by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Jobbik, the more-or-less legal Nazi militia and party in Hungary, an EU member state, is now aiming, after having the Romani People made their first target, also for the Jewish population of the country (and elsewhere).
In the beginning, it would appear, the Jews took very little notice of the antics of the Jobbik group, seeing that their target were the Gypsy People and not the Jewish community. They should have known better.
The adage of “first they did come for... and I did not speak out”, etc. should have been a well-known factor and it was obvious that those people, whose aim is to create a Hungary for Hungarians and other ethnicities have no place in that scheme.
The interesting, almost laughable, part is that Hungarians are, in the main, a mixed groups of people anyway considering the fact that once they were part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire and thus most Hungarians not pure Magyars.
The same, in fact, is also true for the Romani People and anyone claiming to be pure Romani better checks once again. However, that is not the issue here.
It will be obvious that Jobbik's targets will also include ethnic Romanians on the Hungarian territory sooner or later and they might also go as far as wishing to take the areas of Transylvania and such “back into the Hungarian realm, as that area has a large population of Hungarians and was once part of the empire. It would not surprise me.
How it is possible for such racist fascist groupings to exist and operate in EU member states where, supposedly, beats me and the EU is not just failing the Romani People in its midst; it is failing all ethnic minorities.
Romani settlements and villages have been attacked, in Hungary, by Jobbik and its thugs and with local and state police looking on and doing absolutely nothing except, in a couple of cases, arresting Gypsies who decided to defend themselves against the fascist thugs.
It would appear that, when it comes to the Romani, the Gypsy, then the EU laws and conventions are not worth the paper that they are written upon and fascist thugs like Jobbik et al, and not just in Hungary, can do as they like.
There could be another explanation to this inaction by the authorities, whether in Budapest or in Brussels, and that is that those groups of fascist thugs are being used as a tool to enact etnic cleansing by proxy.
I rest my case and suggest, though, that the Rom and the Jew get together in this matter in order to defeat this menace...
© 2012
Showing posts with label Anti-gypsy-ism in the EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-gypsy-ism in the EU. Show all posts
Gypsies targeted in west German arson attack
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
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
Gypsies to be pressed into forced slave labor gangs
Gypsies (and those receiving welfare) are to be pressed into forced labor gangs, supervised by police and militias
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Hungary, June 2011: According to information on the wires Gypsies are to be pressed into forced labor gangs in Hungary in the very near future. Those gangs will be supervised by police and militias and are “to ensure that Gypsies (and welfare recipients) do some work for their money.”
This is not very far removed from the way that the Nazis talked in the 1930s when Gypsies were rounded up and sent to labor camps.
In the next three years, the government of Hungary says, it will create employment for 100,000 Romani Gypsies in the country, the majority of which are welfare recipients, at least those that live in the countryside. They are to work in “charitable” and “community-based” projects in return for the payments that they receive.
The payment of any further welfare monies will be made dependent on people working in jobs in infrastructure-important building projects, as well as in agriculture and forestry.
Apparently those workers, who will be to 95% be Gypsy, who will be forced to partake in this so-called “charitable” labor program, will also be lent out to business against a fee, which the government will collect. It would appear that Gypsy slavery is back and by government decree.
Hungary claims, at the close of its EU presidency, that the program of integration of Romani People in Hungary has gone well during this period. How and where I would like to ask for all that happened was that the Orban government allowed the likes of Jobbik and others to intimidate Romani Gypsies in their villages with the police standing idly by. If that is Romani integration then I do not want to see anywhere where that is not being done.
It is quite difficult to believe that the government of Hungary could introduce something that so closely resembles forced labor camps or forced labor battalions of Jews and other undesirables in World War II.
However, at a press conference it was announced that “we don’t want to keep the workers under surveillance. …We are talking about instruction, direction, organization. Placing 300,000 people into work projects is a complicated affair that needs exactly the skills policemen have.” So, this is all true.
Police officers, obviously, according to Hungarian government understanding, well placed to instruct and direct those workers in the tasks that they are going to be assigned to. I find that hard to believe that they are capable of anything by way of instruction and direction but are indeed well placed to keep the workers “in line”, making sure that they do not run away.
What, we must ask, will happen if anyone does run? Will he (or she) be shot? It certainly would not surprise me if that would going to be the case.
Remember, everyone, that Hungary, the country who is intending such actions is, in fact, a European Union member state and it would appear that the EU will do nothing at all here. Thus I am starting very much to believe that the rumors we keep hearing as to talks between EU and Russia as to relocating (all) Gypsies in Central Europe to the Russian steppes are true.
© 2011
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
Dark Clouds Gather over Europe once again!
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The dark clouds of racism and xenophobia and of fascism, once again, gather over Europe and the actions against the Romani People in many countries of the European Union is ample proof of that.
We had hoped, like Viviane Reding of the Council of Europe said in her condemnation of the actions of the French government against Gypsies in its country, that those scenes would be a thing of the past; of the darkest times of the history of Europe.
But, alas, as I have been predicting for years, the past is coming back to haunt us because we never buried it properly.
When it comes to us, the Gypsy, all the legislations and all the talk of equality and all that jazz are nothing but empty words. To the powers that be and the majority of the Gadje per se we are and remain but the dirty Gypsy.
Now, in the economic climate of the Great Recession, the Gypsy is made to be the scapegoat for all of society's ills. The Gypsy takes away jobs, the Gypsy does this and the Gypsy does that. I am waiting when we are being accused, once again, of poisoning wells, carrying the Plague and being spies for the Turks or whoever.
While I am the first to admit that there are bad apples in the barrel of the Romani People that are involved in criminal activities, from low-level to very serious stuff, this does not mean that every Gypsy is a thief or even a child-trafficker.
However, the way the governments of many European Union member states behave it will be community punishments for those few that are involved in crimes. This is the same what happened under the Nazis in Germany and elsewhere. And the EU does what? Precisely...
In fact, to all intents and purposes, it is beginning to look as if we are seeing “ethnic cleansing by proxy” here in many of the EU member states on the European mainland. This is worrying and scary at the same time.
In Switzerland anti-Gypsy xenophobia is spreading too, but then again it was in Switzerland where Gypsy children were routinely stolen from their parents and placed in institutions and sold as slaves to farmers well into the second half of the twentieth century.
Is the entire European mainland about to go mentally deranged once again as far as the Gypsy is concerned? It would appear thus. And the world had thought that that was all behind us.
For years I have been saying that I could see the spectre of anti-Gypsyism of the Nazi kind rising in Europe again and that I could see the EU as, more than likely, having a part in such persecutions even and everyone thought me to be out of my mind. Looks like my fears are coming true, unfortunately.
And what do our “leaders? Where are the IRU and where is the ERTF? Conspicuous by their silence and this silence is really deafening and it proves where they really stand and what really counts for them; power and money. The People are but a means to an end for them.
The grassroots let it happen too and are lethargic as always. If we do not make a stand now then we deserve no better than to be seen as a People as scroungers and whatever else.
While we may be Stini or Cale and not Roma we are, nevertheless, all Romani and hence cousins and that alone should make us do something but...
So keren?
© 2010
The dark clouds of racism and xenophobia and of fascism, once again, gather over Europe and the actions against the Romani People in many countries of the European Union is ample proof of that.
We had hoped, like Viviane Reding of the Council of Europe said in her condemnation of the actions of the French government against Gypsies in its country, that those scenes would be a thing of the past; of the darkest times of the history of Europe.
But, alas, as I have been predicting for years, the past is coming back to haunt us because we never buried it properly.
When it comes to us, the Gypsy, all the legislations and all the talk of equality and all that jazz are nothing but empty words. To the powers that be and the majority of the Gadje per se we are and remain but the dirty Gypsy.
Now, in the economic climate of the Great Recession, the Gypsy is made to be the scapegoat for all of society's ills. The Gypsy takes away jobs, the Gypsy does this and the Gypsy does that. I am waiting when we are being accused, once again, of poisoning wells, carrying the Plague and being spies for the Turks or whoever.
While I am the first to admit that there are bad apples in the barrel of the Romani People that are involved in criminal activities, from low-level to very serious stuff, this does not mean that every Gypsy is a thief or even a child-trafficker.
However, the way the governments of many European Union member states behave it will be community punishments for those few that are involved in crimes. This is the same what happened under the Nazis in Germany and elsewhere. And the EU does what? Precisely...
In fact, to all intents and purposes, it is beginning to look as if we are seeing “ethnic cleansing by proxy” here in many of the EU member states on the European mainland. This is worrying and scary at the same time.
In Switzerland anti-Gypsy xenophobia is spreading too, but then again it was in Switzerland where Gypsy children were routinely stolen from their parents and placed in institutions and sold as slaves to farmers well into the second half of the twentieth century.
Is the entire European mainland about to go mentally deranged once again as far as the Gypsy is concerned? It would appear thus. And the world had thought that that was all behind us.
For years I have been saying that I could see the spectre of anti-Gypsyism of the Nazi kind rising in Europe again and that I could see the EU as, more than likely, having a part in such persecutions even and everyone thought me to be out of my mind. Looks like my fears are coming true, unfortunately.
And what do our “leaders? Where are the IRU and where is the ERTF? Conspicuous by their silence and this silence is really deafening and it proves where they really stand and what really counts for them; power and money. The People are but a means to an end for them.
