Citizen Rights Don't Apply to Roma

[Magda Hassan]

Citizen Rights Don't Apply to Roma
By Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, Aug 7, 2010 (IPS) - All major European countries plan mass expulsions of Roma or demolitions of Roma settlements. Rights groups warn that these measures entail the criminalisation of an entire ethnic group, and break EU law.

The French executive announced Jul. 29 that 300 illegal Roma camps would be demolished in the next three months. According to the President's office, the camps are "sources of illegal trafficking, profoundly shocking living standards, exploitation of children for begging, prostitution and crime."

By the end of this year, France is set to adopt legislation to expel undocumented Roma residing in the country, "for reasons of public order."

Germany is set to deport 12,000 Roma back to Kosovo over the next years. Half of them are children and adolescents who grew up in Germany.

Sweden has this year deported 50 Roma from Eastern Europe for begging, even though begging is not a crime in this country. Denmark deported 23 Eastern European Roma in July. In Belgium, 700 Roma were forced to exit Flanders in July, and given only temporary shelter in Wallonia.

The UK government last month announced legislation that would lead to the eviction of tens of families of Roma and travelers, pushing them into illegality.

The steps taken by Western governments come right in the middle of the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015), "an unprecedented commitment by European governments to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma."

In 2008, Italy declared a state of emergency over Roma immigrants.

Around 10 million Roma are estimated to be living in Europe. The largest concentration is in Romania, at two million according to unofficial estimates. Hundreds of thousands live in other Central and Eastern European countries.

The measures of Western governments are mainly directed at Eastern European Roma who have moved west in search of a better life following EU expansion. Despite being European citizens, they are now threatened with expulsion, in breach of the EU basic right to free movement.

Targets of evictions and demolitions are also "travelers", groups of people who often have Western European nationality but maintain a traveling lifestyle in keeping with their culture. Between 300,000-500,000 travelers (gens de voyage) are estimated to be living in France, while the UK is thought to host around 18,000 Roma and traveler caravans.

Human rights groups say that some Western politicians are keen on blurring the lines between travelers and Roma (itself a highly heterogeneous population made up of mostly sedentary groups but also of nomads) in order to give the impression that Roma are difficult to integrate.

Additionally, claim the activists, politicians are emphasising crimes committed by some Roma to create a sense that entire communities of Roma are threats to public safety, thus creating grounds for mass expulsions.

"Indeed there are Roma who are in charge of trafficking networks, but they represent less than one percent of this population, the rest are victims," says David Mark, head of the Civic Alliance of Roma in Romania (a coalition of over 20 Roma NGOs).

"But because that one percent commits crimes and the authorities are not able to stop them, all Roma are being criminalised," Mark told IPS. "The announced expulsions and demolitions of camps are based on the criminalisation of an entire ethnic group, when criminality should be judged on a case by case basis in courts of law."

"What we are seeing is a greater call by receiving countries to restrict freedom of movement inside the EU," argues Rob Kushen, executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre. "The danger is that this will negatively affect Roma rights and the rights of all EU citizens."

The European Commission (executive body of the EU) has thus far steered clear of criticising member states for breaching EU freedom of movement. "We are not here, as the EC, to judge on individual cases of Roma people," said EC spokesman Matthew Newman. "It's for each government, each authority to make those decisions."

The French government has insisted Roma social inclusion is the responsibility of sending states, putting pressure on main sender Romania to take measures to contain the Westward migration flow.

But there have also been calls for a European approach to Roma rights. The Swedish government has demanded a European action plan for guaranteeing access to housing, education and jobs and even the establishment of truth commissions to investigate anti-Roma abuses.

Rights activists, however, argue that the main obstacle to Roma social inclusion is the blatant lack of political will in all European countries.

According to David Mark, EU legislation is solid on Roma rights and European funding is available, but the irresponsibility of national governments makes it hard for these to materialise in progress for Roma.

"If even mainstream parties (such as France's governing Union for a Popular Movement) start adopting far-right anti-Roma discourses, where will we end up?" Mark says.

"Much of the problem is with the willingness of member states to use the available resources," Kushen told IPS. "Member states do not see the size of the problem. The EC should compel member states to collect information on the Roma that could serve as the basis for policies. It could impose conditions on funding to make sure it is used for Roma or at least does not violate their rights."

Even though he considers the recent measures of Western governments dangerous, Kushen hopes the outrage they caused leads to a positive momentum for a comprehensive EU inclusion programme.

Mark is more pessimistic. "We, the Roma, will always be persecuted," he says. "The first step made by Nazis towards dehumanisation was to stereotype. They started by classifying Roma as anti-social. Politicians today use stereotyping of Roma for their political goals. There is a serious danger in this."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52415

[Jan Klimkowski]

If the memo is accurately quoted, then the French government order to police is prima facie racist.

Sarkozy has no shame.

Orders to police on Roma expulsions from France leaked

A memo on the break-up of Roma camps may breach international human rights laws, say critics of expulsions

September 13, 2010

Claims by the French government that it is not targeting Roma camps for destruction and deportations have been challenged by a leaked document suggesting police are following president Nicolas Sarkozy's orders.

Critics of the controversial expulsions are examining the internal memo to establish whether it breaks international human rights laws on discrimination.

The order, circulated to police chiefs last month as France began expelling nearly 1000 Roma Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria, appeared to confirm the ethnic minority was being singled out.

It comes as an embarrassment to immigration minister Eric Besson who, just a few days ago, said sending police to destroy camps and settlements set up by travellers from Romania and Bulgaria and ordering inhabitants to leave France was not aimed at the Roma.

He insisted they were being treated no differently to other European Union migrants who do not meet France's residency rules. "France has not taken any measure specifically against the Roma [who] are not considered as such but as natives of the country whose nationality they have," he said.

However, a leaked memo, dated 5 August 2010, and signed by the chief of staff for interior minister Brice Hortefeux, reminds French officials of a "specific objective" set out by Sarkozy.

