nomads” as a threat to national security and imposed emergency legislation leading to expulsions of non-Italian Roma.
Stopping criminal activity is a legitimate government concern. But the expulsion of EU citizens on the basis of ethnicity as a proxy for criminal activity is a violation of EU directives on racial discrimination and the right to move freely from one EU member-state to another.
Read more on http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/soros60/English
India asked to speak up against Roma expulsion by France
Toronto, 29/08/2010 - Ujjal Dosanjh, former Canadian health minister and top Indo-Canadian leader, has condemned France for en masse expulsion of Indian-origin Roma people and urged India to speak up against the French action.
The Roma people - also called gypsies - claim their roots in north India from where they were enslaved and taken away by invaders from Afghanistan and Turkey almost a millennium ago. In the 14th and 15th centuries they scattered across central and eastern Europe where they have faced systemic discrimination since then. Actor-mimicker Charlie Chaplin and Nobel laureate scientist August Krogh are among the hundreds of famous Roma people who have made their mark in various fields.
Ignoring protests from the UN, Amnesty International and other bodies, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered mass expulsion of Roma migrants - who moved into the country from Romania and Bulgaria which joined the European Union in 2007 - after incidents of riots and rising crime blamed on them. More than 8,000 Roma have already been deported this year, with France paying them 300 euros per adult and 100 euros per child.
Europe's union riven by government attacks on minorities
By James Goldston
Roma in Italy, burqas in France, minarets in Switzerland: the idea of European citizenship recedes with each affront to equality and solidarity
23/08/2010 -
In Italy, from the prime minister down, politicians have disparaged the Roma, many of whom are Italian citizens, as well as other immigrants in a manner that has appeared to legitimise acts of discrimination and violence. According to press reports, Silvio Berlusconi has called illegal immigrants "an army of evil" and has expressly rejected the idea of a "multi-ethnic Italy", saying, "That's not our idea".
In May 2008 the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, reportedly declared: "All Romani camps will have to be dismantled right away, and the inhabitants will be either expelled or incarcerated." Two days later, when a mob of 60 razed a Romani camp in Naples with Molotov cocktails, Maroni quipped: "That is what happens when Gypsies steal babies, or when Romanians commit sexual violence."
Read more on http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/aug/23/european-union-minorities-law
EveryOne Group: Measures to safeguard the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Milan, 24/08/2010 - EveryOne Group asks the EU Parliament, the EU Commission and the Council of Europe to adopt the necessary measures to safeguard the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the spirit of solidarity in the Europe of the future.
Please find attached the statements made yesterday by Roberto Maroni, the Italian Interior Minister, to the national media, without any commentary regarding their discriminatory content.
Italy's Interior Minister praised France's crackdown on the Roma people and Gypsies last Saturday, saying it was “simply copying Italy” in flying more than 200 members of the minority back to Romania this week. “For years now, Italy has been using the technique of voluntary and assisted repatriation,” Roberto Maroni, one of the leading figures in the anti-immigrant Northern League, said in an interview published in the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Maroni said he would like Italy to be able to expel EU citizens that do not meet minimum requirements for income and housing and who are a burden for the host state's finances. “Many Roma are EU citizens but do not fulfill any of these requirements,” said Maroni, whose party is the main ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in parliament. The European Union does not allow member states to expel EU citizens, but Maroni said he would discuss the issue with other European interior ministers on September 6th in Paris.
Read more on http://tinyurl.com/35oacww
French action undermines the EU's laws allowing for the free movement of people
29/08/2010 - French authorities in recent weeks have repatriated hundreds of Romas and gypsies to Romania in a move which smacks of racism and bigotry. In late July, the right-wing French government demolished hundreds of illegal Roma camps in a crime crackdown and sent more than 600 people back to Bucharest. Critics see the move as a means to boost the government's flagging popularity and deflect attention from moves to increase the retirement age and cut public spending. Even billionaire George Soros has become embroiled in the expulsions, calling on Paris to stop the moves and asking the European Union to come up with a comprehensive inclusion plan. The Italian government has also endorsed the expulsions which gives each expelled Roma 300 euros for resettlement.
