By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
An apartment block housing Sinti and Roma families was the target of an apparent racial arson attack in the west German city of Leverkusen in the last week of July 2011 and prosecutors have, in fact, put a 5,000 Euro bounty on any information leading to apprehension and conviction of perpetrator(s).
Unknown assailants threw several Molotov cocktails into the ground floor apartment of the building, where a well-known Gypsy family of Leverkusen had their home. Luckily the occupants managed to escape unharmed.
Witnesses have spoken of four perpetrators who drove off in a car and minibus.
Police do 'not rule out a radical right-wing background' in the fire-bombing of the four-storey building.
The apartment was totally gutted by the flames, however fire-fighters were able to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the apartments.
Germany has time and again witnessed brutal racist and xenophobic attacks in recent years as the center-right government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has
tried to downplay the problem.
Most of the racial assaults are committed by mostly young-Neo-Nazis who live in what used to be formerly communist East Germany.
The German government has been under fire for not really cracking down on far-right violence which is targeting mostly foreigners and leftist activists.
Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won't charge them with an offense.
Most of the suspects implicated in far-right crimes are juveniles.
Hate crime experts and sociologists have repeatedly stressed that Germany's political leadership lacked a clear and effective strategy to really combat neo-Nazi crimes.
It has to be said that this is nothing new and has been going on for years and years though in recent years attacks seem to have gotten more severe. One can but wonder as to whether the Neo-Nazi groups are being emboldened by what is happening in Hungary in the way that the Jobik and other groups get away with attacking Gypsies.
I must say that I have been – unfortunately – predicting firebomb attacks to be headed the way of our People and have, more than once, suggested that people took precautions, including of anti-firebomb curtains and such like.
Other, more active defensive actions, obviously, are not something that we, the Gypsy community, would ever be allowed to consider, unlike the Jewish community who can have their own guards, armed ones even, protecting homes, businesses, schools, synagogues, and such like.
One rule for the Gypsy and one rule for others, as per usual...
© 2011
Showing posts with label Anti-Gypsyism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Gypsyism. Show all posts
Neo-Nazis take on police powers in Hungary
Romani settlement and inhabitants being threatened
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While Gyöngyöspata in Hungary may only be a village and a relatively small village at that the truth remains that Neo-Nazis have usurped police powers and are terrorizing the local Roma (Gypsy) population because, so the organizers of this “militia”, the Gypsies terrorize all Hungary and Hungarians.
Local white Hungarians offer the militia personnel of the Jobbik organization free board and lodging and the authorities, what do they do? They let it all happen and do nothing. Is this the new “Roma policy” of the Hungarian government? It would appear to be just that. Worrying in the extreme for anyone who, like me, is of the ethnic groups of the Romani, the Gypsy. It should also be of concern of everyone who does not want to see a repetition of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe.
For weeks already black uniformed skinheads of the “Militia Beautiful Future” who call themselves “Gendarmerie” patrol the street of the area and threaten everyone who is not prepared to follow their rules.
They have told the local Roma population in no uncertain terms that they'd better pack up and leave Hungary if they wish to live.
Hungary is an EU member state and still this is going on and this, and call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, seems to me that the policy of the European Union is one that wishes to get rid of the Gypsy and permits ethnic cleansing by proxy.
© 2011
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While Gyöngyöspata in Hungary may only be a village and a relatively small village at that the truth remains that Neo-Nazis have usurped police powers and are terrorizing the local Roma (Gypsy) population because, so the organizers of this “militia”, the Gypsies terrorize all Hungary and Hungarians.
Local white Hungarians offer the militia personnel of the Jobbik organization free board and lodging and the authorities, what do they do? They let it all happen and do nothing. Is this the new “Roma policy” of the Hungarian government? It would appear to be just that. Worrying in the extreme for anyone who, like me, is of the ethnic groups of the Romani, the Gypsy. It should also be of concern of everyone who does not want to see a repetition of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe.
