Some updates from the European Roma and Travellers Forum<\/p>\n
Violence against Roma in Hungary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ERTF President to visit Hungary to asses situation<\/strong><\/p>\n Strasbourg, 06.03.2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Racist violence, particularly the recent attacks against members of the Roma community in Hungary, and measures that need to be taken against discrimination will be some of the main topics that the European Roma and Travellers Forum, will assess during the four day high-level visit to Hungary starting on 09 March 2009.<\/p>\n Mr. Kawczynski, the President of the Forum and his team will visit villages in which Roma were the target of attacks from paramilitary groups, and will meet with Roma NGOs and Roma leaders. The President will also hold meetings with government representatives, the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights, and leaders of political parties .<\/p>\n The European Roma and Travellers Forum is deeply concerned at the anti-Roma feelings spreading through the EU countries and fears that the Roma are being forced out of their homelands and to look for security elsewhere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the end of his visit, Mr Kawczynski will present the Forum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preliminary observations at a press conference on Thursday 12, March 09.<\/p>\n The time and venue of the press conference will be announced later<\/p>\n The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), which has a partnership agreement with the Council of Europe and a special status with this institution, is Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest and most inclusive Roma organisation. It brings together Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s main international Roma-NGOs and more than 1,500 national Roma organisations from most of the Council of Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s member states.<\/p>\n For further information please contact:<\/p>\n European Roma and Travellers Forum Tel.: 00 33 3 90 21 53 50 ———- Strasbourg, 16.03.2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Following several serious and violent incidents during 2008 the Roma in Hungary feel insecure in their everyday life and fear becoming the next target of attacks This was the assessment made by Mr Rudko Kawczynski, president of the European Roma and Travellers Forum in a press-conference on Thursday, 12 March 2009 in Budapest following a visit to assess the human rights situation of the Roma community in Hungary.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I came to Hungary in order to better understand what happened in Tatarsezentgyorgy and in other parts of the country and to see what can be done to avoid repetition of such unfortunate developments\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Mr. Kawczynski at the press conference. Irrespective of the background and history of the tensions, it is unacceptable that Roma become the target of various attacks of para-military groups.<\/p>\n From the way the attacks were committed, and the fact that to this day the perpetrators have not been identified, the Forum believes that these criminal groups are somehow being protected. The rule of law is failing to protect the Roma community.<\/p>\n The ERTF urges the authorities to set up a specialised task-force at the highest level to examine criminal attacks against Roma and proposes that the chief prosecutor should be fully involved in this process.<\/p>\n The ERTF believes that the lack of confidence building measures\/programmes is the main reason for an increase of anti-gypsy feelings in Hungarian society. Moreover, hate speech by various public figures and the way the media reported on various problems have facilitated the whole process. Therefore, the Forum urges the government to introduce a draft law on hate speech amending the existing criminal code in order to prevent and sanction offenders.<\/p>\n The Forum is also concerned that Government programmes are not successfully implemented at local level due to a huge communication gap between the two levels. The lack of political will at local level prevents the Roma from benefiting from various governmental programmes.<\/p>\n Mr. Kawczynski said that a detailed report of the visit will be addressed to the Hungarian Government, the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights, political parties and various bodies within the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n Last news from Belarus: On 5 January officers of Partyzanski district police department of Minsk detained more than 80 representatives of Gypsy minority in the Suburb of Stsiapianka and took fingerprints from them.<\/p>\n All of the detainees were videoed for the police archive. The detainees accuse the police of self-will and lawlessness. One of them said that at 8.30 a.m. the police burst at the house where his family lived. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThey did not knock on the door. They ran, knocked everybody down and shouted: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLie down, bitches!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We had to lie on the floor for almost 40 minutes almost nude, as most of us were sleeping when it all started.<\/p>\n Then they started a search without showing any warrant. They did not even tell they were from the police. They asked an elderly woman where she kept her gold. Then they lined us up and led to their bus\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 told one of the victims.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAll our neighbors watched it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 They took us to the police where there were about 70-80 Gypsies already. They told they would take our fingerprints and then would let us go. We returned home only at 4 p.m. They told us: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHave you heard about the terroristic action?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Now they are making terrorists out of us,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he added.<\/p>\n Some other people were detained outdoors. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhile I was driving my car out of the yard, three people in masks overlapped the way. They pulled me out, threw me into the snow and started beating. I have a black eye, and they fractured my leg,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said another detainee.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe told the police we would complain against them. They answered that then they would find some drugs at our place next time and would hold such raids every month,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he said<\/p>\n Kalinin Nicolas<\/p>\n Delegate in European Roma Travelers Forum Some updates from the European Roma and Travellers Forum Violence against Roma in Hungary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ERTF President to visit Hungary to asses situation Strasbourg, 06.03.2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Racist violence, particularly the recent attacks against members of the Roma community in Hungary, and measures that need to be taken against discrimination will be some of the main […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doslunares.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nc\/o Council of Europe
\nF \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 67 075 Strasbourg<\/p>\n
\nEmail: ertf@ertf.org or ertf@coe.int <\/p>\n
\n
\nERTF Press release: Roma victims at the altar of the rule of law<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nPolice use violence during anti-Gypsy raid
\n http:\/\/spring96.org\/en\/news\/27114\/<\/p>\n
\n+375296575463<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"