The policy however, is clearly discriminatory, according to the EU Commission. It's most recent statement, however, stopped short of condemning the repatriations against Europe's largest ethnic minority. The expulsions are threatening the EU's laws allowing for the free movement of people within the bloc. France has acted alone in this drastic manner. Instead, it should follow the example of 12 other EU countries who have come up with a socially inclusive plan of settling the Romas.
Link: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/editorials/roma-expulsions-smack-of-racism-1.674445
Church anger over French Roma policy
23/08/2010 - French government policy towards the Roma community has provoked the anger of the Catholic church – from the Vatican itself to individual priests like Father Arthur Hervet. A renowned defender of Roma rights, Father Arthur is returning the Order of Merit he was awarded four years ago by way of protest.
Describing current policy he said: “For the last three months this minority has had a real war being waged against it.” But he has apologised unreservedly for his most controversial comments. “I pray, and I beg your pardon for this, that President Sarkozy has a heart attack,” he told stunned reporters. Later he emphasised he did not want the president dead, but meant to say he wanted God to touch his heart.
Read more on http://www.euronews.net/2010/08/23/church-anger-over-french-roma-policy/
Public Announcement of the Presidium of Democratic left of Roms, Serbia
Belgrade, 25/08/2010 - On the session of Presidium of Democratic left of Roms has been determined that French president Nicolas Sarkozy due to deportation of Roma out of France is under impact of criticism of Europe and world.
We will remind you that such deportations existed during the Hitler and Mussolini, and that mass executions and persecutions of Serbs, Jews, Roma and members of others Slavic’s group of nations existed. It is surprising that at the beginning of third millennium, when Europe opened wide its doors for the roads of democracy to all citizens, regardless racial, religious and national qualification, over the Roma is applied special laws – laws about deportations and mass persecutions, which remind to Nazi’s period from 1941, when Roma had ticket only in one direction – Auschwitz Burkenau.
Sarkozy, as a president who origins from one country in which are proclaimed brotherhood, unity and equality, should know that he is a president of one European country which accepted convention about protection of human rights as a mechanism for protection of national minorities, and must respect, apply and must hold by the laws about freedom of movement that are guaranteed with European conventions.
Read more on http://euyouthspeak.org/roma/?p=14235
Human rights violations toward the Roma community in Smolensk region, Russian Federation
By Tatyana Timchencova
Smolensk, 28/08/2010 - On August 26, 2010 the complaint had been received from Roma about the recent police raid undertaken in Smolensk. As, the victims reported, police entered their house in the day time yesterday and wanted to take photos and to do fingerprinting of all members of the family. This family does not have any criminal records, however as one of the policemen stated: "We do what we are assigned to do. This is the decision of the General. He said that we need to do fingerprinting and photos of ALL Roma in Smolensk region."
On August 27, 2010 the police went to the markets of Smolensk and undertook their unlawful raid there. They were doing photos and fingerprinting on the spot. The violation of human rights is obvious. There is the fear that these police raids and unlawful actions are again undertaken within the framework of a police operation called "Tabor."
Read more on http://euyouthspeak.org/roma/?p=14230
Opinion: Roma, the 'painted birds' of Europe
27/08/2010 - Hundreds more of Roma were deported from France on Thursday despite widespread condemnation of President Sarkozy's Roma expulsion drive. What comes to mind is the vivid image of the young, hunted and haunted, protagonist in Jerzy Kosinski's 1965 novel 'The Painted Bird' moving through Slavic villages in Eastern Europe fearing for his life all the time.
The novel is the deeply distressing tale of a young boy who is abandoned by his parents during the World War II and left to roam the war-afflicted region where his presence raises fear and reprisal among local communities. The boy, thought to be Jewish or gypsy, suffers atrocious attacks and savage treatment from the people who fear his presence in their villages will attract the wrath of the German army.
