SWITZERLAND

SWITZERLAND: ROMA TRAVEL IN SEARCH OF WINTER ASYLUM
BY ISABELLE EICHENBERGER, SWISSINFO

FROM EURASIAVIEW

http://www.eurasiareview.com/12022012-switzerland-roma-travel-in-search-of-winter-asylum/

PHOTO: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Roma_travel_in_search_of_winter_asylum.html?cid=32089414

 

 The number of Serbian asylum seekers, generally Roma, has peaked in Switzerland in recent months.
This “winter tourism” can be explained by the worsening quality of life for this persecuted community not only in Serbia but also in Kosovo.

The phenomenon first appeared after the lifting of travel restrictions for citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia to the Schengen zone, including Switzerland, in December 2009.
Most arrivals came from disadvantaged social groups, above all the Roma, who came looking for work despite knowing that they didn’t have the right to political asylum.

“Local agencies even offered direct coach trips,” said Michael Glauser, spokesman for the Federal Migration Office.

“These people knew Switzerland granted return assistance worth SFr600 ($650). This has since been reduced to SFr100 – to cover the trip back – and the requests have dropped as a consequence.”

However, this influx has recently started to increase again: last year, 1,217 requests for asylum out of a total of 22,551 were made by Serbs, most of them Roma. Half of these applications were made in November and December.

Board and lodging

“We can only suppose that half of these people, who often live in make-shift camps, come to spend winter in Switzerland where they know they’ll get board and lodging for the duration of their application. That can’t be ruled out,” Glauser said.

What is certain is that the Roma, well informed about the various asylum laws, know that the two- or three-month process in Switzerland is longer than in similar countries such as Norway and the Netherlands.

The Swiss Refugee Council, an umbrella group for Swiss refugee organisations, agrees with the “winter tourism” theory to an extent.

“There were many Roma refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo who have been living in a risky situation since 1999. They know they have no chance [of getting asylum in Switzerland], but they know our legal weak spots,” said Beat Meiner, the council’s head.

The economic crisis which hit Europe hasn’t helped. According to Meiner, “the Roma are often more than happy to find temporary refuge in welcome centres or even civil protection shelters”.

Unemployment

Amnesty International is sceptical. “It might be true that the Roma are more likely to leave during the cold season, but I don’t think they do it with the sole intention of spending the winter somewhere,” said Denise Graf from the human rights organisation.

“They could also go to Germany or other countries which suspend deportation of rejected asylum seekers during the winter – unlike Switzerland.”

Glauser confirms that “deportations continue after the final decision on an asylum request”.
Amnesty is concerned above all by the worsening situation of Roma refugees in Serbia.

“The problem is economic because, tied to the ethnic issue, a full 97 per cent of them are unemployed,” Graf said.

Discrimination

A new problem has arisen with property speculation.

“The Roma are starting to be forced out of their lodgings,” according to the latest report by Nicola Duckworth, responsible for Europe and Asia for Amnesty.

“In Belgrade, their houses are being razed to make space for property projects of the Serbian state. They are neither relocated nor given social aid.”

Elsewhere, there’s the resurgence of tensions in the Kosovan city of Mitrovica, where the Serb minority still rejects the Albanian-speakers’ declaration of independence in 2008.

“The violence which broke out last summer has a direct influence on the situation of the large number of Roma in Mitrovica,” Graf said.

“What’s more, we’re worried about Roma in other parts of Kosovo, because they have often been accused of collaborating with the Serbs during the war.”

Poor image

In Switzerland too, the Roma have a poor image among the population.

“Here, like elsewhere, they’re considered vagrants and thieves – to the point that Roma who are integrated prefer not to say where they’re from,” said Cristina Kruck, from the Zurich-based Rroma Foundation.

In Lausanne and Geneva, police regularly break up unauthorised camps set up under bridges or in parks. Begging – not to mention prostitution – have increased, which the authorities have tackled to varying degrees and with varying levels of success.

As for the situation in the Balkans, Graf called on Switzerland to “exert pressure on its partners in Serbia and Kosovo so that the aid granted by the European Union towards the reintegration of Roma reaches its destination”.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) responded that “in the matter of international cooperation, the SDC is aware of a latent risk of withdrawing the means made available”.

It added that methods existed to offset this risk, such as independent audits and assessments of the projects’ progress – progress to which the payments are tied.
(Translated from French by Thomas Stephens)

PORRAIMOS

ROMANI PEOPLE FACE PREJUDICE, OPPRESSION

FROM THE GAZETTE OPINION STAFF

http://thegazette.com/2012/02/13/romani-people-face-prejudice-oppression/
jeff.tecklenburg@gazcomm.com

PHOTO:
www.grthm.co.uk


On Jan. 27, Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist held a Holocaust Remembrance Service for the Romani people (gypsies). Much of what I knew of the Romani people before this service was based on misinformation — gypsies cheat, steal and curse you. Prejudices and oppression are based on misinformation. The Romani are a wonderful people with a rich history dating back thousands of years to their origins in India.

Did you know that tens of thousands of Romani were killed during World War II? Did you know the United Nations Association has refused to allow the Romani to be part of its Holocaust Remembrance Services? And did you know that many of the Romani people in Europe today are being abused, oppressed, even euthanized? Even Romani who are in the United States are afraid of experiencing prejudice. Some were afraid to attend the Remembrance Service because they felt there might be consequences if they were identified as Romani — loss of business, accused of cheating/stealing and being treated as outsiders.

The O Porrajmos Education Society is an organization that is supporting the Romani. The organization helps people learn about this culture and its people. The Romani people believe that after they die, their soul will remain alive so long as they are remembered. My hope is that we will not forget them and we will begin to look into the atrocities that are perpetrated on them.

