MINELRES: Romania: Ethnic Minority Briefs No. 62

[MINELRES moderator]

Divers Buletin <edivers_buletin@mediafax.ro>


No. 62 / July 7, 2003 
  
DIVERS
- reporting ethnic diversity - 
 
SUMMARY 

 
1. ECHR AGREES TO REVIEW CASE OF ANTI-ROMA POGROM 
2. INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR ROMA INTEGRATION
3. ROMA STUDENTS NOT SO KEEN ON GOING TO HIGH SCHOOL
4. G. FRUNDA RE-ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF HUNGARIAN INFORMAL PARLIAMENT
5. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ROMANIANS FROM DIASPORA
6. HUNGARY PROMISES NEGOTIATIONS ON STATUS LAW 

FEATURE
7. FOLKLORE GROUP KEEPS TARTAR TRADITON ALIVE
 

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ECHR AGREES TO REVIEW CASE OF ANTI-ROMA POGROM 
STRASBOURG � The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agreed last month
to review a complaint by 14 Romany families from the Romanian village of
Hadareni, launched after an 1993 incident that left three people dead
and 14 houses destroyed, according to a communique from the
Budapest-based European Roma Rights Center, which is representing the
plaintiffs in court. RFE/RL reported that following an altercation in
Hadareni in which a non-Romany boy was killed, a mob of villagers hunted
down the alleged perpetrators and set fire to the house in which they
were hiding. Two were brutally slain when they tried to escape, and the
third was burned to death in the house. The mob, including members of
the local police force and the village's deputy mayor, went on to
destroy another 14 houses belonging to Romany families. A sentence
handed down against 12 individuals by a Tirgu-Mures court in 1998
contained allegedly anti-Romany views in the preamble; the same judges
convicted five villagers of destruction of property and disturbing the
peace, and another five of murder. The convictions were reduced on
appeal, and the Supreme Court later acquitted two of the defendants.
(DIVERS)
 


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INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR ROMA INTEGRATION
BUDAPEST - Officials from nine East-Central European countries
participating in an international conference on Romany issues on July 1
formed a working team at the prime-ministerial level to coordinate
efforts to end discrimination against Roma in the next decade, RFER/RL
reported. 
"The Roma people in Europe lag behind the rest of Europe in terms of
life expectancy, in terms of education, in terms of health and in terms
of opportunities," World Bank president James Wolfensohn said. "It is
destabilizing -- but more than that it's wrong," he said. Wolfensohn was
speaking at a two-day conference in the Hungarian capital to tackle the
social and economic problems of the gypsies, being attended by prime
ministers from central and eastern Europe and hundreds! of Roma leaders. 
Some five million Roma will come under the European Union umbrella with
the accession of 10 mostly central and eastern European nations in May
2004, making the community the largest ethnic minority in the enlarged
bloc. "There is poverty, discrimination faced by the Roma people and it
is a concern for Europe as a whole," said the European Commissioner for
Employment and Social Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou. 
Poverty and unemployment is rife among Roma people, who also suffer
social isolation, higher mortality rates and lower life expectancy than
the general population, and sharply lower standards of education. 
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy warned that lifting the Roma
out of poverty could take years. "It could take generations before we
can show results, but we cannot wait," Medgyessy told the conference,
sponsored by the World Bank and the Open Society Institute of
Philanthropist George Soros. "Lives are at stake." 
Soros, whose Budapest-based organization works to eliminate
discrimination against minorities, urged leaders to not make the
Budapest conference a "one shot" proposition. He called for a "decade of
the Roma" to be launched in Europe from 2005 to 2015 to allow national
governments and international organizations to follow up on promises for
Roma integration. "I hope this will be the beginning of real
engagement," Soros said. 
Gypsy leaders hope the conference, to be attended by prime ministers
from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania,
Montenegro and Slovakia, will mark a new start in fighting the
discrimination and poverty. 
The Roma have fallen far behind in the wake of the regions transition
from decades of communism to a market-oriented economy. In Hungary, the
employment rate of working-age Roma plummeted from 80 percent in the
1970s to 26 percent in the early 1990s, a World Bank report said.
(DIVERS)
 


