Police retaliation against Roma in Štip, Macedonia
03 April 1999
The ERRC has received reports of recent instances of police abuse of Roma in Macedonia, including retaliation for lodging complaints against the police.
Mr Jašar Perušan, a 34-year-old Romani man, was reportedly detained on March 10, only hours before the third hearing in a trial related to allegations that he was brutally beaten by police officers while in police custody in Štip in April 1998.
In the initial incident Mr Perušan was detained together with another Romani man, 33-year-old Fejmi Demirov, and badly physically abused in a Štip police station during the night of April 16, 1998 (see "Snapshots from around Europe", Roma Rights, Spring 1998). Both men were released without being charged with any crime on the morning of April 17. Mr Perušan was temporarily disfigured and initially unable to give testimony as a result of his injuries. With the assistance of a lawyer hired by the ERRC, Mr Perušan filed criminal and civil complaints against the police concerning the treatment to which he had been subjected while in police custody. The criminal complaint appears to be stalled at the first instance public prosecutor's office in Štip. A third hearing in the civil complaint for damages was set for March 10, 11:00 am. At approximately 4:00 am on March 10, however, two police officers detained Mr Perušan at his home and brought him to the police station. One of the two officers was allegedly involved in the April 1998 incident. Police detained Mr Perušan on the basis of a court order connected to his conviction on the charge of burglary under Criminal Code Article 156. Eyewitnesses state that officers beat Mr Perušan repeatedly during the detention proce-dure. Additionally, one of the officers drew his firearm and threatened to shoot Mr Perušan.
Police reportedly held Mr Perušan at a Štip municipal police department until approximately 8:45 am. There, officers reportedly physically abused Mr Perušan. He was then reportedly transferred to a state penitentiary in Skopje where he is now expected to serve a two-year sentence. According to eyewitnesses, at the time of his transport from Štip to Skopje, Mr Perušan had obviously been beaten, had a badly swollen eye and walked with difficulty. In a letter received by his wife on March 13, Mr Perušan stated that upon arrival at the state penitentiary in Skopje, prison officials had had difficulty admitting him to the facility, since they had not received court orders pertaining to his case. In the same letter Mr Perušan reported chest and head pains due to police ill treatment. As a result of his being detained several hours before being expected to testify in court against police officers, Mr Perušan was unable to attend the hearing. The hearing went ahead without him, in spite of the protests of his lawyer. Verdict in the trial is pending.
In the second instance of police retaliation, Romani individuals who filed complaints against the police in connection with a police raid on a party in the night of August 2, 1998, now report-edly face charges of having assaulted the police. During the night in question, following an altercation between a non-Romani man and a number of Roma who had been attending a party, police reportedly raided the party and physically abused guests, including women and children. Twenty Romani individuals sought medical help for injuries received during the incident. Over the next days, at least six Roma were detained by police and interrogated in connection with that incident. Police reportedly physically abused a number of individuals in custody and extracted at least one signed confession with force. With the assistance of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights of Roma, seven Roma have filed criminal complaints against the police. Investigation of these complaints is presently stalled at the level of the prosecutor's investigation. The ERRC is unaware of any disciplinary action as yet taken against any of the police officers involved.
On March 5, 1999, however, it was reported to the ERRC that prosecutors had brought assault charges under Article 386(2) of the Macedonian Penal Code against four Romani individuals, three of whom had previously filed complaints against the police in the above case. In addition, police are reportedly seeking witnesses to testify that Romani persons at the party had planned an assault and to that end had prepared a carriage full of stones. A police report on the incident reportedly describes this carriage at the scene of the raid in the street outside the party. The ERRC sent a letter on March 29 to General Prosecutor of Macedonia Stavre Džikov, urging swift action in seeing to it that charges brought in retaliation for complaints of police abuse are dropped and that officers who abuse their authority are properly disciplined.
Other cases of police brutality against Roma in Macedonia have been reported recently. According to ERRC investigation, on February 21, 1999, police beat Orhan Neziri, an 18-year-old Romani man from Skopje. According to his own testimony, on the morning of February 21 Mr Neziri went to the juvenile correction centre, from which he had recently been released, to retrieve his identification papers. While leaving the building, at around 8:00 am, he noticed a group of four policemen with a van. The policemen asked him for his name, and ordered him to come with them. He asked them for the reason for his detention and whether they had a warrant. The policemen responded that they had no warrant, but that he should come into the van anyway and then they would tell him the reason. Having had previous experience with police brutality, Orhan became scared and attempted to run away. The policemen started chasing him, and threatened to shoot at him. He stumbled and fell down on a railway track, and was caught and handcuffed. All four policemen then reportedly started kicking and punching him and beating him with their truncheons and the butts of their guns. They beat Orhan Neziri in public, ignoring the pleas of two passers-by to leave him alone. The policemen then took Orhan to the Avto Komanda police station in Skopje. At the station, two other policemen beat him again over a period of approximately half an hour, calling him a "Gypsy dog" and attempting to make him confess that he had stolen his non-Romani neighbour's drill. Mr Neziri was released from the police station at 5:00 pm, still presumed guilty of the theft of the drill in question. He later learned that he was no longer a suspect of the crime. When Orhan later complained to the police about the brutal treatment he had undergone, they reportedly apologised, saying "Look, it happened, what should we do now?" Orhan Neziri did not receive medical treatment, as he is not covered by a health care policy and had no money to pay for the treatment himself. He asked for help from the Gostivar-based Romani association Mesečina.
(Association for the Protection of Human Rights of Roma, ERRC, Mesečina)
