Infos générales
sur les roms en Ile-de-France, Slovaquie et en Serbie (ce dernier document en
anglais).
de la part du Collectif de Soutien aux Roms de Montreuil.
ÃŽle-de-France
30/04/04-16h59
400 Roms de plus en 2003 en Ile-de-France, selon les associations
PARIS, 30 avr (AFP) - En 2003, la population Rom en Ile-de-France s'est accrue
de 400 personnes, pour atteindre un total de 1.800, malgré les
"expulsions" et les encouragements au retour en Roumanie, selon le
Collectif Romeurope pour les droits de l'Homme.
"La politique de +zéro Rom+ de Nicolas Sarkozy est un échec. Il y en a
plus qu'avant. Même expulsés, la plupart reviennent à cause de l'extrême
pauvreté et de la discrimation", a expliqué le Dr Michèle Mézard, de
Médecins du Monde (MDM), association membre de ce collectif, au cours d'une
conférence de presse vendredi.
Selon MDM, sur les 19 groupes recensés, 12 ont été déplacés, soit "41
évacuations de lieux de vie" représentant le déplacement de 6.240
personnes.
Les politiques menées sont "imbéciles", a jugé Laurent El Ghozi,
président de l'Association pour l'accueil des voyageurs (ASAV).
"Au cours de l'année 2003, nous avons assisté à une multiplication des
actions des forces de l'ordre pour obliger les familles à quitter tel ou tel
lieu de vie. Les moyens pour ces évacuations sont de deux ordres : les
expulsions par la force ou les pressions policières, qui sont des ultimatums
assortis de menaces d'arrestations", a précisé Mme Mézard.
Avec l'élargissement de l'Europe, "deux millions de Roms seront demain citoyens
de l'Union Européenne et quatre millions en 2007 avec l'entrée de la Roumanie
et de la Bulgarie", a indiqué le MRAP. "Les Roms continueront à venir
et les bidonvilles vont se multiplier", a insisté sa secrétaire nationale
Bernadette Hétier.
La douzaine d'associations réunies au sein du collectif Romeurope - dont la
Ligue des Droits de l'Homme - a rendu public un "Appel citoyen" pour
"l'accès des "Roms aux droits fondamentaux en France et en
Europe".
Elles y demandent la fin des expulsions et la régularisation administrative des
Roms demandeurs.
bs/jcp/bma
SLOVAQUIE
L'Humanité
30/4/04
<http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2004-04-30/2004-04-30-392864>
Europe à 25
Les Rom encore marginalisés
Bratislava, envoyé spécial.
Lorsque le 12 février dernier, un petit groupe de Rom pille un magasin
d'alimentation d'un village de l'est de la Slovaquie, personne encore n'imagine
que c'est toute une communauté qui est sur le point d'exploser. Pourtant, les
jours suivants, des émeutes éclatent dans une douzaine de villes des provinces
centrales et orientales du pays, où se concentrent les 450 000 Rom slovaques.
Les supermarchés sont pris d'assaut par des familles littéralement affamées.
Débordée, la police doit faire appel à l'armée.
Depuis la chute de l'étatisme socialiste, les Rom sont les premières victimes
de la destruction progressive des mécanismes de protection sociale et de
solidarité en Slovaquie. Dans les semaines précédant les émeutes, la plupart
des familles avaient vu fondre leurs allocations de moitié suite à la décision
du gouvernement de les conditionner à des travaux d'intérêt général. Une
décision dramatique pour cette communauté souvent confinée dans de véritables
ghettos sans eau ni électricité. Dans certains villages, le taux de chômage des
Rom atteint 100 % à cause du manque de qualification mais aussi des préjugés
racistes dont ils sont victimes. Après les émeutes, Amnesty International a
pointé " l'inertie des autorités slovaques " dans la lutte contre les
discriminations.
Présents dans la plupart des pays d'Europe centrale, les Rom restent
marginalisés malgré les plans d'intégration lancés sous la pression - modérée -
de Bruxelles. On estime leur nombre à sept millions sur le continent.
P. F.
SERBIE
"Roma in Serbia", report prepared
by Humanitarian Law Centre (10.12.2003) - English.
Introduction
1. Police violence against Roma
1.1 Offences against human dignity and physical integrity
1.2. Domestic standards
1.3. International standards
1.4. Extortion of information and unlawful deprivation of liberty
1.5. Domestic standards
1.6. International standards
1.7. Communications to the Committee against Torture
2. Violent attacks on Roma by private
individuals
2.1. Violent attacks by skinheads
2.2. Violent attacks by other private individuals
2.3. Violent attacks in schools
2.4. Domestic standards
2.5. International standards
3. Discrimination against Roma
3.1. Discrimination in education
3.2. Discrimination in housing
3.3. Discrimination in employment
3.4. Discrimination in access to social welfare benefits
3.5. Discrimination in public places
3.6. Discriminatory practices by landlords
3.7. Domestic standards
3.8. International standards
4. Findings
5. Recommendations
Introduction
In Serbia, Roma have always lived on the fringes of society and been
subjected to violence, segregation, and discrimination. From the beginning of
2000 to the end of 2002 the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) investigated
and documented 241 cases of Roma being victims of unlawful treatment by the
police or of racially-motivated violent attacks and discrimination by
individuals and groups. This report cites only the most serious and typical
incidents.