"300 camps or illegal settlements must be evacuated within three months; Roma camps are a priority," the memo reads. "It is down to the prefect [state representative] in each department to begin a systematic dismantling of the illegal camps, particularly those of the Roma."

Besson told France 2 state television that he was not aware of the leaked circular: "I wasn't a recipient, and therefore I didn't need to know about it," he said.

He refused to make any further comment but added: "The concept of ethnic minorities is a concept that does not exist among the government."

The document has sparked furious reactions from the opposition and critics of the expulsions. The Group for Information and Support for Immigrants (Gisti) says it is examining the memo to establish if it breaks any criminal laws.

"Can you imagine a circular specifically naming Jews or Arabs?" said Stephane Maugendre, a lawyer and president of Gisti.

The Socialist party has also questioned whether the document is legal and said it smacked of "xenophobic policy".

"I ask the European commission and its president Jose Manuel Barroso to initiate infringement proceedings against the French government to end the indignity and stigma unacceptable to the European citizens that are Roma," said Harlem Desir, a French Socialist MEP.

France has vowed to continue the Roma deportations despite vehement criticism at home and from the EU and United Nations.

Last Thursday the European parliament passed a resolution by 337 votes to 245 calling on Paris to "immediately suspend all expulsions of Roma", saying the policy "amounted to discrimination".

The MEPs admitted their demands were not legally binding but pointed out that mass expulsions are prohibited under EU law "since they amount to discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity".

Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, a former prime minister, said it was unacceptable for politicians to be "tempted by populist, racist and xenophobic policies".

German MEP Martin Schulz, head of the European parliament's socialist group, said: "The country that gave us liberte, egalite and fraternite has taken a different, regrettable path today."

The French authorities appear determined and defiant in the face of such international condemnation. Today officials in Marseille announced more than 100 Roma would be flown back to their home countries tomorrow having accepted �300 to return.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep...man-rights

[Jan Klimkowski]

Additional quotes on the subject of the racist police order:

French interior ministry ordered police to single out Roma, memo shows

The French interior ministry ordered police to single out Roma in its crackdown on illegal camps, a leaked memo shows, despite government denials that gipsies were specifically targeted.

September 13, 2010

The memo orders police chiefs and regional government prefects to launch "a systematic operation to dismantle illegal camps, prioritising those of the Roma".

These unambiguous "specific objectives" expose the French government's claims that Roma are not being targeted on grounds of their ethnicity as a lie. They also blow a hole in France's claim to be treating cases of illegal immigration on a purely case-by-case basis.

The document is particularly shocking in France, a fiercely secular and "colour blind" state where ethnic categories are banned from national statistics.

The document, signed by interior minister Brice Hortefeux's chief of staff and dated August 5, said: "Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be dismantled within three months, prioritising those of the Roma."

Its contents counter claims made last Thursday by Eric Besson, the immigration minister, who said: "France has not taken any measure specifically against the Roma (who) are not considered as such but as natives of the country whose nationality they have."

Yesterday, Mr Besson scrambled to deny any knowledge of the memo. "I was not aware of this circular. It was not addressed to me and I did not need to know about it," he said.

"I don't know if it was a blunder," he added. However, Xavier Bertrand, the head of Mr Sarkozy's ruling UMP party said he the memo was "the translation of our policy and I take full responsibility for it."

France has deported almost 1,000 Roma migrants to Bulgaria and Romania since President Sarkozy made a hardline speech calling for a crackdown on illegal camps last month. More than 8,000 Roma have been deported since the beginning of the year, compared to 9,875 expulsions in 2009.

Following the memo leak, the European Commission issued a reminder that under EU law, no specific ethnic group can be targeted for any national policy. "No citizen must become the target of repressive action because he belongs to a specific ethnic minority or a certain nationality," said a spokesman for the EU commissioner for justice, Viviane Reding.

French euro MP Harlem Desir said it was illegal.

"This circular is absolutely contrary to numerous French, European and international legal texts, and contravenes several fundamental rights recognised by the European Union and France," he said.

The UN's human rights chief also issued a broadside against France, saying dismantling Roma camps "can only exacerbate the stigmatisation of Roma and the extreme poverty in which they live." "I urge European States, including France, to adopt policies enabling Roma people to overcome their marginalisation," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...shows.html

[Peter Lemkin]

Here in the Czech Republic they are full-fledged second class citizens. I belive one is a policeman in Prague, none have been in the legislature, most Roma children get put in schools for the retarded or 'slow' without tests to verify and on and on....down. Here is an short and interesting history of the Roma here. NB - the Nazis besides using their 'usual' camps for the Roma, build two special Roma-only one here [few know this]. The Roma have been trying to make one into a memorial, but the pig farmer who now owns the land and the buidlings has silent support from high places and locals to not.......The two Czech Commandants of the Camps were never punished after the War.....Police still regularly check or harrass Roma now, without cause.

The History of the Roma Minority in the Czech Republic


The exact year of the Roma's arrival on the territory of the present-day Czech Republic is difficult to determine, as the chronicles of the time don't mention their arrival in any clear or concrete way. In the chronicle of "Dalimil," in the chapter "About the Pagans" the author makes reference to Tatar scouts who were moving through the Czech Lands after 1242, and with whom he could be confusing the Roma, though Roma scholars haven't verified this document.

Another reference to the Roma in the Czech Lands comes from the end of the 14th century, when the Executioner's Book of the Lord of Rozmberk contains the testimony of a condemned man, who names as his accomplice a "black gypsy." This could be fact, as the Roma arrived in Central Europe in the 15th century. Many historians also refer to this century as the "Golden Age of the Roma in Europe," when they were being received by aristocrats and being given letters of protection and other privileges. Solid proof of the Roma's residence on Czech territory is actually one of these letters of protection, which was issued on April 17th, 1423 at Spissky Castle by the Holy Roman Emperor and Czech King, Zikmund. The text of this letter has been preserved and reads as follows:

"We, Zikmund, King of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, ..., Our loyal Ladislav, Duke of his Gypsy people, humbly beseeches us for affirmation of our special leniency. Receive then his civil appeal and don't refuse this letter. In the case that the aforementioned Ladislav and his people appear in whichever place in Our Empire, in any town or village, We recommend that you show to him the loyalty which you would show to Us. Protect them, so that Duke Ladislav and his people may live without prejudice within your walls. If some one among them is found drunk, if they should cause a quarrel of any kind, We desire and decree that only Ladislav himself, Duke, has the right to judge this person, punish, give pardon and absolution, or cast him out from your circle ..."

