MINELRES: ERRC: Government Failure in Slovakia

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Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <errc@errc.org> 


Urgent Measures Needed to Address Deep-Seated Racism Issues in Slovakia
February 26, 2004

On the evening of Tuesday February 24, 2004, the Slovak government
ordered the largest mobilisation of its police and armed forces since
1989, in order to address the problem of spreading riots among Roma in a
number of communities in central and eastern Slovakia. Although figures
varied according to reports, according to information available as of
February 26, on the territories of Kosice, Presov and Banska-Bystrica
Counties, approximately 1600 police officers and 650 members of the army
had been mobilised, with a further 350 soldiers put on active alert.
Minister of the Interior Vladimir Palko was quoted by domestic media as
having stated on the evening of February 24, "All police officers have
had holidays suspended until further notice. At issue is the largest
engagement of police forces since 1989. [...] Yesterday for the first
time since 1989 water cannons were deployed and used." Slovak press has
been dominated by headlines this week such as "This is War!"

The engagement of supplementary armed forces comes as a response to a
series of riots by members of the Slovak Romani community, occurring
with increasing intensity over the approximately two weeks since they
first began, during which crowds of Roma have looted and damaged food
shops. The riots were triggered by changes to the social welfare system
in which, from early 2004, the structure of the social welfare system
has been changed, with all persons requiring social support receiving
less than previously. Many Roma have however been particularly affected
by the changes to the social welfare law, however, due to provisions
cutting support for families with more than four children. These
provisions were apparently specifically adopted to reduce the number of
Roma on social welfare. The particular circumstances of the deployment
of heightened levels of security forces were calls by prominent Romani
activists for statewide protests against the changes to the social
welfare system for Wednesday February 25. These were called off late in
the afternoon of February 24, apparently due to the threat of violence.
In the few municipalities where protests took place on February 25,
these transpired peacefully.

The outbreak of rioting by Roma -- and emergency measures adopted by the
Slovak government in response to rioting -- must be regarded as a
powerful indication of the comprehensive failure to date of Slovak
government policy with respect to Roma. Official data for the 3rd
quarter of 2003 -- the most such data recent available -- indicates that
approximately 87.5% of the Slovak Romani population was unemployed
during the period, as compared with an unemployment rate of 14.2% for
the population as a whole. Discrimination on the labour market is
widespread if not total, and in the recent past, public labour offices
have accepted announcements from prospective employers explicitly
stating that Roma will not be considered.

ERRC documentation of the schooling of Romani children in Slovakia
revealed extreme levels of racial segregation: during the 2002/2003
school year, in many Slovak schools for the mentally disabled, more than
half of the students were Romani. In some schools for the mentally
disabled, every single pupil was Romani.

Many Roma live in extremely substandard, racially segregated slum
settlements. In one famous example, one such settlement -- Patoracka,
outside Rudnany -- is located on the grounds of a former mercury mine.
Most such slum settlements are characterised by substandard or extremely
substandard housing, a prevalence of environmental hazards including
toxic waste, rubbish tips, intermingling of waste and drinking water,
etc. Romani slums generally are partially or completely lacking in
formal infrastructure such as paved roads, electricity, heating, sewage
removal and the provision of adequate drinking water, and are frequently
excluded from other public services, such as bus or postal services. In
the most egregious example, since 1995, the city of Kosice -- Slovakia's
second city -- has been by policy progressively evicting Roma from the
city centre and re-housing them in a housing estate called Lunik IX. At
the same time, it has allocated housing in other housing estates to
non-Romani residents of Lunik IX, such that they may move away. In 2002,
the last non-Romani individual living in Lunik IX moved out, leaving a
pure -- and extremely substandard -- ghetto.

In addition, in 2001, the Slovak government amended the Slovak civil
code to weaken the rights of tenants. In the wake of the amendments,
there has been a significant rise in the number of forced evictions of
Roma in Slovakia. Additional issues prevalent among Roma in Slovakia
with respect to housing include homelessness, overcrowding and in some
cases severe overcrowding, as well as discrimination in the allocation
of state-provided housing, obstruction of land use and/or denial of
planning permission.

Anti-Romani sentiment at the local level in Slovakia is very extreme in
many municipalities. The year 2003 was marked by a number of efforts by
local authorities to derail projects aimed at improving the situation of
Roma. These efforts were frequently successful. For example, in the
village of Svinia, despite an international project of close to a decade
long, involving, among others, the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) and the US-based NGO Habitat for Humanity, the village
remains racially segregated as a result of obstruction by the local
council and (very many) members of the non-Romani community. On April 1,
2003, the local council adopted Resolution 34/2003 "approving the
termination of activities currently being carried out in the village by
the organizations Habitat for Humanity and CIDA".

In other instances, local councils of villages have consented to
development projects for Roma only if they are in isolated or excluded
areas. For example, in September 2003, the mayors of the villages of
Letanovce, Hrabusice, Arnutovce, Spisske Tomasovce and Spisske Stvrtok
agreed to a development project proposed by the government with European
Union funding, only if it were located in the isolated community of
Strelniky. Other localities to have planned and/or implemented racially
segregated housing projects in recent years include Nitra and Presov.

