[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15499]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               ANTI-ROMA ACTIONS ERUPT IN FRANCE, EUROPE

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                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 10, 2010

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the 
comments made by French President Nikolas Sarkozy that have caused 
quite the media flurry in the past few weeks.
  On July 16, French police shot and killed a Romani man when he 
apparently tried to run a roadblock. This shooting sparked two days of 
rioting by some 50 members of his community damaging the local police 
station and private property.
  In a story that has now been covered by the media from Vancouver to 
Moscow, French President Sarkozy subsequently announced that he would 
look into ``the problems created by the behavior of certain travelers 
and Roma,'' with a view toward the closing down Romani camps and 
driving out Roma. Government statements have indicated these measures 
would focus on finding and expelling Romani citizens from Bulgaria and 
Romania--two European Union countries. Despite the fact that the Romani 
man in the July 16 incident was actually a French citizen--Mr. Sarzkozy 
later spoke of stripping citizenship from nationalized French citizens 
convicted of serious offenses.
  Not surprisingly, human rights groups have condemned the President's 
remarks with one voice. Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner 
Thomas Hammarberg rejected the notion of holding Romani people 
collectively responsible if one among them commits a crime. Good for 
you, Mr. Hammarberg. (It is a shame that the European Union has been so 
utterly silent and paralyzed in the face of this downward spiral.)
  Many of the reports and analyses of these events, such as last 
Friday's editorial in the New York Times, rightly placed these 
developments in the context of French politics and President Sarkozy's 
political imperatives. Understanding the current political dynamic in 
France, particularly the ongoing debate over ``national identity'' and 
the situation of Muslim and African-origin minorities in France, is 
extremely helpful in understanding the President's expansion into anti-
Roma mudslinging. But there is a wider, broader European context for 
his remarks that I think must be addressed.
  French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has stated that the new 
measures targeting Romani camps are not aimed at ``stigmatizing a 
community'' but rather at stopping illegal activity. This sounds 
remarkably like the rhetoric of Hungary's far right wing party, Jobbik, 
which claims it is not against ``Gypsies,'' just ``Gypsy crimes.''
  In fact, rhetoric linking Roma to criminal activity or broadly 
portraying Roma as criminals--traffickers, prostitutes, thieves, and so 
forth--is pervasive throughout Europe. In early July, in the wake of a 
mass expulsion of Roma from Copenhagen, Danish Minister of Justice 
reportedly made remarks tying Romani culture to criminal behavior. 
Romania's foreign minister remarked in February about ``the natural 
physiology of Roma criminality.'' For two years now, Italy has been 
gripped by anti-Roma policies, included targeting Roma for 
fingerprinting, that are built on a perception of the Roma as 
criminals.
  The idea of Romani people as inherently criminal is not new. In fact, 
it was at the very center of Nazi racial theories regarding Roma. 
According to these theories, Roma--as descendents of an Aryan people--
we're just fine on their own. But Nazi racial hygienists concluded 
that, as a result of intermarriage between Roma and non-Roma, Roma had 
been left with mixed, ``degenerate'' blood and were genetically 
predisposed to criminality. Moreover, Roma were ``unadaptable''--that 
is, this condition could never be changed. These Nazi racial theories 
provided the rationale for the sterilization, persecution, and eventual 
extermination of Roma.
  Unfortunately, as Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe 
Commissioner for Human Rights, has observed, ``Even after the . . . 
Nazi killing of at least half a million Roma, probably 700,000 or more, 
there was no genuine change of attitude among the majority population 
towards the Roma.'' In other words, Nazi racial theories regarding Roma 
remain remarkably entrenched and are regularly given voice in the 
rhetoric about ``Romani crime.''
  Madam Speaker, last year Senator Cardin and I, as Chairman and 
Cochairman of the Helsinki Commission, wrote to Secretary Clinton 
regarding the situation of Roma in Europe. In particular, we noted that 
``racist rhetoric directed against Roma today often uses terminology or 
images that have been in continuous use since the Nazi era,'' and we 
argued that teaching about Romani experiences during the Holocaust is 
essential to successfully combat prejudice against Roma today. Perhaps 
this could start in France.

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