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ROMA STUDENTS NOT SO KEEN ON GOING TO HIGH SCHOOL
BUCHAREST � Only small part of seats reserved this year in high schools
for Roma students who graduated from eight- grade was occupied, as
results out of the first data presented by the county inspectorates.
Therefore, in Bucharest, the 730 seats provided by Bucharest School
Inspectorate were occupied only by a number of 206 Roma students who
have passed the Eight Grade Ability Test. Their averages ranged 5.52 and
9.14. A number of 23 Roma students had averages over 8.00. Across
Romania, things were not quite different. Thus, in Constanta, only nine
primary and secondary school graduates of Roma ethnicity opted for one
of the 35 seats in high school. In Suceava only ten students got
enrolled in the 106 special seats, while in Buzau statistics are quite
better, as 36 Roma students enrolled in 98 seats. (DIVERS)
 


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G. FRUNDA RE-ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF HUNGARIAN INFORMAL PARLIAMENT
TIRGU MURES - Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) senator
Gyorgy Frunda was reconfirmed as chairman of Union Representatives
Council (CRU), the informal parliament of ethnic Hungarians from
Romania. Gyorgy Frunda kept on stating that it is necessary for the new
CRU to activate in a pragmatic manner. �I believe the romantic times
passed away, times when somebody had made proposal, it necessarily
should have been subjected to voting. We guarantee freedom of each
member of the Union to express his opinion, yet from now on I believe
the decision bills should be drawn up and presented in due time to the
Standing Bureau. When talking about autonomy, CRU must activate
rationally�, also added Frunda. 
UDMR chairman Marko Bela also resorted to the party�s unity, indicating
that in the Union there is room enough for "Christian democracy,
liberalism or social-democracy, Szeckler nation, Partium, Diaspora and
central region of Ardeal, but also for Magyars from Bucharest or
Galati�. Marko Bela underlined, during the speech held into the session
for setting up the new Union Representatives Council, ca, "if scission
were among Magyars", there will no longer be representatives in
Parliament and thus �united Union� is required. (DIVERS)


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SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ROMANIANS FROM DIASPORA
BUCHAREST � For 2003-2004 schooling year, Ministry of Education and
Research (MEC) allocated for Romanians abroad a number of 1000 seats
free of schooling tax payment. They also include money allowance, as
indicates an official release of MEC. About 800 of seats are meant for
youth from Republic of Moldova. The scholarships will be granted relying
on annual averages. (DIVERS)



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HUNGARY PROMISES NEGOTIATIONS ON STATUS LAW 
BUDAPEST -- Hungary is prepared to start bilateral negotiations with
neighboring countries on the implementation of a controversial
minorities law affecting ethnic Hungarians living outside the country,
according to Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs. The first such bilateral
meeting at the ministerial level will take place on July 18 with
Romania, Kovacs said. The Hungarian Parliament last month approved
changes to the status law, which grants social and educational benefits
to the 3.5 million Hungarians living in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia,
Ukraine, Croatia and Slovenia. Neighboring countries had criticized the
law in its original form because it granted Budapest powers to assert
control beyond its own territory, while the EU said the law
discriminated between minorities counter to EU regulations. (DIVERS) 



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REPORT 
  
FOLKLORE GROUP KEEPS TARTAR TRADITON ALIVE
Well-studied moves, gracefully executed with smiles hanging on their
faces. Thirty degrees Celsius were not able to melt the energy of the
dancers in Turkish-Tatar group �Karasu� from Medgidia (eastern Romania). 

