BULGARIA SEEKS EXTRADITION
OF ROMA ACTIVIST JOURNALIST

Contacts: Grattan Puxon 07757533380
Toma Nikolaev 07438056417

*Case to be heard 9.30 am Tuesday
22 May at Westminster Magistrates
Court, 181 Marylebone Road, London.

A protest will be held outside at 9am
by Roma and supporters.

Toma Nikolaev Mladenov, aged 46, is
the director of the Romani Information
Agency DeFacto, previously published as
a bilingual newspaper in Bulgaria.

It was highly critical of the Bulgarian Government
over its failure to end apartheid in state schools
and to crack down on a rising number of
racially-motivated murders of Roma.

The situation of the 600,000 Roma (8% of the
population) has worsened since the electoral
success of the fascist Attack Party, which is openly
anti-Roma.

The Sofia offices ofDeFactowere smashed
up and Nikolaev attacked by six men outside
on the street. They first attempted to force him
into a car and then beat him unconscious. He
believes they were plain clothed policemen.

In 2001 Nikolaev was listed as a parliamentary
candidate by the new Free Bulgaria Party. But
the party was barred from the elections as
ethnically-based (though a similar Turkish party
was allowed).

His present difficulties began when he went to
a police station because his wife had a problem
with her passport. An officer abused them and
Nikolaev succeeded in having him dismissed from
his job for racial discrimination.

This officer then prevailed on prosecuters to
charge Nikolaev with a public disorder offence,
for the same incident. He was sentenced to one
year. After four months, Nikolaev was released
to mount an appeal.

Earlier a bomb had been placed on the balcony
of his apartment, and fearing for his life, Nikolaev now
fled to London, where he had previously sought asylum.

On 8 April he took part in a demonstration outside
the Bulgarian Embassy to mark Roma Nation Day.
Soon after he was arrested on a European Warrant
and spent three days in detention. Bulgaria wants to
extradite him back to serve the rest of his term.

His lawyers say his offence was a trivial one drawing
under British law no more than a fine. They are oppositing
extradition on both technical and human rights grounds.

14/05/2012 – If you are studying abroad in Florence, or another major city in Europe, I would be willing to bet that you have been warned about being pick-pocketed in crowded areas and at major tourist attractions. In fact, the term “gypsy” is probably what these pickpocketers are referred to as. In Florence, these “gypsies” can usually be found in front of the Duomo or other major churches downtown, and they are usually begging for spare change.

The proper term for these people, however, is not gypsy, but Roma. The Roma people have a large presence in Italy, with an estimated population of 150,000, and the relations between the Italians and the Roma are very strained. While both the Italian government and the Roma people themselves are to blame for the terrible living standard and conditions of the Roma people, the answer to the issue lies in the acceptance of the Italian people to support this unique ethnic group.

Roma people have their origins in northern India and have some have ancestors that have lived in Europe as far back as the 15th century. With the addition of Eastern European states such as Romania into the European Union, Italy has seen an influx of Roma people in the past decade. The attitude towards the Roma people is for the most part hostile, accusing them of opting for crime over a legitimate job and isolating themselves from Italian society (and taxes) by living in illegal camps. One survey in 2008 found that 68% of people in Italy wanted all Roma expelled from the country.

Politically, not much has been done in order to better the lives of the Roma in Italy. It is quite certainly political suicide to openly support the Roma people, or the zingari, the Italian term for gypsies. Lower and middle class Italian people, who are already critical of the amount of welfare and help they receive from the state, would never support spending taxpayer’s money on the Roma people. Frequently, the government never spends money that is allocated for the construction of shelters for the Roma, or that money is siphoned off to another project. The Berlusconi administration proposed measures to fingerprint all gypsies in order to be able to better identify them and fight crime across Italy, a proposition met with harsh opposition from advocate groups, calling the actions racist and profiling.

Government officials also take unnecessary actions against the Roma people to purposefully cause hardships for them. According to my government professor, Dr. Deborah Spini, police officers have been known to confiscate blankets from gypsies in the middle of the winter. While the Roma people are known to engage in criminal activity, and even if some are illegally in Italy, there is no need to confiscate blankets from homeless people in the winter. The government of Florence also ordered a bulldozing of a gypsy encampment on January 15th of last year. In the opinion of Dr. Spini, these actions were done with malice simply to displace the Roma people. She took it upon herself, along with other parishioners of her church, to house many of these people in the church at nighttime to spare them the cold of the nights.

