After posting my last article on the persecution and legalised Ethnic Cleansing of Roma populations throughout mainland Europe, entitled "Ethnic Cleansing of Roma within EU – Time to Enact the Oskar Schindler Covenant", I decided to research the subject even further, to make sure that I was not over-reacting.
I am sad to say that I was not.
As I write this article I feel like I am recounting the Nazi persecution and liquidation of the Gypsies in 1940s Nazi occupied Europe, and it makes me sick to my stomach to think that this could be happening in our day and age. May this stand as a testimony that humanity never learns from history, and it is up to those of us of good will to stand up and speak out against this new wave of Roma persecutions coming. Otherwise, I am afraid that the gas chambers in Europe will be fired up once more.
Italy
What I laid out in my last article was merely the tip of the iceberg. The Italian government in 2009, re-instituted the Venetian Ghetto system,[1] making sure that all Gypsies were rounded up into one place so that the illegal expulsion could take place with the minimum of trouble. The Italian Government had already started to expel Roma from Italy the previous year, but the government decided that Roma Ghettos would make the job so much easier.
As a quick refresher on why the Venetian Princes instituted the Ghettos, the basic history is this: in the 16th Century, at the height of the Inquisition throughout Europe, a law that made it mandatory for the Jews of the Principality to live in one small district of Venice was passed. Also, the same law made it illegal for a non-Jew to live within this district, which was called Ghetto. This is the exact etymology of the word. Then the Pope thought it was a good idea and instituted the same in Rome, thus creating the most famous textiles district in the whole of Italy on the back of Jewish persecution.
Gad Lerner, a columnist and television presenter who was born in Lebanon to Jewish parents and a naturalised Italian, drew attention to the parallels between the prejudice that preceded the persecution of the Jews and the treatment of today's gypsies. It appears that few learn from the tyrannies of history, thus dooming humanity to keep repeating them.
Like the Ghettos of old, these forcefully mandated Roma communities are gated and locked at 10pm each night. They are virtual concentration camps for the Roma who live in them, especially since 2008, when the newly elected government declared a 'emergenza nomadi', or Roma Emergency. From the last information that I have been able to gather, there are approximately seven gated Roma Ghettos around the city of Rome alone.
The Persecution does not end there
Due to the 'emergenza nomadi', the police have been given unwarranted powers to catalogue and fingerprint all Roma within the Ghettos. In Rome this was instituted in February of 2009, and it has spread throughout the Italian Prefectures.
Also, the Roma have been targets of even higher levels of racial abuse than previously known, culminating in the torching of three Roma Ghettos in the suburb of Ponticelli, Naples, after an angry crowd had forced their frightened inhabitants to flee, escorted away by the police. They were razed to the ground.
The Italian government talks of 'integration' with the rest of Italian society, but when the Roma do finally leave the Ghettos, they are expelled to Romania and Bulgaria. The Romanians and Bulgarians do not want them either, it seems.
Perpetual Gypsy Pavilion[2] has even more information on the plight of the Roma in Italy, and this link is recommended for further research.
The Daily Mail reported in July 2008 of how holiday makers at a beach in Italy ignored the bodies of two Roma girls who had just drowned nearby in rough seas. They also reported how the Italian government was doing a census of the Roma population that had strong racial overtones and prejudices within the questions asked.[3] Again, the Daily Mail did nothing to expel the myths of 'Roma Crime' or the 'emergenza nomadi'.
Hungary
One would have thought that having suffered under both the Nazi and the Soviet Regimes, the Hungarians would be at least a little more tolerant of their Roma neighbours. Sadly, the exact opposite is the case. Violence against the Roma in Hungary is wide spread, even leading to the deaths of several Gypsies in 2009.
The New York Times reported in April 2009 on the funeral of Jeno Koka, a doting grandfather who was brutally murdered on his way to his night-shift job at a chemical plant.[4] He was shot dead on his doorstep.
In November 2008 an unnamed man and woman were shot dead in Nagycsecs, a town about an hour’s drive from Tiszalok in northeastern Hungary, as their house was razed to the ground by fire. And in February the same year, a Roma man, Robert Csorba, 27, and his 4-year-old son, Robert Csorba Jr., were gunned down as they tried to escape from their home, which was set on fire in Tatarszentgyorgy, a small town south of Budapest.
The funeral of Robert Csorba, 27, and his four year old son in Tatarszentgyorgy, Hungary.
