Recent Romnews postings
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 21:34:50 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Recent Romnews postings
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Roma National Congress <[email protected]>
Recent Romnews postings
First Roma get Money from the Swiss Nazi Gold
BERN, Switzerland (RNN Correspondent) Feburary the 21st 1998
A Swiss fund for Holocaust victims made its first payment Wednesday to
Roma survivors of Hitler's concentration camps. Three Roma, now 58- to
78-years-old and living on social security payments, received $1,380
each at a ceremony in the German town of Singen. They are among 45
Roma - now living in Germany, France, Spain and Canada - on whose
behalf an organization to support Roma submitted an application. The
other 42 will receive their payments shortly, the fund said in a
statement.
The fund president, Rolf Bloch, emphasized the "symbolic importance of
recognizing this group of Holocaust victims." About 88 percent of the
fund, created last year, is intended to aid destitute Jewish survivors
of the Nazis, especially those in eastern Europe who were denied
Western assistance during decades of communist rule. The remaining 12
percent is to help non-Jewish survivors, including homosexuals,
political opponents of the Nazis and Roma.
Swiss banks and industry have given $190 million to the fund. The
first payments were made in November in Riga, Latvia. Most recipients
so far have received $415. The higher payout to the Roma "takes into
account the higher cost of living in western Europe," the fund said.
---------------------
German Sinti and Roma Demand Rights of Minorities for their Language
Berlin/ GERMANY ( RNN Correspondent ) April the 6th 1998
On Tuesday the chairman of the Central Commission of the German Sinti
and Roma, Romani Rose, demanded of the German Government and the
Federal States the same rights of minority-languages for Romanes as
for Sorbian, Frisian, Danish and Low German.
The background is the ratification of the "European Charta for
regional and minority languages" that was signed by Germany in 1992.
It is planned to take place in April or May.
Those languages that are included in the Charta must be supported by
the Federation and the Federal States with specific measurements. The
150.000 German Sinti and Roma have the German languages as their
second mother tongue. The German Romanes, which is different from the
language of the East European Sinti and Roma has a history of 600
years, emphasises Rose.
Under the National Socialist regime all over Europe 500.000 - 700.000
Sinti
and Roma had been persecuted and murdered.
Romnews is published by the Roma National Congress
on a non-commercial basis
European Central Office:
Simon-von-Utrecht-Str. 85
D-20359 Hamburg, Germany
Emergency Telephone Hotline: ++49 - 171 - 89 31 831
Emergency Telefax Hotline: ++49 - 171 - 89 10 702
Fax: ++49 - 40 - 31 04 75
Tel: ++49 - 40 - 319 42 49
CompuServe: 100322,1740
http://www.romnews.com
Internet: [email protected]
Items published in Romnews are copyright of the RNC.
Please acknowledge Romnews/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
==============================================================