[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 49 (Thursday, April 5, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E581-E582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY REVISITED

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on International Roma Day last 
year, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities released a 
detailed report on the situation of

[[Page E582]]

Roma in the OSCE region. Unfortunately, in the intervening months, 
relatively little progress has been made by government authorities in 
addressing the problems he described.
  The Helsinki Commission, which I co-chair, receives so many reports 
on an almost daily basis which demonstrate the magnitude of the 
problems Roma face. We receive reports of Roma who are denied access to 
public places, like the three Roma who were turned away from a Warsaw 
restaurant last September 29, just before the OSCE convened its annual 
human rights meeting in that city. We receive reports of discrimination 
in housing, like the January 27 Hungarian television report that local 
authorities in Rabakoez, Hungary, have called for prohibiting the sale 
of real estate to Roma. We receive reports of police abuse, such as the 
repeated cases of unlawful police raids in Hermanovce, Slovakia. We 
receive reports of violent attacks, such as the assault on a Romani 
church in Leskovac, Serbia, at the beginning of this year.
  Too often, courts are part of the problem, not the solution. Rather 
than providing a remedy for victims, they compound the abuse. Take a 
recent case from the Czech Republic. The Czech Supreme Court issued a 
ruling that a violent attack on a Romani man in 1999 was premeditated 
and organized, and then remanded the case back to the district court in 
Jesenik for sentencing in accordance with that finding. But the 
district court simply ignored the Supreme Court's finding and ordered 
four of the defendants released. I am hopeful that Slovak courts, which 
are currently weighing the fate of three of the defendants charged in 
last years brutal murder of Anastazia Balazova, will do a better job of 
bringing her murderers to justice.
  In a few places, there are some glimmers of hope. In Viden, Bulgaria, 
for example, the Romani organization Drom has led a successful effort 
to bring 400 Romani children, who previously attended segregated 
schools, into the mainstream school system. In that instance, the 
cooperation of local and national authorities, governmental and non-
governmental bodies, is paying off.
  Unfortunately, too few government leaders demonstrate the courage 
necessary to address these issues. Some pass the buck, looking to the 
European Union or the Council of Europe to fix problems that must be 
tackled, first and foremost, through political leadership at home. 
Moreover, a number of EU countries have little to teach the applicant 
countries about tolerance towards Roma. Many OSCE countries--not just 
the former Communist states--are in need of comprehensive anti-
discrimination laws, a priority recognized in the 1999 OSCE summit 
agreement and by the European Commission in the adoption of its ``race 
directive'' in June of last year. Regrettably, nearly two years after 
Bulgaria received praise from many quarters for agreeing to adopt such 
legislation, the government is not one step closer to fulfilling its 
commitment. The Slovak Government's human rights office, in contrast, 
has undertaken a serious study of legislative options and may soon have 
a draft ready for a vote.
  In addition, it is imperative that political and civic leaders 
condemn anti-Roma manifestations in clear and unequivocal terms.
  Mr. Speaker, when the Mayor of Csor, Hungary--a publicly elected 
official--said ``the Roma of Zamoly have no place among human beings; 
just as in the animal world, parasites must be expelled,'' I believe it 
is the responsibility of Hungary's political leadership to condemn 
these outrageous slurs. If more leadership was demonstrated, perhaps 
confidence would have been strengthened and maybe 5,772 Hungarian Roma 
would not have applied for asylum in Canada over the past three years.
  When the Mayor of Usti nad Labem built a wall to segregate Roma from 
non-Roma, all members of the Czech parliament--not just a paper slim 
majority of 101 out of 200 MPs--should have voted to condemn it. And 
when Mayor Sechelariu of Bacau, Romania, announced plans to build a 
statue of Marshall Antonescu--the World War II dictator who deported 
25,000 Roma to Transniestra, where some 19,000 of them perished--
Romanian officials, who have pledged to the OSCE community to fight 
intolerance, should begin at home by ridding their country of every 
Antonescu statue built on public land.

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