While the Italian government has not done much to help the Roma people, they certainly have not done much to help themselves. It is true that many gypsies roam the streets looking to pickpocket unknowing tourists and civilians, which endears them to no one. Roma people have a culture of male superiority, which not only looks bad to outsiders but also actually keeps them from advancing their status in society. It is very common for the Roma people to wed as teenagers and have multiple children, which is an economic strain on people that have very few ways of earning a legitimate living. This is why many zingari resort to a life of crime, so they are able to support their young and growing family. Roma people are very distrustful of the government, for good reason, but they are distrustful to the point of crippling themselves.

The real answer to this problem lies in rectifying the combination of the male superiority within the Roma culture and the government’s abuse of these people. The money that is allocated for the Roma needs to be spent on them, not siphoned off to other projects. It needs to be spent, however, on educating the women of the Roma people. Studies have shown that education is much more of an effective method of decreasing the birthrate among cultures than contraceptives are. If the Roma women were afforded an education, the birthrate decrease, the inequality among their own people would begin to disappear, and their families could start later and not have to resort to lives of crime.

The education of women, however, is a difficult issue to begin working on. There has to be a complete change of perspective towards women in their own society, and a change in opinion towards the Roma by the Italians and their government. It is time for the Italian people to assume responsibility for their mistreatment of the Roma people and work to improve their standard of living in their country, and it is time for the Roma people to push themselves towards better lives.

Link: http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/letters/the-roma-people-and-the-italians-a-strained-relationship

By Roberta Lunghini

17/05/2012 – Many investments, very few results. This is the way how it is possible to sum up the Roma people integration policy of the Municipality of Rome. So much so that, in 2010-2011, 1.6 million were allocated for social and work inclusion of this community, but just 16 nomads have got a job. Which means that every new employee has cost to the municipal coffers as much as € 100,000. It appears like “the mountain that gives birth to a mouse”. A real failure, especially if one considers, as reported by the Association “21 Luglio”, that the ambitious initial goal was to give employment to a significant proportion of the residents in the Roma camps of the Italian Capital.

Link: http://www.west-info.eu/work-and-social-inclusion-of-roma-people/

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The European Jewish Press

By AFP and EJP

The North African country is regarded for its long-standing rich Jewish history and its cemeteries serve as the resting place for approximately 1,200 leading lights of the religion, such as Amran Ben Diwan, who was buried in Ouzzane, 200 kilometres from Rabat, 250 years ago. His grave is under continuous police guard and can only be visited with prior permissions from the Jewish community.

Five days of prayer and celebration, which ended on Saturday, saw about 5,000 pilgrims gathering at the sacred sanctuaries and gravesites. Morocco was once one of North Africa’s most vibrant Jewish communities, but with the creation of Israel came mass aliyah and now only a few thousand remain.

Unlike neighbouring Tunisia, where a recent annual pilgrimage to Djerba island to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba’Omer attracted controversy, Morocco is seen as comparatively safe.Around 3,000 Jews live in the country, the largest Jewish community in an Arab country.

The Tunisian pilgrimage was in fact cancelled last year, following civil unrest that led to the demise of long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. This wasn’t the first time the pilgrimage’s existence had been threatened, as an Al Qaeda claimed attack at the Ghriba synagogue in April 2002 that killed 21 people, dramatically affected attendance figures.

Since the toppling of his regime, there has been a rise of more extremist factions in the country, with devotees of the extremist-Conservative Salafist strand of Islam calling for a traditional Islamic state.

Link: http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=7783

16/05/2012 – Medjimurje would be a safe area if there were no criminal offences committed by Roma people. This was a racist statement of the minister of interior Ranko Ostojic during his visit to Mejdimurje.

Yes, in order to corroborate his racism, Ostojic said that around 50 percent of offences in that area were committed by Roma people. So if they committed around 50 percent of offences, who committed another 50 percent then? Are they chipmunks, rats, cats, dogs, sparrows or pigeons?

- I respect human rights of all national minorities of Croatia, but I have to point out that more than 50 percent of property offences on the area of Medjimurje are committed by the Romani national minority. If there were no such offences, the County of Medjimurje would be one of the safest counties in Croatia – said the minister of police.

If such statement was given by the former minister Tomislav Karmarko, the major part of the public and other SDP members would have probably imagined trucks into which Karamarko’s people are putting Romani people in order to deport them over the state border so they could not steal and spread dirt any more. Because, that’s the way how Romani people act in Medjimurje.