The grassroots let it happen too and are lethargic as always. If we do not make a stand now then we deserve no better than to be seen as a People as scroungers and whatever else.
While we may be Stini or Cale and not Roma we are, nevertheless, all Romani and hence cousins and that alone should make us do something but...
So keren?
© 2010
EU backs down on action against France over deportation of Roma
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Brussels, EU, 09/29/2010: An astonishing U-turn in the conflict in the European Union about France's mass deportation of Roma-Gypsies with EU citizenship (and even French citizenship?) has occurred.
The European Union is now, despite all the talk and rhetoric, after all not going to start legal proceedings against France, according to the Reuters news agency, who gives an EU-diplomat who is dealing with this case as source.
The European Commission will, instead, ask the French government in writing for further information on the issue, said the EU insider.
This decision comes as rather a surprise to many – though not me: Only a few days ago everything pointed to the European Commission taking action and bringing – or at least trying to – France before the European court.
I must say that, having been in Gypsy politics long enough and never trusted the European Union, it does come as no surprise to me. I would have been surprised had the EU via the Commission done something that really would give France a rap over the knuckles at least.
All the talk about freedom of movement of EU citizens does not, it would appear, apply to the Romani, the Gypsy, regardless as to whether he is a citizen of France, Italy or Romania.
France, so I understand, has even reinstated the travel pass for the Gypsies in France, the “Carnet de Circulation” (sp?), which supposedly had been abolished in the 1980s.
So much for the “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” of the French Republic. It applies to all as long as you are not Gypsy or immigrant, it would seem.
In Germany things are not much better either; I am well aware of that, and in many of the new EU member states, such as Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Even in the supposed bastions of freedom such as Denmark and Sweden things do not look rosy for the Gypsy.
Europe of the early 21st century very much looks like Europe 70 years ago, at least as far as the Gypsy is concerned, and a real sense of deja vu comes over me when I see what is happening all over the European Union on the mainland.
It would appear that the only one who can help the Gypsy is the Gypsy.
© 2010
Brussels, EU, 09/29/2010: An astonishing U-turn in the conflict in the European Union about France's mass deportation of Roma-Gypsies with EU citizenship (and even French citizenship?) has occurred.
The European Union is now, despite all the talk and rhetoric, after all not going to start legal proceedings against France, according to the Reuters news agency, who gives an EU-diplomat who is dealing with this case as source.
The European Commission will, instead, ask the French government in writing for further information on the issue, said the EU insider.
This decision comes as rather a surprise to many – though not me: Only a few days ago everything pointed to the European Commission taking action and bringing – or at least trying to – France before the European court.
I must say that, having been in Gypsy politics long enough and never trusted the European Union, it does come as no surprise to me. I would have been surprised had the EU via the Commission done something that really would give France a rap over the knuckles at least.
All the talk about freedom of movement of EU citizens does not, it would appear, apply to the Romani, the Gypsy, regardless as to whether he is a citizen of France, Italy or Romania.
France, so I understand, has even reinstated the travel pass for the Gypsies in France, the “Carnet de Circulation” (sp?), which supposedly had been abolished in the 1980s.
So much for the “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” of the French Republic. It applies to all as long as you are not Gypsy or immigrant, it would seem.
In Germany things are not much better either; I am well aware of that, and in many of the new EU member states, such as Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Even in the supposed bastions of freedom such as Denmark and Sweden things do not look rosy for the Gypsy.
Europe of the early 21st century very much looks like Europe 70 years ago, at least as far as the Gypsy is concerned, and a real sense of deja vu comes over me when I see what is happening all over the European Union on the mainland.
It would appear that the only one who can help the Gypsy is the Gypsy.
© 2010
Denmark following Italy in Anti-Gypsy measures?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Is Denmark, a country once thought of, alongside of the Netherlands, as a bastion of liberty and liberalism in Europe, following Italy now in anti-Gypsy measures? It would appear so if recent reports are anything to go by.
Danish media reported on July 6, 2010 that 23 ethnic Roma who are citizens of other EU member states were arrested following anti-Roma statements by Mayor Jensen, who called on the Danish government to adopt measures to rid Copenhagen of criminal Roma, blaming them for thefts and asking the police to expel them.
The Mayor’s statements caused Minister of Justice Barfoed to react, condemning the Roma in question to be illegal residents and pledging strong police action against them. Despite the apparent absence of an investigation or conviction for the alleged thefts, Danish authorities are reported to have expelled the detained EU Roma.
It would appear that all over Europe members of the Romani People, aka Gypsies, are, once again, being used as scapegoats for all manner of things.
While I will be the first to admit that there are bad apples in the Gypsy basket there are criminal elements also other, non-Gypsy groups, and none of their ethnicity is being broadcast when some engage in criminal activities.
When a couple of Turks or Albanians commit crimes somewhere does a country round up all of those of that community with view of expelling them? No, they do not. Why then when it comes to members of the Romani People?
Once again the Gypsy People are the scapegoats for all things evil in Europe and Europe is turning into an Anti-Gypsy society as it was in the 19th century and the Nazi era.
Not that I had ever expected anything else from the European Union, at least as far as the treatment of the Romani People is concerned, and have stated so more than once. The worst Anti-Gypsy countries are in charge; Germany, Italy, France and Denmark for starters, and the “new” countries in the East are even worse in their anti-Gypsyism.
© 2010
Is Denmark, a country once thought of, alongside of the Netherlands, as a bastion of liberty and liberalism in Europe, following Italy now in anti-Gypsy measures? It would appear so if recent reports are anything to go by.
Danish media reported on July 6, 2010 that 23 ethnic Roma who are citizens of other EU member states were arrested following anti-Roma statements by Mayor Jensen, who called on the Danish government to adopt measures to rid Copenhagen of criminal Roma, blaming them for thefts and asking the police to expel them.
The Mayor’s statements caused Minister of Justice Barfoed to react, condemning the Roma in question to be illegal residents and pledging strong police action against them. Despite the apparent absence of an investigation or conviction for the alleged thefts, Danish authorities are reported to have expelled the detained EU Roma.
It would appear that all over Europe members of the Romani People, aka Gypsies, are, once again, being used as scapegoats for all manner of things.
While I will be the first to admit that there are bad apples in the Gypsy basket there are criminal elements also other, non-Gypsy groups, and none of their ethnicity is being broadcast when some engage in criminal activities.
When a couple of Turks or Albanians commit crimes somewhere does a country round up all of those of that community with view of expelling them? No, they do not. Why then when it comes to members of the Romani People?
Once again the Gypsy People are the scapegoats for all things evil in Europe and Europe is turning into an Anti-Gypsy society as it was in the 19th century and the Nazi era.
Not that I had ever expected anything else from the European Union, at least as far as the treatment of the Romani People is concerned, and have stated so more than once. The worst Anti-Gypsy countries are in charge; Germany, Italy, France and Denmark for starters, and the “new” countries in the East are even worse in their anti-Gypsyism.
© 2010
Czech Television reveals Gypsy children barred from enrolling in elementary school
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
An elementary school in Brno is telling some students enrollment is closed while simultaneously keeping its doors open for others.
Czech Television recently performed a hidden camera investigation and discovered exactly how elementary schools approach the enrollment of Gypsy children.
In general, it is important that all children attend school together. For Romani children, it is important they do their best to achieve academically, while for non-Romani children it is important to learn tolerance of those who are different. “We’re full, go ask somewhere else,” is what Romani People often hear when trying to enroll their children in elementary school in the Czech Republic.
Czech Television tested how the Antoninska Elementary School in Brno, which specializes in offering foreign language instruction, responds to Romani parents and children. Two women, one of Gypsy origin, visited the school after the enrollment period had expired. The Romani parent was told there was no more room at the school for her child, but the other woman was much more successful – her child was added to a waiting list.
“I already have 70 people registered, which is three classes. I’m full, but I don’t know how many of these children will attend,” the director told the Romani mother. He recommended she try another school, which in his view is not as demanding, and warned her that at his school the pupils have to start foreign language instruction from the first grade.
In contrast, his meeting with the non-Romani mother was a completely different story. This mother visited the school the day after the Romani mother made her attempt. The director handed her over to the deputy director. “You are the third mother today who missed the deadline, but the registration must be done formally, you can’t just come here without bringing the child along. Next Wednesday I will not be teaching, and I am already agreed with some other mothers that they will come register, so you can too,” the deputy director said. The information about the school being full was never expressed to this mother. School officials did draw her attention to the foreign language instruction in the first grade, but in a completely different way, mentioning it as valuable for the child.
The result of the test has angered the Czech Education, Youth and Sport Ministry, but the Brno Regional Authority, who has established that school, responded calmly and downplayed its significance. “This is sensationalism. As far as I know, just because a mother has not yet enrolled her child does not mean it’s all over. If it should come to pass that they genuinely refuse to enroll a child because the child is Roma, then we would naturally address that and say it’s bad,” said Daniel Rychnovsky, Deputy Mayor of Brno.
According to the ministry, such an approach is not only unethical, it is illegal. “Basically every teacher, every director should proceed fairly and in the same way towards all pupils and their parents,” claims Deputy Education Minister Klara Laurencikova. Even though the school did not tell the Romani mother directly that it does not accept Romani children, the problem is still serious. “These days no one would permit themselves to state directly that they do not accept Roma. What makes it worse is that these various hidden methods are sought for refusing them,” explains Veronika Vankova of IQ Roma Servis in Brno.