The present-day visuals of the Roma deportation going on in France do not resemble the images of the young pariah in the Kosinski novel. But indeed the boy is still a striking metaphor for the homeless, classless, and apparently stateless, Roma people who attract scorn, denial and blame in places where they live. Of course the hunted down Roma in France are getting support from human rights groups and humanitarian individuals from around the world.
Opinion: Roma are the eternal outsiders
Paris, 27/08/2010 - They are the pariahs of Europe, the largest ethnic minority on the continent and the most casually reviled. In the worst of days past, they were even hunted for sport. Untold hundreds of thousands were exterminated during the Holocaust — what they call The Great Devouring.
And starting this past Thursday, the Roma — gypsies — are being been booted out of France as illegal and unwanted aliens, herded onto flights destined for “repatriation’’ to Romania and Bulgaria. One thousand are scheduled for deportation this month, with some 300 of their squatter settlements slated for dismantling, nearly 120 already wiped out.
This country’s government is not entirely without compassion for the endlessly persecuted and stigmatized Roma. The Gallic definition of good faith: Putting 300 euros in the pockets of every adult (100 euros per child) who agrees to leave, for the purpose of easing their resettlement in nations they previously fled, in droves, most especially after the expansion of the European Union but also after the collapse of the Communist bloc.
Read more on http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/853760--dimanno-roma-are-the-eternal-outsiders
Black Wreath on France Consulate of Istanbul
26/08/2010 - Organizations who protests France's deportation policy and racism raising all over the Europe place a black wreath on France Consulate of Istanbul. Citizens participate the activity with a high degree. Both Gypsies and the other citizens sensitive about raising racism participated to the activity planned by Zero Discrimination Association, Federation of İstanbul Roma Associations, Sulukule Platform, Association Club of Travellers of Turkey. After press statement, a black wreath was placed on France Consulate of Istanbul to protest deportation policy of France and racist terrorism raising all over the Europe.
Read more on http://www.cingeneyiz.org/wreath.html
Scandal Breaks upon Deported Roma Arrival in Bulgaria's Varna
26/08/2010 - A taxi cab driver stirred a huge scandal Thursday at the airport in Bulgaria's Black Sea capital Varna by accusing a Roma family of stealing his wallet. The driver, identified as Donkov, insisted a woman and her three children took from him EUR 300 and asked for the border police to frisk the four, who had just been deported from France back to Bulgaria.
The incident occurred after another cab driver told the family to get off his car because they had too much luggage. The Roma woman then proceeded to the next cab, but Donkov appeared right in the middle with threats and screams. He was removed from the scene by colleagues, and later came back and apologized to the family. He told the TV reporters, gathered for the landing of the deported Roma, he had realized he left his wallet at a gas station.
The Roma woman, on her part, complained that because of people like the driver, Roma in Bulgaria have no rights, adding she did not come back from France to steal and Bulgarians have no money to be stolen anyway.
Read more on http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=119535
Hungary: Roma killings accused linked to security services
Budapest, 22/08/2010 - After half a decade of random murders of Hungarian Gypsies, four suspects have been arrested amid claims they may have had links with the country’s various secret intelligence services. Now, with the Hungarian Defence Ministry having made a timid admission to the allegations, conspiracy theorists are having a field day.
Over the years, six Roma, including a five-year-old boy, have been gunned down by unknown assailants, striking terror into Hungary’s half a million Gypsies. Last week, after what some are calling an unconscionable delay, police closed their investigations into the serial Gypsy killings and transferred the cases of the four suspects to the Pest County Superior Court. At a press conference, a police spokesman named the alleged assassins as Istvan Cs, Istvan K, Arpad Sandor K, and Zsolt P, as under Hungarian law suspects cannot be named while in preliminary detention.
Read more on http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/roma-killings-accused-linked-to-security-services-1.1049772
One Roma child dead, one injured in Rome shanty town blaze
Rome, 27/08/2010 - A fire in a Roma shanty town in Rome left one three-year-old child dead and his three-month old brother hospitalized with severe burns, Italian media reported Friday.