The Roma brought this letter with them when they arrived in France, and because it was issued in the Czech Lands (La Boheme) and by the Czech King (roi de Boheme), the French people named the newcomers after the land from whence they came, les Bohemiens.


The first to observe that the Roma were not servants of God was the Church. This was also began their persecution, which was soon joined by the secular powers, which saw the Roma as Turkish spies. In 1427, the Archbishop of Paris excommunicated the Roma from the Church and the attitude of the population changed radically. And so began four centuries of cruel discrimination. Rulers of individual countries began to issue decrees by which the Roma were ordered out of their territory. With the persecution, the Roma were exposed to torture, bodily mutilation, and then execution. The greatest persecution in the Czech Lands came after 1697, when the Roma were placed by Imperial decree outside the law. Anyone could shoot, hang or drown them, and killing Roma wasn't considered a crime.

The persecution of the Roma at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance belongs among the darkest pages of European history. Europe never really accepted them, due to their dissimilarity, and also in part to the fact that they often found provisions on their travels by stealing, which was then used as justification for their persecution. In the first few centuries, the ill will they generated among the locals was offset by their migration to a new region, where they weren't yet known. The Roma's life was never easy, they were always among the poorest population groups, and supposedly Christian Europe never behaved towards them in a very Christian manner.

In Central and Southeastern Europe, it was a little different situation than in the West. The Turkish advance, which expanded the borders of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries to the area of southern Slovakia, transformed the situation between the other inhabitants and the Roma, when both warring sides expoited the services of the local residents. In the case of the Roma, except for fortification and building work, mainly the services of the Romani blacksmiths were put to use.

From the second half of the 16th century, there were instances of certain towns allowing the settlement of Romani blacksmiths with their families. In Hungary, the families of talented musicians were settled by music-loving feudal lords on their lands. The foundations for a permanently settled way of life among the Roma population were created in this way in the Hungarian lands. The persecution of the Roma was ended by decree in Austria by the middle of the 18th century by Maria Theresa..


The intent of her decree was the assimilation of the Roma ethnic group. The Empress realized that the differences in living standards between the Roma and the other inhabitants were enormous, and for this reason she tried to tie them to the soil. She forbade the nomadic life and the use of the Romani language. Only official marriages were permitted, they were forced to wear different clothes, and children were taken away and placed witn non-Roma families for re-education. An interesting document of the period by Ab Hortis was preserved which relates everything about the situation of the Roma community in the Hungary at the government of Maria Theresa in great detail. Maria Theresa's decree may seem inhumane by today's standards, but she established the recognition of the Roma as an existing element of the population of the country.

In the period of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, a sizable number of Roma settled in the Czech Lands (mostly, but also in Slovakia) or passed through in a semi-migratory way of life. The settlers were mostly bricklayers, tinkers, blacksmiths, trough-makers, road-menders, musicians, and so on, or whatever they recieved permission from the community to do.

The decree of Maria Theresa's son Joseph II was more concerned with the education and christianization of the Roma. In this area, the ruler was ahead of his time. The results of his efforts were evident in the Czech Lands, where the Czech-Moravian Roma were almost assimilated with the population.

At the end of the 19th century, the differences between the Roma and Czechs began to increase. Compulsory education and factory work was changing the mentality of the whole society, while the Roma stagnated. From a nation of able craftsmen and fine musicians, the advance of industrialization, to which they were unable to adapt, left only a socially backward population. Before WWI, nearly all Roma were illiterate and, faced with the discrimination they felt in "gadje" society, had no motivation to educate themselves, as even with an education they would have difficulty finding a place in society.

The First Republic made an attempt at resolving "the Gypsy question" in 1927 by issuing the Law on Wandering Gypsies. In practice this meant that they all had to apply for identification and for permission to stay the night. The aim was to "civilize" their way of life, but the law so restricted and deprived the Roma of their civil liberties, that it became an expression of the slanderous, defamatory, and villifying attitude of society at the time towards the ethnic group as a whole. This law remained in effect for the entire pre-Munich period and for a rather long time afterward.

But the greatest tragedy of all for the European Roma was World War II, during which they were considered by Nazi racial theories to be an inferior race, just like the Jews.


The first exceptional anti-Roma measure in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the edict of the Ministry of the Interior in 1939, which ordered all Roma to settle down and give up their migratory way of life. Anyone not complying with this edict could be put in to work camps - in Bohemia the camp was in Lety u Pisku, in Moravia it was Hodonin u Kunstatu. With the Decree on the Preventive Fight against Criminality (1942), the government introduced police detention along the German Reich model, which took place in detention camps at Lety, Hodonin, Prague-Ruzyne and in Pardubice, or in the concentration camp at Auschwitz I.

According to the census of August 2, 1942, more than 6,500 Roma from the Protectorate were rounded up, of which the smaller part were sent off to the newly opened gypsy camps, up til then work camps, in Lety and Hodonin.

The Lety camp was intended for the concentration of "anti-social" Roma from Bohemia, and 1,256 prisoners passed through it, including 36 children who were born there to imprisoned mothers. Debilitating work, consistent hunger, excessive crowding in insect-infested barracks as well as the precarious state of health of the internees - it all contributed to their sickness and death. Such a death claimed the lives of 326 men, women and children. Three transports were arranged of the other prisoners who didn't survive the war: the first left Dec. 3, 1942 for the first Auschwitz concentration camp and consisted of 16 men and 78 women in total, the second headed for the gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Mar. 11, 1943 and included 16 women and four men hospitalized before the departure in Pisek and Strakonice hospitals, and in the third group, on Apr. 7, 1943, the mass of prisoners was deported, which included 215 men and boys and 205 women and girls.