The members of the �Karasu � folklore group at �The fair of the
craftsmen� organized by The Village Museum last week, were youths who
have not reached their 18 yet. Wrapped up in blue velvet top coats, with
veils or fur caps, the youths danced on oriental music, round up circles
or bringing together straight lines in their dance. 
The Turkish-Tatar folklore group �Karasu� from Medgidia was set up in
1990 and is now in its third generation. The purpose is to turn to
account, to protect and to reinstate the Tartar customs and the
traditional Tartar costume, specific to the Dobruja region (Romania) and
to Crimea. About ten thousand Tatars live together with 28 thousand of
Romanians in the city of Medgidia and the Tartar communities here are
very compact ones, since the Tatars have their own residential
districts. Tatars belong to the great family of the Turkish and they
came in Dobruja from the Crimea peninsula. An estimated number of the
Tatars living in Romania is 24.649, approximately 0.11 percent of the
population and most of them reside in Constanta, Tulcea (eastern
Romania) and Bucharest capital. �We set up this folklore group because
we wanted to keep the Tatar tradition alive,� said Ghiulsen Ismail, the
instructor-coordinator of the ensemble. Three years ago a small group of
�Karasu� was born, with members aged between 12 and 15, to assure the
continuity of the group with members between 16 and 18 years of age. The
entire ensemble now gathers 45 members.
Besides the dance groups, the folklore ensemble also has two groups of
mandolins, an instrumental group and vocalists.
The costumes are inspired by old Tatar models: the costume for women is
made of white or red silk dress, over which a long (to the knees) blue
velvet mantle embroidered with traditional motives; on the head a cap
with embodiments and a lot of coins sewed on together with a veil. At
the waist there is a yellow or red manually executed belt and black
shoes. Men�s costume is made of a white shirt with traditional
embroideries on the collar, blue baggy trousers, a blue vest also
embroidered, a red or blue belt and the fur cap. The blue color is
dominant in the costume because the Tatar flag is on a blue background.
The red color is also very appreciated for the costume because it is
considered a bright and good color.
The ensemble �Karasu� is invited every year at �The Turkish World
Festival� in Ialova, at festivals in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Ukraine etc.
�Our will is to reach perfection, because we have a strong competition,�
said Ghiulsen Ismail.
The ambition can overturn all obstacles: �It is not easy to work with
the children, but our love for them and for our traditions that we want
to keep alive makes us take at ease some of the difficulties,� Ismail
added.
The work is impressive. �We have rehearsals two up to eight hours in
vacation time and a very strict discipline, like the army,� said the
coordinator of the group. �We work hard in order to achieve the team
spirit �All for one and one for all�. We leave at home our little
caprices and pretensions, and those who can�t resist to this treatment
simply stay home,� she also said.
The �Karasu� ensemble has in his repertory 40 traditional dances and
approximately 80 traditional songs and each year they enrich it with two
or three dances. Still, the instructor says this is not much. �The
children are very aware of the duty they carry,� said Ghiulsen Ismail.
�They attend this group because they like the Tatar folklore, the music
and the dance.�
Sergiuc Suliman, 20, member of the group, says the young members are
trying to improve and preserve the Tatar customs on their own, since he
is the creator of some new dances for the ensemble: �One day we were
thinking that we didn�t have a choreographer and we tried to put
together new moves. We had had different choreographers from Crimea and
Turkey and we borrowed from them and combined some of the motives.� The
children work with great pleasure, even though it is an exhausting job.
�It is very easy and we dance with pleasure, otherwise we wouldn�t do
it. When we see the results, we are proud, as we are the first ones at
Tatar dances,� said Suliman. He also said that life within the group is
like being in a big family where they are all like brothers.
The �Karasu� group is financially sustained by the Democratic Union of
Muslin Tatars in Romania which annually receives a sum of money from the
Government. The children don�t receive any money for their work but they
are happy to be able to see new places in their tours and some of them
get free tutoring lessons for mathematic and English from the older
fellow colleagues. 
The children are unforeseeable and from time to time there are shows
where they happen to forget their shoes home, their belts or some other
small important things.
Sergiuc recalls the worst day in his life as a member of �Karasu� group:
�We were in an international festival and while we were dancing the tape
broke down. But we continued the dance without the music, because you
can faint, you can fall, but the dance must goes on.� (Gabriela Vieru -
DIVERS) 



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