In some instances, local officials have attempted to strike Roma from
the municipal register. For example, on June 28, 2001, the local council
of the town of Letanovce adopted Resolution 21/28.6.2001, "terminating
the permanent residence of the citizens living in the Gypsy settlement
Letanovce from August 1, 2001." Despite the intervention of the Slovak
Government's Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities, as well as review by
a parliamentary committee, the local council refused to rescind the
resolution. A court subsequently annulled the act by the Letanovce local
council, but as of October 2003, approximately 60 Roma in the Letanovce
settlement lacked permanent residence there, despite the fact that many
of them were born there. Similarly, in the Vilcurna settlement in
Spisska Nova Ves, out of a total number of approximately 1000 local
Roma, only 727 persons had legal residence in the village as of the end
of 2003.

Finally, the year 2003 was noteworthy for extensive discussions, both
domestically and internationally, of allegations that Romani women have
in recent years been coercively sterilized by medical professionals in
Slovakia, as well as allegations that Roma have been subjected to a
range of other abuses in the Slovak health care system, including racial
segregation and verbal abuse. Members of the European Parliament on at
least two occasions addressed questions related to the issue of coercive
sterilizations of Romani women to EU Commissioner for Enlargement
G�nther Verheugen, and Slovak officials opened investigations into the
allegations. 

On October 29, 2003, the Slovak government issued a "Statement by the
Government of the Slovak Republic to the Report on the Developments in
Allegations of Forced Sterilisations of Roma Women in the Slovak
Republic and on Steps and Measures Adopted". This states: "[...] a
thorough investigation of some sterilisations of women, indeed,
confirmed procedural shortcomings." Despite this acknowledgement
however, the Slovak has not to date indicated that it is prepared to
offer redress to victims of coercive sterilizations.

The rioting by Roma in Slovakia of recent weeks has not, however, caused
the government or other officials in Slovakia to address significantly
the very serious issues related to racism, racial discrimination and
systemic human rights abuse in Slovakia. Although the government this
week importantly announced measures aimed at ameliorating the impact of
changes to the social welfare system, government and local responses
were more noteworthy for being primarily about the collective punishment
of Roma. They were also dominated at the highest levels by statements
blaming Roma themselves for their situation, and focussing on issues
related to Slovakia's image abroad.

On the morning of February 25, after refusing to visit affected
communities for a number of days, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda
finally traveled to eastern Slovakia, where he stated: "This state will
defend healthy citizens and their property." He went on to accuse Roma
of "speculating" on the social welfare system rather than working.

Responses by local officials and security forces to rioting have been
primarily collectively punitive, further deeply alienating Romani
communities. For example, in Trebisov, according to official information
approximately 400 Roma from a local Romani population of around 5000
rioted in the late evening hours of February 23. According to ERRC field
investigation carried out with local partner organisation Center for
Roma Rights Slovakia (CRRS), approximately 240 police officers raided
the local Romani community for a period of not less than 12 hours
beginning in the early morning hours of February 24, during which
officers:

* Indiscriminately entered the houses of a very large number of Roma,
without showing any form of warrant or other authorization, and often
violently kicking in doors;
* Struck violently with truncheons and also kicked a large number of
(predominantly male) Romani individuals, in houses, in the open in the
settlement, as well as in police custody;
* Deployed electric cattle prods to the head, arms, chest and legs of a
number of Romani individuals, including Romani minors.

During the action, at least 28 persons were detained and most of these
were still in custody as of midday February 25. In addition to a very
large number of adult males who alleged that police had physically
abused them during the raid on February 24 (and who were in many cases
able to show fresh visible linear bruises apparently caused by police
truncheons), the ERRC and CRRS also interviewed:

* 16-year-old D.N., a mentally handicapped male Romani youth who,
according to his own testimony had been beaten both in his home and in
public by officers with truncheons, and had also been subjected to
electric shocks to the arms, forehead and stomach from a cattle prod.
D.N. had also been detained for approximately two hours, physically
abused in custody, and forced to sign a form prior to his release which
he neither read nor had read to him, and the contents of which he was
ignorant;
* 14-year-old A.B., a Romani girl whom officers reportedly struck in the
back with a truncheon;
* 16-year-old J.K., a male Romani youth whom police officers struck in
the stomach and sides with truncheons until he vomited.

A number of eyewitnesses interviewed by the ERRC and CRRS alleged that
officers were drunk during the raid, many stated that they had used
abusive language.

The ERRC and CRRS presented the above information to Director of the
Trebisov District Police Directorate Mr Jozef Mlynarik orally during a
meeting on February 25, and requested that his office initiate
investigation into the actions of police officers on the basis of very
compelling indications that police officers had in a number of instances
violated their mandate. Director Mlynarik declined to initiate such an
investigation.

Finally, apparently as a direct response to international criticism of
Slovakia's human rights record with respect to Roma, Slovak media
reported on the morning of February 26 that the government had announced
the intention to spend 50 million Slovak crowns (approximately 1,250,000
Euro) on an image campaign to improve Slovakia's reputation abroad.

There are clear indications that in recent weeks, already very fragile
ethnic relations in Slovakia have deteriorated to a serious extent, and
anti-Romani sentiment is now at dangerous levels. The tenor and quality
of government responses now matter more than ever before. At all levels,
Slovak officials must implement measures such that the widening gaps
between Romani and non-Romani Slovaks are overcome, and very high levels
of anti-Romani sentiment, prevalent in the population at large as well
as in the public administration, are diminished.

_____________________________________________

The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law 
organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence 
in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the European 
Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at http://www.errc.org.

European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary


Phone: +36 1 4132200
Fax:   +36 1 4132201

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