Photo by Steed Gamero, EveryOne Group © EveryOne Group 2007
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Report on
the situation
of the Rrom
children and
adolescents
in Italy.
EveryOne
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EveryOne
Group
Group for International
Cooperation on Human
Rights Culture
via delle Magnolie 25/c
20060 Cassina de Pecchi (MI) Italy
www.everyonegroup.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Report on the situation of the Rrom
children and adolescents in Italy.
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Presented by
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation on Human Rights Culture
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Report on the situation of the Rrom children and adolescents in
Italy.
Before writing or talking about the situation of the Rrom
children and adolescents in Italy, it is necessary to mention
first that over the last few years there has been an authentic
racial persecution against the Rrom community, a
persecution that gets worse as the months go by and which
has led to thousands of families living in tragic conditions of
hardship and marginalization.
We must also point out that if until a few years ago prejudice against gypsies was
the prerogative of the Right wing, today all the political parties of our country are
involved, supported by a press campaign that amplifies their racial ideologies, giving
the Italian citizens stereotypes and lies, the aim of which is to present the Rrom as a
criminal ethnic group.
In the declarations from politicians, on the TV and articles that frequently appear in
the newspapers, the Rroms are presented as an ethnic group committed to murder,
theft (particularly pickpocketing and house-breaking) drug-pushing, criminal
association, the prostitution racket (exploiting both women and minors), reducing
children to slavery through begging, child kidnapping and rape. Sensational cases
EveryOne
have been put together to convince public opinion of the dangerous nature and
asociality of the Rrom:
- i the Marco Ahmetovic case, a car accident with serious liability, but similar to
many other accidents in which Italian drivers are involved without ever being
defined “monsters”.
- the case of the Livorno fire (which we ourselves followed personally: a case of
racial infanticide by a group known as GAPE, of the far right, who claimed
responsibility in a leaflet. Among the evidence the remains of an incendiary bomb)
a tragedy which led to the magistracy sending the young victims’ parents to jail for
over a year, guilty – according to them – of “abandonment of minors”;
Attachment 1
- the Giovanna Reggiani case, the inquiry into which is full of inconsistencies, saw
the authorities and press label (erroneously) Romulus Mailat a Rrom, when he is
actually a Romanian of the Bunjas ethnic group.
At the same time, in 2007 and in the first few weeks of 2008 alone, there have been
numerous racist attacks against the Rroms in Italy, with victims, fires in the camp,
through the use of incendiary bombs and other weapons. On January 4th and 7th
of this year, for example, two serious incendiary bomb attacks endangered the lives
of over 350 Rroms (200 of them children and adolescents) The media played down
the gravity of the fires, as always happens when groups of racists attack or kill Rrom
citizens. The authorities have not identified the people responsible for either of the
fires. - Attachment 2 and 3.
Concerning the general conditions of the Rroms in Italy - essential for understanding
the children’s situation - we are including at the bottom of this article the text of the
interview EveryOne Group recently gave to the BBC for the transmission Rokker
Radio – Attachment 4
We are also including the text of the report against the persecution of the Rroms in
Italy which we presented in the month of December 2007 to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, the European Parliament and Council, the European
Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court of the Hague. In this
document we reveal the serious crimes against humanity being carried out by the
Italian government and local authorities. The oppression, the marginalization, the
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persecution of the Rroms consists of camp clearances similar to the pogroms, in
which whole families are being deprived of any form of shelter and thrown out into
the street exposed to the cold weather without any means of sustenance. We
protested to the European Parliament against this inhumane treatment, along with
some transnational political parties, which resulted in the Resolution of November
15th, 2007 – Attachment 5.
Equally unjust are the expulsion orders being carried out by the authorities against
the destitute Rroms (expelled for being without the means to support themselves).
We have shown the illegality of such measures, which was also discussed in the EU
Parliament. - Attachment 6.
The measures taken against street services (windscreen cleaning, street artists etc.)
and begging have taken from the Rrom families their last resources for making a
living. All these actions by the Italian institutions, supported by the media, have
certainly taken a toll on the young Rrom population, making their basic needs more
dramatic than, for example, the problem (just as serious but not as vital) as getting
an education.