"Experts on Roma issues describe an ever more aggressive atmosphere toward Roma in Hungary and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, led by extreme right-wing parties, whose leaders are playing on old stereotypes of Roma as petty criminals and drains on social welfare systems at a time of rising economic and political turmoil. As unemployment rises, officials and Roma experts fear the attacks will only intensify."
“ 'One thing to remember, the Holocaust did not start at the gas chambers,' said Lajos Korozs, senior state secretary in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, who works on Roma issues for the government."
"Viktoria Mohacsi, a Roma member of the European Parliament, said the police — who still decline to explicitly name ethnicity as a motive in the cases — were slow to recognize the blossoming violence against the community. 'At the beginning, they said it was illegal money lenders or that it was Roma killing each other,' Ms. Mohacsi said, as she visited the Koka family in Tiszalok."
“ 'In the past five years, attitudes toward Roma in many parts of Eastern Europe have hardened, and new extremists have started to use the Roma issue in a way that either they didn’t dare to or didn’t get an airing before,' said Michael Stewart, coordinator of the Europe-wide Roma Research Network."
Most of the racial hatred in Hungary aimed at the Roma is through the extreme right-wing party, Jobbik. They almost have the 5% share of the vote needed to give them Parliamentary seats in the Hungarian Parliament. 'Roma Crime' is one of their many platforms that they stand upon in order to illicit votes from a Hungarian electorate that are going through hard financial times. Just like with the rise of the Nazis to power, the Roma are being scape-goated as a means to obtain political power. What would happen should Jobbik ever get any real power in Hungary one dreads to think.
The Czech Republic
In April 2009 there were violent clashes between the police and Neo-Nazis as the radicalised protesters tried to march through a Roma enclave. In the same incident a small Roma girl and her parents were severely burned after assailants firebombed their home in the town of Vitkov.
Amnesty International issued a press release in May 2009 dealing specifically with the persecution of Roma in the Czech Republic.[5] I will now quote a little from this document:
" 'Amnesty International joins the Czech Romani civil society in their call to the authorities to stand up to growing extremism in the country,' said Nicola Duckworth, the organization's Europe and Central Asia Programme Director."
" 'Violent attacks by far-right groups against the Romani community have intensified in some areas of the Czech Republic. An increasing number of marches and statements by some Czech far-right groups include incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence against the Romani community. Many Roma in the country say they fear for their lives.' "
" 'Roma in the Czech Republic are estimated to number between 160,000 and 300,000 people, or about 1.6-3 per cent of the overall population.' "
" 'Roma in the country continue to suffer discrimination at the hands of both public officials and private individuals, including in the areas of housing, education, health care and employment.' "
The press release goes on to detail the nature of the attacks against Roma in the Czech Republic, and makes a public call for the government there to do more to help prevent such future attacks.
Slovakia
The police in Slovakia were caught on video in 2009 tormenting six Roma boys they had arrested, forcing them to undress, hit and kiss one another.
There are many more crimes being perpetrated against the Roma people throughout the European Union, too many to list them all here.
Exodus
Because of the persecution the Roma face, many of them are now fleeing Europe for Canada.[6] Many Hungarian Roma are going there without visas due to the visa waver scheme that Canada and Hungary share. Once there the Roma claim political asylum from persecution, and Canada is now suffering from a deluge of Roma asylum seekers. It might well be a sensible thing for many persecuted Roma to do, given the circumstance that they all must face in the European Union, but it is not the solution to their problems as I have no doubt that they will find just as much persecution there as anywhere else. The solution is for people all over the European Union to stand up and say "Enough is enough" and force the EU Commission to act on the Roma's behalf.
Unless we do this soon, we may hear of the gas chambers firing up again in some parts of eastern Europe. We cannot afford to let this happen again.
I will be keeping you up to date on this issue as and when I have more information. You can rest assured on that.
Sources
- Italy's new ghetto? - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/30/roma-italy
- Perpetual Gypsy Pavilion - http://www.perpetualpavilion.org/?page_id=17
- The world was shocked by Italian sunbathers ignoring dead gipsy girls... But now Italy is showing a chilling interest in Roma children - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1038747/The-world-shocked-Italian-sunbathers-ignoring-dead-gipsy-girls--But-Italy-showing-chilling-Roma-children.html
- As Economic Turmoil Mounts, So Do Attacks on Hungary’s Gypsies - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/europe/27hungary.html?_r=1&hp
- Roma protest demands Czech Republic stops growing extremism - http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGNAU2009050110456&lang=e
- Hundreds of Roma seek refuge in Canada - http://thegypsyconnection.blogspot.com/2009/11/hundreds-of-roma-seek-refuge-in-canada.html
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