Rev. Tom Capo
Peoples Church
Unitarian Universalist
Cedar Rapids
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Millions of Romani were murdered during the Porraimos.  I do wish people would accept that fact.
Morgan
.

SLOVAKIA

SLOVAK NATIONALIST USING ANTI-ROMANI BILLBOARDS IN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN

FROM ROMEA.CZ

http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3149#.TzMAmGVkb8o.email

The nationalist Slovak National Party (Slovenská národní strana - SNS) has once again decided to use anti-Romani billboards in its campaign prior to the parliamentary elections in March. The opposition party, which has been hovering in public opinion polls around the threshold required to be elected, made similar moves prior to the 2010 elections.

"How long are we going to lose on the gypsies? Let's change it!" the opposition SNS announces on one of its billboards, which juxtaposes a photo of Romani people outside an apartment building with an image of party head Ján Slota. On another billboard, the SNS warns voters that another political party has included a Romani man on its candidate list.

The SNS played the anti-Romani card two years ago. A billboard with the party's logo depicted a half-dressed, obese Romani man and the slogan "Let's not feed those who don't want to work". After charges that the SNS was conducting a racist campaign, the party had the billboards papered over.

SNS is facing criticism from NGOs over the current campaign. The party is defending itself by saying it is merely pointing out the need to address Romani people's bad social situation. Many Romani people live in settlements where the hygienic conditions are unsuitable and there is no electricity or other form of energy. Several hundred thousand Romani people are estimated to live in Slovakia.

In the past, international organizations have warned that Romani people are discriminated against in Slovakia and that the situation is deteriorating. Today the Slovak Parliament, at the suggestion of the opposition, halted discussion of a controversial bill drafted by MPs aligned with the coalition government that would have reduced state benefits to parents caring for small children by one-half should the parents have been unemployed for a long time.

The authors of the bill made no secret of the fact that their initiative is also aimed against Romani people who do not seek work and rely completely on state welfare. The lower house is to discuss a similar bill which would make it possible to reduce the state's contribution to parents from the moment a child is born.

In addition to its anti-Romani campaign, the nationalist SNS is also using slogans targeting neighboring Hungary. "We've been defending Slovak land for 140 years. Orbán's boat is sinking," is the SNS message, which references Hungary's economic problems under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Prior to the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovakia was part of Hungary. SNS head Slota, who is known for his anti-Hungarian invective, has repeatedly claimed in the past that Budapest has not abandoned the idea of reviving "Greater Hungary". He has also announced that in the south of Slovakia, many members of the Hungarian minority live, there is a risk that the region will declare autonomy.

Czech Press Agency, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
ROMEA

U.S MARINES

US Marines posed with Nazi symbol in Afghanistan

By JULIE WATSON | Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS — a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.

The Corps said in a statement that using the symbol was not acceptable, but the Marines in the photograph taken in September 2010 will not be disciplined because investigators determined it was a naïve mistake.

The Marines believed the SS symbol was meant to represent sniper scouts and never intended to be associated with a racist organization, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, where the Marines were based

.
“I don’t believe that the Marines involved would have ever used any type of symbol associated the Nazi Germany military criminal organization that committed mass atrocities in WWII,” Chapin said. “It’s not within who we are as Marines.”

The Corps has used the incident as a training tool to talk to troops about what symbols are acceptable after it became aware of the photograph last November, Chapin said.

The image has since surfaced on an Internet blog, sparking widespread outrage and calls for a full investigation and punishment, including bringing those in the photograph and anyone who condoned it to court martial.

“This is a complete and total outrage,” said Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M.

His organization sent a letter to the head of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday, demanding punishment for those involved.

It was the second time this year the Marine Corps has had to do damage control for actions of its troops. It’s also investigating a separate group of Marines recorded on video urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters..

“First we have Marines peeing on dead bodies and now this,” Weinstein said.
The Marines in the photograph are no longer with the unit. Chapin said she did not know if they are still in the Corps.

In the photo taken in the Afghanistan town of Sangin, the Marine Corps unit is posing with guns in front of an American flag and a large, dark blue flag with what appear to be the letters “SS” in the shape of white jagged lightning bolts.

Camp Pendleton spokesman, Master Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva, said he did not know where the flag came from but it was likely the property of one of the Marines in the photograph.

The photograph appeared on the blog for a military weapons company called Knight’s Armament in Titusville, Fla. The company did not respond to emails or phone messages left by The Associated Press.

The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was the police and military force of the Nazi Party, which was distinct from the general army. Members pledged an oath of loyalty to Adolph Hitler.

SS units were held responsible for many war crimes and played an integral role in the extermination of millions of Jews along with gypsies and other people who were deemed undesirable. The SS was declared to be a criminal organization at the Nuremberg war crime trials.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, said he does not buy the explanation that posing with the flag was an innocent mistake and insisted the American public has a right to know what happened.

“If you look at any book on the Nazi period, this is the dreaded symbol of the SS, and to have a Marine Corps unit adopt it and put it beside the American flag when 200,000 Americans died to free the world of that dreaded symbol is just beyond the pale,” he said

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What more can I say.  Either these Marines are racist, anti semetic warriors (paid for by the United States taxpayers), or they are naive beyond belief, in which case, one must question their intelligence to carry guns.  What is the Marine Corp teaching its recruits.
Of course, that is a rhetorical question.
Morgan

HUNGARY

OFFICIAL TERROR FOR HUNGARY'S ROMA


FROM THE GLOBE MAIL


http://www.theglobalmail.org/ feature/official -terror-for- hungarys- roma/35/

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/official-terror-for-hungarys-roma/35/


BY CHARLES MCPHEDRAN


PETRA HAJDU CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

PHOTO: www.jaibhim.hu

Torch-lit marches, school segregation and talk of labour camps
has the Roma fearing for their lives after the far-right party Jobbik came to power in Gyöngyöspata.