For weeks already black uniformed skinheads of the “Militia Beautiful Future” who call themselves “Gendarmerie” patrol the street of the area and threaten everyone who is not prepared to follow their rules.
They have told the local Roma population in no uncertain terms that they'd better pack up and leave Hungary if they wish to live.
Hungary is an EU member state and still this is going on and this, and call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, seems to me that the policy of the European Union is one that wishes to get rid of the Gypsy and permits ethnic cleansing by proxy.
© 2011
Gypsy woman shot dead in North-East Hungary
One day after the 65th anniversary of the extermination of the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz murder on another Gypsy committed in Hungary
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Budapest, August 3, 2009 – A Romani woman was shot dead and her 13-year-old daughter was seriously injured in Kisleta in North-Eastern Hungary early on Monday, August 3, 2009, just one day after the 65th anniversary of the Romani Holocaust, according to information from the town's local government.
The two Gypsy women were attacked in a house on the outskirts of the town, said a spokesman from the municipality.
Police are investigating the scene, said local police spokeswoman Rita Fedor.
Thugs are running riot in so many countries of the European Union against Gypsies and murder, brutal attacks and intimidations are a daily occurrences with the EU parliament and the Council of Europe just giving lip service and doing nothing.
It seems to be time that we, the Romani People, did something ourselves and while I know that we are then going to be held up as the villains it would appear there to be no other choice.
We get the nice talk from many of the agencies that are supposedly by the People for the People but in fact seem to be doing nothing either when it comes to real action. Hunger strikes don't get us nowhere, I would like to add, and neither did it get the Macedonian Roma in Northrhine-Westfalia anywhere in the 1990s. Talking shops do not get us anywhere either. What we need is grassroots organizations of grassroots Rom, and when I say here Rom I refer to Sinti, Roma, Kale; all those that are Romani. But that is what we sorely lack.
So, what now? Where do we go form here? Answers on a postcard please...
© 2009
<>
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Budapest, August 3, 2009 – A Romani woman was shot dead and her 13-year-old daughter was seriously injured in Kisleta in North-Eastern Hungary early on Monday, August 3, 2009, just one day after the 65th anniversary of the Romani Holocaust, according to information from the town's local government.
The two Gypsy women were attacked in a house on the outskirts of the town, said a spokesman from the municipality.
Police are investigating the scene, said local police spokeswoman Rita Fedor.
Thugs are running riot in so many countries of the European Union against Gypsies and murder, brutal attacks and intimidations are a daily occurrences with the EU parliament and the Council of Europe just giving lip service and doing nothing.
It seems to be time that we, the Romani People, did something ourselves and while I know that we are then going to be held up as the villains it would appear there to be no other choice.
We get the nice talk from many of the agencies that are supposedly by the People for the People but in fact seem to be doing nothing either when it comes to real action. Hunger strikes don't get us nowhere, I would like to add, and neither did it get the Macedonian Roma in Northrhine-Westfalia anywhere in the 1990s. Talking shops do not get us anywhere either. What we need is grassroots organizations of grassroots Rom, and when I say here Rom I refer to Sinti, Roma, Kale; all those that are Romani. But that is what we sorely lack.
So, what now? Where do we go form here? Answers on a postcard please...
© 2009
<>
MOB ATTACKS GYPSY CAMP IN SOUTHERN CHILE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Anti-Gypsyism now also in South America. The evil canker is spreading.
A mob of more than 100 people attacked a Gypsy encampment near southern Chile's Puerto Montt (Region X) last Friday. The attackers reportedly sought to avenge the death of a local resident, whom they wrongly believed was killed by a Gypsy.
The crowd of locals used fire and stones as weapons against what authorities called a peaceful Gypsy community that had been there since November 2008.
The crowd had been acting in the belief that a Gypsy was responsible for the recent hit-and run accident which killed a local man, Juan Alvarado, 29, but the police maintain there is no Gypsy connection to the accident.
