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Anti-Roma racism in Europe
Anti-Roma racism in Europe
| Relatives of Anastazia Baláńova with her blood-stained nightdress. Three men beat Anastazia and her daughters with baseball bats in their home in Zilina, Slovakia, in August 2000. Anastazia died three days later and two of her children were injured. © Julie Denesha |
Karol Sendrei died on 6 July 2001 in Revůca police station, Slovakia, after being beaten while tied to a radiator. He and his two sons had been arrested the previous day after making a complaint against another police officer. Karol Sendrei was a member of the Romani community. A senior Slovak official investigating Karol Sendrei's death said he had asked to be tied to the radiator.
Across Europe, Roma face discrimination. In most countries they are economically deprived and socially marginalized. In many they are abused by the police. Low levels of literacy and qualifications, combined with discrimination in employment, leave the vast majority of Roma unemployed. The resultant poverty leads some Roma into crime, mainly theft. This is used by politicians and the media to stir up even more prejudice against them.
Women and children form a disproportionate number of the victims. Romani youngsters are widely assumed to be inherently criminal, Romani women are often caught up in violent and punitive raids by police on Romani communities.
Discrimination is most intense in central and southeast European countries where open racial hatred and violence against Roma has emerged in recent years.
In Hungary, there is a pattern of racially biassed policing in Budapest and other towns. Roma who file complaints or publicize their treatment risk further abuse. On 9 February 2001, around 80 police officers raided a funeral wake in the Romani settlement in Bag and reportedly assaulted the mourners and other people in the vicinity indiscriminately . The raid was apparently organized to arrest László Vidák, who had accused four police officers of torturing him in October 1999. They were due to stand trial in April 2001, and one of the accused officers took part in the February raid, during which László Vidák was so badly beaten that he needed four days’ hospital treatment. When the trial took place in April, the four officers were convicted of intimidation and assault, but sentenced only to suspended sentences or fined.
In Romania, although there has been a decrease in racist violence since the mid-1990s, Roma are still vulnerable to attack by police and public. In May 2000 a Bucharest police officer shot a young Romani man in the head at point blank range after reportedly beating him and knocking his head against a wall. Miraculously, Mugurel Soare survived, but he has lost the power of speech. Witnesses were allegedly detained and intimidated by other police officers.
While the treatment of Roma in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia appears to have improved since the election of a new government in 2000, they still face inadequate police protection from attacks by "skinheads".
The situation of Roma in Kosovo remains precarious because of inter-ethnic tensions and violent attacks. Fears for their security restrict their right to freedom of movement, making access to food, work, schooling and healthcare difficult. Large numbers of Roma from Kosovo remain displaced in Serbia or Montenegro; those who remain in Kosovo fear violent attacks from sections of the ethnic Albanian population who regarded them as Serb "collaborators" during the war in 1999.
In Greece, some Roma have been assigned to isolated settlements in what a Council of Europe expert described as "institutionalized apartheid". They are frequently harassed by police during police raids in search of drugs and arms. In October 2001 a police officer shot and killed an unarmed Rom, Marinos Christopoulos, in Zefyri, Attica, after he failed to stop for a police patrol. The police officer was arrested and charged with murder, but was released on bail five days later, and returned to service.
In the Czech Republic, Roma have been violently assaulted by gangs of "skinheads" and other extremist groups. The police often fail to intervene or to investigate incidents seriously. Where prosecutions have taken place, the courts have tended to convict perpetrators only for minor offences.
Despite this pattern of persecution, immigration officials from the UK have taken extraordinary, and discriminatory, measures to prevent Czech Roma from seeking asylum in the UK. Based at Prague airport, they have prevented Roma from boarding flights, even though Czech citizens do not need a visa to travel to the UK.
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ISSN 1472-443X . AI Index NWS 21/001/2002
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London,
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