Just an hour from Budapest, the shabby Paris of Central Europe, a small town is experiencing a sort of Year Zero. Many in the town say a new era of fascist terror and violence has begun.

Towards the eastern edges of the European Union, Gyöngyöspata is a Hungarian community of 2,500 people, where the far-right, nationalist, anti-Roma party Jobbik has taken power. The party, according to many residents, has made "Nazi"-style violence official municipal policy.

Northern Hungary's beauty masks its poverty. Gyöngyöspata is set amid small fields filled with grape vines cracked by the winter wind. Its surrounds are less fertile than the northern European landscapes. From afar, the town could be a smaller version of Cooma, New South Wales.

Eight months ago, Europe briefly noticed - and then forgot - Gyöngyöspata.

Last Easter, the Red Cross came to temporarily evacuate most of the Romani families from the town after weeks of torch-lit parades by fascist paramilitary groups. The militia were affiliated with Jobbik.

Jobbik is today Hungary's second-strongest political force, after Viktor Orbán's Fidesz Party. With 47 representatives in the 386-seat national assembly and three members of the European Parliament in Brussels, Jobbik is rapidly growing. Having won 16 per cent at the national poll two years ago, the party now has the support of between a fifth and a quarter of Hungarian voters nationwide, depending on which opinion poll you read.

The Roma are Hungary's largest minority; they arrived from the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries. Although a recent official census estimated they made up two per cent of the population, it's widely acknowledged that that number significantly underestimates the true population figure, which thought to be between five and ten per cent.

Romani  children comprise 20 percent of children born in Hungary today. But they leave school early - just 13 per cent complete high school - and about 80 per cent end up unemployed.

During the Second World War, 28,000 Roma lost their
lives in Hungary.

JOBBIK LEADERS say that Romani crime in the town was out of control before they staged that march. And while Hungary does not breakdown statistics by race, some residents in the town back them.

"I was afraid to walk home from the bus stop back then," said one retiree, who didn't want to be identified.

But the reaction of the paramilitaries connected with Jobbik awoke memories of the 1920s and '30s. Video from that Easter weekend shows the Romani families in the town - accompanied by a few centre-left MPs from Budapest and a couple of trendy, urban types - cowering and singing the Hungarian national anthem as the
militias march past them and on into the Romani quarter of the town.

Thereafter, everyone quickly forgot about Gyöngyöspata. Just a few weeks after Fukushima, and with the war in Libya continuing, the travails of a small Central European country just didn't register.

Yet the atmosphere in Gyöngyöspata continued to grow more charged.

Jobbik won power there in July last year. The town is now one of four Hungarian communities governed by the party.

Since it won the local election, Jobbik has been using Gyöngyöspata to trial many of its national policies.

The town's school is segregated into Roma and Hungarian classes.
The town's unemployed, mostly Roma, were among the first Hungarians put to work in a government-backed labour camp last year, where they gathered wood and planted trees under police supervision in exchange for unemployment benefits. Another,
more permanent camp now is planned for the Northern spring. And accounts from residents suggest that the Magyar Gárda, the latest incarnation of the party's paramilitary force, now has taken over the police force and the civil defence units common in rural Hungary for centuries.

The Hungarian CivilLiberties Union accuses the municipality of fuelling inter-ethnic conflict, making the situation "much worse" than most other towns in rural Hungary.

Ferenc Nagy collects scrap metal in the town. He's an ethnic Hungarian at the bottom of the pile, but he knows everyone. "I know the streets and I know the people," he tells my interpreter. "I know which streets are afraid of each other."

Nagy begins to tell the story of his town, as he sees it. "There was a normal mayor and then the Jobbik mayor. The Jobbik mayor is using the Gárda to keep him in power. They run the civil police.

There are beatings happening every
night.

"A couple of days ago they took up a Hungarian onto the hill above the town. They beat him really badly."

While we are talking to Nagy, a handful of Roma kids pile out of their school. "My Jobbik classmate told me he'd hit me with an axe," a 13-year-old boy yells at us. He doesn't seem distressed.

Down the street from the school, the Gyöngyöspata town hall is crammed with Hungarian folk kitsch. Stout, suspicious men bustle around; we overhear that there is to be a "restructure" in the municipality.

The mayor has gone away for a few days, the receptionist says, so he can't talk to The Global Mail.

Instead the acting mayor, Gárbor Pichler, beckons us into his office.

While Pichler says he is "not personally" a Gárda member, the khaki-coloured shirt he is wearing looks very close to the paramilitaries' uniform. And the Gárda crest is on his desk.

For Pichler, the troubles in Gyöngyöspata date back to 2006, when Hungary first experienced the global financial crisis, well before the rest of the world.

The socialist government at the time introduced tough austerity measures because of a large fiscal deficit prompted by high government spending, low competitiveness and an aging population. The country applied for an IMF loan in
2008.

"There was a lot of crime then, it wasn't a local phenomenon. But ever since the 1990s, we've known that the minority commits more crime. There's even an [academic] criminological category called 'gypsy crime.'

Pichler points out that there was only one policeman patrolling the town at the start of the troubles. Today, he says, residents are no longer fearful:

"That is because we punish even the smallest crime, like the theft of three grapes."

Pichler bemoans the high unemployment rate in the town, which has been ailing since the final years of communism. His solution is to make "the unemployed poor people work clearing the streets or planting the forests" in the region surrounding the town.

He also wants them to work at a new, permanent animal-breeding farm located on the edge of the town, which is due to open in the spring. Thanks to the farm, he says, the town will be "self-sufficient. " In the long term he hopes there'll be a network of Jobbik-controlled communities independent of the Hungarian
government, "working for the common good and trading with each other."