The school management rejects the claim that it makes such distinctions, even though the report shows the mothers were handled differently. Government research has admitted that Romani children are 27 times more likely to end up in schools for lightly mentally disabled children than non-Romani children, irrespective of their actual state of mental health and intellectual capacity.
All-Roma classrooms are another problem. In Brno there are a minimum of three schools in which 90 % of the pupils are Romani children. City leaders see nothing wrong with this. “If we have it under control this way, if the parents agree with it, and if it works, I do not see a problem,” Rychnovsky said.
While it would appear that the Czech Television sees a problem with all-Romani classrooms, I personally, and I know of many Gypsy People who think similarly, can see nothing wrong with all-Romani classes. In fact, why not have real Romani Schools, entirely separate from those of the non-Romani so that Romani Culture and Traditions can be observed there, such as the Romani Cleanliness Code and such like.
However, to send Gypsy children away under the pretense that one school is full while at the same time the school is happy to take Gadje kids then that is discrimination and wrong, and there are no two ways about that.
But why are we actually surprised? It is happening still, has happened for ages, and whatever we may say or do and however much we may scream against it; changes will come but slowly as far as Anti-Gypsyism is concerned.
Instead of screaming that we want our children to go to Gadje brainwashing institutions having Gypsy owned and operated schools would be a much better bet as, firstly the younger children can gently be pulled over into the vernacular of the country and foreign languages while at the same time everyone still being taught in the Romani Language, and also being taught the Romani Language. Secondly it would be an education in the way the Romani work, which would be much better for the children.
But this is not something the do-gooders even want to hear and consider.
© 2010
An elementary school in Brno is telling some students enrollment is closed while simultaneously keeping its doors open for others.
Czech Television recently performed a hidden camera investigation and discovered exactly how elementary schools approach the enrollment of Gypsy children.
In general, it is important that all children attend school together. For Romani children, it is important they do their best to achieve academically, while for non-Romani children it is important to learn tolerance of those who are different. “We’re full, go ask somewhere else,” is what Romani People often hear when trying to enroll their children in elementary school in the Czech Republic.
Czech Television tested how the Antoninska Elementary School in Brno, which specializes in offering foreign language instruction, responds to Romani parents and children. Two women, one of Gypsy origin, visited the school after the enrollment period had expired. The Romani parent was told there was no more room at the school for her child, but the other woman was much more successful – her child was added to a waiting list.
“I already have 70 people registered, which is three classes. I’m full, but I don’t know how many of these children will attend,” the director told the Romani mother. He recommended she try another school, which in his view is not as demanding, and warned her that at his school the pupils have to start foreign language instruction from the first grade.
In contrast, his meeting with the non-Romani mother was a completely different story. This mother visited the school the day after the Romani mother made her attempt. The director handed her over to the deputy director. “You are the third mother today who missed the deadline, but the registration must be done formally, you can’t just come here without bringing the child along. Next Wednesday I will not be teaching, and I am already agreed with some other mothers that they will come register, so you can too,” the deputy director said. The information about the school being full was never expressed to this mother. School officials did draw her attention to the foreign language instruction in the first grade, but in a completely different way, mentioning it as valuable for the child.
The result of the test has angered the Czech Education, Youth and Sport Ministry, but the Brno Regional Authority, who has established that school, responded calmly and downplayed its significance. “This is sensationalism. As far as I know, just because a mother has not yet enrolled her child does not mean it’s all over. If it should come to pass that they genuinely refuse to enroll a child because the child is Roma, then we would naturally address that and say it’s bad,” said Daniel Rychnovsky, Deputy Mayor of Brno.
According to the ministry, such an approach is not only unethical, it is illegal. “Basically every teacher, every director should proceed fairly and in the same way towards all pupils and their parents,” claims Deputy Education Minister Klara Laurencikova. Even though the school did not tell the Romani mother directly that it does not accept Romani children, the problem is still serious. “These days no one would permit themselves to state directly that they do not accept Roma. What makes it worse is that these various hidden methods are sought for refusing them,” explains Veronika Vankova of IQ Roma Servis in Brno.
The school management rejects the claim that it makes such distinctions, even though the report shows the mothers were handled differently. Government research has admitted that Romani children are 27 times more likely to end up in schools for lightly mentally disabled children than non-Romani children, irrespective of their actual state of mental health and intellectual capacity.
All-Roma classrooms are another problem. In Brno there are a minimum of three schools in which 90 % of the pupils are Romani children. City leaders see nothing wrong with this. “If we have it under control this way, if the parents agree with it, and if it works, I do not see a problem,” Rychnovsky said.
While it would appear that the Czech Television sees a problem with all-Romani classrooms, I personally, and I know of many Gypsy People who think similarly, can see nothing wrong with all-Romani classes. In fact, why not have real Romani Schools, entirely separate from those of the non-Romani so that Romani Culture and Traditions can be observed there, such as the Romani Cleanliness Code and such like.
However, to send Gypsy children away under the pretense that one school is full while at the same time the school is happy to take Gadje kids then that is discrimination and wrong, and there are no two ways about that.
But why are we actually surprised? It is happening still, has happened for ages, and whatever we may say or do and however much we may scream against it; changes will come but slowly as far as Anti-Gypsyism is concerned.
Instead of screaming that we want our children to go to Gadje brainwashing institutions having Gypsy owned and operated schools would be a much better bet as, firstly the younger children can gently be pulled over into the vernacular of the country and foreign languages while at the same time everyone still being taught in the Romani Language, and also being taught the Romani Language. Secondly it would be an education in the way the Romani work, which would be much better for the children.
But this is not something the do-gooders even want to hear and consider.
© 2010
Gypsy People in Italy in Peril
Everyone Group issues SOS to the European Union and the United Nations
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Everyone Group and others are launching a desperate SOS: an appeal to the European Union and the United Nations to intervene and save the Romani people in Italy from ethnic persecution.
Milan, January 2010: The Milanese authorities have bulldozed 80 makeshift shelters, home to a community of Romani families, and totally destroyed their blankets, warm winter clothes, stoves for heating and essential medicines. The forced eviction took place in Via Sant'Arialdo - near the Chiaravalle Abbey – in a racist and cruel Milan that the author of this report, (who was born in Milan) fails to recognise as the chief town he has admired for decades for its spirit of solidarity and open-mindedness. About 150 citizens of Romani origin, including children, pregnant women and sick people (many of them with cancer, heart problems, and handicaps) were thrown out onto the street and forced to set off on a tragic march to nowhere.
“It felt as though we had returned to the Hitler years,” commented a woman who lives in the area and who has often helped these families in difficulty. “Fortunately – after noticing the municipal police patrols driving up and down – many of the families left the settlement before the clearance began in order to avoid being charged for squatting and suffering the humiliation of the ethnic profiling that other families have been subjected to. However, their homes, makeshift shelters made from wood, plastic and cardboard, no longer exist”.
Ninety-five Romanian Roma were charged with illegally occupying a plot of land and are undergoing mass expulsion as the authorities have ordered them to leave the city: a reminder of the way the Gyosy were forced to leave centuries ago and during the pre-Holocaust years.
The January 21st pogrom (what else do we call the destruction in mid-winter of 80 makeshift homes, shelter to hundreds of human beings living in extreme poverty and bad health?) and mass expulsion (what else do we call the unlawful forced eviction of innocent families from the city they have lived in for years without the offer of any social aid or alternative lodgings?) is the umpteenth violation of human rights that has taken place in Italy. 150 vulnerable people in poor health are now wandering around in search of a new shelter in an attempt to prevent themselves dying of hunger, cold, infections and racial violence.
The police operation was carried out on the order of the local authorities, and was initiated by the deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, a politician who is responsible for numerous other measures of persecution against the Romani people and unfortunate immigrants.
The operation called for the deployment of 102 police officers from the local police force.
De Corato has expressed his satisfaction at this deliberately-induced humanitarian crisis, and has announced yet another camp clearance in Milan, in Via Vaiano Valle - the site of more makeshift huts where other marginalized, discriminated against and desperate families live. But the list is long: over the last two years more than 7,000 people from the Romani ethnic group have been forcibly evicted from their settlements in Milan without the offer of alternative housing.
Unfortunately, both the administration of the Mayor, Letizia Moratti, and the centre-left opposition are driven by intolerant and anti-Gypsy sentiments. As a result the tragic police operations are taking place with the blessing of all the political parties, government associations and local authority consultants. At the same time, the activists who are attempting with non-violent means to stop the brutal evictions are being intimated and threatened by the same institutions.
After learning of the terrible sanitary and social consequences of the police operation, EveryOne Group (which has lost all contact with the Roma left homeless during the Sant'Arialdo eviction) is today presenting a complete report on this tragic episode to the European Commission, the European Council, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the International Criminal Court of the Hague. These operations are pushing Europe back to the days of the racial laws and ethnic persecution. EveryOne Group is appealing for urgent intervention, something more effective than a resolution or a letter of warning which have no legal bearing, and which the Italian institutions in the past have already shown to ignore and even mock. EveryOne Group, together with the committee against intolerance, “Sa Phrala”; the association for human culture, “Watching the Sky”; and the 586 anti-racist organizations that make up the “United” network are sending out a dramatic and desperate SOS to the international authorities, asking them to help the persecuted Roma people, who are being wiped out and expelled in mass from Milan and Italy.