The Hodonin camp was meant for the internment of "anti-social" Moravian Roma and in it were recorded 1,396 prisoners, including 34 children born there. Of this number, 207 prisoners died and 855 of them were sent to Auschwitz. The first shipment of 45 men and 30 women was set up for Dec. 7, 1942 and its destination was Auschwitz. The second two groups ended up at the gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau; one left on Aug. 22, 1943 with 749 prisoners of both sexes and and all age groups and the second left Jan. 28, 1944 with 26 adults and 5 children who had been imprisoned in a police jail in Brno after the closing of the Hodonin camp.

The commandant of the gypsy camp in Lety was Captain J.Janovsky, the commandant of the camp in Hodonin was S. Blahynka, and both camps were run solely by Czech personnel and none of them were punished after 1945.

The majority of Roma, who had a permanent residence and could demonstrate steady work, after the implemented census remained free for the time being. Their deportation came about by two edicts issued at the turn of 1942-3 by the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

In March 1943, a substantial part of the Roma were sent away, first from Moravia (1,038 people on Mar. 7), then from Bohemia (642 people on Mar. 11), and finally from both areas at once (1,042 people on Mar. 19). The second stage of deportation was made up of shipments in May (853 people total from Bohemia and Moravia on May 7, of which 420 were from the liquidation of the Lety camp), August (767 people total from Moravia, of which 749 came from the liquidation of the Hodonin camp), and October (93 people from Bohemia and Moravia on Oct. 19). The final Roma were deported from the Protectorate either in smaller shipments (the 31 prisoners remaining from the Hodonin camp on Jan. 28, 1944), or individually.

In the files of the gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau were written the names of 4,493 Roma from the Protectorate. Of all of them, the only ones with a hope of surviving were those transfered to work at other concentration camps, such as Auschwitz I, Natzweiler, Flossenburg, Buchenwald, and Ravensbruck, from where they were then distributed to other concentration camps, especially in Dora, Dachau, Neuengamm, Bergen-Belsen, Mathausen and so on.

After liberation, only 583 Romani men and women returned to their homes. The original Roma population in the Czech lands was thus almost annihilated during the period of the Nazi occupation. A similar fate befell the Sinta and the Roma in the detached Sudetenland.

In the Slovak Republic, which was declared a non-sovereign state under the protection of the Reich on March 14, 1939, the fascist regime implemented its persecution in a somewhat milder manner. On the previously prepared decree by the Czechoslovak government on corrective work camps, labor regiments were set up for transient concentration and labor exploitation of so-called asocials and Roma in Slovakia. Slovak Roma were subject to various discriminatory measures: they wern't allowed to travel by public transportation, their children couldn't go to school, they could only travel to cities or towns on specific days and times, and so on.


The original "Czech" Roma were almost wiped out, and many Roma came to Czechoslovakia after the war from Hungary and Romania. Roma from settlements in Eastern Slovakia started to migrate to the evacuated Czech frontier regions and were dispersed as a light work force throughout the industrial areas of Bohemia and Moravia. The overestimation of financial factors (starting with the presumption that the improvement of material conditions would change the mentality and psychology of the Roma) produced results far short of the effort expended. The results, in fact, did more towards degrading Romani society, as the abrupt disruption of community life amid the transfer of the Roma to unfamiliar conditions, resulting in the disintegration of traditional norms and values of the Roma and the erosion of traditional family life. Gradual dissolution of the traditional Romani ways of life and population growth also deepened the levels of poverty and social backwardness of the Roma, and thus the growth in their crime-rate.

In 1958, a law was passed concerning the permanent settlement of migrating persons, according to which national committees were supposed to help people who led a migratory way of life change to a settled one. In practice, however, this law enabled the police to cut off the wheels of caravans with impunity and to take the horses away from migrating Roma, and the Roma had to start living where they were assigned as a work force, without regard to the separation of families.

In 1965, another law was passed concerning the procedure of dispersing the gypsy population, through which Roma from eastern Slovakian Romani villages had to move to Bohemia to work. In this way, the Roma were being moved from dirt-floored cabins to flats with hot water, flushing toilets and doors.

In state social policy, the Roma were dealt with as a socially backward group of the population, and the state's remedies were confined to various forms of social support, which helped the Roma survive, but also taught them to rely completely on the state, and not on their own devices. These various forms of state support, which in many cases favoured the Roma, led to further grudges against and condemnations of the Roma by the majority, and thus increased their dependence and their inability to resolve their affairs on their own, increasing still further their dependence on the state. In this way, the state was also buying their reticence (much as it was of the Czechs), and the Roma still haven't made their voices heard, haven't demanded action on their difficult situation, and continue to quietly take support.

[Magda Hassan]

