Recent Romnews postings
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 10:55:05 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Recent Romnews postings
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Roma National Congress <[email protected]>
Recent Romnews postings
Nazi hunters defend Red Cross
Zurich / SWISS (RNN Correspondent) March the 18th, 1999
After damaging accusations that it had been an adjunct to Nazi war
criminals' escape from post-WWII Europe, the Red Cross has been
defended by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, responsible for
locating Klaus Barbie and his subsequent trial for war crimes
committed in France during the Occupation. It had been claimed that
Josef Mengele, responsible for experiments on living people at
Auschwitz, obtained a permit from the Red Cross in February 1949
allowing him to escape detection and flee to South America. The
Klarsfelds pointed out that the organisation had been misled as to his
identity and that the Red Cross has always been exemplary in allowing
access to its files.
-------------------------
Repatriation of asylum-seekers.
London / UK (RNN Correspondent) March the 20th, 1999
Of the 104 Romanian Roma apprehended at Dartford in December '98, all
but six have been returned home. Entering Britain on board a trawler,
it was the largest group of illegal immigrants ever caught. Most left
at christmas, a dozen others in early February; the remaining six have
gone ahead with their application for asylum.
-------------------------
AUSTRIAN CONVICTED OF RACIST TERROR ATTACKS
Vienna / AUSTRIA (RNN Correspondent) March the 24th, 1999
49 year-old Franz Fuchs has been sentenced to life imprisonment after
being convicted of the murder of four Roma and several cases of
grievous bodily harm caused by a letterbomb campaign against
foreigners in the early 90s. The Graz court described him as
intelligent but fanatical and dismissed as fantasy his claims that he
was a member of a larger group bent on uniting the Germanic peoples of
the upper Danube valley: the court pronounced that Fuchs acted alone
and and would serve out his sentence in a psychiatric unit. Surprised
by police in 1997, Fuchs detonated a bomb which deprived him of both
his hands; a police search at his home uncovered more bomb-making
equipment which matched evidence at the site of the blast which killed
four Roma in 1995. Among Fuch's other victims was the former Viennese
mayor Helmut Zilk, who lost two finger to a letterbomb in 1993. Fuchs
was present in court to hear the verdict, having been barred for
yelling xenophobic slogans at the start of the trial.
-------------------------
SLOVAK NATIONALIST CALLS FOR MARCH ON BUDAPEST
Bratislava / SLOVAK (RNN Correspondent) March the 26th, 1999
Leader of the Slovak Nationalist Party and mayor of the town of
Zilina, Jan Slota, has provoked outrage in the country with his
right-wing extremist statements in front of party supporters,
including a call to arms to raze Budapest to the ground. As deputy
government Pal Csaky said, such opinion will more than likely cost the
member of Vladimir Meciar's former populist government his political
career and legal cation will be expected on the grounds of incitement
to race-related violence. He is certain to lose his member of
parliament's immunity from prosecution as well as be removed from his
position as head of the inquest into the secret service's past. Slota
also loudly denounced the Slovakian Roma minority, saying that a Roma
nation did not exist, only "Gypsies who steal and rob and plunder". He
described American foreign secretary Madeleine Albright as "some Czech
woman pretending first to be an American and then to be foreign
minister, and who then comes and tells us Slavs how stupid we are".
His supporters are trying to get him off the hook by saying that he
had had too much to drink when giving his speech but Slota is having
none of their help: he claims that he might not have been entirely
sober but
-------------------------
CZECH ROMA ASK FOR SUPPORT!
POLICE CAMPAIGN AGAINST ROMA CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN CZECH REPUBLIC
At 10 a.m. yesterday, March 23rd, police forces entered and searched
the homes of Roma civil rights activists in the town of Rockycany,
"accusing" the activists of being among the signatories of a protest
against the mayor of the town. This protest is concerned with the
racist politics of mayor Oldrich Kozisek and the unbearable living
standards Czech Roma have to put up with. Among those whose homes were
searched is the well-known activist and Roma leader Ondrej Gina.
Yesterday's events are most extreme so far in a campaign of terror
against Gina and other Czech activists. Police and government
officials have been harassing activists in Rockycany for several
months now.
