Persecution of minorities continues to scar East

Date: 13/01/2000

By Simon Coss

SYSTEMATIC discrimination against racial and religious minorities remains a serious problem in many of the central and eastern European countries currently lining up to join the European Union.

The gypsy or Roma community is by far the largest single group to suffer from the prejudice, mistreatment and violence meted out not just by gangs of extreme right-wing skinheads, but also on occasions by national authorities.

In several recent reports on the human rights situation in the region, the US-based organisation Human Rights Watch said violent attacks against Roma people had taken place in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic over the past two years. On several occasions, the victims of these assaults were killed.

In Bulgaria, for example, skinheads attacked a group of Roma children living in an abandoned building and killed a 15-year-old boy, Metodi Rainov, by throwing him from a window.

But while the activities of skinhead gangs are naturally a cause of major concern in the applicant states, the 'institutionalised racism' of many local and even national politicians is perhaps even more worrying.

The European Commission has repeatedly voiced concerned about the way the national and regional authorities treat their Roma minorities and has made it clear that much progress will have to be made on the issue before the applicant countries are able to become full EU member states.

The problem of state-sponsored discrimination was highlighted in the Czech Republic last year with the famous case of the 'anti-Roma wall' in the town of Usti Nad Labem. In a bid to prevent members of the Roma community 'spoiling' the lives of ordinary Czech citizens, the authorities in the northern Bohemian town decided to erect a four-metre-high fence which would separate 30 gypsy families from the rest of the town.

In the end, the outcry from the international community against the scheme was so great that the fence was never built but, for many, the fact that it was even considered demonstrates the level of ingrained discrimination which still exists in the country.

Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, similar plans in the town of Plzen would have seen Roma residents moved from the town centre to a camp made up of portable cabins set up on the outskirts of the city. The project was eventually put on hold in the face of intense pressure.

But it is not just the Czech Republic which has been criticised for its treatment of Roma minorities. In the Medzilabordce district of eastern Slovakia, two villages passed local laws in 1998 forbidding Roma to settle within their jurisdiction or even to enter the village centre.

In 1997, the UK government decided that the treatment of Roma people in Slovakia was so bad that it agreed to grant asylum to a gypsy family from the country, arguing that the gypsies' human rights could not be guaranteed in their former home.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian press reported that in April 1998 the mayor of Isaszeg had ordered 18 gypsy families to leave her city, arguing that there were two sorts of Roma - "the good-for-nothing type and the completely wretched type".

In Romania, human rights groups complain that the government has consistently ignored calls for it to investigate cases of alleged police mistreatment of members of the Roma community.

But while the Roma are undoubtedly the largest single group to face daily discrimination in many of the applicant states, they are by no means the only victims.

In Romania, for example, homosexual activity remains a criminal offence. Gay people can be sent to prison for between one and five years for homosexual acts that are "committed in public or which cause public scandal". It is also illegal to publish any information about homosexuality or set up gay groups. Romania's treatment of gays and lesbians has been formally criticised by the European Parliament.

The activities of the Romanian police force have also attracted criticism in recent years. A report drawn up in 1995 by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) concluded that people in police custody in Romania faced "a not inconsiderable risk of being subjected to police mistreatment, which is some-times severe mistreatment, even torture".

Religious discrimination is also rife in some of the applicant countries. In 1998, the Bulgarian media reportedly falsely that Jehovah's witnesses had committed various crimes around the country, stirring up hatred against the religious minority.

Jehovah's witnesses were also arrested for distributing religious tracts, even though the country's constitution guarantees religious freedom.

Systematic discrimination against racial and religious minorities remains a serious problem in many of the central and eastern European countries currently lining up to join the European Union.