BULGARIAN GYPSIES HARD HIT BY CRISIS

Date: 92-07-15

At a press conference on 13 July 1992, Mihail Ivanov, presidential advisor on national, ethnic, and religious affairs warned that although the overall ethnic tension in Bulgaria is decreasing, Gypsies are suffering especially in the economic crisis. According to BTA, Ivanov said a presidential fact-finding mission has found cases of starvation in the Plovdiv region, while some local authorities report more than 60% unemployment among Gypsies. Ivanov stressed that most Gypsies had nothing to do with the steep rise in crime, but he stressed the need to learn more about Gypsy living conditions and social patterns. -- Kjell Engelbrekt

BULGARIAN GYPSIES MEET

Date: 92-09-01

On 30 August 1992, leaders of the Bulgarian Gypsy community, which has been rent by many divisions, ended a two-day session which they called the "National Round Table for the Union of Gypsies," BTA reported. The meeting yielded a declaration which calls for equal treatment of Gypsies. It indicates that Gypsies wish to cooperate with state agencies in diminishing tensions between Gypsies and other citizens. Bulgaria's Gypsy leaders wish to form a national organization and are planning a conference in Sofia on 17 October 1992 to pursue this goal. Gypsies comprise the third largest ethnic group in Bulgaria after Bulgarians and Turks. -- Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.

GERMANY TO SEND BACK ROMANIAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS

Date: 92-09-18

The German Interior Ministry announced on 17 September 1992 that Bucharest agreed to take back thousands of Romanian citizens who failed to obtain political asylum in Germany. Western agencies said that German Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters will sign an agreement on the deportation next week in Bucharest. Deportations will begin on 1 November. So far this year, more than 43,000 Romanian citizens--of whom about 60% are Gypsies--have applied for asylum in Germany. Romania declared itself ready to accept even those refugees who had destroyed their identity papers in order to prevent repatriation. -- Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.

BULGARIAN GYPSIES SET UP NATIONAL LOBBY ORGANIZATION

Date: 92-10-20

At a meeting in Sofia on 17 and 18 October Bulgarian Gypsies set up a national organization, the United Roma Federation (URF). Vasil Chaprasov, a teacher from the city of Sliven who was elected chairman, told a Western agency the organization was independent and politically unaffiliated. According to Trud of 19 October, the URF adopted a declaration calling on the government to ensure Roma influence in local politics. It demanded the resignation of Culture Minister Elka Konstantinova who recently branded gypsies as "uncivilized." -- Kjell Engelbrekt

REPATRIATION OF ROMANIAN GYPSIES FROM GERMANY

Date: 92-11-03

In line with an agreement signed between the Federal Republic of Germany and Romania in late September, the German authorities have begun processing documents aimed at speeding the repatriation of Romanians who are in Germany illegally. A spokesman for the German interior ministry told an RFE/RL correspondent on 2 November that reports suggesting mass deportations of thousands of Romanians in the near future were "fantasy." On 2 November Germany deported seventeen Romanian asylum seekers. Human right groups in both Germany and Romania have protested against the agreement. Most of those involved are believed to be Gypsies. Radio Bucharest said on 30 October that between 50,000 and 140,000 Gypsies who had illegally entered Germany and did not have identity documents or whose request for asylum had been rejected would be repatriated. -- Michael Shafir

NEW BULGARIAN GYPSY ORGANIZATION LAUNCHED

Date: 93-05-10

On 8 May a Confederation of Roma in Bulgaria was founded in Sofia, BTA reports. The organization is nonpolitical but will act as a pressure group to improve the living conditions and standing of Bulgarian Gypsies. Having adopted a platform and statutes, the CRB urged the government to prepare a development scheme for the Roma community, to elaborate a special education plan, which envisages optional teaching of Romany in schools, and to allocate a building that could serve as a Roma Cultural Center. The CRB will have to compete for support with the Associated Roma Union, set up last October and led by Vasil Chaprazov. -- Kjell Engelbrekt

