Bi-weekly Roma news review: October 15-30
30 October 2017
Welcome to our news digest for the last 14 days, which saw the ERRC and partners launch our new report on statelessness Roma belong; and our favourite Czech news server receive abuse by a racist MP who stated that “Romea.cz really pisses me off!” Coming from a loser bigot, we reckon its best to take this as a compliment. Our favourite video of the week comes from the Traveller Movement challenging homophobia (see below). On the good news front, the Czech government buy-out of the pig farm on the site of the concentration camp in Lety was finally confirmed; and we send out big congratulations to MEP Soraya Post whose report on antigypysism was adopted by an overwhelming majority vote in the European Parliament.
October 14: In a new Irish TV documentary series Trauma, Milan Hosek from the Czech Republic told how he had part of his ear bitten off during a racist assault. This happened just 20 days after his wife Joanna was beaten up in a daylight attack outside their house while she was with their young child. She said the capital city "has always been racist."
October 17: In an interview with Political Critique, Tímea Junghaus, executive director of ERIAC discusses the relevance of post-colonial theory, and how “practically all exoticization and romanticization of the Roma tells us much more about the fantasies of the majority than about the Roma themselves.” ERIAC, as a cultural institution “wants to strengthen Roma identity and pride through exclusively artistic and/or cultural means.” When it comes to leadership, Timea stated that because the Roma themselves initiated an institution, mobilized their own knowledge and resources, and insist on the institution’s Roma leadership in the future, this amounts to “an important paradigm shift.” Check out the full interview.
October 18: Romea.cz reported that Slovak police have ruled out extremist or racist motivations following an incident where three assailants opened fire on the home of a Romani family with a submachine gun. According to the police “the assailants were drunk and drove to the settlement because they wanted sex with local Romani women. When the men failed to convince anybody to have sex with them, they began to fire their weapon.” (And Slovak authorities see nothing racist or extreme about any of this – the attack itself, the obscene ‘intersectionality’ when it comes to motive, and the trivialization of the incident in police statements? – WTF)
October 19: Romanian actress Mihaela Dragan, founding member of the Roma feminist theater company Giuvlipen has been nominated for the 2017 Gilder/Coigney International Theater Award, granted by the League of Professional Theater Women in New York.
October 21: Romea.cz reported that there won’t be any 2017 Roma Spirit awards in the Czech Republic. Michael Kocáb, whose foundation has previously administered the awards, said the main reason is a lack of financial resources. Romea reported that the “decision by organizers to cancel this year's Roma Spirit was also influenced by criticisms voiced by some Romani community members and the refusal of some awardees to receive the prize last year” in protest against the scandal around a Romani man who died during a police intervention. For more background on this story follow the link.
October 22: Romanian news outlet AGERPRES reported that police shot dead a Romani man who was collecting firewood in a forest in Mureş County. According to an official statement “following a raid carried out by the police and foresters between the villages of Breaza and Filpişu Mare, several persons identified as being of Roma ethnicity, were stealing wood from the forest. In attempting to apprehend them, police officers had to use their weapons. Under these circumstances a person was injured who subsequently died.” There is nothing in the statement to suggest that the lethal use of firearms by police was in any way warranted. One thing however is certain, another Romani life has been cut short by police violence.
October 23: Fresh from the sound trashing of his party at the polls in the recent elections, MP Jaroslav Foldyna from the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) openly called Romani people ‘welfare abusers’ and launched an astonishing attack on our favourite news server, accusing Romea.cz of making a living out of escalating tensions between the majority society and Romani people: "Romea.cz is pissing me off. That server gives room to Romani people to say vulgar things about the majority, and by doing so it just sparks tensions against Roma.” For more on this see here.
October 24: The Traveller Movement has launched a new campaign in the UK, to challenge homophobic attitudes towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people, as well as providing valuable resources and support for LGBT Gypsies and Travellers who often feel they have “nowhere to turn”. One of the short campaign films entitled “LGBT Gypsies and Travellers: our stories” focuses on the personal experiences of LGBT Gypsies and Travellers including Irish Traveller and ‘Big Brother 17’ runner-up Hughie Maughan. For more on this story check out the Travellers’ Times. See their lovely short film Our Stories here:
October 24: Romea.cz reported, “It’s official! The Czech state will pay roughly CZK 450 million [EUR 17,548,758], including VAT, to buy out the pig farm at Lety located on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people.” For more on this historic announcement see here.
October 25: Independent Balkan News Agency reported from Bosnia that eighteen Roma families in the Brcko District were given the keys to their new apartments in an EU-funded project. EU Special Representative, Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark said, "This facility is part of a much larger project, which includes local communities throughout BiH. Construction of houses for Roma families, just like for any other family, is the foundation of integration into society.” It is unclear from the report whether the facilities are being built in segregated or integrated neighbourhoods.
October 25: Justice done as a Bulgarian court convicted Valeri Simeonov, deputy premier and chairman of Bulgaria’s National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues, of hate speech against Roma people. The judges said that Simeonov’s words “have led to harming the dignity...and creating a hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment which can affect anyone with a Roma ethnic background”. Good first step, now the government must follow that by sacking Simeonov from the national council for ethnic issues. For more background on this, check our blog.
October 25: The European Parliament adopted the own-initiative report on “Fundamental rights aspects in Roma integration in the EU: fighting anti-Gypsyism”, calling upon the European Commission and EU Member States to put the fight against antigypsyism at the forefront of efforts for the social and economic inclusion of Roma. Driving force, MEP Soraya Post stressed that establishing mutual trust between Roma and the majority “is absolutely essential to achieve real change … and that is why the whole European Parliament now calls on the Commission and member states to set up a truth and reconciliation commission at EU level.” For background to the report see the video by Soraya Post:
