RIGHTS: Roma Facing New Threats

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Nov 20 2006 (IPS) - Tiny Slovenia is the only former Yugoslav republic that prides itself on full EU membership, but its human rights record remains under serious doubt.

The eviction of a group of 35 Roma from a village where they have owned the land and homes for decades now shows up the lack of rights of Roma, a group of people who are believed to have migrated to Europe from Asia since the 14th century.

“This is the end of the rule of law in Slovenia,” Slovenian EU ombudsman Matjaz Havzek told local media. “What happened (in the village of Ambrus) is a catastrophe and giving way to the pressure of the mob.”

Havzek’s reaction came after people in the village near capital Ljubljana threatened to kill a group of local Roma earlier this month. After scuffles with Roma villagers, they demanded that the Roma leave the area.

Following the incident, local police transferred 35 Roma, despite their protests, to abandoned military barracks more than 50 km away.

The group of Roma consisted mostly of elderly people, but included a pregnant woman and 20 children, all from the Strojan family. The land in Ambrus, where their modest homes were built some 20 years ago, is owned by the Strojans.

To the applause of Ambrus villagers and their neighbours who came to witness the eviction, the Roma were taken away by special police units and left in the barracks with no heating or running water.

Ambrus villager Milan Muhic appeared often on local television, claiming that “normal life is not possible with uncivilised people who have 10 children.”

“This was a conflict of two cultures,” the pro-government Delo daily commented. “It was something that should not have happened, but, on the one hand, Roma are people who live in their world, completely different from ours. On the other, there are people with their usual lives, paying taxes to the state and living next to Roma.”

Prime Minister Janez Jansa demanded that Havzek apologise to the people of Slovenia “due to his damaging moves of accusing Slovenia before European institutions.” President Janez Drnovsek said in a statement that “Roma should be socialised” in a proper manner.

“The whole case was a precedent that could become an inspiration for others,” Slovenian MP Zoran Grm told IPS. “The message now is that people can do whatever they want only if they are very loud.”

Local media report that moves for eviction of Roma are now coming from other areas of tiny Slovenia, which has a population of only two million. There are some 10,000 Roma in the country, living at 90 places.

Legal expert from Maribor University Silvo Debelak told Slovenian Pop TV that the eviction of Roma was “a blatant example of violation of human rightsàit was a case of racist intolerance, in a country which already has a poor human rights record in certain areas.”

Debelak was referring to the broader issue of the ‘erased’ – thousands of non-Slovenes from former Yugoslavia whose residence, job permits and all other documents were destroyed by the authorities when Slovenia seceded in 1991. Most of them were forced to leave after being dubbed “illegal foreigners”.

Thousands decided to stay, and have lived in fear of deportation for years. The Constitutional Court of Slovenia decided recently that all the ‘erased’, whose number was officially given as 18,305, should be granted domicile papers. But little has been done in that direction.

One of their leaders, Dragan Todorovic, faces charges of slandering the Slovenian state because he spoke about the issue to the foreign press.