Harassment and abuse of Roma by Ukrainian authorities

05 September 1999

Police abuse of Roma continues to be reported from Transcarpathian Ukraine. According to the legal representative of the victims, on May 19, 1999, police officers in the town of Mukachevo detained a group primarily comprised of Roma who were purchasing food in a local market. The police claimed that the Roma had been engaged in illegal trading at the market. Police officers forced approximately seventy individuals into a police bus and drove them to a Mukachevo police station. The detained persons were reportedly kept in the hot overcrowded bus for an hour, then they were forced to clean the police department's yard, pull out grass and wash police cars. While performing this forced labour, the police officers verbally abused them and insulted their ethnicity by stating, for example, that all Gypsies are criminals. The police officers proceeded to take their fingerprints and photographs for the police database. Individuals were held in custody for two days and were released on May 21. None of the Roma were charged with crimes (for more information regarding the unlawful detention, physical abuse and the collection of personal information on Roma in Ukraine, see the ERRC country report The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine, especially pp. 19-45). On May 24, 1999, the Mukachevo office of Romany Yag, an Uzhorod-based Romani organisation, assisted sixteen of the Roma in filing complaints against the police with the Public Prosecutor. Shortly thereafter, eighty-six Roma from Mukachevo signed and sent an open letter protesting the round-up to the Public Prosecutor of the Transcarpathian County. This letter was sent to the Public Prosecutor of Mukachevo, the Chief of the Transcarpathian County Police, the Executive Director of the European Roma Rights Center and to the Mayor of Mukachevo. The letter was co-signed by Mr Aladar Adam, Executive Director of Romany Yag and Mr Josif Virag, Chairman of the Mukachevo Romani organisation Nevipe. The Transcarpathian County Police responded in a letter that there had been no unlawful actions by the Mukachevo police.

(ERRC, Romani Yag)