Four cars were set on fire, and tents and other property were destroyed as the Gypsies fled to safety. During the assault, the mob tried to stop the Gypsies from escaping. The police tried to help the Gypsies, but the crowd turned on them.
When a local fire-fighting unit arrived at the site to put out the flames, it, too, was attacked by locals throwing stones.
This is very much akin to what has happened in both Italy and Hungary with the one difference; the police is not on the side of the perpetrators but on the side of the Rom. This makes a very welcome change.
District Attorney Sergio Coronado emphasized there was no connection between the gypsies and the car-death case. “The line of investigation does not lead to the Gypsies. They were ruled out at the very start. The investigation is leading in another direction, and the family of the victim is aware of this,” he said. Local officials said the Gypsy community was a victim of “prejudices” on the part of the locals who attacked them.
Francisco Estevez, the director of the Region X Division of Social Organizations, said he hoped to meet with Regional Governor Sergio Galilea in the next few days to discuss the matter. Estevez said the anti-discrimination initiative currently under discussion in a Senate committee will offer victims of discrimination special recourse in law and will provide special sanctions for those convicted of discrimination crimes.
The Gypsies did not formally complain to the police after the attack, but did abandon their site.
Gypsy camp spokesperson Juan Carlos Farias said his group will travel to Santiago to meet with the “King of the Gypsies” in order to discuss the matter and consider what legal action they might pursue.
Locals have asked that the Gypsies never be allowed back into Puerto Montt and one Octavio Alvarado, head of a local neighborhood association, asked for concrete measures to be taken against the Gypsies returning. “This place has been converted into a dump, full of waste and rats. The owner of the land should come and take a look,” he said.
Francisco Nicolich, a Gypsy who fled the site on Friday said, “Gypsies have never killed anyone. Every time that something happens, Gypsies are blamed.”
Sources: la Tercera, El Llanquihue and others
© 2009
<>
Anti-Gypsyism now also in South America. The evil canker is spreading.
A mob of more than 100 people attacked a Gypsy encampment near southern Chile's Puerto Montt (Region X) last Friday. The attackers reportedly sought to avenge the death of a local resident, whom they wrongly believed was killed by a Gypsy.
The crowd of locals used fire and stones as weapons against what authorities called a peaceful Gypsy community that had been there since November 2008.
The crowd had been acting in the belief that a Gypsy was responsible for the recent hit-and run accident which killed a local man, Juan Alvarado, 29, but the police maintain there is no Gypsy connection to the accident.
Four cars were set on fire, and tents and other property were destroyed as the Gypsies fled to safety. During the assault, the mob tried to stop the Gypsies from escaping. The police tried to help the Gypsies, but the crowd turned on them.
When a local fire-fighting unit arrived at the site to put out the flames, it, too, was attacked by locals throwing stones.
This is very much akin to what has happened in both Italy and Hungary with the one difference; the police is not on the side of the perpetrators but on the side of the Rom. This makes a very welcome change.
District Attorney Sergio Coronado emphasized there was no connection between the gypsies and the car-death case. “The line of investigation does not lead to the Gypsies. They were ruled out at the very start. The investigation is leading in another direction, and the family of the victim is aware of this,” he said. Local officials said the Gypsy community was a victim of “prejudices” on the part of the locals who attacked them.
Francisco Estevez, the director of the Region X Division of Social Organizations, said he hoped to meet with Regional Governor Sergio Galilea in the next few days to discuss the matter. Estevez said the anti-discrimination initiative currently under discussion in a Senate committee will offer victims of discrimination special recourse in law and will provide special sanctions for those convicted of discrimination crimes.
The Gypsies did not formally complain to the police after the attack, but did abandon their site.
Gypsy camp spokesperson Juan Carlos Farias said his group will travel to Santiago to meet with the “King of the Gypsies” in order to discuss the matter and consider what legal action they might pursue.
Locals have asked that the Gypsies never be allowed back into Puerto Montt and one Octavio Alvarado, head of a local neighborhood association, asked for concrete measures to be taken against the Gypsies returning. “This place has been converted into a dump, full of waste and rats. The owner of the land should come and take a look,” he said.
