Anti-Roma incidents in Slovenia

10 September 1998

The Slovene daily Delo reported on July 2 that a group of Roma had moved to the town of Grosuplje from the nearby hamlet of Rojnik, both just south of Ljubljana, following the expiration of a lease they held on land in Rojnik. Delo reported that about twenty of the Roma concerned had camped on a grass verge outside the municipal offices of Grosuplje. The owner of the land on which they had lived in Rojnik had begun to clear the land and fell trees and the Roma had to leave. It is not known whether the landowner threatened the Roma or not. The people of Grosuplje were reportedly very upset at the arrival of the group of Roma. Locals told Delo that they were against the Roma moving into the town, and they demanded that authorities do not permit them to stay. The following day, Delo reported that the Roma concerned had returned to Rojnik. According to Grosuplje mayor Rudolf Rome, the municipality had reached an agreement with the landowner that the Roma could return to their old location temporarily. Nevertheless, on August 25, Delo reported that a group of 32 Roma from Rojnik had again been camping outside the Grosuplje municipality building since August 23, claiming that they could no longer stay in Rojnik as the landowner was rearranging the land for horse-breeding. The Roma said they would remain in town until the municipality allowed them to settle in an area in the industrial zone of the town which was designated for building a Romani settlement at a July session of the Grosuplje municipal council.

(Delo)