Pichler doesn't mention that 36 of the 40 conscripted for the labour camp last year were Roma.

Back in Budapest, Márton Gyöngyösi sees Gyöngyöspata as a harbinger of where Hungary is headed.

Jobbik's deputy parliamentary leader says the Gárda and the
party working together have solved the town's crime and unemployment problems.

"It was unbearable in Gyöngyöspata. The people themselves saw that the police were incapable of solving the problem. So they called on the Magyar Gárda, which appeared and it solved the problem." Gyöngyösi says.

"The mayor resigned under the pressure because he could not deal with public order.

New elections were held; Jobbik's candidate won by a landslide," he says.

"This shows, in my interpretation, that the solution offered by Jobbik was much appreciated by the inhabitants. "

Gyöngyösi is quick to deny that Jobbik runs the Magyar Gárda. He says that the group - formed by people who were simply "worried about public security" - is not an arm of the party.

Indeed, "the only link is Mr Gárbor Vona personally, who is the president of Jobbik and president of Magyar Gárda," he says,
explaining that Vona joined the Gárda to lend it more "political
legitimacy."

Although Gyöngyösi said that the Gárda do not carry weapons, The Global Mail has found evidence in Gyöngyöspata that appears to disprove his statements.

János Farkas is a Roma civil rights leader in Gyöngyöspata. The side of his house, in the rundown Romani quarter at the bottom of the hill, has a small black patch on it, a kind of surface burn. The top floor of his neighbour's house is completely burnt out on the inside.

The family living in it was attacked in 2006, he says. While he describes the attack as "a bit of a Nazi thing," for Farkas 2006 was a gentler time in Gyöngyöspata.

The Roma leader says that things really started to go bad when Jobbik took power. "With the old mayor, the democratic mayor, you had your disagreements, but at least you could talk things over."

Now, he says, "that Nazi," Pichler, is "terrorising" the Romani residents of the town. He shows me the official town Christmas card that Pichler sent him.

"Wishing you a very HAPPY, PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR rich in success: Gyöngyöspata," the card reads.

The image printed on it shows Pichler, dressed in black, surrounded by three Gárda with hunting rifles.
Farkas says he's afraid to leave his house. The police, he asserts, have been
taken over by the Gárda.

"They want to put all of us in jail," he yells, a claim backed by a
representative of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union in Budapest a few days later:

"There are 470 Roma in Gyöngyöspata. [Of those] 420 have been fined by the police for this, that and the other. The point being is that you give them a fine, they cannot pay the fine, and then you put them in prison."

Farkas says he attempted to report several police officers for sympathising with the Gárda - and he was fined for doing so.

As we are leaving, Farkas asks for a few coins, anything. He seems
desperate.

Later, one of Farkas's Budapest friends, the Australian filmmaker and civil-rights activist John Rado, tells me that, like many impoverished Romani families in Hungary today, the family "is on its last legs."

"His son is a very good friend of mine. And I can see that his life has been completely and totally destroyed," Rado said.

"One night [the son] rang me, and he could hear the plates clinking and he said, 'Oh, you've just had dinner - to your health.' An hour later, after I put the phone down, I realised that there was a tone in his voice…that he didn't have enough food for his family."

The situation for many in Gyöngyöspata's Romani community is bad now, and their future may not be any better.

Jobbik's ideas about how to deal with the unemployment and crime problems facing Hungary's Roma are electorally popular.

And the party continues to plan new solutions to the "Roma question."

Márton Gyöngyösi, Jobbik's deputy parliamentary leader, says "one solution" that the party is interested in trying out is the removal of Romani children from their families - to solve the problem of intergenerational unemployment amongst Romani
families.

"We have been saying that taking gypsy children into boarding schools - where they are taken out of the Roma community that pulls them back and shows them a bad example - that could be a good solution," Gyöngyösi says.

That plan will probably not be implemented while Jobbik is in opposition, a Hungarian Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman tells The Global Mail.

She says that the Fidesz-led governing coalition is not likely to vote for a measure of that kind, which she calls "openly racist."

Still, some believe that Hungary may be headed for intercommunal violence, whether the forced removal of Romani children occurs or not.

Hungarian-Australia n activist John Rado says the Roma "can't stand it anymore.

"They're being attacked in very, very powerful ways," Rado says, "and they're frightened for their lives.

"There is a fear that one day they'll react en masse," he says. "And at that point, they'll be struck very hard."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please visit the website
http://www.thegloba lmail.org/ feature/official -terror-for- hungarys- roma/35/
to see some heartwrenching pictures.
Morgan
PS.  The promoters of hate are on the rise everywhere, not least of which is in the United States.  The Pacific Northwest is once again a place where right wing 'survivalists' are congregating.
The world is a scary place for those lacking in power.

U.S. HELSINKI COMMISSION

U.S. Helsinki Commission to hold hearing on violence against Roma

WASHINGTON—

Today the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) announced the following hearing:

 

Building Bridges – or Burning Them?

 

The Escalation of Violence against Roma in Europe

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

2:00 p.m.

B-318 Rayburn House Office Building

Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe today (estimated at over 12 million). But over the past 20 years, they have been caught in a downward spiral of profound social exclusion and economic marginalization.

To make matters worse, since 2007, there has been an escalation of violence against Roma, including by sniper fire, Molotov cocktail attacks, and anti-Roma rioting. Anti-Roma political discourse may further inflame an already combustible situation.

This hearing will examine the factors contributing to the escalation of violence in the region, the potential risks for countries that fail to bring this phenomenon under control, and recommendations for steps to counter these human rights violations.

