Recent Romnews postings
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Subject: Recent Romnews postings
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Recent Romnews postings
UN COMMITTEE CRITICISES SOCIAL DISCREPANCIES
Geneva / SWISS (RNN Correspondent) January the 11st 1999
The United Nations' committee for economic, cultural and social
rights has criticised the inadequate integration of the former East
German federal states and the high unemployment rates there.
Undeniable, however is the continuing discrimination against Roma and
Cinti, who are treated much less favourably that other citizens when
it comes to education, employment and housing. The report calls for
immediate political action to improve the situation. Efforts by the
federal government's socialist-Green coalition to create employment
were praised, as was the proposed introduction of dual nationality:
the new cabinet obviously wishes to lend social and cultural rights
more importance in the public eye.
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PROTEST AGAINST PIG FARM ON FORMER CAMP SITE
Prague / CZECH REP. (RNN Agency) January the 13rd 1999
More than 100 prominent activists have sent a protest to the Czech
government about the planned construction of a pig farm on the site of
a former concentration camp for Roma, according to the Friday edition
of the paper idovne Noviny. "A pig farm on this site would be a
desecration and an insult", said the protest signatory Pavel Theirner
to the news agency CTK. The protest was aslo signed by Rabbi Karold
Sidon and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. More than 300 Roma died in the
camp, near the south Moravian town of Pisen, between 1942 and 1943.
More than 600.000 Roma in total died in Nazi camps during the WW2. A
spokesperson for the Prague government promised that the cabinet would
look into this "delicate matter".
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ROMA COLLECT MONEY FOR MEMORIAL
Frankfurt a.M. / GERMANY (RNN Agency) January the 12nd 1999
The Roma Union has been campaigning for years to have a memorial
tablet placed on the urban health authority's building, and now it has
taken matters into its own hands by collection donations to make such
a memorial which would comemorate the fact that a card was introduced
under Nazi rule upon which Cinti were classified as "racial aliens".
The tablet should also serve to remind that Nazi race researcher
Robert Ritter and his assistant Eva Justin continued to work in the
building after the end of the war.
Donations please to:
acc. no. 684295
with the Frankfurter Sparkasse,
BANK code 50050201.
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J�nos Bogd�n
1963-1999
Budapest / HUNGARY (RNN in co-operation with RPC) Jauary the 9th 1999
This morning J�nos Bogd�n, one of the most prominent representatives
of Romani public life in Hungary, the headmaster and creator of the
Gandhi High School in P�cs, the first Gypsy minority high school died
in a car accident. Bogd�n was born in a traditional Beash Roma
environment in the village of G�rgeteg, Southeast Hungary. He received
a degree in philosophy, Hungarian language and literature and history
in the universities of Szeged and Budapest, and then started his
teaching career in Barcs. In 1992 he started to organize Europe�s
first Gypsy high school, the Gandhi High School, where he became the
headmaster n 1994. Beside his educational activities he took an active
Part in Romani public life. He was a board member of the Roma Program
of the Soros Foundation, a founder of the Roma Press Center and a
member of the Gypsy minority self-government in P�cs. His memory is
commemorated by his widow, his four children and countless friends and
colleagues. With his death, an irreplaceable figure of Romani public
life in Hungary was lost. His funeral will be arranged by his family.
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Press Conference of the RNC concerning the Swiss Fund for Needy
Victims of the Holocaust-Shoah
Hamburg / Germany (RNN Agency) January the 15th, 1999
The RNC, on behalf of its member organisations and associations held a
press conference today, January 15th, 1999 in Hamburg, Germany.
The aim of this conference was to present a lawsuit, meanwhile
registered in Bern, Switzerland, asserting that the funds paid by the
Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust-Shoah for Roma and Sinti
were in part mislaid.