We have to act immediately, because over the last two years the Roma community has fallen from 180,000 units to only 40,000 human beings.
This number includes the Italian Roma and those who fled from the former Yugoslavia, who are being profiled, rounded up into authentic ghettoes with round-the-clock surveillance and specially-created ethnic laws. We are talking about human beings who are being hunted out; subjected to brutality and racial violence; excluded from employment and integration programs and left in appalling sanitary and social conditions.
This appeal has been sent to the European Commission, the European Council, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Criminal Court of the Hague. It has also been circulated to Romanii Human Rights organizations and others.
The outcome and response will show, and I am not holding my breath to any response, at least not of one of action against the Italian authorities, how much value is placed on the lives and conditions of the Romani-Gypsy in Italy, and elsewhere in the European Union, by the European Union bodies and international bodies such as the United Nations.
From all what has gone before it is a foregone conclusion that, aside from maybe, if we are lucky, a statement by the Council of Europe and others, none of which will be binding to the Italian authorities, nothing is going to happen.
Gypsies are not on the agenda proper and never will be. I fact, the way it appears to me we are on the removal agenda, the “needing to be gotten rid off” agenda.
Europe of the early twenty-first century looks more like Europe of seventy years ago than even. The specter of Black Legions is haunting the countries of the European Union once again, with Italy presently in the lead, and others following just a little behind.
When the Gypsy Union and the IRG warned years ago that the writing was on the wall as to what the European Union was going to be up to as far as the Romani-Gypsy is concerned everyone laughed and claimed that the EU was the best thing ever for the Romani. I think we are being shown who was right now, unfortunately.
One would have hoped that this was a thing of the distant past and never ever to rear its ugly head again but by the mid- to late 1990s it was becoming clear what was happening, at least clear to those that could see it. Now, only the blind will deny that the EU is aiming to ethnically cleanse the Gypsy from its books.
© 2010
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Everyone Group and others are launching a desperate SOS: an appeal to the European Union and the United Nations to intervene and save the Romani people in Italy from ethnic persecution.
Milan, January 2010: The Milanese authorities have bulldozed 80 makeshift shelters, home to a community of Romani families, and totally destroyed their blankets, warm winter clothes, stoves for heating and essential medicines. The forced eviction took place in Via Sant'Arialdo - near the Chiaravalle Abbey – in a racist and cruel Milan that the author of this report, (who was born in Milan) fails to recognise as the chief town he has admired for decades for its spirit of solidarity and open-mindedness. About 150 citizens of Romani origin, including children, pregnant women and sick people (many of them with cancer, heart problems, and handicaps) were thrown out onto the street and forced to set off on a tragic march to nowhere.
“It felt as though we had returned to the Hitler years,” commented a woman who lives in the area and who has often helped these families in difficulty. “Fortunately – after noticing the municipal police patrols driving up and down – many of the families left the settlement before the clearance began in order to avoid being charged for squatting and suffering the humiliation of the ethnic profiling that other families have been subjected to. However, their homes, makeshift shelters made from wood, plastic and cardboard, no longer exist”.
Ninety-five Romanian Roma were charged with illegally occupying a plot of land and are undergoing mass expulsion as the authorities have ordered them to leave the city: a reminder of the way the Gyosy were forced to leave centuries ago and during the pre-Holocaust years.
The January 21st pogrom (what else do we call the destruction in mid-winter of 80 makeshift homes, shelter to hundreds of human beings living in extreme poverty and bad health?) and mass expulsion (what else do we call the unlawful forced eviction of innocent families from the city they have lived in for years without the offer of any social aid or alternative lodgings?) is the umpteenth violation of human rights that has taken place in Italy. 150 vulnerable people in poor health are now wandering around in search of a new shelter in an attempt to prevent themselves dying of hunger, cold, infections and racial violence.
The police operation was carried out on the order of the local authorities, and was initiated by the deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, a politician who is responsible for numerous other measures of persecution against the Romani people and unfortunate immigrants.
The operation called for the deployment of 102 police officers from the local police force.
De Corato has expressed his satisfaction at this deliberately-induced humanitarian crisis, and has announced yet another camp clearance in Milan, in Via Vaiano Valle - the site of more makeshift huts where other marginalized, discriminated against and desperate families live. But the list is long: over the last two years more than 7,000 people from the Romani ethnic group have been forcibly evicted from their settlements in Milan without the offer of alternative housing.
Unfortunately, both the administration of the Mayor, Letizia Moratti, and the centre-left opposition are driven by intolerant and anti-Gypsy sentiments. As a result the tragic police operations are taking place with the blessing of all the political parties, government associations and local authority consultants. At the same time, the activists who are attempting with non-violent means to stop the brutal evictions are being intimated and threatened by the same institutions.
After learning of the terrible sanitary and social consequences of the police operation, EveryOne Group (which has lost all contact with the Roma left homeless during the Sant'Arialdo eviction) is today presenting a complete report on this tragic episode to the European Commission, the European Council, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the International Criminal Court of the Hague. These operations are pushing Europe back to the days of the racial laws and ethnic persecution. EveryOne Group is appealing for urgent intervention, something more effective than a resolution or a letter of warning which have no legal bearing, and which the Italian institutions in the past have already shown to ignore and even mock. EveryOne Group, together with the committee against intolerance, “Sa Phrala”; the association for human culture, “Watching the Sky”; and the 586 anti-racist organizations that make up the “United” network are sending out a dramatic and desperate SOS to the international authorities, asking them to help the persecuted Roma people, who are being wiped out and expelled in mass from Milan and Italy.
We have to act immediately, because over the last two years the Roma community has fallen from 180,000 units to only 40,000 human beings.
This number includes the Italian Roma and those who fled from the former Yugoslavia, who are being profiled, rounded up into authentic ghettoes with round-the-clock surveillance and specially-created ethnic laws. We are talking about human beings who are being hunted out; subjected to brutality and racial violence; excluded from employment and integration programs and left in appalling sanitary and social conditions.
This appeal has been sent to the European Commission, the European Council, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Criminal Court of the Hague. It has also been circulated to Romanii Human Rights organizations and others.
The outcome and response will show, and I am not holding my breath to any response, at least not of one of action against the Italian authorities, how much value is placed on the lives and conditions of the Romani-Gypsy in Italy, and elsewhere in the European Union, by the European Union bodies and international bodies such as the United Nations.
From all what has gone before it is a foregone conclusion that, aside from maybe, if we are lucky, a statement by the Council of Europe and others, none of which will be binding to the Italian authorities, nothing is going to happen.
Gypsies are not on the agenda proper and never will be. I fact, the way it appears to me we are on the removal agenda, the “needing to be gotten rid off” agenda.
Europe of the early twenty-first century looks more like Europe of seventy years ago than even. The specter of Black Legions is haunting the countries of the European Union once again, with Italy presently in the lead, and others following just a little behind.
When the Gypsy Union and the IRG warned years ago that the writing was on the wall as to what the European Union was going to be up to as far as the Romani-Gypsy is concerned everyone laughed and claimed that the EU was the best thing ever for the Romani. I think we are being shown who was right now, unfortunately.
One would have hoped that this was a thing of the distant past and never ever to rear its ugly head again but by the mid- to late 1990s it was becoming clear what was happening, at least clear to those that could see it. Now, only the blind will deny that the EU is aiming to ethnically cleanse the Gypsy from its books.
© 2010
Antiziganism in Italy. An appeal to the United Nations High Commissioner and the European Commission for urgent intervention.
The conditions of apartheid and the persecution the of Roma people in Italy has become intolerable. In the meantime the City of Rome is planning a series of “Roma-ghettoes”.
by EveryOne Group
Rome, January, 2010. In spite of official intervention from the European Commission, the European Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the major humanitarian organizations, the phenomenon of antiziganism in Italy has degenerated into a serious persecution and a denial of the Roma and Sinti people's fundamental human rights. There are many serious reasons for this:
the Italian Government, made up for the most part of ministers who for many years have been known for their intolerant ideologies (some of whom belong to the Northern League Party), have obtained approval from Parliament of many discriminatory and anti-constitutional laws which are contrary to the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Human Rights - such as Law 94/2009 that introduces “the crime of illegal entry”;
Over the last few years Italian politics, which is supposedly “democratic”, has distanced itself from anti-racist ideals and solidarity and is now being guided on a national and local level by politicians (bar a few exceptions) inspired by intolerant ideologies based on a false concept of security, and anti-immigrant sentiments.
on government orders, the local institutions have begun authentic “ethnic cleansing” operations against the Roma people and “illegal” immigrants, all done with the collaboration of the police force. As well as encouraging local people to act as informers, they are constantly persecuting unwelcome ethnic groups and bulldozing makeshift squatter settlements. These camp clearances have been undertaken with a huge deployment of police officers and vehicles. Bulldozers are being used to destroy their shelters and meagre possessions. These actions are followed by the issuing of formal expulsion decrees or intimidatory behaviour that “persuades” them to leave. These actions are justified as being “area reclamation” operations for reasons of safety and combating urban decay;
as a consequence of these actions, the homeless communities find themselves out on the street without alternative lodgings and humanitarian aid, or the chance of finding shelter (sometimes the authorities offer solutions that mean the families are separated: women and children are offered temporary shelter, while fathers, husbands and older brothers are forced to set off with nowhere to go and no offer of any social or medical assistance).