The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:

• Andrzej Mirga, Senior Advisor on Romani Issues, OSCE

• Dezideriu Gergely, Executive Director of the European Roma Rights Center

###

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

FROM ROMA COMMUNITY CENTER

PHOTO:

A Romani family in The Kirtimai settlement in Vilnius.

www.errc.org

Dear Friends,

We, the Roma Community Centre, would like to draw your immediate attention to the impending planned demolition of the houses of four Romani families in Vilnius, Lithuania. The situation is especially urgent in the light of the extreme weather conditions and the fact that all of the families have children under 12 years of age.

On 27th January 2012 four Romani families, residing in the informal settlement of Kirtimai on the outskirts of Vilnius, Lithuania, received notifications that their houses are to be demolished at 8.00 am on 13th February 2012. The decisions are based on the conclusions of the Vilnius District Courts between the years 2010 and 2011 as regards the illegality of the buildings.

As the court decisions were taken among several cases almost two years ago, the motivation to carry them out now in February, which is usually the coldest month, is unclear. Out of the 10 people in the three houses concerned, there are seven children under 12 years of age, including a six-month-old infant. The temperature in Lithuania in the current period reaches -30 degrees. The local authorities are not providing any alternative housing solution for the families facing eviction.

Unfortunately, this event contradicts the effort of Lithuanian authorities to close the gap between the Roma minority and the majority of the population, as was stated, when committing to submit the National Roma Integration Strategy under the framework of the European Commission.

Furthermore, the planned evictions violate numerous human rights provisions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

We would like to bring the attention of the international community to this precarious situation and ask them to support us in demanding:

1. suspension of the eviction until suitable weather conditions

2. provision of alternative housing to the Roma families

Thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,

Roma Community Centre

For more information please contact:

Ana Rozanova

Email: ana.rozanova@gmail.com

Website: www.roma.lt

MEMORIAL TO JOHANN TROLLMANN

FROM ROMEDIA FOUNDATION

http://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/johann-trollmann-sinti-roma-boxer-who-fought-against-nazi-germany/

PHOTO

Sculpture 9841 in Viktoria Park, Berlin fittingly beneath the trees.

(Please visit the above site for more pictures)

Boxing often divides opinion. Some see it as an artform and an exhibition of strength and skill, while its critics view it as a chauvinist display of brutality.

Regardless of your feelings on the sport, the story of Johann Trollmann is one of heroic tragedy.

Born in Hannover in 1907, Trollmann was raised as one of eleven in a Sinti family in the old town of the German city.

From the age of eight Trollmann was showing great talent in the ring and his reputation would go from strength to strength in his teens when he practiced with the BC Heros Hannover and BC Sparta Hannover-Linden.

Noted for his speed, agility and surprising power Trollmann became known as “Rukeli” which stemmed from the Romani word for tree ‘ruk’.

Opponents were unable to shake “Rukeli” during his days as an amateur as he won four regional championships and a North German championship.

In 1928, Trollmann seemed destined to represent Germany at the Olympic Games in Stockholm but officials refused his participation on the grounds of his supposedly “yellow, non-German style.”

This was to be his first but by no means last encounter with racism.
With typical tenacity and determination, Trollmann turned professional two years later in Berlin as he now had a point to prove to the German boxing authorities.

Very quickly his dynamic approach and technical talent saw Rukeli win swathes of admirers, many of whom were female.

In 1932 Trollmann fought an amazing 32 times but while his box-office appeal grew he began to draw unwanted attention from fascist media who labeled him “the gypsy in the ring.”

After Jews were officially banned from the sport, the light heavyweight title was made vacant by Jewish boxer Erich Seelig who had fled the country.

Suddenly, albeit in sad circumstances, Trollmann had a shot at glory as he was paired with Adolf Witt on 9 June 1933 in a contest for the unoccupied belt.

The fight was politically charged, with Witt playing the role of the Aryan who would supposedly make light work of his Sinti opponent. However, the “Tree” was not going to be chopped down easily.

Indeed Trollmann dominated the fight for six rounds before the chairman of the boxing authority, by now a member of Hitler’s party, ordered that the judges call a “no decision.”

Uproar followed among the large crowd of knowledgeable boxing fans to such an extent that the authorities had to revoke their decision and declare Trollmann champion.

This dramatic success saw an emotional Trollmann shed tears of both sadness and joy in the ring. While naturally, he was overjoyed with winning the title he had also lost his father William (pictured above) to a fatal stomach illness earlier that year.

Hitler was known to be an admirer of boxing and was keen to see his idea of the master race being superior to all others, especially Jews, Roma and Sinti, so the sight of Trollmann succeeding agitated the German leader.

Predictably, Trollmann’s reign was short-lived. One week later he was notified that he would be stripped of his belt for what boxing authorities claimed to be “disgraceful behavior” and “bad boxing”.
The following month, having been warned to change his flamboyant style and told not “to dance like a gypsy”, Trollmann dyed his hair blonde and used flour to whiten his body before taking to the ring and losing against Gustav Eder.

It was a courageous show of defiance against the Nazi regime that would be his last act in German professional boxing.

As the Nazi regime exerted their authority more and more vigorously, the Sinti were given equal status to Jews in 1938 with sterilization the only way of avoiding being sentenced to a concentration camp.

Fearful for his life, Trollmann opted for sterilization and divorced his non-Sinti wife in order to protect her and their daughter.

Having served time in a Labour camp, he was called up to the German army in 1939 and served in several countries before being discharged for racial reasons in 1942.

That summer, Trollmann was arrested in his home town of Hannover and transported to the KZ Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg.

Here he was soon recognized by an SS boxing referee and ordered to help train the German soldiers despite long days of excruciating labor rendering Trollmann a frail shadow of his former self.

After other prisoners conspired to fake Trollmann’s death, he was transported to Wittenberge in 1943 but soon his boxing fame brought more sinister attention.

This time he was forced to fight one of the camp’s highest ranking officers, Emil Cornelius, and despite years of brutal treatment under the Nazis, Trollmann won.

