INTERNATIONAL ROMANI DAY

TO THE FEDERATED ASSOCIATIONS IN UNION ROMANI

TO OUR FRIENDS

FROM UNION ROMANI

http://www.unionromani.org


As you know the next day, April 8th, is celebrated around the world the International Roma Day.

That day Roma Gypsies approach the riverbanks to throw flower petals which floating on the water crossing borders, symbolize the feeling of freedom of our people who consider the whole earth as the universal homeland of mankind.

Floating lights will then be deposited on the calm waters in memory of our ancestors, especially the over half a million Roma who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

At this especially tough time that we live in, when our people are being subjected to cruel persecution in countries with old democratic tradition, as Greece or Hungary, when those fleeing famine and misery of their home countries, believe having found in the Old and prosperous Europe a more human life hope and they are expelled as in France and Italy, we must raise our voices to demand of governments and society a gesture of solidarity that make us not to lose all hope.

On April 8 we must go out with a smile and with an outstretched hand to whoever wants to hold it. And who wants to listen to us we should explain them how we really are. Let our people not to look as the perverted and false image that is being offered of us in some media. That despite what they saw and heard in the mouths of other Roma, their manifestations are exclusively entitled to them and they are not at all representative of what the majority of Spanish Gypsies think and feel.

On the 8th we must feel the pride of belonging to a great people. We are more than fourteen million people all over the world. Fourteen million people with a common history, a common language and with a largely shared culture and with the manifest desire to remain being what we are: XXI century’s Gypsies.

At the same time we must make an effort so that no one is shocked. We are Spanish Gypsies, as the Gypsies of the neighboring countries are French or Portuguese, and the vast majority of us are European citizens.

On the 8th, our president Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia will participate in Sibiu ( Romania ) in the VIII International Congress of the Romani Union and the day after he will be in Brussels to raise his voice in the European Parliament building to testify, once again, our infinite desire of coexistence with the rest of society.

From the Romani Union we call upon all citizens to join us this day of such international importance.

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TO ALL ALLIES: IF YOU CAN, PLEASE ATTEND INTERNATIONAL ROMANI DAY CELEBRATIONS WHERE YOU LIVE. ON VASHON, IT'S THE FLAMENCO SHOW AT THE GRANGE.
TO THOSE WHO CANNOT ATTEND PLEASE LIGHT CANDLES, TALK TO PEOPLE ABOUT THE REALITIES OF THE ROMANI PEOPLE AND VISIT WATER/
PLEASE SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THE ROMANI PEOPLE.
MORGAN