MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Diversity Briefs, No.17

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Mediafax <divers@mediafax.ro>


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No. 17 / August 05, 2002

DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity -

SUMMARY
NEW EU FUNDS TO IMPROVE ROMA SITUATION
ELIE WIESEL ASKS ROMANIA TO ADMIT HOLOCAUST ROLE
ROMANIA, HUNGARY DISCUSS AMENDMENTS TO STATUS LAW
POLICE INVESTIGATE NATIONALIST MAYOR

FEATURE
OSCE STATES URGED TO FULFILL OBLIGATIONS TO ROMA
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NEW EU FUNDS TO IMPROVE ROMA SITUATION
BUCHAREST - The European Union representatives in Romania on July 25
announced a Euro 927,500 grant for certain programs referring to
country's Roma social and economic integration. There are financed 29
new projects in fields such as public administration, education, health,
social services, communication and civic participation. Chief of the
European Commission Delegation in Romania, Jonathan Scheele, stated that
the improvement of Roma situation in Romania is a very important issue
in fulfilling the political criteria for joining EU. Furthermore, the
European Union will uphold the implementation of the National Strategy
to enhance Roma condition in Romania and will increase the financial
support granted, if the authorities prove capacity in absorbing more
significant funds. "The projects adjudicated as successful in the bid
organized for the Fund of the Improvement for the Situation of Roma
proves there is high capacity of absorption both at the level of
communities as well as at the civil society", stated Scheele. (DIVERS)

ELIE WIESEL ASKS ROMANIA TO ADMIT HOLOCAUST ROLE
BUCHAREST - The Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel who last week paid a
visit to his native town of Sighet (northern Romania) asked Romanians to
remember what happened during World War II by asking their parents
questions about the region's past. "Asked them what happened when
Sighet, which had a vibrant Jewish community, was suddenly emptied of
Jews. Ask them if they shed a tear, if they cried, if they could sleep
well on the night after the deportation," he said. "May I respectfully
ask you to try to teach your people in the name of truth and memory to
say things that are not said, or have not been said clearly enough''.
Wiesel told Romanian President Ion Iliescu, after receiving the
country's highest honor. (DIVERS)

ROMANIA, HUNGARY DISCUSS AMENDMENTS TO STATUS LAW
BUCHAREST - Delegations from the Romanian and Hungarian foreign
ministries met on July 31 to discuss the possibility of amending the
so-called Status Law as well as aspects related to the memorandum of
understanding signed by the two countries in December 2001. They debated
only general issues and reached no particular decision. The Hungarian
side insisted on amending the law while Bucharest reiterated its point
of view for taking in consideration the Venice Commission's
recommendations and the recommendations of Council of Europe while
amending the law.
The so-called Status Law gives privileges to Hungarian minorities living
in neighboring states.
In related news, relations between the ruling Social Democratic Party
(PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania (UDMR) have grown
strained following a recent statement by the Prime Minister Adrian
Nastase. He threatened to send a letter to his counterpart in Budapest
about Hungarian consulate authorities in Romania whom he says have
violated the Memorandum for Understanding on Status Law. UDMR chairman
Bela Marko in turn said such action would breach the co-operation
agreement between PSD and UDMR. Marko added that he could cite some
irregularities in implementation by the Romanian side too. (DIVERS)

POLICE INVESTIGATE NATIONALIST MAYOR
CLUJ-NAPOCA - The local police in Transylvanian city of Cluj Napoca last
week launched an investigation against Mayor Gheorghe Funar regarding
the public display of a statue honoring wartime leader Marshal Ion
Antonescu.
Funar, who is also the secretary-general of the extremist Greater
Romania Party risks a jail sentence of six months to five years. Earlier
this year Romania adopted a government decision prohibiting the public
display of statues and naming of streets in Antonescu's honor.
Marshall Antonescu was executed for "crimes against peace" in 1946,
being accused for supporting deportation and killing of thousands of
Jews and Roma people from Romania. After 1990, an "Antonescu cult"
emerged as part of a campaign denying any Romanian participation in the
Holocaust.
Gheorghe Funar has long been known for his eccentric ideas and
anti-Hungarian rhetoric. Last year he ordered the sidewalks on some of
the main roads ro be decorated in Romania's national colors, after
previously having roadside poles, traffic lights, and benches painted in
the same palette. (DIVERS)

FEATURE

OSCE STATES URGED TO FULFILL OBLIGATIONS TO ROMA
United States Helsinki Commission leaders last week remembered the
anniversary of the Romani Holocaust observed annually on August 2nd and
3rd.
During the night of August 2-3, 1944, the Romani camp at
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated. Nearly three thousand Romani men,
women and children were killed in the gas chambers in a single night.
Roma around the globe have come to remember their Holocaust experiences
on these days.
"The single most defining experience for Roma in the 20th century was
the Holocaust, known in Romani as the Porrajmos, the Devouring," said
Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. "During
World War II, Roma were targeted for death by the Nazis based on their
ethnicity. At least 23,000 Roma were delivered to Auschwitz. Almost all
of them perished in the gas chambers or from starvation, exhaustion or
disease."
"The Helsinki Commission held our third hearing on Roma in April of this
year," said Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith. "Testimony
at these hearings reflected the magnitude of the discrimination and
violence still confronting Roma in many countries. Violent attacks
against Roma, including murders, often go unpunished, such as the arson
murder of a family of five in Ukraine last October."
"At the 1999 Istanbul Summit, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe participating States agreed to adopt
anti-discrimination legislation to protect Roma," said Commission
Ranking Member Rep. Steny H. Hoyer. "The adoption in 2000 of the
European Union's 'race directive,' which requires all EU member states
and applicant countries to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination
legislation, should spur this effort." In certain countries, political
leaders use Nazi-era rhetoric, describing Roma as "asocial," or
defending repressive measures against Roma as "social hygiene measures,"
implying that they are inherently unfit for European society. More than
half a century after Roma suffered forced sterilization at the hands of
Joseph Mengele and others, some public officials openly speak of
limiting Romani birth rates.
Roma were among those targeted for complete annihilation by the Nazis;
however, their suffering before and during World War II is not well
known. During the 1920s and 1930s, institutionalized racism against Roma
took on an increasingly virulent form. Policies similar to those
instituted against Germany's Jews were also implemented against Roma.
In addition to their systematic destruction at Auschwitz, Roma were
killed elsewhere in German-occupied territory by special SS squads,
regular army units or police, often shot at the village's edge and
dumped into mass graves.
It is difficult to estimate the size of the pre-war European Romani
population and war-time losses. Some scholars, however, suggest the size
of the Romani population in Germany and German-occupied territories was
around 942,000 and that 500,000 Roma were killed during the Holocaust.
Approximately 25,000 Roma from Romania were deported en masse to
Transnistria in Romanian-occupied Ukraine in 1942; some 19,000 of them
perished there.
After World War II, the post-Nazi German Government strongly resisted
redressing past wrongs committed against Roma, seeking to limit its
accountability. The first German trial decision to recognize that Roma
as well as Jews were genocide victims during the Third Reich was not
handed down until 1991.
Public awareness of the nature and extent of Romani losses continues to
expand as new archival material becomes available and new generations of
researchers examine the Holocaust experiences of Roma. (DIVERS)

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