Foundation for Romani Civil Rights Letter to Hungarian Prime Minister

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Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 08:45:49 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Foundation for Romani Civil Rights Letter to Hungarian Prime Minister

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <[email protected]>

Foundation for Romani Civil Rights Letter to Hungarian Prime
Minister


The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) is herewith distributing an
open letter by partner organisation Foundation for Romani Civil Rights
to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The views and opinions
expressed in the letter are not necessarily those of the ERRC. The
text of the letter by the Foundation for Romani Civil Rights follows:
 
Roma Civil Rights Foundation: Open Letter to Prime Minister Viktor
Orb�n
 
Dear Prime Minister,
 
On the morning of January 10, 2000, you made an announcement on
Hungarian Public Radio saying that: the government, with the
participation of the National Gypsy Self-Government, will initiate a
300 million HUF housing construction programme for Roma families who
are currently employed and send their children to school.
 
You stressed that the National Gypsy Self-Government could only
organise the construction if it undertook to ensure that the new
tenants kept their flats well-maintained. As according to you Prime
Minister: "Sadly, the fate of many homes in Hungary has been that
after being beautifully built, Romany families move in, and before the
year is up these houses are completely derelict, the parquet floors
are torn up, the doors and windows are ruined. As a result many people
feel that it is a complete waste of money for the government to spend
their taxes on assisting those need, when a lasting solution is yet to
be found."
 
This programme should have been welcome news, as it stated that it
allegedly wished to assist at least some of 110 thousand Roma families
who live in the country, 50% of whom face grave housing problems.
According to our estimates approximately 15,000 families live in
miserable settlements and a further 30,000-40,000 families face
serious housing problems, are homeless, or live in condemned or
primitive housing etc. This number far exceeds the national average
and necessary steps should be taken to counteract this situation.
 
In comparison the 300 million HUF construction programme, given the
present building conditions, is sufficient for the construction of
50-60 flats (a flat for a family of five presently costs on average
5-6 million HUF), that is to say the programme aims at only one
thousandth of those families in need. We believe that calling
something on this scale a Governmental National Gypsy Housing
Programme is absurd. It is like giving pension increases to only 300
people instead of to the full 3 million, or guaranteeing a 2 forint
increase for all pensioners. Enough said.
 
The other condition whereby the Government obliges OC� (Gypsy
Self-Government) to ensure that the new flats be well-maintained
creates a host of related problems. OC� does not have the money to
take on such a responsibility and to maintain blocks of flats. Neither
is the National Gypsy Self-Government a Gypsy Kingdom that can issue
orders to Roma or lay down regulations for them, it simply represents
their interests in housing affairs.
 
OC�, could only make these guarantees, which you and your government
expect, in the name and at the expense of their members. As present
resources are just enough to cover the body�s operative expenses.
However the scale of this so-called National Roma Housing programme is
actually tailor-made for OC� as it has altogether 53 elected members!
The Prime Minister's declaration on radio, that Roma destroy homes,
tear up wooden floors, etc. is, on the other hand, seriously
prejudiced and offends the human dignity of Romany citizens. The Prime
Minister does not and cannot have such information at his disposal.
 
As a result he cannot make official reference to to these facts. It is
possible that the Prime Minister knows of several incidences where
needy, poverty-stricken family, in the absence of social support, were
forced to take down a part of their own house and sell the
construction materials, so that they would not have to steal and be
sent to prison, but could at least feed their children. Indeed there
are cases where poor alcoholics neglect their flats but this has
nothing to do with their identity as a minority or not.
 
These cases are the result of tragic circumstances and cannot be
generalised and applied to one people or ethnic minority such as the
Roma. Before the political changes in the sixties and seventies the
authorities put about a duplicitous myth concerning the Roma people,
who had anyway been stripped of their rights. The aim of this was to
deny that real poverty existed under socialism and a whispering
campaign that whipped up hatred spread, which maintained that the
worthless Roma were to blame. We initially believed that the political
changes would put an end to this. It is a great shame that the Prime
Minister was not aware that his speech offended many hundreds of
thousands of Roma and Roma communities, hundreds of thousands of
people who uphold the Constitution and for whom he is their elected
Prime Minister just as he is for every other citizen in the country.
We feel it is even more unfortunate that in his radio speech he set
the tax-payer against the house wrecking Roma families. It is a tragic
fact that the economic crisis that preceded the political changes, and
the structural changes that came about after them, meant that at least
60% of Roma were deprived of work and therefore necessarily of their
ability to pay taxes, while these changes only affected 10% of the
rest of the population.
 
In this situation - given its ethnic aspect - this is especially
unjust and dangerous in regards to the peace of our society and our
common future. You, as our country�s, our common homeland�s prime
minister, are especially responsible for safeguarding this common
future and societal peace. We therefore suggest that you rethink these
arguments and take steps to redress the offense that you have
inflicted.
 
January 16th 2001, Budapest
 
On behalf of the Roma Civil Rights Foundation
 
Alad�r Horv�th
President of the Board of Trustees

Dr J�nos B�rsony
Professional Consultant
 
*****************
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TEL.: +36 1 4132200 -- FAX: +36 1 4132201
 
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the
European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at
http://errc.org
 
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
 
Telephone: (36 1) 4132200
Fax: (36 1) 4132201
 
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