the principal organs of information in Italy have become political tools, and over the last few years have put forward theories that contribute to creating sentiments of prejudice, suspicion, racial hatred (particularly towards the Roma people and “illegal immigrants”). They do it by spreading discriminatory lies, selecting and blowing crimes committed by Roma citizens and foreigners out of proportion, while at the same time omitting or playing down news of the numerous episodes of racism or violence towards immigrants;
many Roma citizens have died as a result of the racial policies underway; the lack of protection from the freezing winter temperatures and wet weather; sickness and dramatic conditions of health and hygiene. Many have been injured or have lost their lives in acts of violence and raids carried out by neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist groups. The Roma people's average life-span has now fallen to below 40 as a result of the persecution they are being subjected to, but these are tragedies the authorities and media are careful to conceal;
except for rare exceptions, neither the national nor local Italian institutions have undertaken any kind of efficient integration programme, or any programmes promoting tolerance, (if only in word) and have even, whenever possible, discouraged private initiatives of this kind;
often backed by intolerant movements such as Forza Nuova, Azione Giovani, La Destra and the Lega Nord party, the authorities have promoted or encouraged violent measures against the Roma people and “clandestini”. They use an intimidatory strategy with human rights activists, which becomes even more worrying and threatening when we are talking about representatives from the Roma, Sinti and immigrant communities;
after years of racist and xenophobic propaganda founded on anti-integration and anti-immigrant sentiments, the majority of Italian adults and young people are convinced that the Roma people are hardened criminals, rapists, child kidnappers, asocials, enemies of civilization. A similar attitude is developing towards black Italian citizens and foreigners. At the same time the TV channels, newspapers and politicians are playing their own part in the spread of racism and xenophobia.
In a climate of fierce hostility and intimidation, EveryOne Group is denouncing the plans for further projects of apartheid and persecution, projects that are already underway in Milan and Northern Italy, and about to be initiated in Rome. This is done through regional and local laws or through the Prefect's Office, and are laws which fly in the face of all the EU directives and International Law. It has got to the point that intolerant and racist movements are now dictating the law inside the institutions.
In spite of the protests and recommendations from human rights organizations, and in spite of the serious preoccupation expressed by the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Rome authorities have decided to bring back ghettoes, modelled on those the Nazis set up in Poland on the threshold of the Holocaust.
Before carrying out this programme (which is reserved for the Roma people who cannot be expelled from the country) the Roman authorities have undertaken a horrifying series of camp clearances without the offer of social assistance to the homeless families (especially those from Romania) who had taken refuge in the major cities for reasons of poverty. Abandoned buildings, groups of makeshift shelters and tents in which hundreds of children and women (some pregnant), the terminally ill and the elderly live, have been cleared and bulldozed. Clearances have taken place both in summer and in winter. This has had terrible humanitarian consequences, and it has all taken place among the general indifference of the public. Most of the homeless Roma have been forced to flee Italy and take refuge in Romania, Spain, France and Greece. It has resulted in a mass expulsion, and apart from mild criticism, the European Union has done nothing to put a stop to these actions. The Roma who were unable to leave the country now live hidden away like mice, the victims of racism, institutional intolerance and hardship.
As for the “historical” Roma, who came to Italy over a decade ago to flee the humanitarian tragedies and persecution underway in the former Yugoslavia, the institutions have planned – the way they did in Nazi Germany – the displacement of these communities into authentic ghettoes. In order to justify this programme, the authorities and media have undertaken in recent years an antiziganist campaign which has depicted the Roma families in camps such as the Casilino 900 camp as a gang of criminals, incapable of integration and committed to dangerous and polluting activities - like the recycling of copper from cables with the consequent production of toxic smoke.
However, these desperate activities carried out for survival, activities that take place wherever the Roma people are forced to live on the margins of society, could easily have been avoided if there had been even a basic professional integration programme for the heads of the families and the creation of businesses and crafts activities inside the community. These activities would have allowed the families to leave the camp and find lodgings in proper housing, just like everyone else. A project of this kind proved successful in Hungary decades ago with efficient government programmes. Over the last four years, the Comune di Roma has invested over 45 million Euros in ethnic cleansing operations and reclamation of the areas the camps were built on: public funding spent without any criterion on the wave of racial hatred. With a third of that sum EveryOne Group or another association with the relevant experience could have provided a permanent solution to these people's need for integration. Today we would have had a perfect integration of the Roma community in the capital, with a return in terms of civility and international image. But instead Rome has chosen to get tough and yield to that loathing that comes from the stomach and clouds the noble mind that distinguishes men of human rights and evolved societies. As a result, in 2010, if civil society is unable to stop this wave of antiziganist madness, the city will imprison about three thousand people from the Roma ethnic group (including more than 1000 children) inside six or seven ghetto-camps located near existing official or squatter settlements. The project will require an investment of over 20 million Euros - more funds that could have solved the tragedy of the segregation of the Roma community in Rome in a civilized fashion. Before being interned in the new settlements, the families will pass through “transit camps” (as the authorities themselves call them) including, more than likely, the famous prison for immigrants at Ponte Galeria in Rome, the Centre of Identification and Expulsion, already the theatre of terrible violence and abuse towards the most vulnerable members of society. Naturally, to prevent epidemics and harsh criticism from the international community, the camps will be fitted out with running water and electricity; medical assistance and the chance to cultivate Roma traditions and customs. These are the characteristics of the new settlements in Rome according to information already supplied by the authorities:
camps reserved exclusively for people from the Roma ethnic group, a fenced-in enclosure to be watched over around the clock by police officers and security guards;
Roma citizens in possession of resident permits will be allowed access, as well as EU citizens in possession of ID cards and all those who are able to prove they have been present on Italian soil for at least ten years. The others will be left homeless, without any humanitarian aid and forced to leave the country;
the whole area will be equipped with surveillance cameras and police will patrol the area outside the camp.
“control committees” will be appointed, consisting of administrators of condominium blocks and Italian citizens residing in the area around the camps;
each internee (including minors) will be issued with a special permit with photograph and personal details, to be shown at the entrance to the camp. This operation has already begun, with the collaboration of “humanitarian” government or pro-government organizations;
an obligation to observe (besides the laws of the Italian Republic and local authorities) a special law called a “sociality pact” or “internal disciplinary pact” - a law specially created for the Roma community which is to be decided on by the local authorities and the “control committee” as the Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro, (Special Commissioner for the Roma People) calls it: “A residents' rule where each administrator can decide on the hours and duties to be observed”;
anyone disobeying these rules will be punished. Though these punishments have yet to be defined, it will probably entail expulsion from the camp without any alternative lodgings or assistance;
in spite of these conditions that offend the dignity and fundamental human rights of these human beings, the Roma families will be made to pay for electricity, gas and water. Only the neediest families will be granted three months to pay their bills, the others will immediately be expelled from the camp (called an expulsion with “just cause”). It is impossible not to associate this rule with the one that forced the Jews during the Holocaust to pay their own fare to the concentration camps in the cattle-trains.
The Roma will only be allowed to live in the ghetto-camp for a period of two years: “because the assistance offered cannot become permanent” explains the Rome prefect of police. If implemented (and unfortunately the project is already underway) this “final solution” will mean the end to any hope of serious integration for the Roma, because the families - children included - will live under constant police surveillance, the parents branded as “asocials”. Their chances of finding dignified employment will be next to nothing, while the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads to pay their bills will force them to resort to any form of compromise to scrape together the money necessary to avoid being kicked out of the camp and left homeless with their women, children and sick relatives. The children will be subject to serious discrimination from their peers at school and will be excluded from integrating through participation in after-school youth activities.
The families will live in conditions of total apartheid, having to obey rules that are different from the democratic rules other citizens are obliged to adhere to, and who answer to a justice that is no longer “equal for everybody”.
The ghetto-camp will turn the social reality of the Roma people upside-down, people who for decades have been the victims of segregation, racism, injustice and violence and who would be entitled to housing and compensation from the Italian state if there were any equality. Instead, institutions that are no longer democratic, no longer civil, have transformed the Roman people into “criminals” in violation of the laws laid down in the Italian Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
With this document, EveryOne Group and the anti-racist network are asking the European Commission, the European Council and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to issue a formal and urgent protest to the Italian Government against this latest project of persecution against the Roma people in Italy. At the same time EveryOne Group is urging the International Criminal Court of the Hague (which has already taken up and registered a complaint against the Italian institutions for “crimes against humanity” for the measures taken against the Roma camps in the capital) to speed up the process and permit hundreds of persecuted human beings to finally obtain justice and compensation (at least materially) for the great loss of life and hardship they have suffered for many years.
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Fingerprinting of Italy’s Gypsies wins EU approval
Fingerprinting of Romani Gypsies in Italy has been given the blessing of the European Commission
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A spokesman for Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said co-operation between the center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and Brussels had made this possible.
Critics of the plan said it was a violation of fundamental human rights. Yet Barrot’s spokesman said fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied.