Francisco Nicolich, a Gypsy who fled the site on Friday said, “Gypsies have never killed anyone. Every time that something happens, Gypsies are blamed.”
Sources: la Tercera, El Llanquihue and others
© 2009
<>
Italy and the Rom
by Michael Smith
The period of 2008-2009 will be remembered by Romani rights and human rights activists for the extremely troublesome situation of Romani-Gypsy communities in Italy.
Increasing racism and anti-Romani sentiment erupted in Naples and Milan in May 2008, culminating in firebomb attacks on Gypsy camps in the area. The camps were allowed to burn while the Carabinieri, so it is understood, even prevent firefighters from entering.
In addition to that, various legal measures and policies have been adopted by the public authorities, such as the ongoing “census” of the Romani population and the transportation of Roma to special camps even further from city centres in order to “sanitise” urban areas, are outright abuses of individual freedoms and rights. Those so-called “Solidarity Villages” are being guarded by special anti-terrorist units of the Carabinieri which, we must not forget, are not ordinari police but military police.
Growing fear and hatred of Gypsies among the general population on the one hand and the hostile approach of the national government and some local administrations on the other created a witch hunt atmosphere directed against even long-established Roma and Sinti Italian citizens as well as newly arriving Romani migrants.
Reports had it that even Roma and Sinti of Italian citizenship were fleeing from the Tyrolean areas into Austria. Not that they will be accepted as refugees now.
It is true that the problems of the Rom are not limited to Italy only. The Romani People are struggling to cope with physical violence, segregation and other forms of discrimination all over Europe. The uniqueness of the Italian case is that the Government at its highest levels has made a policy of promoting racial animosity and xenophobia, and even children have been indoctrinated against Gypsies in that they do not want to have them as classmates in schools and children as young as eight have been making comments to the media that Gypsies should be removed from Italy. Welcome to the New Europe!
And what are the Council of Europe and European Commission, who are basically the controllers of the European Union and the European Parliament, doing about this? Nothing, to be precise and as a Gypsy one can be but left wondering as to whether this is in fact a policy if the New Europe, namely to ethnically cleanse Europe of the Gypsy.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
The period of 2008-2009 will be remembered by Romani rights and human rights activists for the extremely troublesome situation of Romani-Gypsy communities in Italy.
Increasing racism and anti-Romani sentiment erupted in Naples and Milan in May 2008, culminating in firebomb attacks on Gypsy camps in the area. The camps were allowed to burn while the Carabinieri, so it is understood, even prevent firefighters from entering.
In addition to that, various legal measures and policies have been adopted by the public authorities, such as the ongoing “census” of the Romani population and the transportation of Roma to special camps even further from city centres in order to “sanitise” urban areas, are outright abuses of individual freedoms and rights. Those so-called “Solidarity Villages” are being guarded by special anti-terrorist units of the Carabinieri which, we must not forget, are not ordinari police but military police.
Growing fear and hatred of Gypsies among the general population on the one hand and the hostile approach of the national government and some local administrations on the other created a witch hunt atmosphere directed against even long-established Roma and Sinti Italian citizens as well as newly arriving Romani migrants.
Reports had it that even Roma and Sinti of Italian citizenship were fleeing from the Tyrolean areas into Austria. Not that they will be accepted as refugees now.
It is true that the problems of the Rom are not limited to Italy only. The Romani People are struggling to cope with physical violence, segregation and other forms of discrimination all over Europe. The uniqueness of the Italian case is that the Government at its highest levels has made a policy of promoting racial animosity and xenophobia, and even children have been indoctrinated against Gypsies in that they do not want to have them as classmates in schools and children as young as eight have been making comments to the media that Gypsies should be removed from Italy. Welcome to the New Europe!