Four out of around 30 huts in a camp in the outskirts of the Italian capital were destroyed by flames overnight. The cause of the fire was not yet known, the ANSA news agency reported. The child was found dead in his bed after flames were put out by firemen. His brother has suffered second and third degree burns on 40 per cent of his body, doctors treating him said in a bulletin. The children's parents, said to be 23 and 21 years old and of Romanian nationality, escaped with only light injuries, ANSA indicated.
Read more on http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/341271,rome-shanty-town-blaze.html
A Special Appeal for Advocates on behalf of Lead-Poisoned Children
25/08/2010 - The World Health Organisation has called on many occasions for Immediate Evacuation and Medical Treatment for the Romani children and their families that the UN placed in the toxic camps of North Mitrovica in Kosovo eleven years ago. This demand has been ignored by the United Nations, the Kosovo government, the USA and all countries of the European Union. It is easy to understand why in the light of Europe-wide discrimination against Roma people. No country is willing in the current political climate to offer succour to these poor families. In fact, France, Germany, Sweden and others have been actively deporting more Roma families to Kosovo, where they are receiving almost no support and are living in simply appalling conditions. Some have even ended up in these toxic camps and are now also suffering from dangerous levels of lead poisoning.
Read more on http://euyouthspeak.org/roma/?p=14200
Interview: Miranda Vuolasranta, Executive Director of the National Finnish Roma Forum
26/08/2010
Describe your job? - I work for the National Finnish Roma Forum. It represents Roma in questions concerning human, fundamental and social rights, It has an important role in helping non-governmental organisations in their activities, strengthening cooperation and networking. I am also the Finnish representative and the Vice-Chairman of the European Roma and Travellers Forum.
How do you assess the level of discrimination in Finland? - There has been cooperation between the authorities and the Roma for 100 years when the first national Roma organisation was established and we’ve learnt how to cooperate smoothly through learning from mistakes. However, the Roma are facing discrimination in their ordinary life. Almost 100% of the Finnish Roma women wear the traditional dress which distinguishes clearly the Finnish Kale (the Romani people living in Finland and Sweden) from the non-Roma and, therefore, discrimination is easy. They can find it difficult to access public places. Restaurants don’t allow them to enter or they are not served. These situations are very common and only the tip of the iceberg of cases that lead to reports of an offence or an investigation.
Read more on http://humanrightseurope.blogspot.com/2010/08/interview-miranda-vuolasranta-executive.html
ROMA CULTURE
Romany awarded grant by Utah Arts Council
23/08/2010 - Kateri Combs, a Romany who was born in Romania and raised by her adoptive family in the U.S. was recently awarded a grant to study music with Romany musicians in Romania. Utah Arts Council was so impressed with the talent of Kateri Combs that they awarded her this grant. She is very proud of her heritage and is interested in being able to introduce people to her culture through their music. Kateri performs with the Klezbros, a band which performs both Klezmer and Gypsy music. She also performs with her accompanist Steve Keen and performs with the group The Tango Project.
Read more on http://euyouthspeak.org/roma/?p=14168
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ZSZdi4wso
Esma Redžepova: Som barikaňi pre oda hoj som Romňi, the kaj šaj giľavav andre peskeri dajakeri romaňi čhib
23/08/2010 - E romaňi kiraľkiňa, savore naveha Esma Redžepova Teodosievska andale Macedonija, sar romaňi kulturakeri džuvľi, bikenkerel nekbuter giľa. Uľiľa andro berš 1943 andro angluno foros la Macedonijake, andro Skopje. Andre peskeri karjera mar kerďa ezera koncerti. Diňa avri buter sar 500 albumi, chudľa buterval somnakune, plaťinakere albumi. O albumos savo pes vičinel Gipsy Queen, hino jekh le 20 nekfeder albumendar andro phurikaňiben world music. Nekbareder lakero hitos Čaje Šukarije, savo sthoďa kana lake sas 9 berš, sas the andro filmos Borat. Beršestar 1956 giľavel ča romane giľa. Andro berš 1976 sas andre indijakero Chandigar phenďi avri sar kiraľkiňa le romane bašavibanske. Andro berš 1991 la andro foros Frankfurt dine titulos – Primadona ko europakero giľavipen. O profesijonala dikhle the lakero manušiben, the andro berš 2002 la dine nominacija pre Nobeloskeri paťiv vašo biphandľipen. Kadi macedonijakeri giľavňi kerel the charita. Zathoďa nadacija, savi žutinel le čhavenge bie daj the bio dad, nasvalenge pro teštos, no the olenge, saven nane love pro operaciji, vaj dugo sasťariben.