The EU had questioned Italy’s ‘crackdown on crime’ initiative which the government said would improve information about the circumstances under which an estimated 160,000 Roma live in Italy.
The government insisted the plan is not ethnic discrimination, and claimed Brussels had fully-vindicated the Italian authorities’ intentions. Ministers said critics of fingerprinting had stoked anti-immigrant feeling.
So, instead of actually condemning the actions of the Italian the European Union goes along sanctioning those acts.
The words of the spokesman for Jacques Barrot that “fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied” is a joke and everyone must realize that.
What strict conditions? We now have badges added to the fingerprints. All we now need is ghettos with barbed wire and watchtowers but I am sure they are on their way and, the g-ds forbid, probably not just in Italy.
Are there still some that think that my predictions of while back that this is the new Europe that we are seeing here, one that is as fascist as far as the Gypsy People are concerned as was Hitler and his predecessors?
We have been seeing for some time now an “ethnic cleansing by proxy” with the EU bodies allowing things to happen and now we are seeing that the EU bodies will sanction such things without an qualms.
How long will it be before the Romani People in Europe wake up and understand that the European Union and its various bodies are not at all benignly inclined towards them but rather the opposite.
We hear lots of nice words as to integration and all that but that is but window dressing.
We, the People, must do something against this.
© 2009
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by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A spokesman for Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said co-operation between the center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and Brussels had made this possible.
Critics of the plan said it was a violation of fundamental human rights. Yet Barrot’s spokesman said fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied.
The EU had questioned Italy’s ‘crackdown on crime’ initiative which the government said would improve information about the circumstances under which an estimated 160,000 Roma live in Italy.
The government insisted the plan is not ethnic discrimination, and claimed Brussels had fully-vindicated the Italian authorities’ intentions. Ministers said critics of fingerprinting had stoked anti-immigrant feeling.
So, instead of actually condemning the actions of the Italian the European Union goes along sanctioning those acts.
The words of the spokesman for Jacques Barrot that “fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied” is a joke and everyone must realize that.
What strict conditions? We now have badges added to the fingerprints. All we now need is ghettos with barbed wire and watchtowers but I am sure they are on their way and, the g-ds forbid, probably not just in Italy.
Are there still some that think that my predictions of while back that this is the new Europe that we are seeing here, one that is as fascist as far as the Gypsy People are concerned as was Hitler and his predecessors?
We have been seeing for some time now an “ethnic cleansing by proxy” with the EU bodies allowing things to happen and now we are seeing that the EU bodies will sanction such things without an qualms.
How long will it be before the Romani People in Europe wake up and understand that the European Union and its various bodies are not at all benignly inclined towards them but rather the opposite.
We hear lots of nice words as to integration and all that but that is but window dressing.
We, the People, must do something against this.
© 2009
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Shame on Italy
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Italian Council of State has approved finger printing and special badges for Gypsy children
This is the worst most discriminative and blatantly barefaced racist decision taken by a Country in the EU since the reign of Hitler and Mussolini.
On August 28, an amazing decision was taken by Italy's Council of State, Consiglio di Stato.
In spite of all protests against finger printing of Romani-Gypsies in Italy, whether immigrants or not, the Council of State has approved this procedure.
But not only that.
The Consiglio di Stato also finds it admissible that the Roma must w special badges on their clothes when leaving their camps. Does anyone remember the Star of David, that Jews had to carry in Nazi times? Most reminiscent of the era of Hitler and Mussolini for sure.
It was not only the Jews, though, that had to wear a badge during the Nazi era. Nay! Gypsies too had to wear a badge identifying their ethnicity and that badge was a brown triangle; and the practice of particular minorities forced to wear badges depicting their ethnicity is one of the most poignant reminders of the Holocaust.
Who would have thought that now, more than sixty years after the end of the Nazi regime, such policies, that we thought and were told would never again be used against our fellow man, would be getting a new airing in Italy.
Every Government in the so-called “free Europe”, and indeed the so-called “free world”, should, nay must, if they have any real sense of the horror of what was the Holocaust, condemn Italy and call for it's immediate expulsion from the European Union – at least from all of its bodies, including the Council of Europe and the European Parliament – especially when, measures of this nature are about to be implemented against a particular minority.
But, seeing that Italy is one of the founders of the European Union this is not going to happen; that we can be sure about.
However, the world should sanction and boycott that country until such a time that they reverse the policies and apologize publicly to the Romani People as a whole.
The call must go out for every NGO and individual around the world to write to their government to ask them to condemn Italy, and if they do not give rise to its condemnation then, please ask your government how they will have the gall to hold one more Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day while, happy to have an EU partner with such disgusting and dehumanizing policies in force against a particular minority in 2009.
Europe more and more, to me as a Gypsy at least, begins to look like Europe 70 years ago, namely 1939. The Anti-Gypsy policies alone are one thing and the surveillance of every individual in most countries another.
While Italy is presently the worst perpetrator as to officially sanctioned Anti-Gypsyism France is beginning to follow suit with an action recently where the police “branded” Roma during some checks as to identity and resident status in France with a stamp on the arm. This too being most reminiscent of the days of the Holocaust and of time before when Gypsies were branded on the arm or the face.
One really could be mistaken to think that one has gone back in time accidentally to the 1930s.
How can the leaders of the nations and especially the Romani leaders, for instance, remain so silent?
Maybe the People can come to their own conclusions here and maybe, just maybe, they come to understand that many of those leaders are not in fact interested in their affairs but in their pockets.
© 2009
<>
The Italian Council of State has approved finger printing and special badges for Gypsy children
This is the worst most discriminative and blatantly barefaced racist decision taken by a Country in the EU since the reign of Hitler and Mussolini.
On August 28, an amazing decision was taken by Italy's Council of State, Consiglio di Stato.
In spite of all protests against finger printing of Romani-Gypsies in Italy, whether immigrants or not, the Council of State has approved this procedure.
But not only that.
The Consiglio di Stato also finds it admissible that the Roma must w special badges on their clothes when leaving their camps. Does anyone remember the Star of David, that Jews had to carry in Nazi times? Most reminiscent of the era of Hitler and Mussolini for sure.
It was not only the Jews, though, that had to wear a badge during the Nazi era. Nay! Gypsies too had to wear a badge identifying their ethnicity and that badge was a brown triangle; and the practice of particular minorities forced to wear badges depicting their ethnicity is one of the most poignant reminders of the Holocaust.
Who would have thought that now, more than sixty years after the end of the Nazi regime, such policies, that we thought and were told would never again be used against our fellow man, would be getting a new airing in Italy.
Every Government in the so-called “free Europe”, and indeed the so-called “free world”, should, nay must, if they have any real sense of the horror of what was the Holocaust, condemn Italy and call for it's immediate expulsion from the European Union – at least from all of its bodies, including the Council of Europe and the European Parliament – especially when, measures of this nature are about to be implemented against a particular minority.
But, seeing that Italy is one of the founders of the European Union this is not going to happen; that we can be sure about.
However, the world should sanction and boycott that country until such a time that they reverse the policies and apologize publicly to the Romani People as a whole.
The call must go out for every NGO and individual around the world to write to their government to ask them to condemn Italy, and if they do not give rise to its condemnation then, please ask your government how they will have the gall to hold one more Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day while, happy to have an EU partner with such disgusting and dehumanizing policies in force against a particular minority in 2009.
Europe more and more, to me as a Gypsy at least, begins to look like Europe 70 years ago, namely 1939. The Anti-Gypsy policies alone are one thing and the surveillance of every individual in most countries another.
While Italy is presently the worst perpetrator as to officially sanctioned Anti-Gypsyism France is beginning to follow suit with an action recently where the police “branded” Roma during some checks as to identity and resident status in France with a stamp on the arm. This too being most reminiscent of the days of the Holocaust and of time before when Gypsies were branded on the arm or the face.
One really could be mistaken to think that one has gone back in time accidentally to the 1930s.
How can the leaders of the nations and especially the Romani leaders, for instance, remain so silent?
Maybe the People can come to their own conclusions here and maybe, just maybe, they come to understand that many of those leaders are not in fact interested in their affairs but in their pockets.
© 2009
<>
Further attacks against Gypsies in EU countries
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In Eastern Slovakia Roma fled city
The extreme right organization “Slovenská pospolitost” was holding another apparently unauthorized Anti-Roma-Rally in the small Eastern Slovakian town of Krompachy in order to demonstrate against the so-called “Gypsy criminality”.
According to media reports the majority of the Gypsies living in the municipality left town out of fear of attacks and many fled already in the early hours of the morning into the forests. Many of the Slovak residents of the town, on the other hand, welcomed the Neo-Nazi Rally with open arms, so reports the Slovak news agency TASR. A large contingent of riot police prevented the feared attacks against Gypsies of the town. For Tuesday, August 25, a further rally is expected in the town of Nové Zámky.
Hungarian right-wing calling for solidarity against Roma
The Hungarian right-wing extremist are calling on neighboring countries of the Hungarian and Slovaks peoples to stand with them in “solidarity” against the Roma minority.
Both countries, they say, have to battle the same problems, and here especially the “Roma Problem”, said Csanád Szegedi, the Vice-President of the right-wing Jobbik party.