Series of racist murders of Roma in Hungary unparalleled in present-day Europe
Budapest, 17.8.2010 12:47, (ROMEA)
“Cowardly racist murders” – that’s what Romani Rose has called the recent attacks by neo-Nazis on Roma in Hungary. Rose was speaking on 2 August at the annual international commemoration at the site of the former extermination camp at Auschwitz. He went on to say the murders represented “a new dimension of the violence committed against this minority” and called on European governments to recognize Roma organizations as equal partners and to intensify cooperation with them.
One week later, the Hungarian Police completed their investigation into the series of attacks and handed the file over to the state attorney. Media report that three men are to be charged with murder and a fourth, allegedly the driver, will be charged as an accomplice to one incident. Over the course of more than a year, six Roma people died as a result of the nine criminal acts under indictment.
At a commemoration of the Roma victims of the Holocaust held at the start of August in Hungary, János Bogdán, Jr. of the Party for Roma Unity (MCF) spoke of a “new Roma Holocaust” and pointed out that as a result of the recent parliamentary elections, numerous representatives of the “fascist party” Jobbik now sit in the Hungarian Parliament. According to Mária Silkó Szurmainé, a department head at the Hungarian National Resources Ministry, the recent economic crisis has brought citizens’ prejudices against minorities to the surface: “These problems, which were swept under the carpet for years, must be resolved. The Hungarians and the Roma do not face separate futures: Their future must be a joint one, and they must share responsibility for it.”
After one of the most brutal of the attacks in Hungary last August, then-Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla said: “The Roma have become the target of an organized racist violence which feeds on political populism, verbal expressions of hatred, and media hogwash, making Roma the scapegoats for larger social problems.” Due to its previous governments’ unthrifty budget policies and its state debt, Hungary is one of the main victims of the global economic crisis, which has affected the daily life of a large number of its inhabitants.
Murder modeled on The Turner Diaries
The attacks featured a shocking brutality. The perpetrators selected Roma residences located on the outskirts of towns, specifically the very last house from which their escape route could be covered by a forest, or the last house on a street which could not be seen from the town. They then threw more than one Molotov cocktail at the targeted home and shot the Roma as they fled the ensuing fire. In one case they killed a five-year-old boy by shooting him in the head.
These “executions” were performed with the same kind of felonious brutality that is described in detail in a book that has been called the neo-Nazi Bible: The Turner Diaries, a novel by US neo-Nazi William Pierce in which the main character has a good time shooting randomly selected Afro-Americans in the streets of the USA. The main aim of his efforts is to influence white-skinned people to either deport citizens of other skin colors from the USA or segregate them. At the start of August 2010, police in the US arrested a man at an airport in Atlanta suspected of committing a series of similar attempted murders against dark-skinned people in recent weeks there. The perpetrator injured or stabbed his victims using either a hammer or a knife. Police say the attacks were racially motivated.
A lengthy, desperate, and costly investigation
The investigation of these murderous attacks in Hungary was accompanied by partial inaction and numerous police mistakes similar to those committed during the investigation of arson attacks against Roma in the Silesian area of the Czech Republic. It often took a long time before police released any information whatsoever about the cases, and when they did release information, it was very vague, indicating that the probable motivation for the murders was revenge by loan sharks who had not received payment. For months the hypothesis that this was a series of racist attacks committed by the same group of perpetrators was rejected, even though the various attacks were very similar to one another in terms of how they were performed. The most brutal attack was responded to by an ambulance that did not arrive until almost an hour after the crime - without medical staff on board. One victim of the shooting was still alive when it arrived, but the crew did not succeed in saving his life. Local police said the fire had occurred due to an electrical short even though bullets were found at the scene, and the investigation of the case did not even begin until 10 hours after the crime had been committed. The police officers responsible were eventually disciplined in response to public pressure over a long period of time.
Eventually police increased the amount of the reward being offered for information about the perpetrators, which in the end reached the previously unseen amount of EUR 380 000 (that is not a typo). This breathtaking amount of money testifies to the amount of pressure being placed on police by the government, which primarily faced harsh criticism from the international community over the inability of the Hungarian authorities to investigate and halt this series of violent murders. FBI profilers even flew in from the US to assist Hungarian police in compiling profiles of the perpetrators and identifying them.
No one ever got the reward. Police say they managed to track down the alleged perpetrators by wire-tapping a total of 4.5 million telephone calls. Experts estimate the investigation could not have cost taxpayers anything less than dozens of millions of euro. In mid-August of last year, a team of 120 detectives arrested the suspects at two night clubs in the eastern Hungarian town of Debrecín, where they were working as private security. Police allegedly also discovered the weapon used in the crimes at one of the clubs, a hunting rifle hidden in a secret space behind a wall in one of the rooms. A map was also found, marked with the sites of the previous attacks and three planned for the future. The day of the arrest was chosen in order to prevent the next attack. Of the six men arrested, two were released after interrogation and entered a witness protection program.
Charges filed two years after the first crime occurred
Zoltán Csizner, director of the Hungarian State Bureau of Investigation (NNI), took advantage of the closing of the investigation to present the results of the detectives’ work. The Slovak Press Agency TASR quoted him as saying members of the gang could be proven to have attacked nine sites, murdering six people and injuring dozens (five severely). They used approximately 80 rounds of ammunition total; at seven of the sites they also threw a total of 11 Molotov cocktails at residences. As if wanting to explain why the investigation had taken so long, Csizner said a series of such killings has never been seen anywhere in Europe. In his view, the suspects selected sites for attack where recent events had caused social unrest related to Roma. Another criterion was the possibility for a rapid escape from the crime scene. The motivation of the attacks was said to have been revenge for alleged wrongdoing committed by the Roma long ago (not, however, committed by the victims of the attacks) and an effort to spark fear in society. There was no personal connection between the victims and the perpetrators.
András Dócs, head of the detective division at NNI, said at the press conference that three of the four men detained were suspected of having shot the Roma. The fourth detainee, according to police, was the driver during two of the anti-Roma attacks. NNI said the attacks were exceptional in terms of their motivation, which unlike other cases was neither financial nor sexual, but purely racist. Media reported that three of the attackers had publicly endorsed racist opinions and two had previously been connected with the Hungarian branch of the neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor. During the 1990s, this organization also had a chapter in the Czech Republic which led to the establishment of the main Czech neo-Nazi group, National Resistance (Národní odpor). One of those charged in Hungary had worked as a professional soldier and served with a foreign mission in Kosovo. The group carefully rehearsed their attacks. Investigators say their attack on a refugee camp in Debrecín was their first test with live ammunition.
The media report that some of the attorneys for those indicted deny their clients’ guilt. Even though the suspects are said to have admitted to having been present at several crime scenes, they have denied taking part in the crimes which injured people. The expectation is that it will not at all be easy to convict the suspects of participating in specific crimes. Only one witness ever looked any of the perpetrators in the eyes: A 13-year-old Roma girl who survived the attack with serious injuries (her mother did not survive). Police are refusing to report the names of those detained and have not revealed which of the 15 total attacks from that time period they have managed to solve.
An international construction brigade helps the victims
Reconstruction of one of the burned-out homes is currently taking place in Hungary at the instigation of representatives of the German Football Union. During preparations for a match between Germany and Hungary, Theo Zwanziger, head of the German Football Union (DFB), asked representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg how the union might help the victims of this racism. The Council turned to a branch of the International Building Camps (Internationaler Bauorden) in the nearby town of Ludwigshafen, which has been organizing building camps for years. In collaboration with Hungarian Roma organizations, they contacted the victims’ families to ask whether they would be interested in assistance. Three towns in which Roma homes had been burned down were eventually selected. In the town of Tatárszentgyörgy, approximately 80 km south of Budapest, the most brutal attack of all took place last February. Those shot were a father and his five-year-old son. The mother of the family hid herself and an infant from the assailants’ gunfire by staying in the burning house. One year after the attack, the survivors had nowhere to live and their insurance company was refusing to pay compensation for the damages so they could buy a new apartment.
This past May, a delegation of representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the football unions of both countries visited the family along with Petra Pau, Vice-Chair of the German Parliament, in order to negotiate how construction would proceed. The mother of the murdered five-year-old boy had moved into a relative’s home with her other children, but in the end she decided to return to her own home if it would be reconstructed. During the visit, the guests gave the local elementary school gifts of football t-shirts and footballs. The DFB reported about this visit on its website, but the published text does not mention the racist attacks.
This summer, volunteers from Germany, Poland and Romania as well as members of the surviving family transformed the ruined house into a new home. Volunteers received tickets and air travel to the Germany-Hungary match at the end of May as a reward for their work.
Markus Pape, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
ROMEA
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id...=2007_1787