It was to be Rukeli’s last stand as a fighter. In an act of cowardly revenge, Cornelius murdered Trollmann in front of other prisoners during forced labor duties.

Johann “Rukeli” Trollmann died on 9^th March 1944 at the age of just 36. One of his younger brothers Henry had also been killed four months earlier at Auschwitz. Overcome with grief, their mother Friedirike died in 1946 in Hannover.

His younger brother Albert “Benny” Trollmann, who was also a keen boxer and learned much from Johann, died of a stomach illness in 1991 at the age of 78 in Hannover.

Seventy years after winning the title, his surviving family members including his daughter Rita Vowe and great nephew Manuel Trollmann were given his championship belt and he has been posthumously listed officially as a German champion at light heavyweight

In the summer of 2011 a temporary memorial was erected in his honour in Hannover and Berlin. It was named 9841, Trollmann’s prisoner number at Neuengamme

The artists (The Bewegung Nurr and Florian Gopfert) said that the sloped sculpture aimed to represent the struggle which the great boxer faced with such dignity throughout his career and in his later life against the discrimination and terror of the Nazi regime.
-
The Romedia Foundation will soon launch “The Requiem for Auschwitz” as part of a large-scale European project to raise awareness and change attitudes toward the plight of Roma in the genocide.

The goal of this multi-faceted effort is to use tools of education and culture to reconnect Roma and Sinti populations of Europe to the legacy of the Holocaust and thereby foster greater understanding and tolerance toward them and help them address the challenges they face today.

The international partners for the project are the ALFA Foundation/International Gypsy Festival (Holland), Romano Kher National Centre (Romania) for Roma Culture, Philarmonischer Verein der Sinti und Roma (Germany), Slovo 21 (Czech Republic), Roma People Association (Poland) and the Romedia Foundation (Hungary).

More details can be found here – http://www.requiemforauschwitz.eu/

DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION

PRESS RELEASE

FROM THE DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION SECRETARIAT FOUNDATION

www.romadecade.org

United States of America Joins the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015

PHOTO:

Faces of poverty, faces of hope. Vulnerability profiles of Roma population ...

www.vulnerabiliy.undp.sk

Budapest, February 6, 2012: 

The Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation congratulates the Government of the United States for its decision to join the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 Initiative as an observer.

Announcing the decision in Sofia, Bulgaria, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

“For too long, Roma citizens have been marginalized and isolated, prevented from contributing their talents and participating in their societies. This is a critical matter of human rights, and it affects millions of men, women, and children across the continent.”
The U.S. move highlighted the international community’s interest in Roma inclusion and gave new impetus to the political commitment of the European countries to improve the socio-economic status of the Roma.

The Decade of Roma Inclusion is a unique forum that brings together governments, international organizations and civil society to address exclusion of Romani communities. Seven years into the initiative, it is time for intensifying cooperation and synergies between Decade partners and transforming the commitment into results.

We urge the Western European countries to join the initiative and jointly reinforce the core mission of the Decade of Roma Inclusion: to eliminate discrimination and close the unacceptable gaps between Roma and the rest of society!

The Decade Secretariat warmly welcomes the United States of America into the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 family.

Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 -2015 is an international initiative of 12 European governments:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Spain. Slovenia has an observer status.
Partners of the initiative are the non-governmental organization from mentioned countries and following international and intergovernmental organizations:
 World Bank, the Open Society Institute (OSI), the Roma Education Fund (REF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Council of Europe, the Council of Europe Development Bank, the Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ODHIR), the European Roma Information Office (ERIO), the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the World Health Organization (WHO).

The initiative was launched on February 2, 2005 in Sofia – Bulgaria.

Adem Ademi

Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat FoundationTerez krt 46, 4th floor
1066 Budapest
Hungary

Phone: +36-1-411-1325

Fax: +36-1-411-1326

Cell:+36-30-641-49-86

aademi@decadesecretariat.org

http://www.romadecade.org/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess any recognition is good news, but I remain cynical.  The Decade of the Roma began in 2005.  The conditions and treatment of Romani across Europe remain dire.
That said, I still want to thank Hilary.  She's been consistent in her support.
Morgan

ALBANIA

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PRESS RELEASE

PHOTO: www.philandmel.wordpress.com

3 February 2012
Albania: Temporary solutions are no solutions for evicted Roma families in Tirana

The Albanian authorities must immediately provide adequate housing for around 35 Roma families who face imminent forced eviction or have already been forcibly evicted, Amnesty International said today.

“Dozens of Romani people, including the elderly and small children, are facing winter on the streets – without a roof over their heads, without any certainty about their future security or adequate assistance from the authorities. Adults will find it difficult to support their families, the infirm – to access healthcare, children will not be able to go to school,” said Jezerca, Tigani, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.

“This is the result of decades of failure by the authorities to provide adequate housing to Roma, and other vulnerable groups in Albania, despite their national and international obligations.”

Sixteen families face an imminent forced eviction from a site near an artificial lake where they took refuge after they fled a site near Tirana railway station, together with a dozen other families, after being attacked by outsiders a year ago.

The authorities did not offer protection from the attacks or adequate housing but instead offered the Roma families alternative tented accommodation at a riverside site at Babrru, on the outskirts of Tirana.

The majority of the families refused to go to Babrru which they considered to be dangerous for children, lacking necessary facilities, and offering inadequate protection from bad weather. Instead they built sheds near an artificial lake in Tirana, alongside seven Roma families who had already settled there several years ago.

On 21 January 2012, officials from Tirana Municipality reportedly visited the site and told them to leave, without offering any alternative accommodation. The Roma families pulled down their sheds to save the building materials from the bulldozers and left on 24 January. On 27 January 16 of these families, unable to find another site, returned to the artificial lake and rebuilt their sheds and now face another forced eviction.

