BULGARIA: Roma Treated like Trash

By Claudia Ciobanu Reprint | | Print |

Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, Aug 30 2007 (IPS) - Recent violent episodes involving Roma in Bulgaria emphasise the deep prejudice against this ethnic group, as well as politicians&#39 intention to turn anti-Roma feelings into electoral gains.

On Aug. 21, as a result of a mass brawl between two groups of youngsters, a Roma teenager died in Bulgarian town Samokov, 35 km southeast of capital Sofia. The media reported that the clashing youths were split along ethnic lines, with Roma and Slav Bulgarians fighting each other. However, the police refused to define the conflict as inter-ethnic.

The following day, almost a thousand Roma gathered in the centre of Samokov to protest against the murder of the boy.

One week before, on Aug. 13, roughly 200 Roma, armed with cutlery and chair legs, took to the streets of Sofia district Krasna Polyana, attacking a local cafe. The group, which included women and children, claimed they wanted to protect themselves against an announced attack from skinheads. The police were present but did not interfere.

"This was a legitimate defensive reaction by the local Roma after coming under several racist attacks by gangs of Bulgarian (Slavic) skinheads," explains Rossen Vassilev, professor of international relations at Ohio State University, whose research focuses on ethnic issues in Bulgaria.

"In fact," Vassilev said, "the &#39race riot&#39 was nothing more than an agitated mob of Roma, who had armed themselves with various tools for self-defence amidst rumours that a gang of up to 600 Bulgarian skinheads were on their way from another Sofia district to carry out an anti-gypsy pogrom in Krasna Polyana."

While it turned out that the expected skinhead attack was merely a rumour, the Roma did have solid grounds to fear such an assault.

"Animosity has always existed between the Roma and the other ethnic groups in Bulgaria, mainly fed by prejudice," says Antonina Zhelyazkova from the Sofia Centre for Minority Studies.

According to estimates by the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, there are 313,000 Roma currently living in the country. But Roma advocates point out that these numbers are based on old census information and ignore both the high fertility rates of the Roma and the fact that many of them declare themselves Bulgarian or Turk in order to avoid discrimination.

The International Centre for Minority Studies (a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the peaceful coexistence between different cultures) places the number of Roma in Bulgaria at between 600,000 and 750,000, while other groups indicate they are as many as 800,000, representing 10 percent of Bugaria&#39s total population of eight million.

Despite their large number, the Roma in Bulgaria live in bleak conditions. They form a "chronically unemployed or underemployed, destitute socio-economic stratum, which lives in sub-standard urban and rural ghettoes, often in conflict with the majority Slavs and the law," Vassilev told IPS.

In September 2003, the Bulgarian National Assembly outlawed all forms of discrimination against minorities, but the reality is far from the written legislation. Amnesty International has condemned instances of police brutality against the Roma in Bulgaria. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance maintains there is still discrimination against minority groups in Bulgaria, particularly against Roma, and expresses concern about the excessive use of firearms and force by the police against Roma.

Several voices in Bulgaria raise doubts over the premises of the Roma riot in Krasna Polyana. Among them, Evgeni Daynov from the Sofia Centre for Economic Practices, a well-respected political analyst, writes that the riot was set up, and raises numerous questions about possible motivations of various actors who could have planted the rumour of the 600 skinheads approaching.

Whether set up or not, the incidents in Krasna Polyana provided Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov with a good excuse to increase the number of police and armed gendermerie around the city, and particularly in Roma districts. During a press conference on Aug. 21, the mayor said that the Roma population living in the Batalova Vodenitsa ghetto in Sofia would be moved to Vazrazhdane, and those living in caravans on Europa Boulevard would be moved to Sudohol. Sudohol is the location of the Sofia waste landfill.

With only two months to go before local elections, Borisov is not the only politician trying to gain from targeting the Roma. On Aug. 19, the leader of the small nationalist party Bulgarian People&#39s Union announced the creation of a paramilitary anti-Roma guard. Wearing uniforms reminiscent of Nazi outfits, the members of the party declared themselves ready to "defend their families, property and lives from gypsy invasions."

In these conditions, and with Bulgaria a member now of the European Union (EU) since Jan. 1, 2007, some Roma have been trying to seek a better life in Western Europe. "But no other EU country seems to want them or care about them either," says Vassilev. "Most of Roma would-be immigrants are either denied entry or swiftly deported back."