SLOVAK PARLIAMENT BANS VILLAGE'S CURFEW FOR GYPSIES

Date: 93-07-16

On 15 July the east Slovak village of Spisske Podhradie's curfew for "Gypsies and other suspicious persons" was declared unconstitutional, Reuters reports. Implemented in an effort to reduce crime, the legislation caused an uproar in Slovakia, as representatives of 17 minority and human rights groups protested. Deputy Premier Roman Kovac previously asked village mayor Frantisek Slebodnik to abolish the curfew, but Slebodnik refused, saying there is nothing the police can do since Gypsies "sleep during the day and steal at night." Local chief of police Slavomir Lach said the regulation is "probably illegal but effective---. We have not noticed any crimes or violations" since the law went into effect in early July, TASR reported on 10-July. -- Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN ROMA ORGANIZATION ON DEMONSTRATION, ELECTION PLANS

Date: 93-07-22

Gyorgy Naday, Chairman of the Democratic Association of Gypsies in Hungary, the country's biggest Roma organization, called the Roma demonstration held on 11 July in Eger "hasty and poorly timed from a political viewpoint" because of the passage by parliament of the law on minorities, Radio Budapest reports. Naday criticized the organizers for not informing the other Roma organizations in time, although he conceded that the action brought attention to the plight of the Romas. He said the union was ready to participate in the 1994 general elections by cooperating with parties that accept its statute and by fielding joint candidates with them. -- Alfred Reisch

GYPSY ORGANIZATIONS MEET IN BUDAPEST

Date: 93-08-17

The Hungarian Gypsy Organizations, comprising a number of groups representing Gypsy interests, ended a two-day conference in Budapest on 14 August, MTI reports. The conference discussed the economic difficulties facing Gypsies and ways to help Gypsy families. Minister of Interior Peter Boross and officials from the Ministry of Welfare participated in the meeting. Boross and Janos Wolfart, the head of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, called attention to the regrettable rivalries among the numerous Gypsy organizations set up since 1989 and called for a unified national organization to represent interests of all Gypsies and negotiate with the government on their behalf. The Roma Parliament, which has ties to the Alliance of Free Democrats, Hungary's largest opposition party, walked out of the conference, accusing the participants of uncritically accepting government policy toward Gypsies. In a statement at the end of their meeting, the Hungarian Gypsy Organizations rejected all extremist policies, called for the preparation of a comprehensive sociological study of Gypsies, and agreed to set up a committee to monitor the new law on national and ethnic minorities. The number of Gypsies in Hungary is estimated at 600-800,000. -- Edith Oltay

ADVISORY BOARD FOR PROBLEMS OF BULGARIAN GYPSIES

Date: 93-09-14

The President's Office is proposing that the government set up an advisory board that could deal comprehensively with the many difficulties currently faced by Bulgaria's Roma population, presidential advisor on ethnic issues Mihail Ivanov told a press briefing on 13 September. BTA quotes Ivanov that the board would organize and coordinate research projects but also help formulate legislation that pertain to Gypsies. He pointed out that no other group has been suffering more than the Roma as a result of economic dislocation and unemployment, problems he said are aggravated by widespread lack of education. In the meantime, reports say teaching of the Gypsy language has begun in several schools. A Romany language faculty is being set up in the city of Shumen. -- Kjell Engelbrekt

ETHNIC VIOLENCE KILLS FOUR IN ROMANIA

Date: 93-09-23

Romanian media report that four people have died in violence between Gypsies and non-Gypsies in Transylvania on 20 and 21-September. Up to 500 angry Romanians and ethnic Hungarians lynched two Gypsy brothers and torched 11 homes in the Gypsy community of Hadareni, Mures County. A spokesman at national police headquarters in Bucharest said that violence broke out after one of the brothers stabbed to death a 25-year-old ethnic Romanian. A fourth corpse was found in a burned house. The Gypsies of Hadareni, whose number is put at some 150, went into hiding into nearby forests. Armed police patrols have been on the streets since 21 September to prevent further ethnic trouble. The Hadareni turmoil appears to be one of the most serious in a series of such incidents over the last three years. Gheorghe Raducanu, a deputy for the Roma Movement in parliament's lower house, described on 22 September the events as "bestial vengeance" and a "flagrant violation of the law and rules of cohabitation" between Gypsies and other ethnic groups. -- Dan Ionescu