10 families from the Tirana railway station side did move to the Babrru tented site but have since been forced to leave due to a dispute over unpaid rent between the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and the landowner.

On 1 February, these families sought shelter and assistance from the People’s Advocate (Ombudsperson) who had found living conditions at the site to be very poor, lacking water, electricity, heating and medical supplies for children many of whom had suffered from ill health and malnutrition during a period of sub-zero temperatures.

They set up their tents in the courtyard of the Ombudsperson’s office and on 2 February, it was reported they would be temporarily re-housed in a school gymnasium.

None of these families was consulted or provided with adequate or formal notice of eviction.

“The Albanian authorities are violating international law when they force people out of their homes without legal protection or alternative accommodation,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“Thirty-five families are in urgent need of adequate homes. A school gymnasium is not adequate housing and nor does this address the issue of compensation for the destruction of homes, possessions and loss of income which the authorities have a duty to provide.”

Under international law, evictions may be carried out only as a last resort, once other alternatives have been explored in consultation with the affected communities. The authorities should then provide them with adequate and formal notice of eviction. The authorities must ensure that no families are made homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights as a consequence of eviction.

Public Document

________________________
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
email: press@amnesty.org

ROMANI KIDS IN ROMANIA

Policy Center Flagship Project Addresses Enormous Gap in Educational Opportunities for Roma Children, Documentary Shows

02/02/2012 - Journalist Laura Onita has released a short film on the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to positive growth and a good education that Roma children face in Romania. The extreme poverty, hunger, deprivation and racially-motivated, systemic prejudice experienced by Roma children daily prevent them from either entering the formal education system altogether or from performing well, graduating and moving on to the next levels. When they are not out working to support their families, the two thirds of Roma children who do attend primary and secondary school find it difficult to catch up with peers who do not miss meals, live in nurturing environments and are not put down daily because of who they are.

The second part of the documentary highlights Policy Center’s alternative education program as a one-of-a kind opportunity for Roma children to learn and grow in a positive environment, while gaining the confidence that they, too, can achieve excellence. The personalized academic support, individual attention and care afforded to the children by the Alternative Education Club’s staff and volunteers work wonders for the children’s progress and self-esteem, as documented by Ms. Oniță’s camera.

Laura Oniță lives and works in London as a freelance journalist.

WATCH THE VIDEO AT

http://www.policycenter.eu/en/policy-center-flagship-project-addresses-enormous-gap-in-educational-opportunities-for-roma-children-documentary-shows

OR
http://vimeo.com/33616648

THEATER IN HUNGARY

PROTESTS USHER IN FAR-RIGHT THEATRE DIRECTOR IN HUNGARY

BY NICK THORPE

FROM BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16843913

PHOTO: A GROUP OF FAR-RIGHT PROTESTERS CAME TO DEMONSTRATE THEIR SUPPORT FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF GYORGY DORNERA

Rival rallies have taken place in Budapest over the appointment of an actor, known for his far-right views, as director of a prominent theatre.

Gyorgy Dorner was picked to direct the New Theatre in October by the mayor of Budapest, Istvan Tarlos.

He is associated with the far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party.

The party was set up by a playwright, Istvan Csurka, in 1992 but no longer has MPs.

It has now largely been eclipsed by another far-right group, Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary - which won nearly 17% of the vote at the last elections.
'Instil patriotism'
"We want to use our own tools to make it possible to say proudly, I love my country, I am a Hungarian, a Christian Hungarian, and I live according to European Christian moral values," Dorner said in a recent chat show on Echo TV.

The new director, who has also contributed the Hungarian soundtrack to Bruce Willis films, insists he will put on only plays by Hungarian authors and with Hungarian directors, in order to "instil a sense of patriotism in the audience".

Istvan Marta, the director of the New Theatre (Hungarian: Uj Szinhaz) for the past 13 years, told the BBC that the appointment was "incomprehensible - part of an absurd, even tragicomic drama".

During his time in office, he staged around 90 plays, of which about half were by Hungarian authors.

"Theatre is about openness to the world," he said.

"But what he is trying to do is to close it to the world. This would not be possible in France or England or Germany."

Several actors at the theatre have already announced their intention to quit, others are uncertain what to do.

In response to the uproar, the mayor has asked Gyorgy Dorner to drop two features of the tender with which he won the post.

These are his intention to rename the theatre the Hatorszag, or "Hinterland" theatre, which has militaristic undertones in Hungarian, and his plan to install Istvan Csurka as artistic adviser.

The mayor has also said he will review his decision after a year - even though Gyorgy Dorner's contract is for five years.
Rival protest
Hundreds of mainly liberal and leftist protesters occupied the narrow streets in front of the New Theatre.

A rival group of 200-300 members of the New Hungarian Guard and Civil Guard for a Better Future - both linked to Jobbik - gathered in the boulevard nearby.

At last a Hungarian theatre has a boss who believes in the Hungarian nation”

End Quote Laszlo Attila Protester

The two sets of protesters were kept apart by riot police.

"I tell our skinhead friends, we are Hungarians too, and that we are also here so that the future will be a bit better for them as well in our country," one of the speakers at the rally, lawyer Daniel Peter told the crowd.

"Because the hatred that they represent in bigger and bigger numbers leads nowhere."

"I came to protest against the anti-fascists," said Laszlo Attila, 41, a spokesman for the rival, uniformed protest, from the southern town of Bekescsaba.

"We wholeheartedly support the appointment of Gyorgy Dorner. At last a Hungarian theatre has a boss who believes in the Hungarian nation."

He might now even start going to the theatre himself, he said.
Similar groups affiliated with the far-right were banned, after they marched through largely Roma-populated ghettos in rural Hungarian towns and villages.

