[Fresh Ink] New Fascism Hunts Roma

[Richard Menec]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44695

Inter Press Service            November13, 2008

RIGHTS-EUROPE: New Fascism Hunts Roma

By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (IPS) - A political ideology based on the desire to
exterminate Roma gypsies is emerging in parts of Europe, a Brussels
conference has been told.

Following a number of violent attacks on Roma by skinheads and other
extremists in Bulgaria, it was announced during August 2007 that the
far-right National Guard party was being established.

The 'anti-gypsyism' advocated by its leader Vladimir Rasate could be
compared to the anti-Semitism that helped bring the Nazis to power in 1930s
Germany, according to Michael Stewart, professor of anthropology at
University College London. "With the National Guard party, the disposing of
the Roma is seen as a basis for national renewal," said Stewart, who has
worked extensively with Roma communities in former communist countries.
"This is a new phenomenon in Europe that has not existed before. It is a
real danger."

Stewart's comments, delivered to a hearing in the European Parliament Nov.
13, echo the findings of a recent report on hate crime against Roma by Human
Rights First. The New York- based organisation stated that for Roma in some
countries "the newly virulent anti-gypsyism is an eerie reminder of the
Porrajmos, the Romany Holocaust during the Second World War that killed more
than half of Europe's Roma population.

"When senior European political leaders publicly discuss 'solutions' to the
'Roma problem', advocating the use of dynamite, electrified fences, mug
shots, fingerprinting of men, women and children, and deportations,
historical parallels inadvertently come to mind."

The hostility against Roma has been particularly acute in Italy, where
parties in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition have openly
tried to portray all Roma as criminals. In May, the Italian government
introduced a 'security package' which provided for the dismantling of Roma
camps and the automatic deportation of migrants who cannot prove they have
regular employment.

Discrimination against Roma in Italy is "unrivalled by any other country in
Europe," said Monica Rossi, researcher at the University of Rome, explaining
that Roma are denied the official status of a minority and are unable to
claim Italian citizenship. Programmes ostensibly aimed at allowing Roma
children go to school have failed, she said. "After 40 years of having
schooling projects, we have got 20 underage Roma who are in secondary
schools. That is out of a population of 15,000 people."

Graziano Halilovic from Xoraxane Rrom, Italy's Roma federation, described
the conditions in the camps where his people live as "pretty extreme".

"It's a shame for the Italian nation to allow Roma to live in such
conditions," he added. "What's even worse is that Italy is a part of the
European Union. Italy's shame can readily become the shame of the European
Union."

During September, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU,
hosted a Roma summit, which heard calls for the development of an EU
strategy on Roma inclusion. Estimated to comprise between 12 and 15 million
people, the Roma are frequently described as the largest ethnic minority in
Europe, up to nine million of which live within the EU's 27 countries.

Valeriu Nicolae, secretary-general of the European Roma Grassroots
Organisation, said Roma are not properly consulted when policies affecting
them are being formulated. "The main body dealing with Roma issues in the
European Union -- which is the European Commission -- does not employ any
Roma or any Roma policy expert," he said.

Jan Jarab, a Commission official dealing with social policy, said the EU's
executive is willing to increase its efforts to ease the plight of the Roma.
But it is reluctant, he added, to simply "repackage" previously introduced
laws against discrimination and "put on the label 'strategy'."

At the moment, policies in EU countries on Roma are often based on either a
'laissez-faire' approach or repression, he said. He cited Spain as a country
where success has been registered in providing Roma with decent jobs and
housing.

Marian Nedelica, a teacher in the Romanian city Craiova, said that although
his country has enacted a law guaranteeing access to education, some 27
percent of Roma children do not attend school. Penalties should be
introduced against school authorities that allow discrimination to occur, he
argued.

Livia Jaroka, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament of Roma origin,
said that her people suffer from an "extreme sub-Saharan Africa type of
poverty." Instruments to punish EU governments that fail to enforce the
Union's anti- discrimination laws are needed, she added.

Gabriela Hrabanova, an official with the Czech ministry of labour and social
affairs, said that there is a "lack of coordination" between the EU's member
states on issues concerning the Roma. "In many member states, there is
nothing going on at the local level, although on paper it looks like
everything is great." (END/2008)

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