ROMANIAN CABINET ON RECENT ETHNIC VIOLENCE

Date: 93-09-24

In a statement broadcast by Radio Bucharest on 23 September, Romania's government expressed concern over recent clashes between Gypsies and non-Gypsies in the village of Hadareni, Mures County, in which four people died. The statement said that the killing of a young Romanian by a local Gypsy "triggered the spontaneous reaction of other villagers, both Romanians and Hungarians, which degenerated into acts of violence." The cabinet ordered an investigation into the case and pledged to bring all culprits, irrespective of their ethnic origin, to justice. It also announced a decision to provide funds for rebuilding Gypsy homes destroyed during the events. -- Dan Ionescu

EXTREMIST ROMANIAN GROUP PLANS VIOLENCE

Date: 93-10-18

An extremist group calling itself Gypsy Skinners is planning a campaign of violence against Romania's gypsies, Reuters reported on 15 October, quoting the daily Evenimentul zilei. The group was set up in the Black Sea port of Constanta. A leader said the group plans to "skin the Gypsies," "take their eyeballs out, smash their teeth, and cut off their noses," and that there will also be "some hangings." A similar organization, modeled on the Ku Klux Klan, surfaced in June in the city of Ploiesti. -- Michael Shafir

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CRITICIZES ROMANIA OVER GYPSY KILLINGS

Date: 93-10-19

Amnesty International says Romania violated international human rights standards when its police abetted the slaying of three Gypsies in the Transylvanian village of Hadareni last month. In a communique that reached the RFE/RL Research Institute, the organization says police in the village handcuffed two of the victims and then allowed an angry crowd of Romanians and Hungarians to attack and beat them to death. The police also prevented firemen from reaching a home in which a third Gypsy burned to death, and took no action to prevent looting the homes of the Gypsies. Amnesty International protested against the incident in a letter to President Ion Iliescu, which called the slaying "a flagrant violation of the international human rights standards, to which Romania is a party." -- Michael Shafir

GYPSIES MARK BIRKENAU SLAUGHTER

Date: 94-08-04

Some 3,000 Gypsies from Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and other countries gathered at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on 3 August, Gazeta Wyborcza reports. The gathering was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nazi extermination on 2 and 3 August 1944 of the remaining Gypsies at the camp. An estimated 21,000 Romas perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau alone; a total of 500,000 were killed in executions, labor camps, and gas chambers during World War II. Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak presided over the ceremonies on 3 August; the German and Israeli ambassadors also attended. In a letter read out by a representative, President Lech Walesa said that "the tragedy of the Gypsies is our common tragedy." Walesa acknowledged that the Nazi genocide against the Romas had long been a "forgotten Holocaust;" for that reason it required new attention. The Polish president expressed the hope that "our Republic will also be a friendly homeland for the Romas." -- Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.

ROMANIANS FACE TRIAL FOR ATTACKING GYPSIES

Date: 94-08-11

Quoting the Prosecutor General's office, Western agencies reported on 10 August that 38 people will face trial because of attacks on Gypsies. They are accused of having set fire to 11 Gypsy homes in the village of Racsa on 27 May after two Gypsies were detained on charges of killing a Romanian shepherd. Gypsy leaders in Romania have denounced what they regard as increasing racism against their community, and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has accused the Romanian government of allowing discrimination against the Gypsies. -- Michael Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECHS URGED TO ALTER CITIZENSHIP LAW

Date: 94-09-26

The European Union has joined the United States in urging the Czech Republic to amend its citizenship law to avoid discriminating against Gypsies, international media reported on 23 September. The US and EU expressed their concern at an international seminar in Warsaw on the situation of the Roma. The law, which went into effect at the beginning of 1993, imposed conditions for citizenship that many Gypsies are unable to meet. Most important, applicants are required to prove that they had no criminal record in the five years prior to applying for Czech citizenship and that they lived on Czech territory for the past two years. The Czech Constitutional Court upheld the law on 13 September, rejecting a suit by 46 deputies demanding that the court revoke what they saw as discriminatory clauses. -- Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.