In previous months there have been a number of of racists demonstrations in the Gypsy quarters by the Hungarian right-wing extremists, primarily of the “Hungarian Guard” that have caused great concern amongst the Romani People in Hungary and abroad.
Despite the fact that the “Guard” has been officially banned by the authorities they continue to operate and have even meanwhile change the name thus trying to thwart the authorities' attempt to disband them.
It has been officially disbanded by court order but nevertheless the paramilitary organization of the “Hungarian Guard” continues to operate.
And where are the bodies of the European Union? Nowhere to be seen or heard and then again, it is all hot air and talk anyway even if they do say something. Action is what is needed.
© 2009
<>
In Eastern Slovakia Roma fled city
The extreme right organization “Slovenská pospolitost” was holding another apparently unauthorized Anti-Roma-Rally in the small Eastern Slovakian town of Krompachy in order to demonstrate against the so-called “Gypsy criminality”.
According to media reports the majority of the Gypsies living in the municipality left town out of fear of attacks and many fled already in the early hours of the morning into the forests. Many of the Slovak residents of the town, on the other hand, welcomed the Neo-Nazi Rally with open arms, so reports the Slovak news agency TASR. A large contingent of riot police prevented the feared attacks against Gypsies of the town. For Tuesday, August 25, a further rally is expected in the town of Nové Zámky.
Hungarian right-wing calling for solidarity against Roma
The Hungarian right-wing extremist are calling on neighboring countries of the Hungarian and Slovaks peoples to stand with them in “solidarity” against the Roma minority.
Both countries, they say, have to battle the same problems, and here especially the “Roma Problem”, said Csanád Szegedi, the Vice-President of the right-wing Jobbik party.
In previous months there have been a number of of racists demonstrations in the Gypsy quarters by the Hungarian right-wing extremists, primarily of the “Hungarian Guard” that have caused great concern amongst the Romani People in Hungary and abroad.
Despite the fact that the “Guard” has been officially banned by the authorities they continue to operate and have even meanwhile change the name thus trying to thwart the authorities' attempt to disband them.
It has been officially disbanded by court order but nevertheless the paramilitary organization of the “Hungarian Guard” continues to operate.
And where are the bodies of the European Union? Nowhere to be seen or heard and then again, it is all hot air and talk anyway even if they do say something. Action is what is needed.
© 2009
<>
Anti-Gypsyism in Nottinghamshire
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
RAG - RESIDENTS AGAINST GYPSIES
Dear Editor,
You will be pleased to know that we are recruiting to rid our area of gypsies once and for all. Our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans. We are sick to the back teeth of filth they leave and the thieving they do from our properties. Police seem reluctant to move them on. This we will do. Our aim is not to injure - only to cause havoc. New members welcome.
Yours Sec.
RAG.
The above is a letter received by the Editor of the Worksop Guardian and even though – or maybe because – the writer of the letter chose to stay anonymous this letter smacks of incitement not just to racial hatred but in fact of incitement to violence against property and persons based on Race.
It must be noted that the writer, who remained so nicely anonymous, stated that “our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans” and the claim that their aim is not to cause injury but only havoc is a load of something not to be named, and it is hard to think that they actually believe their own words.
While we have so far only seen actions like that in countries of the former Soviet Bloc that are now part of the European Union this ugly specter of Nazism now seems to be arriving in the Yorshire Dales even and certainly is rather a worrying thing.
Only recently did we have issues of Anti-Gypsyism in Belfast, in Ulster (aka Northern Ireland) against families of the Romani Roma Gypsy community and while that could have, to some degree, have been attributed to the sectarianism that used to be prevalent in Ulster, to find this in small market towns in the Yorkshire Dales is rather a different kettle of fish altogether and should open the eyes of all those people that do not wish to see this kind of violence in Britain.
I have said many a times that I will be the first to admit that some of our community and especially many of those falsely called Gypsies though who are really not but live a life on the road, do leave rubbish and other things not to be mentioned not all of our community are the same and we, like the non-Gypsy community have good and bad people.
Europe, including the UK now, if would seem, is beginning more and more to look like Europe of 1939 than of 2009 with the way that Anti-Gypsyism is on the rise. Nazi-Fascism is rearing its ugly head once again an no one seems prepared to stand up against it.
Then again, we, the Gypsy, are used to this for we are not Jews or Blacks and hence no one cares. All the authorities do, in Britain and abroad, is to talk a lot and issue this and that statement against such racial violence; statements they often do not seem to believe in themselves. This could not and would not happen were it Jews or others thus threatened. Alas, it is just, as many see it, Dirty Gyppos, and hence the silence.
Now is the time for all to stand against this ugly specter of Nazism once again so that never again will things that haunted Europe in the 1930s and 1940s do so again.
We, the Romani-Gypsy, too, must stand up together and fight this menace, though not necessarily with their own weapons but on a different level and the best level is to educate the Gadje that we are decent peoples, despite what they think and believe. It takes two to tango, as they say, and maybe it is time we, as a People, as a Community, were prepared to address the concerns of the Gadje. What say you?
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
RAG - RESIDENTS AGAINST GYPSIES
Dear Editor,
You will be pleased to know that we are recruiting to rid our area of gypsies once and for all. Our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans. We are sick to the back teeth of filth they leave and the thieving they do from our properties. Police seem reluctant to move them on. This we will do. Our aim is not to injure - only to cause havoc. New members welcome.
Yours Sec.
RAG.
The above is a letter received by the Editor of the Worksop Guardian and even though – or maybe because – the writer of the letter chose to stay anonymous this letter smacks of incitement not just to racial hatred but in fact of incitement to violence against property and persons based on Race.
It must be noted that the writer, who remained so nicely anonymous, stated that “our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans” and the claim that their aim is not to cause injury but only havoc is a load of something not to be named, and it is hard to think that they actually believe their own words.
While we have so far only seen actions like that in countries of the former Soviet Bloc that are now part of the European Union this ugly specter of Nazism now seems to be arriving in the Yorshire Dales even and certainly is rather a worrying thing.
Only recently did we have issues of Anti-Gypsyism in Belfast, in Ulster (aka Northern Ireland) against families of the Romani Roma Gypsy community and while that could have, to some degree, have been attributed to the sectarianism that used to be prevalent in Ulster, to find this in small market towns in the Yorkshire Dales is rather a different kettle of fish altogether and should open the eyes of all those people that do not wish to see this kind of violence in Britain.
I have said many a times that I will be the first to admit that some of our community and especially many of those falsely called Gypsies though who are really not but live a life on the road, do leave rubbish and other things not to be mentioned not all of our community are the same and we, like the non-Gypsy community have good and bad people.
Europe, including the UK now, if would seem, is beginning more and more to look like Europe of 1939 than of 2009 with the way that Anti-Gypsyism is on the rise. Nazi-Fascism is rearing its ugly head once again an no one seems prepared to stand up against it.
Then again, we, the Gypsy, are used to this for we are not Jews or Blacks and hence no one cares. All the authorities do, in Britain and abroad, is to talk a lot and issue this and that statement against such racial violence; statements they often do not seem to believe in themselves. This could not and would not happen were it Jews or others thus threatened. Alas, it is just, as many see it, Dirty Gyppos, and hence the silence.
Now is the time for all to stand against this ugly specter of Nazism once again so that never again will things that haunted Europe in the 1930s and 1940s do so again.
We, the Romani-Gypsy, too, must stand up together and fight this menace, though not necessarily with their own weapons but on a different level and the best level is to educate the Gadje that we are decent peoples, despite what they think and believe. It takes two to tango, as they say, and maybe it is time we, as a People, as a Community, were prepared to address the concerns of the Gadje. What say you?
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
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
<>
Hungary's Gypsies under attack
by Michael Smith
BUDAPEST, Hungary - Arsonists set fire Tuesday to a village apartment of a Romani official in eastern Hungary, a region known for recent killings of Gypsies, according to the police in that region.
Peter Papp, chief of the Pest county police department said nobody was injured when a block of apartments in Tatarszentgyorgy was set on fire by an unidentified person, so the Hungarian news agency MTI reported.
The fire was not caused by an incident such as an electric wire fault, according to Mr Papp. The apartment belonged to a deputy head of the Pest Romani self-government.
In February, a Romani man and his son were shot dead and two other children seriously injured when they tried to flee their village house that was in flames.
Hungarian health authorities and fire brigade officials insisted at that time and still do so today that the father and his son died of suffocation when the fire, allegedly caused by a faulty electric wire, swept the house.
The authorities said two died in an accidental fire even though it was obvious both died of firearm wounds, MTI said.
The Romani community and other national minorities in Hungary has been a target of hatred and terror by locals for years.
Hungary has seen basically a resurrection of the Arrow Cross bar under a different name and the target of those Nazi thugs are nowadays again the Gypsy as the primary ones. It was the same in the 1930s to 1945. Here too the Rom were the first that were targeted, despite other claims, and I am referring here not just to Hungary.
We are seeing a repeat, so it would appear to me, of the 1930s and no one is batting an eyelid. Many speeches are given at the occasion of the “International Roma Day” but those are all but empty words.
The European Union keeps saying this and that and how they are for the minorities and also and especially for the Romani but the truth shows a completely different side. The supposed representatives of the People, who draw much of their salaries and funding from the Council of Europe, in other words the coffers of the EU, say very little and do even less.