During the period 1998-2002 the HLC provided legal aid to Roma victims of
police repression as well as investigated and documented scores of cases of
police violence against Roma. The police abused Roma by injuring their human
dignity, violating their physical integrity, unlawfully depraving them of their
liberty, and forcing them to make self-recriminatory statements. The racial
prejudices are so deep and the ethnic distance so great that police officers
routinely presume Roma guilty until proved innocent (the cases of the Roma
settlement Antena, the harassment of the pregnant Roma woman and her husband).
Recent years have seen the emergence of a skinhead movement and its rapidly
growing popularity among unemployed and poorly educated young people in
Serbia’s major towns. Members of the Roma community, especially municipal
refuse collectors, are the main victims of the brutality of this racist and
ultra-nationalist movement (the beatings of street sweepers, the boy in the
street, Radmila Marinkovi). In such incidents the police often play a passive
part and there is usually no reaction from the public.
The aggressive attitude towards Roma of other citizens, who are not members of
such sub-culture groups, also gives rise to frequent concern. Under the
influence of alcohol, ‘weekend bullies’ raid Roma settlements and tenements in
communal yards mostly on Saturdays and Sunday nights and the police blame the
attacks on the Roma victims for allegedly provoking them. Living in constant
fear for their and their families’ personal safety, and feeling let down by the
state, Roma have been forced to organize their own self-defence groups (the
attacks on the Roma residents of Vilovskog and Požeška streets in Belgrade and
in a
ak).
Roma children attending primary schools are regularly harassed by mostly underage
bullies (the case of Gordana Jovanovi). Non-Roma children as a rule do not
associate with their Roma peers whom they openly despise. In the primary and
secondary school curricula there is nothing to encourage tolerance among
children and acquaint them with the culture and history of minority communities
(see the case of separate classes for Roma pupils in Subotica). Roma say that
their children drop out of school early mostly because they feel insecure and
are ill-treated and isolated there (the cases of Kristina Stanojeviand Safet
and Zaim Beriša).
The educational authorities clearly discriminate against the Roma by denying
them equal opportunities. Since the state does not provide pre-school
instruction for Roma children to facilitate their subsequent schooling, this
task is as a rule shouldered by non-governmental organizations. Because
psychological tests for school entrants are not linguistically and socially
adapted for Roma children, they score poorly and are sent to ‘special schools’
for handicapped children.
Even highly-educated Roma find it considerably difficult to find employment
according to their qualifications (the case of Julijana Aranelovi). Roma
without proper qualifications stand next to no chance of being employed,
especially by private employers (the cases of the Toma butcher’s shop and
Nataša Stevi).
Roma are denied access to many private night clubs, sports centres, and
discotheques on the excuse that the premises are currently hired for a private
party or that the Roma visitors are not properly dressed (the Trezor, Mondo,
and Bombo night clubs in Belgrade). The victim of such treatment who decides to
sue for damages finds that the rules of evidence favour the perpetrator and
that it is not easy for him to prove discrimination, especially of an indirect
kind.
Discrimination is also practised by landlords, who refuse to let premises not
only to Roma families but to organizations concerned with Roma rights (the case
of the Roma Child Centre).
Residents of Roma settlements are frequently forcibly evicted and forced to
live in temporary shelters (the evictions from the Belgrade settlements ‘Old
Airport’ and ‘Autokomanda’, and from Zimonjieva St.; the eviction of the Saiti
family from their municipal flat after twenty-seven years occupancy). The state
has no systematic plans for permanently solving the housing problems of Roma
living in unfit settlements; when such settlements are evacuated, the competent
state authorities either disown all responsibility or fail to cooperate with
each other to provide alternative accommodation to the former residents. While
domestic legislation does not obligate the state to offer such accommodation to
forcibly evicted persons, the state authorities do not abide by relevant
international instruments.
The documentation forming the basis of this report comprises testimony of
individual victims of police repression, discrimination or violence, court
records, and medical records. The report relates to Serbia. Violations of Roma
human rights in Kosovo are dealt with in the HLC special report and a report on
the situation on the Roma in Montenegro is being prepared ...
More at http://dev.eurac.edu:8085/mugs2/do/blob.html?type=html&serial=1075731222215