Racist attack on Romani man in Moldova
09 June 2016
A village near Soroca in the North of Moldova was the scene of yet another brutal attack on a young Romani man last week.
On 1 June Petru, a 24 year old Romani man, left his home to top-up his phone at his local shop and bar. He was accosted by a group of thugs having a beer who took his phone from him and taunted him, refusing to return it. The encounter escalated as they proceeded to severely beat him, leaving bruises and lacerations all over his body while shouting at him “you Gypsies always act out of turn…you should all leave the village”.
The area, which is home to one of the largest Roma populations in Moldova, has seen several similar incidents occur in the past which the police have categorised as misdemeanours. When first recording the incident the local prosecutor’s office failed to register the racial aspect of the assault.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance recently assessed Moldova’s efforts and commended the Ministry of the Interior’s tool for recording racially motivated offences in its crime statistics. Furthermore on 30 March 2015, the general inspectorate of the police published a methodological recommendation on investigations into hate crimes. This document does not however address the question of the recording of racist incidents, and data from the OSCE pertaining to hate crimes in Moldova is scarce and reflects the problem of lack of reporting racially motivated crime in the country.
The way this incident was treated by the authorities is a graphic illustration of how much more needs to be done. The ERRC together with Moldovan NGO PromoLex will support Petru in securing justice in this case and will strive to hold Modovan authorities to their promise to protect others from racially motivated attacks.
In the wake of other attacks of a similar nature in Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro: emphasising that #RomaAreEqual to Europe is more important than ever. Roma and non-Roma alike need to loudly condemn such horrific violence, and publicly hold authorities to account.
