Recent RomNews postings
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Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 14:09:22 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Recent RomNews postings
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Recent RomNews postings
TESTIMONIES AT SAKIC TRIAL
Zagreb / CROATIA (RNN Correspondent) April the 7th, 1999
The first witness at the war crimes trial of Dinko Sakic, 76 year-old
Dragan Roller, told of the inhuman condition at the notorious
Jasenovac camp but he also said that he did not see Sakic carrying out
any crimes himself: part of the prosecution's case against Sakic is
that he was not only in charge of the camp for eight months in 1944
when some 2,000 people died, but that he also took part in the
killings and torture himself. Roller described how he was subjected to
forced labour and how he had to hide the fact that he was ill with
typhoid for fear that he be shot on the spot. He also said that he had
heard that Sakic had taken part in hanging 20 people, but he had not
seen him present at the hanging of several Serb nationalists. Roller
has also supplied details of the general conditions at the camp.
75 year-old Jakov Finci's testimony includes an account of the killing
spree which took place in October 1944, while Sakic was in charge of
the camp. Camp guards "disposed" of the old and the infirm by dragging
them from their bunks at night, killing them and then dumping their
naked bodies into a nearby river: Finci said that the reason for these
murders was that Summer's work was over and they were no longer
needed. Sakic broke out laughing during Finci's testimony, claiming
that the reports of torture, beating and the way that prisoners had
been forced to watch the hanging of 3 Serb were all "nonsense".
--------------------------
First confirmed Roma victim
Kumanovo / MACEDONIA (RNN Correspondent) April the 10th, 1999
There are no sign of ending of the war. The citizen of Belgrade are
standing on the bridge's every night in order to protect them with
their lives. There are still refugees on the border line but they are
not allowed to get in Macedonia. There are such People who quit and go
back to their homes. The organization of Red Cross is managing to give
them food.
Among the refugees on the Tabanovce border-line toward Kumanovo there
are Roma People, too. They are running away from the bombing, they are
frightened, tired and ill. Today, unofficially, we are said that one
Rom on
middle age was in very bad condition, he returned to Belgrade but
after the medical care it was too late for him, he died. His daughter
in too late for him, he died. His daughter in Kumanovo was informed by
her relatives in Belgrade.
She said that heard from the psychological fear of the bombing. If we
get the official information we'll let you know. Two days ago the Roma
People in Belgrade had a meeting and they loyalty to Serbia, saying
that they are born there and they will stay with the other. Some
cities of Serbia are not bombed yet (Presevo, Bujanovac, Leskovac,
Pirot).
In Macedonia the situation with the refugees is getting better. The
coordination of Roma organizations roved humanitarian help by some
foreign organizations. This help is food delivered to many cities. One
problem occurs with the Roma refugees from SR Yugoslavia and they
don't have a right for status of refugee. Many of them do not posses
driving license. The anyway Roma organizations are accepting them. May
be the number of refugees from SR Yugoslavia will increase because of
the more often attacks. The refugees need medicines, blankets, and
clothes. The Roma organizations besides the help to the refugees have
big need for help to Roma families from Macedonia. There is no war in
Macedonia but the poverty of Roma People is big. The humanitarian
catastrophe in Macedonia Will make their situation even worse.
Thank you, once again, for your interest in the situation of Roma
people, and I will try to inform you further on. My colleagues from
RCC "DROM" and most of the other Roma organizations from Macedonia are
contacting more often all for the purpose of objective and on time
informing and considering the situation. Besides your support I
receive some political messages for finding the right and the guilt
side.
We are informing considering the situation and the problems of the
Roma, we are not getting into political viewing of the war conflict.
We don't want to interfere in it.