When there was another time the current president of one of the organizations was very vociferous and was very much for direct action and for defending the People. But that was only as long as that gave political ammunition, it would seem.
Again the question: “so kerena?”
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
BUDAPEST, Hungary - Arsonists set fire Tuesday to a village apartment of a Romani official in eastern Hungary, a region known for recent killings of Gypsies, according to the police in that region.
Peter Papp, chief of the Pest county police department said nobody was injured when a block of apartments in Tatarszentgyorgy was set on fire by an unidentified person, so the Hungarian news agency MTI reported.
The fire was not caused by an incident such as an electric wire fault, according to Mr Papp. The apartment belonged to a deputy head of the Pest Romani self-government.
In February, a Romani man and his son were shot dead and two other children seriously injured when they tried to flee their village house that was in flames.
Hungarian health authorities and fire brigade officials insisted at that time and still do so today that the father and his son died of suffocation when the fire, allegedly caused by a faulty electric wire, swept the house.
The authorities said two died in an accidental fire even though it was obvious both died of firearm wounds, MTI said.
The Romani community and other national minorities in Hungary has been a target of hatred and terror by locals for years.
Hungary has seen basically a resurrection of the Arrow Cross bar under a different name and the target of those Nazi thugs are nowadays again the Gypsy as the primary ones. It was the same in the 1930s to 1945. Here too the Rom were the first that were targeted, despite other claims, and I am referring here not just to Hungary.
We are seeing a repeat, so it would appear to me, of the 1930s and no one is batting an eyelid. Many speeches are given at the occasion of the “International Roma Day” but those are all but empty words.
The European Union keeps saying this and that and how they are for the minorities and also and especially for the Romani but the truth shows a completely different side. The supposed representatives of the People, who draw much of their salaries and funding from the Council of Europe, in other words the coffers of the EU, say very little and do even less.
When there was another time the current president of one of the organizations was very vociferous and was very much for direct action and for defending the People. But that was only as long as that gave political ammunition, it would seem.
Again the question: “so kerena?”
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
March through Czech town puts Roma community in fear
by Michael Smith
Just two days before the so-called “International Roma Day” (amazing that the Sinti are being left out again) far-right groups organized a march through the Roma-populated area in the Czech Republic.
Days before the rally, the organizations were calling through their websites on members and sympathizers to join the march against what they termed “Gypsy terrorism”, and referring to “Gypsy ethnicity” as “parasitic”.
The rally started with around 500 far-right demonstrators who had come from different cities of the Czech Republic. The route of the march was through the Roma neighborhood, where the demonstrators stopped a few times and chanted “Czechs come with us” as well as anti-Roma statements.
Some inhabitants of the town, who were not organized with the far-right groups, joined the rally as it marched through the streets of the town. Not very surprising this, however, knowing the sentiments of the general Czech population the majority of who would not wish to have Gypsies live in their neighborhood nor go to the same schools as their children nor work alongside them.
A few days before the International Roma Day, the Romani community of the town had to spend the day locked in their houses fearing for the security of their children instead of preparing for the celebration of the day.
"We are scared for our own life," said a Romani woman who has lived in the area for 16 years. I lived for 26 years together with the majority population and lived in harmony, before I moved to this part of town. At the beginning, the Roma and the majority population used to live integrated; now this part of town is 100% Romani."
Another woman added, “How do I explain to my children why they can’t go out to play on such a nice day?”
Around 700 law enforcement officials, including anti-conflict unit and riot police, were present and ready to intervene in case the situation escalated. A high concentration of police took position around the Roma neighborhood in order to prevent violence and direct attacks against the Romani community.
Around twenty counter-demonstrators were pushed back by the police in order not to clash with the far-right demonstrators. However, as the rally proceeded, the far-right demonstrators attacked the counter-demonstrators. The quick intervention by the police calmed down the situation and the rally continued its route.
At 3pm, the rally was officially closed at the train station, but violence broke out as far-right demonstrators attacked the riot police and mounted police with stones, petrol bombs, and firecrackers. The violence spread into the surrounding streets.
By that stage, the police had completely blocked the Roma-populated neighborhood with tanks, police vans and riot police, which ensured the safety of the community.
But the devious mind here might ask as to whether that high presence of police and the tanks were there to prevent the Gypsies from actually showing the Nazis where to get off? Remember that the 20 counter demonstrators were pushed back in order to allow the Nazi march to continue unencumbered.
The rally was originally called by the far-right Czech Worker’s party, which later distanced itself from it, but the organization of the rally was taken over by the far-right organizations Movement of Autonomous Nationalists and National Resistance.
What we are seeing here, in the same way as in Italy, Hungary, Romania and even Germany and Britain, is Anti-Gypsyism and if we, the Rom, were Jews this would not be allowed to happen and rightly so. But we are but seen as “Dirty Gyppos” by all and especially also the authorities and therefore those things are allowed to continue.
It is time that the People were prepared, methinks, to stand up and protect themselves. Jews have decided to do just that some while back and it seems to be working.
Mind you, then again: if we, the Rom, do that we will be considered the criminals and not those that actually are the perpetrator of the violence and hatred. So kerena?
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Just two days before the so-called “International Roma Day” (amazing that the Sinti are being left out again) far-right groups organized a march through the Roma-populated area in the Czech Republic.
Days before the rally, the organizations were calling through their websites on members and sympathizers to join the march against what they termed “Gypsy terrorism”, and referring to “Gypsy ethnicity” as “parasitic”.
The rally started with around 500 far-right demonstrators who had come from different cities of the Czech Republic. The route of the march was through the Roma neighborhood, where the demonstrators stopped a few times and chanted “Czechs come with us” as well as anti-Roma statements.
Some inhabitants of the town, who were not organized with the far-right groups, joined the rally as it marched through the streets of the town. Not very surprising this, however, knowing the sentiments of the general Czech population the majority of who would not wish to have Gypsies live in their neighborhood nor go to the same schools as their children nor work alongside them.
A few days before the International Roma Day, the Romani community of the town had to spend the day locked in their houses fearing for the security of their children instead of preparing for the celebration of the day.
"We are scared for our own life," said a Romani woman who has lived in the area for 16 years. I lived for 26 years together with the majority population and lived in harmony, before I moved to this part of town. At the beginning, the Roma and the majority population used to live integrated; now this part of town is 100% Romani."
Another woman added, “How do I explain to my children why they can’t go out to play on such a nice day?”
Around 700 law enforcement officials, including anti-conflict unit and riot police, were present and ready to intervene in case the situation escalated. A high concentration of police took position around the Roma neighborhood in order to prevent violence and direct attacks against the Romani community.
Around twenty counter-demonstrators were pushed back by the police in order not to clash with the far-right demonstrators. However, as the rally proceeded, the far-right demonstrators attacked the counter-demonstrators. The quick intervention by the police calmed down the situation and the rally continued its route.
At 3pm, the rally was officially closed at the train station, but violence broke out as far-right demonstrators attacked the riot police and mounted police with stones, petrol bombs, and firecrackers. The violence spread into the surrounding streets.
By that stage, the police had completely blocked the Roma-populated neighborhood with tanks, police vans and riot police, which ensured the safety of the community.
But the devious mind here might ask as to whether that high presence of police and the tanks were there to prevent the Gypsies from actually showing the Nazis where to get off? Remember that the 20 counter demonstrators were pushed back in order to allow the Nazi march to continue unencumbered.
The rally was originally called by the far-right Czech Worker’s party, which later distanced itself from it, but the organization of the rally was taken over by the far-right organizations Movement of Autonomous Nationalists and National Resistance.
What we are seeing here, in the same way as in Italy, Hungary, Romania and even Germany and Britain, is Anti-Gypsyism and if we, the Rom, were Jews this would not be allowed to happen and rightly so. But we are but seen as “Dirty Gyppos” by all and especially also the authorities and therefore those things are allowed to continue.
It is time that the People were prepared, methinks, to stand up and protect themselves. Jews have decided to do just that some while back and it seems to be working.
Mind you, then again: if we, the Rom, do that we will be considered the criminals and not those that actually are the perpetrator of the violence and hatred. So kerena?
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Gypsy families hit by the earthquake are being denied aid and shelter.
Pescara, April 7th, 2009. The citizens of Aquila and nearby municipalities hit by the earthquake are mourning their dead. Those left homeless are being offered shelter and aid in hotels and hostels. Many Roma families living in makeshift accommodation were also hit by the earthquake, with the same impartial cruelty, but no shelter is being offered to them and they are being turned away when they approach the civil protection units or the hotels for help.
The authorities have defined the Roma families “vultures” and the Carabinieri of the Provincial Commando of Pescara have set up ”checkpoints” near the assistance structures in order to prevent Roma families seeking shelter.
According to them, the Roma families “are trying to take advantage of the tragedy in order to sleep in hotels free of charge”.
Roberto Malini, EveryOne Group
<>
The authorities have defined the Roma families “vultures” and the Carabinieri of the Provincial Commando of Pescara have set up ”checkpoints” near the assistance structures in order to prevent Roma families seeking shelter.
According to them, the Roma families “are trying to take advantage of the tragedy in order to sleep in hotels free of charge”.
Roberto Malini, EveryOne Group
<>
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