Police Violence against Roma in Romania
07 May 2002
According to a report by the non-governmental organisation Liga Pro Europa, an ERRC local partner in Romania, during the night of November 10, 2001, in Acaţari village, Mureş county, two police officers entered the house of Ms Roza Kanis, 82, and beat eight Roma present in the house, three of whom were minors. According to testimony by Mr Peter Balog, his sons Csaba, 17, and Zoltan, 13, Laszlo Vass, 15, Mr Marton Szabo, 26, his partner Ms Carmen Cacula, 25 and their son, Marton Szabo, 7, were travelling by cart on their way to the market in Bălăuşeri. The group arrived in Acaţari at around 6:30 PM and met Mr Lehel Kanis, who proposed that the group stay the night at his mother’s place and continue travelling the following day, to which they agreed.
According to Mr Balog’s statement, at approximately 1:00 AM on November 11, 2001, Mr Petru Solovăstru, Chief of Police of Acaţari, Mr Csaba Radu, a police officer, and a third man in plainclothes, entered Roza Kanis’s home, in a drunken state, by force and without a warrant, destroying the door. According to a criminal complaint filed by the victims on January 17, 2002, in connection with the case, after entering the house, Police Chief Solovăstru grabbed Laszlo Vass and Zoltan Balog from the bed in which they were sleeping and began repeatedly hitting them with his fists and head-butting them. Police Chief Solovăstru then reportedly proceeded to grab Carmen Cacula by her hair and pull her out of bed. Once Ms Cacula was out of her bed, Mr Solovăstru began slapping her face repeatedly and kicking her in the stomach. The force of the kicks caused Ms Cacula to fall to the ground, and Mr Solovăstru then hit her with a horsewhip. At this point, her son, Marton Szabo, began crying. The criminal complaint states that Police Chief Solovăstru then grabbed the boy, pushed him hard against a wall and threw him outside the house. Police Chief Solovăstru then allegedly climbed on the bed in which Lehel Kanis was sleeping and began kicking him. Mr Kanis reportedly tried to run out of the house, but was caught by Mr Solovăstru, who hit him in the mouth with his head. Mr Kanis allegedly then managed to push Police Chief Solovăstru away and escape from the house. At the same time, Csaba Balog tried to run, but was caught by Mr Solovăstru, who hit him in the face and kicked him in the stomach repeatedly, according to the criminal complaint.
At this point, the criminal complaint states that Police Chief Solovăstru forced everyone to leave the house, except for Mr Marton Szabo Sr. Mr Solovăstru reportedly began hitting Mr Szabo in the face, and only stopped when Carmen Cacula yelled that he was epileptic. He then allegedly forced Mr Szabo to undress to the waist, searched his pants pockets, stole the 780,000 Romanian lei (approximately 27 euros) Mr Szabo had on his person and gave it to the man in plainclothes to put in a plastic bag. Police Chief Solovăstru then reportedly sent Mr Szabo away and called in Csaba Balog, whom he also forced to undress to the waist. He proceeded to search Csaba Balog and took the 450,000 Romanian lei (approximately ar stereo and cassette tapes from a cupboard in the house and place them in the plastic bag. He then allegedly found the passports of Lehel Kanis and his girlfriend, Ms Doina Lăcătuş in a drawer in the cupboard and threw them in the bag, along with kitchen knife belonging to Roza Kanis, a hunting knife belonging to Csaba Balog and Mr Kanis’s black leather jacket. Police Chief Solovăstru then reportedly cut open an armchair, in search of money.
The criminal complaint asserts that Carmen Cacula was then calleicers caught up with them and stopped their car in front of the carts. The Roma report in the criminal complaint managing to get around the car, only to be caught again by the police, who asked where they were going. Police Chief Solovăstru allegedly then pulled Laszlo Vass from one of the carts, hit him in the stomach once with a glass bottle and slapped him on the ear. Officer Radu reportedly then pulled Lehel Kanis from the cart and hit him in the stomach with a glass bottle, the force of which caused Mr Kanis to fall to the ground. Officer Radu allegedly then kicked him repeatedly, all over his body.
In Mr Balog’s statement to Liga Pro Europa, he testified that he woke up at around 2:00 AM and phoned the police to report his children missing and was told that nothing had been reported. Then, sometime before 3:00 AM, his sons, Csaba and Zoltan, returned home, along with Mr Kanis and Laszlo Vass. An ambulance was then called for Mr Kanis and Laszlo Vass and they were taken to the municipal hospital in Târgu. On February 14, 2002, Mr Balog reported that on February 12, 2002, eight Romani victims gave declarations at the Târgu-Mureş Military Prosecutor’s Office, and the lawyer for the victims verified the declarations of the police officers involved. Mr Balog has reported to the ERRC that Mr Kanis had allegedly been threatened in the previous week by the two police officers that if he did not withdraw his complaint, “bad things would happen.” As of April 22, 2002, there had been no response from the prosecutor’s office.
Another instance of police violence against Roma in Romania reportedly occurred on February 2, 2002, during a police raid in the village of Zanea, Iaşi County, during which a Romani woman, Ms Mina Stănescu, approximately 50-years-old, was hit by a rubber bullet shot by police, according to Liga Pro Europa. Liga Pro Europa reports that, according to official statements issued on February 4 and 5, 2002, by the police department, at 6:00 AM on February 2, 2002, 125 police officers, 200 gendarmes and a local prosecutor conducted a raid in the Romani settlement in Zanea, because of tensions between the state electricity provider and Roma in the settlement over alleged illegal electrical connections. The police had a general warrant to search for illegal electrical connections, found on the outside of houses. According to official statements, police found it necessary to use arms, including blank charges and rubber bullets when thirty Roma reacted violently to police checking their connections by throwing rocks and other objects at police officers. According to the February 9, 2002, testimony of Mr B.S. to Liga Pro Europa, hundreds of masked officers raided the village at approximately 3:00 AM. Masked officers allegedly entered houses forcefully, causing panic among the inhabitants, and searched the houses. Mr B.S. also reported that, contrary to official statements, no Roma attacked the police. According to testimony given to Liga Pro Europa on February 9, 2002, by Mr Viorel Stănescu, a 54-year-old Romani man with a heart condition, at 3:00 AM on the evening in question, between twenty and thirty masked officers forcefully entered his home, telling him that they would search the house. Mr Stănescu stated that he then began to suffer heart pain, and at approximately 7:00 AM, was taken for treatment to the hospital by an emergency vehicle. Mr Stănescu alleges that he returned home on February 3, 2002, from the hospital to find that twenty gold coins – his daughter’s wedding dowry – were missing from his home. His family told him that they had been thrown out of the house by the masked officers, during which time the coins went missing.
In a February 9, 2002, statement to Liga Pro Europa and threatened them with violence should they call for help. Ms Stănescu stated that at approximately 1:00 PM, an emergency vehicle finally showed up and took her to the hospital, where she was operated on and a bullet was extracted. Ms Stănescu reports being released from hospital the following day, then visiting the legal medical institute where she requested a medical certificate attesting to her injuries.
Mr B.S. reportedly made a video recording of the event, which he will use in court if necessary, and collected evidence of blank charges, rubber bullets with lead cores and smoke grenades. On March 24, 2002, the ERRC and local counsel filed a complaint with the Iasi Military Prosecutor’s office on behalf of 104 victims of the raid. As of April 22, 2002, there had been no response to the complaint.
(ERRC, Liga Pro Europa)
