Chronicle
07 December 1999
Campaigning for roma rights
August 31: Sent a letter to Mr Pavle Trajanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, urging his office to reaffirm the commitment of the Republic of Macedonia to abide by international law and to provide safe haven for Romani refugees from Kosovo.
September 20: Sent an open letter to Mr Costas Simitis, Prime Minister of Greece, in co-operation with other organizations, concerning the housing situation of Roma following a major earthquake in Greece.
September 22: Submitted a statement entitled "Forced Migration and the Current Asylum Crisis" on the occasion of the OSCE Review Conference in Vienna.
September 23: Sent a letter to Mr Pavle Trajanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, expressing alarm at the refusal by Macedonian authorities to allow entry to Roma fleeing ethnic persecution in Kosovo.
September 27: Sent a letter to Mr Paavo Lipponen, the Finnish Prime Minister, to urge his office to invoke all powers available to prevent the return of Romani asylum seekers from Slovakia to the Czech Republic.
September 30: Sent a letter to Mr Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister, to express concerns about the Roma refugees awaiting deportation to Slovakia.
October 7: Issued press release demanding the Czech government halt the construction of the wall in Usti nad Labem.
October 7: Sent a letter to Mr Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister, to condemn the Belgian government's deportation of 74 Romani asylum seekers to Slovakia on October 5, 1999.
October 14: Issued a press release announcing the construction of the ghetto wall in Usti nad Labem.
October 21: Sent a letter to Mr Bernard Kouchner, UN Special Representative for Kosovo, to express concern at recent published threats to the life of Mr Veton Surroi, editor of the Kosovo daily Koha Ditore.
October 28: Sent a letter to Mr Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia expressing concern over the inadequate police investigation of a recent skinhead attack against Roma in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
October 29: Distributed a press release announcing favourable settlement in a law suit by Romani plaintiffs against the Hotel Imperial in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
November 12: Filed a lawsuit against municipal authorities in the Czech town of Usti nad Labem on behalf of a Romani plaintiff in the Matiční Street neighbourhood; held a press conference in Prague to announce the lawsuit.
Conferences and meetings
September 6: Participated in the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Roma and Sinti issues in Vienna, Austria.
September 22: Participated in the OSCE Review Conference in Vienna, Austria.
September 25-26: Organised a conference for the Community Education Program participants in Prague, Czech Republic.
September 29: Met with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Budapest, Hungary, during his field trip to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania.
October 3: Provided keynote speech at the USAID conference, "Partners in Transition" devoted to the tenth anniversary to the fall of communism in Warsaw, Poland.
October 14-15: Attended second meeting of NGO Resource Group, set up by ECRI to assist in the preparations of the European Conference against Racism and the Preceding NGO Forum in October 2000, Strasbourg, France.
October 21: Gave presentation on Roma Rights for a group of Romani journalists from Slovakia and Hungary at a seminar organised by the Center for Independent Journalism in Budapest, Hungary.
October 21-22: Attended workshop organised by the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) entitled "NGO Empowerment in Preventing Torture in South-Eastern Europe", Athens, Greece.
October 25-27: Spoke at the meeting of the Balkan Human Rights Network, "Reporting to international human rights supervisory bodies", Ohrid, Macedonia.
October 28: Attended a "Women in Conflict" meeting and distributed materials on Roma in the Kosovo conflict at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
November 4: Participated in consultations on aid to the Balkan region in Berlin, Germany.
November 5-7: Participated in a debate on Romani asylum seekers in the Netherlands organised by De Balie cultural centre in Amsterdam, as part of the "Through the Grapevine" conference discussing the ten years in central and eastern Europe since the fall of communism.
November 10: Spoke at the "Meeting of Experts for Solving of the Roma National Minority Problems of Central and Eastern Europe" held by the Office of the Vice-Premier of the Government of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava.
November 12-17: Spoke on freedom from discrimination and served as resource person at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) "Training Workshop on Human Rights and Sustainable Human Development" in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Spoke on the situation of minority rights in central and eastern Europe at the "Fifth United Nations Development Program (UNDP) International Workshop on Ombudsman and Human Rights Institutions", also in Almaty.
November 20: Spoke on Roma rights issues at a Council of Europe/European Commission conference on minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, Bratislava, Slovakia.
November 29: Testified before the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention on National Minorities of the Council of Europe on the status of minorities in Hungary.
