January, 2009

...but they are very far from allowing our adequate representation. Next year, will the United Nations allow Roma and Sinti greater dignity and thus fulfill its stated mission of educating the public?

“The Gypsies had been murdered in a proportion similar to the Jews: about 80% of them in the area of the countries which were occupied by the Nazis.”
Simon Wiesenthal, in a letter to Elie Wiesel dated December 14th, 1984.

"The genocide of the Sinti and Roma was carried out from the same motive of racial mania, with the same premeditation, with the same wish for the systematic and total extermination as the genocide of the Jews."
Roman Herzog, former German president (March 16, 1997)

A political storm has erupted around Italy’s gypsy community after a series of recent attacks prompted Silvio Berlusconi, the country’s prime minister, to suggest deploying 30,000 troops nationwide to combat crime blamed on gypsies and other immigrants.

Europe’s open borders have led to a flood of Romanian gypsies into Italy, straining municipal services and stirring political tensions. Some church groups estimate 50,000 Romanian gypsies have arrived in recent years, adding to thousands of Balkan gypsies who had fled the former Yugoslavia. Many live in squalid conditions condemned by human rights groups.

On Thursday the 15th January 2009, 30 policemen in four police vans hunted innocent Roma throughout the city of Geneva. When the hunt was over, they had arrested 27 people; 15 men, 7 women and 5 children.

This operation was driven by both the local Police and the State Department of Population. After a hearing at the Police station, the Roma were deported from Switzerland by bus and will not be allowed to return for at least two years.

This operation was undertaken with the purpose of cleaning up Geneva's streets of beggars and musicians. The Roma in Switzerland have been persecuted by the Government since a law making begging illegal was in acted a year ago, leading these people to be systematically arrested, controlled and often asked to surrender what few belongings they actually own to the police.

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