Continuing Police Brutality Against Roma in Transcarpathian Ukraine
10 April 1997
In the course of 1996, both the ERRC and Uzhorod Roma organisation Romani Yag lodged formal complaints to the General Prosecutor of Ukraine as a result of systematised brutality by the police in the Transcarpathian region (oblast) of Ukraine. In February 1997, the ERRC was informed that since Summer 1996, a new director had been in charge of the Transcarpathian regional police and that, since his appointment, 154 policemen had been disciplined. Nevertheless, regular police ill-treatment of Roma continues unabated.
Romani Yag reported that on December 4, 1996, a Romani man named O.V was arrested while collecting used batteries from a garbage heap. He was beaten in custody at police stations on Shumnaya St. and Gagarin St. in Uzhorod. On the morning of December 5, he signed a statement which he had been unable to read. He was released the next day. O.V testified that he had not been given any food during the two-day period he spent in custody.
In the evening on January 1, 1997, police officers allegedly invaded the house of two Roma families on the Novaya St. in Uzhorod, claiming to be looking for a man who had stolen a pair of boots. According to victim and witness testimony, police beat adult members of both families in the house and detained 16-year-old Mr. S.A. and 10-year-old Ms. V.M. Mr. S.A. was allegedly beaten and kicked in custody, and was made to shout, „All Gypsies are bastards" and „The cemetery is the best place for Gypsies." Mr. S.A. and Ms. VM. were released early in the morning of January 2.
According to Romani Yag, early in the afternoon on January 16, 1997, police arrested five Roma in Uzhorod on suspicion of selling pills in the city. They were detained in the city police department and badly beaten over a period of three days. One of the men, 20-year-old A.V., who was not charged with any crime, had been beaten both at the scene of the arrest and in the police station. He was subjected to physical abuse all afternoon and evening, with occasional 10-15 minute breaks, on the 4th floor of the Uzhorod City Police Department. He told Romani Yag that while being beaten, the police had told him to „dance like a Gypsy". At the time of his release, one police officer allegedly told AV, „Don't you dare tell anybody that you were beaten because we will kill you if we catch you." Following his release, AV had to be hospitalised.
Also on January 16, 1997, in connection with the same incident, 22-year-old B.J. was picked up on his way home from work in Uzhorod, handcuffed, and driven to a municipal police station in Uzhorod where he was brought to the fourth floor. He was beaten constantly over a period of over 24 hours by four policemen and then released by two policemen who told him, „Excuse us, you may go." The police allegedly never interrogated B.J., nor did they bring charges. The police ordered B.J. not to go to a doctor or attempt to file any sort of complaint.
On January 30, two handicapped Roma from Uzhorod, Z.T.B. and his step-son E.Z.B. had gone with a cart and donkey to a village outside Uzhorod, named Kuritniani, when they were detained by two off duty policemen. The policemen, one of whom was in uniform and the other in civilian clothes, allegedly ordered them to put their donkey in the cart and pull it all the way to Uzhorod. An elderly villager scolded them and they left. But they caught up with the Roma near the village Kinchesh, on the way to Uzhorod. The policemen assaulted the handicapped Roma and started beating them with their fists. The police also used the crutch of one of the men to beat him. When the Romani men told the police officers that they would complain to Romani Yag, the policemen allegedly threatened to shoot them.
After Romani Yag began investigating the beating, relatives of the perpetrators became afraid that „Gypsy mafia" would seek revenge and police officers of steadily escalating rank began to visit the Romani Yag offtce in downtown Uzhorod. These officers alternately begged and attempted to bribe representatives of Romani Yag into not bringing charges. Finally the Roma victims were given 80 US dollars by the police and signed agreements not to attempt to file any sort of complaint against the police officers concerned.
On February 28, 1997, the Uzhorod police arrested two Romani men on allegations of theft of 500 kilograms of iron. They were detained in the administrative building of the Ministry of Interior where the six police officers on duty were allegedly having a parry featuring alcohol and singing. The Roma were locked in the bathroom and were denied food. The Roma were held until March 3 and released only after signing documents which they could not read, since both are illiterate. One of the policemen concerned is an officer whose name is known to the ERRC in connection with repeated incidents of police brutality in a community outside Uzhorod. This officer allegedly demanded 300 US dollars from the Roma in exchange for not pressing charges. He also threatened that divulgence of the circumstances of the case would result in further beatings.
(Romani Yag)