The town has been internationally infamous for years because of
anti-Roma activities. A few months ago a fence was built on the
mayor's orders which would "protect" the town's Czech inhabitants from
Roma. Media reports have for years been written with a racist bias.
Roma have been denied entry to the town's bars and restaurants; the
frequent attacks and use of physical violence against Roma have been
dismissed by the mayor, calling them reactions to the "asocial
behaviour of Roma". This kind of treatment led a few months ago to a
wave of Roma refugees from the Republic - last year alone more than
4,000 sought refuge abroad from persecution at home.
Czech civil rights organisations have been for years drawing attention
to the steadily deteriorating situation of Roma in the Republic.
More then 50 Roma have been murdered since the "Velvet Revolution";
hundreds have been brutally attacked by racist nationalists.
Roma have repeatedly also been the victims of state violence and
antiziganism: over 50,000 became stateless persons in their own land
after the dissolution of the Czechoslovakian state into two separate
political entities.
The Czech Republic is the only country in the world which could let a
pig farm be built on the site of a concentration camp: the camp at
Lety was constructed especially for Roma and was supervised and run by
Czechs during WWII. Hundreds of Roma women were subjected to
involuntary sterilisation under Communism. Roma children are relegated
to special schools and over 90% of all Roma are unemployed;
discrimination and violence are things they have to cope with every
single day in the Czech Republic. No Czech government has yet seen it
fit to issue an apology for the continuation and the continuity of
persecution of Roma in the country.
- The RNC protests strongly against the Czech Republic's actions.
- The RNC sees in this police campaign and the behaviour of the powers
that be against the Roma civil rights movement and Ondrej Gina an
attempt to criminalise their work and silence them.
- The RNC has noticed with alarm the manner in which the Republic has
openly and shamelessly engaged in repression and discrimination since
becoming a NATO member.
- The RNC calls on international civil rights organisations to join it
in protesting against the situation and contact their governments.
Czech Roma organisations ask you for your support !
ROMA CONTACT:
Mr. Ondrej Gina
Fax: 00420 181 727 598
Fax: 00420 181 723 011
Czech Republic, Rockycany 33701, Krece
CZECH OFFICIALS:
-The Czech embassy in your country
-Ministerstvo Vinitra
Nad Stolon 3
Praha 1
Tel.: 00420 2614 11 111
Fax.: 00420 2614 21 115
-Urad vlady
Nabrezi E. Benese 4
Praha 1
Tel.: 00420 2 24 0021 11
Fax.: 00420 2 24 81 02 31
-Kancelar prezidenta CR Hrad
Praha 1, 110 00
Tel.: 00420 2 24 37 11 11
Fax.: 00420 2 24 37 33 00
-Ministerstvo zahranici
Loretanske nam. 5
Praha 1
Tel.: 00420 2 24 181 111
Fax.: 00420 2 24 31 00 17
-Ceske velvyslanectvi v Nemecko -SRNBerlin
Tel.: 0049 30 226 380
Fax: 0049 30 22 94 033
-Ceske velvyslaectvi v USA
Washington
Tel.: 001 202 27 49 100
Fax: 001202 966 85 40
-Ceske Velvyslanective v Anglii - GB
Tel.: 0044 171 24 31 115
Fax: 0044 171 72 79 654
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)
-------------------------
RomNews is published by the Roma National Congress on a Non-commercial
basis
European Central Office:
Simon von Utrechtstr. 85
D - 20359 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: ++ 49 40 319 42 49
Fax: ++ 49 40 31 04 75
URL: http://www.romnews.com
Emergency Hotline ( Phone ): ++ 49 171 8931 831
Emergency Hotline ( Fax ): ++ 49 171 8910 702
Emails:
Editorial Office: [email protected]
Send News to: [email protected]
Comments: [email protected]
RomNews Network: [email protected]
Moderator Listserver: [email protected]
ITEMS PUBLISHED IN ROMNEWS ARE COPYRIGHT OF THE RNC
PLEASE ACKNOWLEGDE ROMNEWS NETWORK / RNC WHEN QUOTING.
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================