[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 24 (Friday, March 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2081-S2082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE ``DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION''

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, last month, the Prime Ministers of 
eight Central and Southern European countries met in Sofia, Bulgaria, 
for their first meeting in what has been dubbed ``the Decade of Roma 
Inclusion.'' This initiative is designed to spur governments to 
undertake intensive engagement in the field of education, employment, 
health and housing with respect to Europe's largest, most impoverished 
and marginalized ethnic minority, the Roma. The Open Society Institute, 
the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations 
Development Program--all supporters of this initiative--hope that this 
effort will result in meaningful improvements over the course of a 10-
year period.
  In December, a donors' conference pledged $42 million for a Roma 
Education Fund. But the real goal is to get governments to give more 
help to their own people from their own budgets, as well as to make 
better use of the funds already available from organizations like the 
EU.
  The fact is, Romani riots in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2002 and in 
eastern Slovakia last year should be a wake up call for governments 
with significant Romani communities. These countries cannot afford to 
ignore the crushing impoverishment and crude bigotry that so many Roma 
face on a daily basis. The Decade of Romani Inclusion is all well and 
good, and I commend the governments that are participating in this 
initiative. But much more needs to be done to truly advance Romani 
integration. It must start with a message of tolerance and inclusion 
from the highest levels of government.
  Unfortunately, too often the voices that are heard are those 
spreading crude stereotypes and inter-ethnic hatred. I am particularly 
alarmed by what appears to be an increase in anti-roma statements in 
Bulgaria.
  Last summer, the head of one of Bulgaria's leading trade unions, 
Konstantin Trenchev, broadly characterized all Roma as criminals--and 
then called for the establishment of vigilante guards to deal with 
them. More recently, Ognian Saparev, a Member of Parliament from the 
Bulgarian Socialist Party, dismissed the significance of reports that 
the Mayor of Pazardzhik has trafficked Romani girls for the benefit of 
visiting foreigner diplomats. Saparev reportedly claimed that the 
statutory rape of these girls shouldn't be considered a crime because 
Romani girls are ``mature'' at age 14. Significantly, Saparev also 
gained headlines last year for publishing an inflammatory article about 
Roma in which he argued they should be forced to live in ghettos.
  Even worse statements have come from Russia. Yevgenii Urlashov, a 
city official in Yaroslavl, recently characterized all Roma as drug 
dealers and called for them to be deported. Not to be outdone, fellow 
municipal legislator, Sergei Krivnyuk, said, ``residents are ready to 
start setting the Gypsies' houses on fire, and I want to head this 
process.''
  Although nongovernmental human rights groups have condemned this 
anti-Romani rhetoric, other leaders in Bulgaria and Russia have largely 
remained silent. But it is critical that public leaders, from all walks 
of life, speak out against such hate mongering.
  Speaking on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of 
Auschwitz, Polish President Kwasniewski noted that ``complete 
extermination

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was also [intended] to be the fate of the Roma community.'' It will not 
do, 60 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, to stand by in silence 
while Roma are crudely caricatured as criminals, just as they were by 
the Nazis. And we must not stand by in silence when a member of 
Parliament dismisses the criminal act of trafficking of children, 
simply because they are Romani.

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