[Magda Hassan]

Anti-Racist Solidarity Demonstrations in France Draw Over 100,000. Federation Anarchiste Propaganda Campaign

7. September 2010
in Social War



Over 100,000 people demonstrated across France this past weekend to protest the intensification of anti-Roma discrimination and persecution on behalf of the French state. Over 8,000 Roma have been deported to Bulgaria and Romania since the beginning of this year. Apart from mass deportations, Sarkozy has also announced plans to demolish illegal Roma camps, as well as revoking the French nationality of immigrants convicted for a long list of misdemeanor crimes.
The concept of revoking nationality sparks associations for many of the collaborationist regime during the Nazi occupation, a time when 15,000 French citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish descent, were stripped of their nationality as a first step towards later deportation to Nazi death camps.
The Federation Anarchiste has thus launched a campaign to draw attention to the increasing legalized discrimination and persecution of Romas. Although the choice of historical parallel can be seen as more than controversial (although in all honesty, at least in France, it doesnt seem to be), it does seem to be an effective way to draw attention to the plight of these thousands of people and the systematic persecution which they are currently enduring.

(You can view the text in a readable size here )
On a final note, the mass demonstrations on Saturday also drew such unpleasant company as the French Socialist Party, a party who when ruling during the 90s was just as effective and vicious in its campaigns of deportations and persecution of immigrants. Many a demonstration was spent fighting against their bloc (or their youth section) to get them out of the demo (because how can you show yourself at anti-racist demonstrations when your party is deporting people??!!), which was not easy and cost us many injuries, as security was provided to them by…off duty Socialist Party affiliated police officers!
The Federation Anarchiste and the platformist Alternative Libertaire at the demonstration…

And btw…general strike today!

http://fireandflames.blogsport.de/2010/0...-campaign/

[Peter Lemkin]

Background

On March 2, 1939, (two weeks before the German occupation), the Czecho-Slovak government ordered that a labor camp be set up for "people avoiding work and living off crime" (at the time labour duty was mandatory).

The construction of a camp near the village of Lety (in Písek District) started on July 17. The location was picked because nearby forests, owned by the House of Schwarzenberg, had been devastated by a storm. The first twelve prisoners arrived on July 17, 1940. The camp consisted of several large and small wooden barracks, and were surrounded by a wooden fence. Josef Janovský was named commandant. Czech gendarmes (četníci) guarded the places (service in such camps was considered a disciplinary punishment). Similar forced labor camps existed in Planá nad Lužnicí, Mirošov, Hradišťko and other places; prisoners were typically used for hard labour such as road construction. In total, around 50,000 people went through such labour camps during the war. The total number of prisons and camps of all kinds within the boundaries of modern-day Czech Republic was 2,125 (František Nedbálek, Místa utrpení a vzdoru, Prague 1984).
[edit]
As Labor camps

During 1940, 233 persons were sent to Lety, of whom 197 had previous criminal records. During 1941, the numbers were: 537 persons, 498 with previous criminal records, and 45 persons labeled as Gypsies. There were 27 escape attempts with 25 escapees caughtcitation needed. The prisoners were forced to do hard work in a quarry, were treated harshly and the sick lacked medicine. Many guards, including commander Janovský, were regularly stealing food from the camp stores, further reducing meager rations for the prisoners.
[edit]
Situation of Romani people in the Protectorate

Starting in 1940, Romani were forbidden to travel. In 1942, the measures already in force in Germany were applied in the Protectorate as well and, as an immediate result, a few hundred people deemed "asocial" were deported to Auschwitz. On June 24, 1942, the Protectorate Minister of the Interior, Richard Bienert, ordered the collection of statistics about "Gypsies, mixed Gypsies and people with gypsy style of life". citation neededAround 6,500 people were recorded in these statistics (based on older records and often on skin color). citation needed

On July 10, general Horst Böhme, Chief of Security Police, ordered Romani to be moved into two camps: Lety for Romanies from Bohemia, Hodonín for those from Moravia.
[edit]
As 'Gypsy' camps

All pre-existing prisoners at Lety were released or transferred, except for 19 Romani already imprisoned. On October 2, 1942, the first new internees arrived. The capacity of the camp was soon exhausted. Even though new buildings were constructed, the site continued to be overcrowded. Some internees were able to secure their release by bribing officials in Prague.

Internees worked on logging trees, road building and on neighbouring farms. The food was meagre and the rations decreased over time. During winter, internees were not provided sufficient clothing. Brutality on behalf of the guards was common. A typhoid epidemic started in December 1942 and did not recede until the camp was closed in May 1943. Commander Janovský was recalled for inability to deal with the epidemic and replaced by Commander Blahynka.

