ERRC Letter to the Chief Administrative Judge of Berlin
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 97 10:11:07 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: ERRC Letter to the Chief Administrative Judge of Berlin
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: Claude Cahn <[email protected]>
ERRC Letter to the Chief Administrative Judge of Berlin
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of abuse. On November 14, the ERRC sent a letter to the
chief administrative judge of Berlin requesting a stay of deportation for
three Roma from Bijelina, presently located in Bosnian entity known as
Republika Srpska, to permit the pursuit of all possible appeals in this case
. The deportation had been ordered by a lower court on November 10. The text
of the letter is as follows:
Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin
Kirchstrasse 7
10557 Berlin
Germany
fax: (4930) 3979 8790
cc: Senatsverwaltung fur Inneres
Abteilung IV
10702 Berlin
Germany
fax: (4930) 2474 2879
Honourable Chief Judge,
The European Roma Rights Center, an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in
cases of human rights abuse, is concerned about judicial developments
concerning Bosnian Roma in Berlin.
Reuters reported on November 10 that a Berlin administrative court has
authorised the deportation from Germany of three Bosnian Roma, even though a
systematic campaign of "ethnic cleansing" during the Bosnian war
has rendered uninhabitable their native region - the Bosnian entity known as
Republika Srpska (RS). In its ruling, the court acknowledged that the Roma
could not return to the RS. Nonetheless, according to press accounts, the
court reasoned that the refugees could successfully return to the other
Bosnian entity - the Muslim-Croat Federation - without what it termed
"danger to life or limb."
The ERRC is concerned that government officials in Berlin will use this
ruling as a pretext for accelerating deportations of Bosnian Roma refugees.
There are presently approximately 25,000 de facto refugees from Bosnia in
Berlin. An estimated 6000-10,000 of these are Roma and possibly as many as
5000 of these come from the town of Bijelina, presently located in Republika
Srpska. As of the end of June, 41 Bosnians had been deported
from Berlin, while another 5053 had returned "voluntarily". While many of
these so-called "voluntary" returns took place under pressure of deportation
, the ERRC believes that the high number of people who have left the
relative security of Berlin for an unknown future in Bosnia indicates that
those who feel capable of leaving with a reasonable amount of security have
already done so.
Given the precarious conditions prevailing in Bosnia at present, all
deportations should be halted. In order to permit the three Bosnian Roma in
this case to appeal the decision of the administrative tribunal, we call
upon your office to stay their deportation until all appropriate judicial
bodies have had a full opportunity to review and correct the erroneous
decision of the administrative tribunal in this case.
Sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
--
==========================================================================
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
==========================================================================