Violence against Roma in Romania

10 April 2001

According to victim and witness testimony provided to the ERRC, on January 14, 2001, in the village of Cuciulata, about 65 km north of Braşov, security guards shot a thirty-three-year-old Romani man, Mr Dan Parvu, as he was out with his children and cousin collecting iron ore on common land. Mr Parvu told the ERRC that they were returning home at about noon and were just outside the village when they were stopped by two security guards who insulted their ethnicity and began beating them. Mr Parvu’s cousin and son managed to break free and run. One of the guards drew his weapon and began firing after them. While Mr Parvu was being beaten as he lay on the ground, the guard took aim at his son and Mr Parvu raised his leg to block the shot. The bullet passed through his right calf. Villagers reportedly heard the shots and came running to see what was happening. The security guards warned them not to approach and threw stones at the villagers, hitting and wounding several villagers, including Mr Parvu’s wife. Mr Parvu was taken to hospital and required twelve days of hospital treatment. Several newspaper articles about the shooting suggested that it was Mr Parvu, rather than the security guards, who is under investigation by the prosecutor’s office. Mr Parvu was, at the time he met with the ERRC, too afraid to file a complaint. 

Mr Parvu's calf with a wound caused by a bullet shot by a security guard in Cuciulata, north of Braşov, Romania, on January 14, 2001. Photo: ERRC

In another case documented by the ERRC, ten members of a Romani family selling jewelry and cigarettes outside the Bucurbor department store in downtown Bucharest on December 28, 2000, were attacked by store security guards from the private security firm, Bronec. At about noon, according to testimony by the victims, ten store guards began to harass them and demand money. They attempted to confiscate the wares that Mr Eduard Constantin’s grandmother, Ms Maria Constantin, was trying to sell and as other members of the family came to her aid, a scuffle broke out. Mr Constantin told the ERRC that the Roma were heavily outnumbered and the scuffle turned into a beating. One of the store guards stabbed Mr Renato Constantin in the head with a knife and a further fifteen guards came out of the store armed with wooden bats. They beat the male members of the family with the bats. Mr Renato Constantin was taken inside the store and a number of guards beat him further and handcuffed his hands behind his back. They took him to police station No. 8 and continued to beat him about the head as he lay on the ground outside the police station with his hands behind his back. When the wives of Mr Eduard Constantin and Mr Renato Constantin, who had followed Mr Renato Constantin to the police station, attempted to intervene and begged them to stop the beating, one of the guards reportedly asked them, “What do you want, Gypsies?” and hit both about the face and head and sprayed them with pepper spray. As Mr Renato Constantin was taken away, the beating of the remaining family members continued outside the store until the intervention of a passer-by. Mr Catalin Ioniţa and Mr Renato Constantin both suffered fractured skulls in the attack and Mr Renato Constantin also sustained knife wounds to his head. Mr Eduard Constantin’s arm and leg were broken. Although the police appear to have begun an investigation, charges against the security guards or the security firm, had not, as of April 25, 2001, been brought.

(ERRC)