Racist Harassment of Roma in the Romanian army

07 May 2002

On January 11, 2002, the Bucharest-based national daily newspaper, Evenimentul Zilei reported that the day before, on January 10, 2002, Member of Parliament Madalin Voicu had sent a letter to Mr Ioan Mircea Pascu, Romania's Defence Minister, expressing concern at complaints filed by twenty-three Roma that they had been repeatedly called "ţigan" ("Gypsy"), "cioroi" ("crow" – a pejorative term for Roma in Romania), "jegos" ("dirty") and "handicapat" ("handicapped") by fellow soldiers and members of the officer corps. MP Voicu also reportedly called on Defence Minister Pascu to take measures to prevent such situations. It was also reported in Roma News, the electronic news service of the Roma Center for Communication and Media Relations, that Defence Minister Pascu expressed surprise at the contents of the letter and a willingness to discuss solutions to the problem. As of April 22, 2002, however, no concrete actions had reportedly been undertaken.

(Evenimentul Zilei, Roma Center for Communication and Media Relations)