The Roma People didn't start any war in the countries where they live,
they are loyal citizens. Their appeal is: "PEACE ALL OVER THE WORLD"
Asmet Elezovski Board Member of the Roma National Congress, 10.04.1999
Your help is welcomed our contact address and bank account:
Roma Community Center "DROM"Kumanovo
Lokalitet Serava zgrada 106, objekt 5, prizemje 7a
91300 Kumanovo,
tel.fax:++38990127558
[email protected]
[email protected]
Donation Bank Contact:
Stopanska Banka a.d.-Skopje
SWIFT:STOB MK 2X
Bank account: 40100-623-79
ZPP-Kumanovo- 40900-678-6121
--------------------------
MORE DOCUMENTATION ON ROMA CAMP VICTIMS
Warsaw / POLAND (RNN Correspondent) April the 13th, 1999
The fate of Roma camp prisoners is to be documented and presented in a
much more in-depth manner at the Auschwitz memorial site, according to
the site's manager, Jerzy Wroblewski. Wroblewski held talks with Roma
representatives from several European states near the town of Worms in
south-west Germany on Tuesday, March 9th; the group also traveled to
the nearby site of a camp built in 1933.
The decision is to make good years of Roma dissatisfaction with the
way that the Nazi genocide of their People was inadequately presented
at Auschwitz, where more than 20,000 of the Holocaust's 500,000 plus
Roma victims were murdered after 1943. The entire exhibition is ripe
for overhauling as demographic changes mean that visitors who lived
through the war give way to post-war generations and the future
displays will concentrate more on the entire history of Nazi
persecution from the regime's inception rather than deal exclusively
with the history of the camp itself.
--------------------------
COUNCIL OF EUROPE: MINORITIES DISCRIMINATED AGAINST
Strasbourg / FRANCE (RNN Correspondent) April the 13th, 1999
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance presented a
report in Strasbourg on Sunday, March 14th in which discriminatory
practices against Roma and non-Europeans in various European countries
were outlined. Austrian police were accused of "sporadic" use of
excessive force; ethnic Russians faced state-sanctioned hostility in
Latvia and Roma were worst affected by discrimination in Romania.
--------------------------
LAWYERS CALLED TO FOREGO PAY
Hamburg / GERMANY (RNN Agency) April the 14th, 1999
Lawyers and legal Experts have been called upon to abstain from
charging fees for their work on cases brought by US-based Holocaust
survivors against German companies for the use of slave labor during
W.W.II, though some form of reimbursement for their time and effort
will probably be offered. Survivors' representatives have pointed out
that the legal work in cases brought against Swiss banks charged with
never having released assests of Holocaust victims after the war was
all done on an unpaid voluntary basis, even when the suits met with
resounding success. Deutsche Bank's planned merger with Bankers Trust
is to be postponed until the compensation cases are settled, despite
the bank's pledges to take part in the 2-3 billion mark trust being
set up by 13 German firms to compensate Holocaust survivors. So far no
statement has been issued by the legal teams involved in these cases.
--------------------------
ROSE CRITICIZES POLITICIANS' PRIORITIES
Heidelberg / GERMANY (RNN Correspondent) April the 14th, 1999
Chairman of the Central Council of German Cinti and Roma, Romani Rose,
has described politicians' apparant priorities as absurd: his comments
came as a reaction to the news that the federal states' chamber in
Germany's parliament were considering a bill which would sentence
juvenile graffitists to two years' imprisonment for defacing
buildings. Rose claimed that politicians obviously lack all
understanding for more important issues: his recent calls for swift
legal amendments to cover violent racist attacks by individuals and
groups fell on deaf ears. Rose's appeal to lawmakers had followed two
separate attacks in eastern Germany, in which an Algerian man was
killed and an Angolan man seriously injured.
--------------------------
MEMORIAL COMMISSIONED BY ROMA UNION
Frankfurt a.M. / GERMANY (RNN Correspondent) April the 15th, 1999
Frankfurt's Roma UNion has commissioned a sculptor to create a tablet
commemorating those Roma murdered during the Nazi period. Attempts to
have it placed on the wall of the health department offices in
Braubachstrasse, where Nazi "race researchers" Robert Ritter and Eva
Justin worked after 1945, failed and now the memorial is to be placed
in the church of St. Gallus until further plans.
--------------------------
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