CHANGES IN CZECH CITIZENSHIP LAW URGED

Date: 94-10-28

CTK on 27 October reported that the US Congress's Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe has sent a letter to Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus asking him to push for changes in the Czech Republic's citizenship law. The letter says the law discriminates against the Czech Republic's Gypsies--the largest ethnic minority in the country--depriving them of citizenship on a scale unprecedented since World War II. Specifically, it notes that people are deprived of citizenship on the basis of crimes committed before the law took effect. The Czech Constitutional Court rejected this summer an appeal by 46 deputies to amend the law and claimed it was not discriminatory. The law was severely criticized in September by representatives of the Council of Europe and the CSCE at a meeting held in Warsaw to discuss issues concerning Gypsies. -- Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

RIGHTS GROUP ON ANTI-GYPSY VIOLENCE IN ROMANIA

Date: 94-11-15

A report released by the Human Rights Watch/Helsinki group in New York on 14 November says Romania is failing to protect its Gypsy minority from violent attacks. The report concludes that the government has become "virtually complicit" in those attacks through inaction on numerous cases of violence against Gypsies. The 41-page document offers details on a rampant wave of anti-Gypsy violence in Romania since the end of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime, in December 1989. -- Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECHS LIKE SLOVAKS, DISLIKE GYPSIES

Date: 94-12-12

The results of a recent opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Public Opinion Research indicate that Slovaks are the most-liked minority in the Czech Republic. A total of 65 percent of Czechs had a positive attitude toward Slovaks, while only 7 percent of the poll's 877 respondents displayed a negative attitude toward them. Conversely, 68 percent of the respondents revealed a negative attitude toward Gypsies; only 5 percent said their relations with Gypsies were good. The respondents were generally well inclined toward Poles and Germans, although 20 percent said they disliked Germans. Only 14 percent were well inclined toward Vietnamese, 13 percent toward Russians, and 10 percent toward citizens of Balkan states. The poll's findings, published by CTK on 7 December, confirm the results of previous polls. -- Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.

HUNGARY'S ROMAS ELECT SELF-GOVERNING BODIES

Date: 94-12-14

Roma Assembly Chairman Aladar Horvath told MTI on 13 December that Hungary's Romas on Sunday elected 264 self-governing bodies, 163 of them in localities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. These figures demonstrate the Gypsies' resolve to have a say in determining their own affairs. At the same time, Horvath expressed the fear that, owing to insufficient financial resources, the new bodies would become mere interest groups influenced by the state. -- Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL, Inc.

CZECH ROCK GROUP SENTENCED FOR RACIST SONGS

Date: 95-04-26

A Prague court gave the six members of the Czech rock group Branik eight-month suspended sentences on 25 April for racist texts attacking blacks, Gypsies, and Asians. The group broke up shortly after the offending album appeared in 1991. One song contained the lines: "Your mission is sacred, you're going to beat those swine; niggers, Gypsies, and yellows, don't let them live in peace." The prosecuting state attorney immediately appealed the sentences, believing them to be too lenient, Czech media reported. -- Steve Kettle, OMRI, Inc.

ROMANIA CHANGES OFFICIAL NAME FOR GYPSIES

Date: 95-05-03

The Romanian government has changed the official name for members of the Gypsy minority from "Roma" to "Tigani," Reuters reported on 2 May. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mircea Geoana said the change was aimed at preventing confusion between "Romanian" and "Gypsy." He added that the change put Romania in line with terminology used by such international organizations as the United Nations. But several recent reports, including a Council of Europe study in 1994, refer to the Romanian Gypsies as "Roma." "Tigan" (singular) is the direct Romanian translation of Gypsy and is often used pejoratively. Nicolae Gheorghe, secretary of the Federation of Romany in Romania, said the decision was an insult. He said the Romany organizations demand that the government reverse its decision, which was taken without consulting Gypsy representatives. Deputy Gheorghe Raducanu, who represents the Gypsies in the parliament, said he will boycott the meetings of the legislature until the decision is changed. He also said that the Gypsies will boycott meetings of the Council on National Minorities. -- Michael Shafir, OMRI, Inc.