But if 50 percent of property offences are committed by Romani people, than other 50 percent is committed by Croatian people I guess, so called ‘not-Romani’. And that is, how it seems, completely all right as according to the minister Ostojic. It isn’t a problem nor it is a reason to fuss about. That’s how Croatians – ‘not-Romani’ have a right to steal from Croatians – ‘not-Romani’. However, Romani people have no right to steal from Croatians – ‘not-Romani’.

According to that assertion, Ostojic will send more contact police officers and police patrols to Romani settlements in order to stop the spread of Romani crime. But, as he claims, he won’t turn Romani settlements into ghettos. That would be unethical, I think. Unlike the statement that Medjimurje would be a safe place for a living if there were no criminal offences committed by Romani population.

This very statement of Ostojic, about Medjimurje being a safe providence if there were no Romani thieves, is a pure racism we haven’t heard for a while. And this racism has been heard from one Croatian minister. Ostojic damaged his Government by making such statement as he additionally discriminated one minority and enlarged the difference between ‘’us’’ and ‘’them’’. Not only he discriminated them, he additionally stigmatized them. What else a Romani person might be, except a thief? So he eventually ends as one.

But when he chose that kind of discourse, it would have been interesting to point out how many of ‘’them’’ have a job in police department, for example? How many of ‘’them’’ have finished obligatory elementary school? How many of ‘’them’’ committed murder in the Zagreb center around 8.30 PM? How many of ‘’them’’ are members of SDP party? How many of ‘’them’’ live on a social welfare, and how many of ‘’us’’ live on a social welfare?

Finally, since when do stealing and thievery have a national stigma? Since, the biggest thievery of this state was committed under cover of national stigma, not Romani stigma.

Link: http://dalje.com/en-croatia/ostojic-and-roma-population–racism-under-cover-of-social-democratization/433142

http://www.developmentandtransition.net/Article.35+M5c5505cdf35.0.html

“When it comes to Roma inclusion and institutional racism, it is clear that many EU member states remain in deep denial. Member states, old and new alike, need to confront the deeply embedded institutional racism that has undermined, and will continue to undermine, all efforts to promote Roma inclusion.”

An article by Bernard Rorke , international advocacy director for the Open Society Roma Initiatives, on the UNDP Development & Transition website

The awards ceremony and exhibition opening for the Chachipe Map photo contest (www.chachipe.org) organized by the Open Society Roma Initiatives and OSA Archivum will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 2012 at Akvárium Klub (formerly Gödör Klub) in downtown Budapest, Hungary. The ceremony will feature a performance by students from the Snetberger Music Talent Center.

Before the ceremony, at 5:00 p.m., there will be a roundtable discussion about visual representations of Roma.

And following the ceremony the evening will continue with performances by Romano Glaszo from Hungary, a group of Roma and non-Roma children who sing traditional Roma songs, and Gypsy.Cz, a Roma hip-hop group from the Czech Republic.

The event is free and open to the public.

Save the date! We will be sending more information about the program later.

Best regards,

Andy Haupert

__________

Follow the Open Society Roma Initiatives on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RomaInitiatives.

Andy Haupert

Information Officer

Open Society Roma Initiatives &
OSI-Budapest Executive Office
Október 6. u. 12.
1051 Budapest
Hungary

Tel. +361-882-3222
Fax. + 361-883-3106

www.soros.org/initiatives/roma | www.romadecade.org

Features an EXCLUSIVE interview with Aboriginal Australian opera star Deborah Cheetham.

http://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/yorta-yorta-and-hungarian-roma-kindred-spirits-a-world-apart/

We are – Via Romen band, working on a very exciting project – CD recording and documentary with Rada Volshaninova. Rada is one of the few remaining Russian-Romany (Gypsy) performers that possess the essence of real Russian and Russian-Romany musical culture. She is retired and currently lives in Miami, FL.
We’ve already done some of the studio work, and need to capture a video for the documentary of her performance.

This opportunity may be presented on June 6, in Miami, FL, when we will need a video crew to record her.

Please help us to make this happened, by donating to the account below. We can’t do this without your help!