The first transport with 94 people to Auschwitz left on December 4, 1942, and a second followed with 417 people on May 14, 1943. Most of the remaining prisoners were sent to the camp in Hodonín.
[edit]
Overall numbers

The records are generally considered incomplete and all figures can be considered minimums[1]:
Compilation of existing data gives a total of 1,327 prisoners interned in the camp
359 deaths (estimate), including all children born in the camp
Around 1/4 of the prisoners were either released or attempted to escape (approximately 100 escapees succeeded)
Over 500 deported to Auschwitz
[edit]
Extermination at Auschwitz
Main article: Auschwitz concentration camp

During the course of the war, a total of 4,831 Romani from the Protectorate were sent to Auschwitz. Of those, few survived. Estimates vary, but well over 4,000 Romani died there.
[edit]
Postwar investigations
[edit]
Lety

After the war, several trials of Lety camp personnel began. Commander Janovský was jailed and charged in 1945. The investigation was stopped in 1946 but restarted in 1948. Both guards and former prisoners gave testimony about his brutality and theft, but Janovský was acquitted.

Guard Josef Hejduk was accused of torture, and former prisoners accused him of several murders. He was acquitted in 1947; the witnesses were not deemed trustworthy due to their criminal records. Harsh treatment was explained by the "need to deal with dangerous criminals." citation neededGuard Josef Luňáček, also accused of torture, was found guilty of a minor offense and punished with an official warning (důtka).

The Chief of Police in the Protectorate, Friedrich Sowa, was sentenced to 10 years for crimes that included extermination of Romani. The decision was later overturned, since he acting on Himmler's orders, and he was expelled from the country.


[edit]
Forgotten and Rediscovered History

After the war, the existence of Romani camps was practically forgotten outside the Romani community, except by specialized historians. The whole community of Czech Romani was annihilated and the new ones, who came from Slovakia and Romania, had no knowledge of this tragedy. During the 1970s, a large factory pig farm was constructed near the site of the Lety camp. A tourist hotel has been built on the site of the Hodonín camp.

In 1992 the book Black Silence by Paul Polansky compiled historical records and testimonials of survivors. The book started heated discussions in the Czech Republic about Czech relations to the Romani and their history.

The most recent book on Lety is 1997's And No One Will Believe You by Markus Pape. One review noted[2]:

Previous studies of the Romani Holocaust in Czechoslovakia have, as Pape suggests, rejected survivors’ memories of extermination, executions, murders and rape carried out by the commandant and his guards, and have claimed that the camp did not function as an extermination camp. Such claims are joined to the assertion that survivors have, with the passing of time, confused what they saw with their own eyes in the camp. At the same time, previous studies have concluded that state documents exclude the possibility of such crimes having been committed. Pape succeeds, with this volume, in demonstrating that the state documents themselves not only support, but actually go further than, the eye-witness accounts; the idea that Lety really was an extermination camp is the first of the two main theses of the book... The second thesis of the book is that the camp at Lety operated with a certain independence from the Reich and erratic control from Prague.
[edit]
Political symbolism

The existence of the camps (or, more precisely, that they were guarded by Czech policemen and the existence of the pig farm near Lety) quickly became a very powerful symbol in Czech politics. Some politicians, starting with minister Vladimír Mlynář, tried to appeal to the conscience of the population; some warned of "rewriting history in name of political correctness" citation neededand "artificial planting of guilt into public opinion" citation needed. The issue started to attract minor political groups seeking to receive media attention.

Romani activists picked the pig farm as a symbol of the Czech stance toward the Romani, insisting it is a source of shame for the country internationally. They have repeatedly asked the government to relocate the farm. Their efforts gained further attention by a resolution of the European Parliament in 2005 asking the Czech Government to remove the farm. Opponents have criticized the massive cost of the farm's relocation, and insisted it has no impact on the actual life of the Romani people. They claim that the real intention of the activists is to extort money from the state and that the farm's removal would lead to a worsening of already tense relations between ethnic Czechs and Roma. In both 2005 and 2006, the Czech government announced its intention to buy and liquidate the farm, but has recently decided against it.

In 2005, an exhibition of historical photographs and documentation entitled Lety Detention Camp: History of Unmentioned Genocide was held in the European Parliament and toured cities in Europe.[3]

More recently, organizations in the Czech Republic such as the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust, Dzeno Association, and Romea are working to keep the issue alive and defend the site from right-wing extremist political demonstrations.[4]

^ http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/czech...ation-camp
^ Book review: Nikdo vám nebude věřit
^ Lety genocide exhibit moves from Brussels to Prague, causes political action Radio Prague, 28-06-2005
^ Renewed Controversy at the Lety Concentration Camp Radio Prague, 24-01-2006

[Jan Klimkowski]

[SIZE="4"]Porajmos[/SIZE]

Literally, the "devouring" of the Romani in the Nazi genocide that Europe's ruling elites choose to forget.

Here are some estimated figures quoted on wikipedia, sourced to AJ Edelheit & H Edelheit, History of the Holocaust: a handbook and dictionary, Westview Press, 1994:

Pre-War Romani population ........ Romani population annihilated during WW2

Austria .............. 11,200 ................ 6,500
Belgium ............ 600 ...................... 400
Bohemia & Moravia ......13,000 ............ 5,500
Croatia ............ 28,500 ................... 28,000
Estonia ............. 766 ................... >700[43]
France .............. 42,000 .................. 14,000
Germany ............. 20,000 ............. 15,000
Hungary .......... 100,000 ................ 28,000
Italy .............. 25,000 .............. 2,000
Latvia ............ 1,000 ................ 1,000
Lithuania ............ 1,000 ................ 1,000
Luxembourg ............ 200 ................ 200
Poland ............ 50,000 ................ 13,000
Romania ............ 300,000 ................ 36,000
Serbia ............. 60,000 ............... 12,000
Slovakia ............ 80,000 ................ 2,000
Netherlands ............ 300 ................ 200
Soviet Union ........ 100,000 .............. 30,000

Total .......... 833,800 ................ 195,800

As the figures above show, the Ustase Nazi quisling regime in Croatia did a particularly efficient job of exterminating Romani at Jasenovac and other concentration camps.