This assertion is based on the following argumentation and facts:
1. The RNC is in possession of 29 written legal complaints - out of
around 200 known cases - showing that funds were improperly
distributed in Poland by a Roma organisation based in Auschwitz, one
of the so-called partner organisations of the Swiss Fund for Needy
Victims of the Holocaust-Shoah. The recipients of these funds were
given 1'500 Polish Zlotys - the equivalent of about 600 SFr. instead
of the full allotment of 1'500 Swiss Francs.
2. The RNC asserts that the fund did not react to its warnings as well
as to the mailing of this information. This information was given to
the fund starting in August 1998 by three RNC Polish Roma associations
as well as directly by the RNC. The Swiss OSCE representative was also
informed in November of these developments.
3. The RNC further asserts that the actual organisation of the Fund,
such as the presence in its advisory board of organisations who are
part of the distribution process actually opens the door to possible
abuses and
conflicts of interests.
4. Victims were and are forced to apply to the fund via third party
"partner" organisations opening the door to all sorts of possible -
and in some cases effective - abuses, such as restriction as to whom
can get access to the humanitarian help or even worse. The RNC would
have wished to see more concern on the part of the Swiss authorities
involved in those matters as to the well being of the real claimants,
namely the ones who were
persecuted under the Nazi regime.
5. The RNC claims that the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the
Holocaust Shoah neglected its duty and responsibility, namely, to
protect the victims from potential abuses by partner organisations.
6. The RNC is further trying to establish the facts concerning the
distribution of other funds. This task is unfortunately difficult as
the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust never published any
report of activities beyond the fact that a total of 6.2 million SFr.
were awarded to 5'200 Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust.
7. The RNC has been made aware by its members of several other
possible irregularities - which currently cannot be established beyond
doubt - as we do not possess enough information on the part of the
Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust-Shoah.
8. As a result of this opacity, the RNC has decided to establish a
commission under the direction of the RNC's laws offices of Dr.
Heinsen, Dahlstroem, Schneider, Kreuzer, Longolius and Schoop to
establish if, where and how funds were distributed as well as to
assist victims of the practices of some partners of the Swiss Fund for
Needy Victims of the Holocaust-Shoah.
To that end, the RNC has created two hotlines, one in Poland and one
in Germany, as well as undertaken an information campaign in
collaboration with Kinsella Communication Ltd. Washington USA, for
example via internet to advice the victims of the Holocaust of their
rights as well as about the how and functions of the various currently
active funds helping victims of the Holocaust. Should the informant
wish it, the information thus will remain confidential. We are kindly
asking the press to spread this information and give the numbers of
these hotlines as well as the internet site information.
- Internet: http://rnn-swiss-nazi-gold.8m.com
- Western Europe: (++49-40) 319 42 49
- Eastern Europe: (++48-42) 631 04 90
9. RNC's wish would have been to see more transparency on the side of
the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust. The way the matter
of distribution of this "humanitarian" help was organised showed a
slack disregard of the victims themselves. The first criteria, their
total relaxation, i.e. any Rom born before 1944 in a country occupied
or allied to Nazi Germany was to be considered. We argued that the
funds available would
not suffice, a fact confirmed through the stopping of further payments
towards the end of 1998.
In view of those facts and this argumentation, the RNC would have
liked to see another implementation of this distribution of funds, one
which would show more respect of the dignity of the victims as well as
more equal, not adding as a further indignity the separation of
victims in have and have nots. The RNC would have wished and is still
hoping for the establishment of a foundation so as to guarantee a
continued and serious help to the needy victims of the Holocaust.
We are waiting to see Switzerland finally come to term with its past
and fulfil the obligations it has willingly entered in. This also, in
our view, means that the Swiss Fund For Needy Victims of the Holocaust
- Shoah insures that its help actually has reached its intended
recipients.
Roma National Congress
Umbrella Organization Of The European Roma Civil Rights Movement
Board: Andrzej Wisniewski (Poland), Ondrej Gina (Czech Republic),
Jozef Cervenak (Slovakia), Rudko Kawczynski (Germany), Asmet Elezovski
(Macedonia).
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