GYPSIES DEMONSTRATE IN BUCHAREST

Date: 95-05-24

The Gypsies Association of Romania on 23 May staged a rally in downtown Bucharest to protest the planned change in their official name, Radio Bucharest reports. Romania's Foreign Ministry has recommended that the traditional Romanian name for Gypsy ("Tsigan") be used in official documents rather than "Roma" or "Romany," as Gypsies prefer to call themselves. Gypsies regard the term "Tsigan" as pejorative. -- Dan Ionescu, OMRI, Inc.

ROMA PROTEST SLOVAK POLITICIAN'S STATEMENT ON SKINHEAD ATTACK

Date: 95-08-03

Representatives of several Romani parties and organizations have protested the 2 August statement by Slovak National Party leader Jan Slota on the recent killing by skinheads of a 17-year old Romani youth, TASR reported the same day. They objected to Slota's use of the word "Gypsies," saying such designations are especially significant in the context of the ethnic tension following the incident. Robert Tsonka, president of the Democratic Alliance of Roma and spokesmen for the Romani parties, remarked that Slota was well aware that a "Gypsy nationality does not exist in the constitution of the Slovak republic." -- Alaina Lemon, OMRI, Inc.

HUNGARIAN PARTY OF GYPSIES DEMANDS PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION

Date: 95-08-29

Albert Horvath, leader of the Hungarian Party of Gypsies, hand-delivered a letter to Premier Gyula Horn demanding that the government guarantee Gypsies parliamentary representation, MTI reported on 28 August. He said he had to resort to delivering the letter to the Socialist Party headquarters because he had written so many already and not received an answer. Horvath cited constitutional paragraphs promising minorities representation in the parliament as well as equal political and cultural rights. He pointed out that the unemployment rate for the minority stands at 80% and that many Gypsies earn only 6,700 forint ($55). Without parliamentary representation, he said his party was unable to try to make changes. Some Romani and Gypsy parties do not use the name "Roma" in order to include those groups that do not speak Romani. -- Alaina Lemon, OMRI, Inc.

NEW PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION ON ROMA FORMED IN HUNGARY

Date: 96-04-03

The Roma Program Commission was set up by the parliament on 2 April, MTI reported. Csaba Tabajdi, political state secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, told the press after the inaugural session that the commission will consider ways to improve the situation of Gypsies and will collaborate with relevant ministries and with the National Gypsy Minority Autonomous Government. The commission will submit an action program to the government by late May. Prime Minister Gyula Horn is chairman of the commission, while Tabajdi has been appointed secretary. -- Alaina Lemon

ATTACKS ON ROMA IN SLOVAKIA

Date: 96-04-12

A Romani man suffered burns when three Slovak men threw a bottle of flaming liquid into his house in Zalistie, after having assaulted him and four other Roma, TASR reported on 10 April. According to the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, a group of skinheads the previous week attacked Romani children from an orphanage attending a hockey game, yelling "we will kill all Gypsies." The orphanage head said Slovaks who were also attending the game did not intervene but made room for the skinheads. Several callers to a Bratislava radio show said they approved of the attacks, noting that the Slovak state "does not protect its citizens against Gypsies." Several children are recovering with broken bones in the hospital. -- Alaina Lemon

CZECH REGIONAL COURT RULING CHANGED TO RACIAL VIOLENCE BY HIGH COURT

Date: 96-05-24

A Czech High Court on 23 May ruled that the killing of Tibor Berki in Zdar nad Sazavou last May was racially motivated, overturning last fall's verdict of a lower court in Brno, CTK reported. Berki, a Rom, was killed when four Czech youths broke into his house. The youths were overheard in a restaurant before the attack saying they planned to "get some Gypsies." However, the Brno court ruled that the killing was not racially motivated because the attackers were not shouting slurs at the moment of the assault. The new verdict increased the prison sentences of the attackers, but most important, according to the Romany Civic Initiative, the case could serve as a precedent. -- Alaina Lemon