And what are the Council of Europe and European Commission, who are basically the controllers of the European Union and the European Parliament, doing about this? Nothing, to be precise and as a Gypsy one can be but left wondering as to whether this is in fact a policy if the New Europe, namely to ethnically cleanse Europe of the Gypsy.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Fascist extremists march through Romani community
by Michael Smith
On Sunday, March 15, 2009 some 60 supporters and representatives of the Czech extreme right Workers' Party (DS) marched through the Janov housing estate which is predominantly inhabited by Romanies. No incidents have been reported, according to the police, who monitored the action and who detained two persons. One of them was unlawfully sticking up posters before the event.
The march was intended to intimidate the Romanies living in the housing estate and toi this extent the DS definitely succeeded for Rom resident there were afraid to set foot into the street, so we have ben told, on that very Sunday.
The extremists also presented their shadow mayor of the town. His appointment is an expression of the DS's disagreement with how the Litvinov town hall deals with the situation in Janov, the party says. This shadow mayor is Vladan Renak, 33, a secondary school language teacher, who is not a DS member. He says he believes that nothing would change in the town without the DS. The town is ill, he said, the treatment will be long, but radical and effective.
That can, I am sure, only mean one thing and that is that the DS and this shadow mayor want to remove and expel the Romanies from Janov.
Litvinov's mayor Milan Stovicek said the that DS sponges on the housing estate's problems that the town hall has been solving for some time already.
According to its web page, the DS espouses national socialism and rejects capitalism and communism.
After one of the DS's actions in Litvinov last year, its participants marched to Janov. The event ended in hard clashes between hundreds of rightist radicals and police officers, leaving behind several injured people on both sides.
Some 6000 people live at Janov, where socially weak people were moved to from various parts of the country. Many are unemployed and indebted.
The government wanted the DS to be banned, but the Supreme Administrative Court decided early this month that the evidence the government presented was inconclusive and dismissed the proposal.
We must not forget that this is the supreme court in the very country that also was advocating the creation of Gypsy ghettos with police guards at the only way in or out, claimed to be “in order to protect the Rom from Nazis”.
And, just like in Italy and Hungary, both EU countries, the EU sits idly by and does absolutely nothing. Why is that, one can but wonder.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
On Sunday, March 15, 2009 some 60 supporters and representatives of the Czech extreme right Workers' Party (DS) marched through the Janov housing estate which is predominantly inhabited by Romanies. No incidents have been reported, according to the police, who monitored the action and who detained two persons. One of them was unlawfully sticking up posters before the event.
The march was intended to intimidate the Romanies living in the housing estate and toi this extent the DS definitely succeeded for Rom resident there were afraid to set foot into the street, so we have ben told, on that very Sunday.
The extremists also presented their shadow mayor of the town. His appointment is an expression of the DS's disagreement with how the Litvinov town hall deals with the situation in Janov, the party says. This shadow mayor is Vladan Renak, 33, a secondary school language teacher, who is not a DS member. He says he believes that nothing would change in the town without the DS. The town is ill, he said, the treatment will be long, but radical and effective.
That can, I am sure, only mean one thing and that is that the DS and this shadow mayor want to remove and expel the Romanies from Janov.
Litvinov's mayor Milan Stovicek said the that DS sponges on the housing estate's problems that the town hall has been solving for some time already.
According to its web page, the DS espouses national socialism and rejects capitalism and communism.
After one of the DS's actions in Litvinov last year, its participants marched to Janov. The event ended in hard clashes between hundreds of rightist radicals and police officers, leaving behind several injured people on both sides.
Some 6000 people live at Janov, where socially weak people were moved to from various parts of the country. Many are unemployed and indebted.
The government wanted the DS to be banned, but the Supreme Administrative Court decided early this month that the evidence the government presented was inconclusive and dismissed the proposal.
We must not forget that this is the supreme court in the very country that also was advocating the creation of Gypsy ghettos with police guards at the only way in or out, claimed to be “in order to protect the Rom from Nazis”.
And, just like in Italy and Hungary, both EU countries, the EU sits idly by and does absolutely nothing. Why is that, one can but wonder.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
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