Dikh mai but kathe http://www.mecem.sk/rpa/?id=culture&lang=romany&show=19602
Kwiatkowski: Amen o Roma sam nacija, the sar nacija kamas paťiv
21/08/2010 - O Roman Kwiatkowski hin jekh olendar, so zathode o Jekhetaňiben le Romengero andre Poľčiko. Ov sas oda manuš, savo kamľa te zathovel o historično ustavos, savo kerel andre kada jekhetaňiben. Beršestar 1997 hino šerutno andre spravno rada andre Asocijacia le Romengeri andre Poľčiko.
O Roman Kwiatkowski irinďa buter publikaciji, goďaver študiji, but irišagi the monografiji. Avre manušenca zathoďa o novinki “Dialóg-Pheniben”, the kerel andre radakcijakeri rada. Ov hino šerutno pro sako beršeskero leperišagos pre oda, kana sas rozmuklo o Romano taboris andro Oswienčim. O Roman Kwiatkowski hino the aktivistas palo manušengere hakaja le Romengere. O vakeriben le rajeha Roman Kwiatkowski kerďa andro Oswienčim, kana sas 66. leperiben andro Romano taboris andro Oswienčim e Jarmila Vaňová.
Link: http://www.mecem.sk/rpa/?id=decade&lang=romany&show=19576
OPPORTUNITIES
ERRC Seeks Legal Trainee
23/08/2010 - The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) seeks a legal trainee for a two-year legal traineeship to assist in litigating Roma rights, ethnic/race discrimination and related cases in domestic, European and international tribunals and to organise training sessions for Central and East European lawyers in public interest litigation strategies and techniques.
The legal trainee programme is designed to provide young lawyers with the training and skills needed to launch a career in litigation and related legal advocacy on rights issues affecting Roma communities.
Read more on http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=3620
Applications re-opened for the 6th MMCP Diversity Management Training Jamboree
25/08/2010 - The Managing Multiethnic Communities Program of LGI invites applications for its 2010 Training Jamboree.
Applicants may apply to attend one of two modules:
1: Global and Regional Minority Protection Norms in Local Governance
2: Inter-cultural Skills in Local Government
Date: October 7-13, 2010
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Application deadline: September 2, 2010
Selection notification: September 6, 2010
More details on http://lgi.osi.hu/documents.php?id=3219&m_id=9
Roma Virtual Network (RVN) is a public, non-partisan, non-profit grass-roots
initiative under the auspices of International Romani Union (IRU) and European
Roma Information Office (ERIO). It is aimed to provide the international Romani
community and friendly non-Roma organizations and individuals with useful
information on Roma issues in variety of languages via the Internet. The
activity of RVN actively helps facilitate the cooperation and exchange of
information within Roma organizations and individuals, between Roma and non-Roma
organizations and individuals and also between Roma civil society and official
institutions. It relates with the variety of Roma-related political, cultural,
economic and social issues on local and international levels. It is aimed to
support the improvement of the Roma situation in Europe and other regions of the
world.
Roma Virtual Network (RVN) is officially recognized and registered as public
organization (No. 580478410) according to the decision of Certification
Organizations Registry within the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
Contact RVN via rom...@zahav.net.il or +972-54-7878797.
Skype: valery_novoselsky
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roma-Virtual-Network/121255051234355