Please read more here: https://sites.google.com/site/viaromen/projects/rada-volshaninova-and-via-romen

You can listen to the unfinished first track of Via Romen and Rada Volshaninova, here: http://soundcloud.com/viaromen/viaromen-2012-unfinished

Sponsors will be acknowledged on the CD cover and in the documentary.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PART OF THIS EXCITING PROJECT: Please send your tax-deductible contributions to: 423 7th Ave., South, Iowa City, IA 52245. Checks payable to IARMAC (Memo: Via Romen)
For more information about the IARMAC, please visit at: http://iarmac.org/index.html
For more information about Via Romen etc…please visit the following websites.

Thank you.

Vadim Kolpakov
Artistic director, Via Romen
www.ViaRomen.com
www.VadimKolpakov.com
www.YouTube.com/VadimKolpakov
www.MySpace.com/VadimKolpakov

May 16, 2012

France/Poland

By Roberto Malini – La Voix des Rroms

On May 16th, 1944 four thousand Roma imprisoned in the “zigeunerlager” in Auschwitz decided to stand up to their murderers who according to programme had come to get them to lead them to the gas chambers.

The most powerful and well-organized machine of oppression and death of all time found itself before human beings reduced to a pitiful state – swarms of children all skin and bone and barefoot women and men. It wasn’t only the men who decided not to bow their heads to these butchers in uniform; the scrawny hands of children and women picked up stones, bricks, iron rods and rudimentary blades and all together the Roma of Auschwitz cried “No! We will not give you our children to force through your chimneys. Your doctors have tortured so many of them already while experimenting their monstrous science. The children’s screams rose high into the air, higher than the dense smoke issueing from the crematoriums, higher than our prayers. You will not wipe out our families after you have already taken away the precious gifts of freedom and dignity. We will not leave to your grasping hands, to your wicked hearts and your inhuman hatred the beauty of our lives, the sanctity of the love that unites our families in a poor yet proud people”.

The mothers held their younger children tightly to their chests as they fought; the young children defended the “zigeunerlager” until they were covered in blood, looking like the spirits of revenge in legends; dark-skinned arms brandished primitive weapons with tireless energy, until the SS retreated, astonished at the sight of their heroism, their superhuman courage as they faced the bullets and bayonets with their bare skin.
The SS retreated, taking with them many German corpses. Only on August 2nd, 1944 were the Nazis able to dispose of the “zigeunerlager” – after they’d left the Roma imprisoned in the “death factory” close to death by reducing their food ration to a minimum. 2,897 Roma heroes were assassinated in the gas chambers of Birkenau on one night alone.

Today, May 16th, 2008, we are faced with the heirs of Hitler’s butchers. The instigators of this new genocide are the men and women we see every day in the newspapers and on TV, smiling, full of themselves, fresh from face lifts and make-up sessions, their sneering mouths full of words that sound like “Legality”, “Justice”, “Safety”, but which really mean “Persecution”, “Racism” and “Death”. We see them every day and they no longer wear party colours because they are united by hatred. They have no respect for anything: either for human life, or human rights, for the universal laws or the new Europe that speaks out against prejudice. They have encouraged violent acts and pogroms all over Italy, deceiving the Italian people with racist lies and fomenting xenophobic violence. We who still see the light of human rights won’t be able to stop them, we who are all Roma now, we who want to be Roma because we want to be just, we will not be able to stop them if we do not decide right now to inherit the pride of the Auschwitz gypsies – if we do not decide to line up at the side of the persecuted families, and defy the authorities who no longer represent anything, the uniforms that no longer represent anything, the high-ranking state officials who have betrayed all values, who have no right to express themselves in the name of a people, of a civilization, of a humanity that – among so much horror – wrote up a text that was a commitment to build a better future for everyone: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Français

Nous sommes tous Rroms: recueillir l’héritage des héros

(texte traduit de l’italien par Saimir Mile – La Voix des Rroms)

Le 16 Mai 1944 quatre mille Rroms internés dans le “Zigeunerlager” à Auschwitz ont décidé de s’opposer à leurs tortionnaires, qui selon le programme nazi étaient venus les conduire dans les chambres à gaz. La population rromani, réduite à des conditions pitoyables, composée d’une nuée d’enfants qui n’avaient plus que la peau et les os, et de femmes et d’hommes pieds nus dans l’enfer, se trouvait face à la machine de mort et d’oppression la plus puissante et organisée de tous les temps. Pourtant ils n’étaient pas hommes et femme prêts à baisser la tête devant leurs bourreaux en uniforme impeccable; les mains décharnées des enfants et des femmes se mirent à ramasser pierres, briques, lames rudimentaires et pauvres armes de fortune. Tous les Roms d’Auschwitz décidèrent de dire : “Non!” à l’inhumanité.