But the two far-right groups at this rally are "completely legal" according to Laszlo Attila, who said they had arrived by bus from all over Hungary.

Just why the centre-right Fidesz government allowed the appointment of such a controversial figure as Gyorgy Dorner is a mystery to many Fidesz supporters, while critics of the government say it is proof of collaboration between Fidesz and the far right.

"This is not a government, but a metropolitan issue," Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics told the BBC last October.

"This was a decision of the mayor of Budapest, and we should not interfere... with the autonomy of the city council. So let us see who are the stronger - the supporters or the protesters."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dorner supports the right wing Jobbik party, which is anti-Romani, anti-gay and anti-Semitic
Morgan

A PEOPLE UNCOUNTED

FROM THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

http://www.independent.com/news/2012/jan/28/people-uncounted/

Photo: Courtesy Photo   CEJIA STOKJA AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR AND ARTIST.

A PEOPLE UNCOUNTED

An Interview with Director Aaron Yeger

By Matt Kettmann

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Though the Holocaust only wiped out a half-million of Europe's gypsies — a fraction of the six million or so killed Jews — it did do away with a higher percentage of the Roma, nomads who migrated west from northern India more than 1,000 years ago. This brilliant documentary explores that forgotten saga, their fascinating past, and their still struggling present.
Director Aaron Yeger recently answered a few of my questions via email.

How did you find this story?
The story first came out of a conversation between executive producer Lenny Binder, producer Tom Rasky, and musician Robi Botos. Binder and Rasky, both Jewish and children of Holocaust survivors, were intrigued to learn that Botos, who is Roma, had also lost family in the Holocaust. The duo decided to produce their first documentary to spread the little-known story of the Roma’s fate in the Holocaust (or Porrajmos as it is sometimes called in reference to the Romani people). At the time I was working with producer Marc Swenker and director of photography Stephen Whitehead. Tom Rasky is my cousin, and we all came together as a group to make this documentary, which is one of those rare instances of uncovering an incredibly important story that just absolutely needed to be told. Marc, Stephen, and I are eternally grateful for having been granted the opportunity to work on this film.

Are any of you Roma?
Robi Botos is the sole member of the production team who is Roma, and in addition to inspiring Tom Rasky and Lenny Binder to make this film, he composed the score and plays the piano in it as well. He is remarkably talented. I don't have a personal connection to the Romani experience, but I do have a connection to the Holocaust, as both of my paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and other members of my family were lost. The Jewish Holocaust survivor in the film who recounts observing Roma forcibly taken away to the death camps is my grandfather.

Why have these people been unable or unwilling to assimilate after 1000-plus years?
There are two important aspects to consider here. One is that racism and marginalization can be a self-fulfilling prophesy. The Roma were always treated as outsiders in Europe, as they don't have a nation state to represent them. The more people are pushed to the margins of society, the less they trust other members of the society and authorities, and vice versa. Prejudice thus becomes a cycle, or feedback loop that is very hard to break, and other groups have faced the same type of prejudice and situation. In the film we show comparisons with both Jews and African-Americans in this regard.

Another important part of the equation, as described by Dr. Petrova and Dr. Chalk in the film, is that there is sadly a tendency for societies to scapegoat a group or select a group to be the outcasts so that the majority population can feel superior by comparison. This tendency is at the core of racism itself, and the Roma are not unique in this regard in being targeted by these attitudes, however they have been pushed into that place in society in many countries.

What's the status of today's Roma?
It should be noted that the Roma are a diverse group of people and generalizations about their status can be problematic. That said, racist attitudes and outright persecution and attacks against Roma is increasing in Europe, and this is probably at least in part due to the economic crisis going on right now. The fact that the Holocaust began during the Great Depression is no coincidence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Porriamos wiped out much more than 1/2 a million Romani people.
Morgan.

THE OTHER DAY IN HISTORY

PHOTO:
www.ia-pl.org

January 30 was an active day in history.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

In 1948 Mohandas Gandhi was shot and killed in India.

In 1968 the Tet Offensive (offensive being the operative word here) began during the Vietnam War.

And, in 1972 13 civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

The beat goes on........

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

FROM MOVEON.ORG

PHOTO:

Elora Tocci, a Syracuse University sophomore

www.hercampus.com

Susan G. Komen for the Cure just cut all its funding to Planned Parenthood for breast health screenings, bowing to anti-choice pressure and making breast health care suddenly inaccessible to many women.¹

Planned Parenthood health centers are often the main source of health care for women in underserved communities, and they provide 830,000 breast exams every year.² 170,000 of these were funded through Komen, along with 6,400 mammogram referrals.³ Without Komen's funding, many of these women could be unable to get the screenings and early detection of breast cancer that save lives.

It's incredibly disappointing for an organization founded to protect women's health to play politics with real women's lives.

Tell Susan G. Komen for the Cure, "Don't bow to anti-choice pressure. Reestablish breast health funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates."

Komen has raised tons of money and awareness about breast cancer from people who care about women's health. They need to know that they've gone too far by joining the right-wing war on Planned Parenthood—which, let's be honest, is really a war on women. That's why we're partnering with the new organization UltraViolet to get Komen to reverse this decision.

Komen says this isn't about choice, but it recently changed its funding guidelines to exclude any organization under investigation by Congress, knowing that a baseless investigation into Planned Parenthood had been opened by Republican Representative Cliff Stearns at the request of anti-choice groups.⁴

And Komen has strong links to the anti-choice movement. Its new vice president of public policy, Karen Handel, ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 on an aggressively anti-choice platform, part of which was a pledge to defund Planned Parenthood.⁵

Komen needs to hear that we won't stand for this kind of political posturing when real lives are at stake.

Tell them to reestablish funding for Planned Parenthood now.