MINELREL-L Archive (04102001-13:06:17-17468)

The 30th Romani National Day: 8 April 2001


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Subject: The 30th Romani National Day: 8 April 2001


From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Ariel Eliyahu <[email protected]>

The 30th Romani National Day: 8 April 2001
 

THE 30th ROMANI NATIONAL DAY: 8 April 2001
Ilona Klimova, Cambridge University
E-mail: <[email protected]>
 
Last July, the prominent Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes gave full-page
coverage to the 5th World Romani Congress taking place in Prague,
announcing in a headline: "We are a nation, the Roma declare to the
world" (23 July 2000).  This Congress for the first time publicized
the claim of the Roma to national status. Within a few days similar
slogans echoed through major newspapers in Europe, North America,
Australia and New Zealand. The new message conveyed by the President
of the International Romani Union, Emil Scuka, clearly goes against
the common 'gypsy stereotype' which presents the world's Roma as a
backward deviant group, contesting and rejecting the norms and values
of modern societies, resisting integration and having no interest in
participation in political life. Using the post-modern discourse of
individual human rights and globalization, Scuka declared among other
things that the Roma want the following (Corriere della Sera, 4
December 2001):
 
- to participate in the international society and in its quest for the
improvement of peoples lives based on fundamental democratic
principles;
- to live like everyone else and with everyone else, regardless of
nationality, religion or language, in a symbiotic system in which
diverse nations aim to integrate through common institutions and rules
without trying to assimilate each other;
- not to be just passive participants, rather, to help in the creation
of new and proper norms, institutions and forms of coexistence in an
organised global society founded on the rule of law.
 
Although unknown to most, the idea of the Romani nation and the
struggle for political participation are not new phenomena. Romani
leaders have long tried to enter mainstream politics in order to
improve the situation of their people but have found it impossible,
with some notable recent exceptions (currently there are 5 Romani MPs
in various European countries, some 20 Romani mayors and about 400
Romani local councilors; until recently there was also a Spanish
Romani MP in the European Parliament). As a result of their
marginalization (and until recently in many countries even legal
exclusion) from mainstream politics, the Roma have started to develop
alternative transnational Romani politics. In order to find a niche
for themselves within the framework of a word dominated by
nation-states, Romani elites for decades have been engaged in the
process of nation-building through their own political and cultural
mobilization. This cultural mobilization has included the promotion of
folklore, festivals, and education, as well as of publications in the
Romani language and language standardization. Their political
mobilization gained momentum with the First World Romani Congress,
held in London in l971. This Congress adopted the self-appellation
Roma, the blue and green flag embossed with the red Ashok Chakra (the
Indian wheel symbolizing perpetual life), and the Romani anthem, We
Traveled On (Djelem, Djelem). It also decided that the opening day of
the Congress - 8 April - should become Romani National Day. The
movement has grown stronger throughout the years and this past World
Romani Congress brought about the formation of a state-like structure
with its own constitution, embryonic government, parliament and
diplomatic corps. 

The Romani National Day has been marked more widely each year by
cultural events and parades in various countries. This year's special
30-year Jubilee promises to be the greatest manifestation yet for
recognition and rights of the Romani Nation. Events coordinated
between many Romani groups and organizations in Europe, North and
South America and Australia are to take place in over 150 towns and
cities around the globe. Unlike the purely cultural spirit of the
celebrations in the past 30 years, the 30th Romani National Day has a
more radical political expression signified by the use of the term
'Ustiben' (Rising) and the staging of 'The March of 100,000.' This
idea came as a response to an appeal by Roma ethnically cleansed from
Kosovo, some 80,000 of whom were forced to flee their homes during the
war in the province and are now scattered as refugees around Europe.
The main thrust is for recognition of the Roma as a non-territorial
nation with the right to a seat in the UN General Assembly, as well as
the observance of human rights for Romani people, not to mention
equality, an end to racial attacks, better treatment for Romani
refugees worldwide, protection and safe return for Roma of Kosovo, and
an end to the recent violence in Macedonia. The whole event also
celebrates Romani brotherhood, unity, culture and nationhood and
testifies to solidarity between diverse Romani communities for the
purposes of political cooperation.
 
The main event prepared for the Romani National Day and Ustiben 2001
is a rally outside the UN in New York in support of Point 5 of the
Warsaw Recommendations to the NGO Forum of the 2001 UN World
Conference Against Racism (WCAR) calling for the UN to confer "the
status of a non-territorial nation to the Romani people, providing for
adequate representation in relevant international governmental
organizations.[including having] a seat in the United Nations ..[and]
elected officials in the European Parliament, the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe and in the constitutive organs of
these organizations." For full text see
http://www.hri.ca/racism/meetings/warsaw.htm   The momentum for Roma
Nation recognition by the UN, which was taken up by the meeting of the
Parliament of the International Romani Union in Bratislava, Slovakia
(3-4 March 2001) and by the regional NGO meeting for WCAR in Quito,
Ecuador (13-16 March 2001), is planned to be carried forward to the
WCAR in Durban, South Africa at the end of August 2001. April 8 events
in other parts of the globe will include a rally in Gent focusing on
the situation of Romani refugees and drawing attention to the
situation of the Roma of Kosovo; a rally at the Parliament Square in
London calling for a Traveler Law Reform Bill, accompanied by a
cultural program and academic conferences focusing on the Romani
movement at the Universities of Greenwich and Cambridge; a concert in
Vienna City Hall;  an assembly in Sydney; and major manifestations and
cultural events in San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Quito, Bogota,
Sao Paolo, Buenes Aires, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia, Skopje, Berlin,
Prague, Nis, Subotica, Salonica, and a number of smaller towns. In
Prishtina, Kosovo, despite the grave situation, April 8 will be marked
by a theater production, a concert, and a reception and speeches, with
the full support of the OSCE. Contact details for more information on
these events can be obtained at <http://romani.org/ustiben.html> or
from <[email protected]>
 

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