“Non, nous ne vous donnerons pas nos enfants. Non, nous ne vous laisserons pas les évacuer en fume par vos cheminées. Vos médecins-tortionnaires ont déjà assez torture d’innocentes victimes, expérimentant leur science monstrueuse sur eux comme sur des rats. Leurs cris sont assez montés au ciel, encore plus haut que la fumée dense crachée par vos fours crématoires, encore plus haut que nos prières désespérées. Vous n’anéantirez plus nos familles, à qui vous avez enlevé liberté et dignité, notre trésor le plus si précieux. Nous ne laisserons plus à vos mains rapaces, à votre cœur macabre et à votre haine inhumaine, ni la beauté de notre vie, ni le caractère sacré de l’amour qui unit nos familles pauvres, mais fières. ”

Les mères serraient les plus petits contre leur poitrine, tout en luttant contre les bourreaux déchaînés. Les jeunes gens défendirent le “Zigeunerlager” jusqu’à ce que le sang ne les couvre, les rendant semblables aux esprits de vengeance des légendes. Les bras maigres brandirent jusqu’à la tombée de la nuit des armes rudimentaires dans un élan infatigable, jusqu’à ce que les SS se retirent, terrifiés devant cet héroïsme et ce courage surhumains qui dressait la chair nues contre les balles et les baïonnettes de la mort. Les SS se retirèrent, emportant avec eux de nombreux cadavres allemands. Ce n’est que le 2 août 1944 que les nazis – après avoir affamé les Rroms prisonniers de l ‘ “usine de la mort”, en limitant au minimum leur subsistance alimentaire, réussirent par le massacre à liquider le “Zigeunerlager.” Cette nuit là, 2.897 héros rroms furent assassinés en une nuit dans les chambres à gaz de Birkenau – administrativement pour “laisser la place aux martyrs juifs raflés à Budapest”.

Aujourd’hui, le 16 mai 2008, nous sommes confrontés avec les héritiers des bourreaux d’Hitler. Les auteurs du nouveau crime de masse sont ces hommes et ces femmes que nous voyons tous les jours sur les pages des journaux et à la télévision, souriant, plein de grands airs supérieurs, refaits par le lifting et le maquillage, la bouche pleine de mots qui sonnent si beau “légalité”, ” justice “, “sécurité “, mais qui sont détournés de leur sens et signifient en réalité “persécution “,”racisme” et “mort “. Nous les voyons tous les jours et ils n’ont plus de couleur, pour beaucoup ils sont devenus transparents, unis dans la routine et uniformisés par la haine. Comme les nazis, mais cette fois avec “un visage humain” et “un langage politiquement correct”, ils ne respectent rien: ni la vie, ni les Droits de l’Homme, ni les lois universelles, ni la nouvelle Europe faite pour combattre préjugés. Ils viennent d’inciter à la violence et à des pogroms dans toute l’Italie, ils ne cessent de tromper les masses avec des calomnies racistes et l’incitation à la violence xénophobe. Nous ne les arrêterons pas d’un coup, nous qui sommes encore assez clairvoyants pour voir la lumière des Droits de l’Homme. Non, comme à Auschwitz et bien souvent dans l’Histoire, le combat est inégal, nous savons maintenant que nous sommes tous des Roms, nous voulons être tous des Rroms parce que nous voulons être justes. Nous ne les arrêterons pas – dites-vous ? Pourtant nous croyons fermement que si, à condition de décider dès maintenant de nous ériger en héritiers de la fierté et de l’héroïsme des «tziganes» d’Auschwitz. A condition de nous combattre aux côtés des familles persécutées en remettant en question ces autorités déshumanisées qui ne représentent plus rien, ces uniformes qui ne signifient plus rien, ces plus hautes fonctions de l’État qui ont trahi toute valeur et toute humanité sous des prétextes de plus en plus cousis de fil blanc. De quelle légitimité réelle ces gens-là se réclament-ils lorsqu’ils fondent des actes et des décisions juridiques sur une identité ethnique ? Ont-ils le droit, ces gens-là, de prendre la parole au nom d’un peuple, d’une civilisation, d’une humanité, qui – au-delà de tant d’horreurs – a donné au monde un texte d’une insigne générosité, engagement magnifique à construire un avenir meilleur pour tout le monde: la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme.

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