Villagers attack Roma in Romania

11 July 2000

According to ERRC field research and the Braşov-based Alliance for the Unity of Roma (Aliança pentru Unitatea Romilor), non-Romani villagers in Paloş, in Braşov county in the Transylvanian region of Romania, have repeatedly attacked Mr Vasile Florică, a Romani man, and his family. At 7:00 PM on April 13, 2000, two ethnic Romanians whose identity is known to the ERRC attacked and beat Mr Florică and then took him in their car to the police station in CaĹŁa, a village eight kilometres away. At the station one of the men accused Mr Florică of stealing his chickens. Mr Florică informed the ERRC that he was in the police station for just a short time, during which the two men together with a police officer beat him again. The group then drove Mr Florică in their car towards the local cemetery. Mr Florică tried to escape by jumping out of the moving car, causing the car to swerve and hit a tree. The two men caught Mr Florică and allegedly beat him again, before he managed to escape. Mr Florică did not obtain a medical report, but described his injuries as including a swelling on his ribs.

On the evening of the next day, April 14, a group of around twenty non-Roma broke into Mr Florică's house and three of them attacked and beat him. One of the intruders took two mattresses from the house when he left, claiming that they had been stolen from him. On April 16, a group of non-Roma tried to set Mr Florică's house on fire but were prevented through the intervention of a police officer from CaĹŁa, who was called by a non-Romani villager. As a consequence of the attacks, Mr Florică decided to go into hiding for two weeks. On the day he left, non-Romani villagers attacked his wife and children, inflicting numerous bruises on his wife. Mr Florică filed a complaint against the police officer and four civilian perpetrators with the Military Prosecutor's Office, and the case was still under investigation as of July 28.

(Alliance for the Unity of Roma, ERRC)