For more on Jasenovac, see here:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...php?t=1395

[Jan Klimkowski]

In Yitzhak Arad's book 'Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka - The Operation Reinhard Death Camps' the Holocaust survivor Jacob Wiernik described the arrival of the largest Gypsy group brought to the death camp Treblinka, in the spring of 1943: 'One day, while I was working near the gate, I noticed the Germans and Ukrainians making special preparations ... meanwhile the gate opened, and about 1,000 Gypsies were brought in (this was the third transport of Gypsies). About 200 of them were men, and the rest women and children ... all the Gypsies were taken to the gas chambers and then burned ...'

http://www.izieu.com/Sinti/

[Jan Klimkowski]

There are harrowing photos at the url:

http://www.izieu.com/Sinti/

The Forgotten Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic Nazi annihilation of six million Jews during World War 2. The forgotten Holocaust, Porajmos, was the extermination of more than 220,000 Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) - a quarter to a half of the European population - during the Nazi genocide. It is difficult to assess the actual number of victims of this long-neglected chapter of the Holocaust but some estimates are as high 700,000.

The Nazis classified Sinti and Roma as 'subhumans' and stripped them of all civil rights. Persecution, arrests, and deportations were directed against all members of Sinti/Roma families and they faced starvation, illness and brutal labor, until they were consigned to the gas chambers.

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Nazi mobile killing units, Die Einsatzgruppen, killed tens of thousands of Sinti/Roma in the German-occupied eastern territories. Many were subjected to deportation to the Nazi death camps and thousands were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was located nearby the provincial Polish town of Oshwiecim in Galacia, and was established by order of Hitler and Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. Auschwitz-Birkenau became the killing centre where the largest numbers of European Jews were killed. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning. 9 out of 10 were Jews. In addition, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, and prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers.

A section of Auschwitz-Birkenau was established as a Gypsy camp and Gypies were brought in from the whole of Central Europe, many thousands of them in a very short time - most of them were gassed.

May 12, 1944, 39 Sinti children were transferred from the St. Josefspflege Orphanage in Mulfingen in Germany - 20 boys who received Nos. Z-9873-Z-9892 and 19 girl who received Nos. Z-10629-Z-10647. 35 of the children were killed ...

A Nazi doctor at Auschwitz, Josef Mengele, nicknamed The Angel Of Death, tortured Sinti victims and did medical experiments of unspeakable horror.

Victims were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death. Children were exposed to experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusions of blood from one to another, isolation endurance, reaction to various stimuli. The doctors made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, removal of organs and limbs. Josef Mengele did a number of medical experiments, using twins. These twins as young as five years of age were usually murdered after the experiment was over and their bodies dissected.

Some forty years after the war, only a few of the twins could be found. Strangely enough, many of them recall Mengele as a gentle, affable man who befriended them as children and gave them chocolates. Since many had immediately been separated from their families upon entering the camp, Mengele became a sort of father figure. Still a tension existed, that at any time they could be killed if they did not keep a low profile. Older twins recognized his kindness as a deception - they recalled how they were visited by a smiling Uncle Mengele who brought them candy and clothes. Then he had them delivered to his medical laboratory either in trucks painted with the Red Cross emblem or in his own personal car ...

One twin recalls the death of his brother:

"Dr. Mengele had always been more interested in Tibi. I am not sure why - perhaps because he was the older twin. Mengele made several operations on Tibi. One surgery on his spine left my brother paralyzed. He could not walk anymore. Then they took out his sexual organs. After the fourth operation, I did not see Tibi anymore. I cannot tell you how I felt. It is impossible to put into words how I felt. They had taken away my father, my mother, my two older brothers - and now, my twin .."

Mengele injected chemicals into the eyes of the children in an attempt to change their eye color. He carried out twin-to-twin transfusions, stitched twins together, castrated or sterilized twins. Many twins had limbs and organs removed in macabre surgical procedures, performed without using an anesthetic.

Mengele was almost fanatical about drawing blood from twins, mostly identical twins. He is reported to have bled some to death this way. Once Mengele's assistant rounded up 14 pairs of Gypsy twins during the night. Mengele placed them on his polished marble dissection table and put them to sleep. He then proceeded to inject chloroform into their hearts, killing them instantaneously. He then began dissecting and meticulously noting each and every piece of the twins' bodies.

On the night of 2-3 August 1944, the Gypsy camp was liquidated. Danuta Czech described it in her book Auschwitz Chronicle:'After the evening roll call, a camp arrest is ordered in Auschwitz II and a block arrest in the Gypsy Family Camp, B-IIe. Camp B-IIe and other barracks where Gypsies are housed are surrounded by armed SS men. Trucks drive into the camp ..'

The defenseless women, men, and children were loaded on the trucks that were to carry them to the gas chambers. After the gassing the corpses of the murdered were incinerated in the pit next to the crematorium, since the crematorium ovens were not operating at the time.

In Yitzhak Arad's book 'Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka - The Operation Reinhard Death Camps' the Holocaust survivor Jacob Wiernik described the arrival of the largest Gypsy group brought to the death camp Treblinka, in the spring of 1943: 'One day, while I was working near the gate, I noticed the Germans and Ukrainians making special preparations ... meanwhile the gate opened, and about 1,000 Gypsies were brought in (this was the third transport of Gypsies). About 200 of them were men, and the rest women and children ... all the Gypsies were taken to the gas chambers and then burned ...'

The book 'Sinti & Roma: Victims of the Nazi Era, 1933-1945' published by The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tells that the discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Europe continued after World War 2.

The 1989 Film 'And The Violins Stopped Playing' by director Alexander Ramati was starring Horst Buchholz, Maya Ramati, Didi Ramati and Zitto Kazann. The film tells the moving true story of a group of gypsies in occupied Poland during World War 2 and how, against a bitter and bloody backdrop, they struggle on with only their strength and courage to survive.

/Louis Bülow
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