Having said that, we will now describe the general conditions of the Rrom children
and adolescents in Italy. Out of the total population of the Rrom ethnic group in Italy
(we are taking only Rrom and Sinti in account as the Caminanti are Sicilian
travellers, not Rrom) of about 200,000/210,000 individuals (70,000 of whom have
Italian citizenship, and 50,000 are Romanian Rrom, therefore EU citizens) more than
120,000 are under the age of 18. Of these, 90,000 are children under the age of 14
and about 65,000 are children from the ages of 0 to 5. As is widely known, due to
the conditions the Rrom community is forced to live in Italy (most of them are
without a home or permanent shelter, without any means of support or health
assistance) their average life expectancy has now fallen to the age of 40. It is
important to underline this data because it gives an idea of how the authorities, the
police, social workers and general public are used to scenes reminiscent of the
Holocaust, in which violent camp clearances and punitive actions are mainly
affecting defenceless children. We have personally witnessed scenes in which
young, pregnant women, seriously sick people, and very young children have been
thrown out of their makeshift shelters and brutally forced to leave the camp in
dramatic marches towards nowhere. We have witnessed the ill-treatment of frail
children by the police and racial insults directed against the families both by the
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police officers and the public during the compulsory camp clearances. EveryOne is
following many families indirectly and 7 families directly (mainly Romanian Rrom)
families with about 30 children. In spite of the social services and city authorities
being aware of their conditions of poverty and marginalization, in spite of some of
the children being affected by serious pathologies, in spite of the Italian Constitution
and the international conventions for human rights establishing that people in
conditions of hardship should be helped, no support or any other kind of assistance
has been offered to them. All the children we are following have been subject to illtreatment and threats from Italian citizens, culminating in some cases with physical
attacks (one little girl suffered a seriously head injury after being hit on the head by a
stone thrown at her by a peer). As for the families we “monitor”, we can assert that
without our intervention and private help, they would have been thrown into the
street and we have no idea how they would have survived. The situation of the
Rrom children is well illustrated in these examples and it is for this reason that
EveryOne considers this persecution a “new Porrajmos”. The attendance of Rrom
children in schools is low in number, and very often the local authorities boast of the
few examples, educationally irrelevant, to show how tolerant and antiracist they are,
but behind this façade is the will to oppress them, drive them away and deprive
them of a means of sustenance. The racist media campaign taking place all over
Italy has also produced a disturbing phenomenon among young Italian citizens and
children. In the Italian children and adolescents’ culture, the words “Rrom” and
“gypsy” have taken on a derogatory significance. In the month of November 2007 in
the Veneto area there were numerous episodes of clearly racist behaviour on the
part of Italian children (and parents) against their Rrom peers.
“Attacked by their classmates: the episodes in various schools of the Veneto and
Vicenza areas. Story told by the children from home. Their parents have kept them
away from the classrooms. Reported by a Veneto association. By Roberto Bianchi”:
was the headline in La Repubblica. Other national and local newspapers reported
these episodes. It is to be pointed out though, that journalists have always
attempted to play down the gravity of these events. EveryOne has also been alerted
of other attacks on Rrom children by Italian schoolmates in other cities: Milan,
Rome, Florence, Venice, Brescia etc. As for Rrom children abandoning school, we
must point out that in the present climate of persecution the situation is
deteriorating. If until a few years ago 10% of Rrom children obtained the middle
school diploma, the numbers now are more and more worrying, as is the condition
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of segregation, humiliation and torment all the Rrom children have to undergo in the
schools. We have to ask ourselves what the educational function and integration
purpose of Italian schooling signifies for the Rrom children considering the hostile
environment they find themselves in. In early January the initiative taken by some
councillors of the Municipio VII in Rome was brought to public attention. An initiative
that reminds us of the period of apartheid in South Africa: a school bus reserved
only for Rrom children. The circular issued in January 2008 by the Mayor of Milan,
Letizia Moratti, also caused a stir. In it the children of immigrants without a residence
permit were denied access to kindergarten, in violation of the Italian Constitution
and the international charters that protect the right to an education, and the United
Nations Convention of 1989, ratified by Italy, which underlines that all children are
equal. But Mrs Moratti’s circular represents a general attitude in the Italian schools.
“In the schools Rrom and Sinti children are subject to racist behaviour, they are
always at the bottom of the class and often the ones sitting on the back row… they
draw while the other children learn to read and write. In class the Rrom and Sinti
children find themselves representing negativity for the other children. As
adolescents they realise what it means to live isolated and excluded. They share the
same dreams as their classmates, but they soon start to realise that they have little
chance of fulfilling them”. Graziano Halilovic, Xoraxané Rrom, intercultural mediator.
The information on their state of health is withheld by the Italian authorities and it is
difficult to get access to the official data. One thing is certain: the priority is no
longer vaccinations, it is every aspect of the Rrom children’s health: the high infant
mortality rate, the spread of infections, parasites, malformations, pathologies due to
undernourishment, the cold and hardship. We can affirm that the health conditions
of the Rrom children are now similar to the conditions of the Jewish children living in
the ghettos during the Nazi-Fascist period.
As for the relationship between Rrom minors and the institutions, we must
emphasize that in the present conditions of segregation it is practically impossible
for a Rrom head of the family to find dignified work. It is also difficult for them to
work in illegal factories where they are exploited for 12/14 hours of the day without
a regular contract or health insurance, and where they have to pay a percentage to
the illegal agents who hire the workers. With families in such conditions of hardship,
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children often turn to begging, which in Italy is clamped down upon. There are also
cases of theft and juvenile prostitution, as always happens among people in
conditions of extreme poverty, oppression and marginalization. Some of the young
people in the ghettos of Warsaw and Lodz turned to theft and prostitution, like the
children in Auschwitz, the “Piepel”. They all begged. The authorities fought with the
same severity all these extreme forms of survival. They attempted to obtain laws
that made children equal to adults and therefore prosecutable. After they deemed
these measures impossible (at the time the little Rrom were defined “baby
gangsters”, “baby criminals”, “budding criminals”) they decided to punish their
parents and relatives instead, accusing them of slavery and exploiting minors. In
Milan eight Rrom parents were recently given very heavy sentences for these
offences: up to 15 years’ imprisonment. Authorities and press declared the children
were beaten, segregated and tortured so that they would procure for their parents
and relatives a minimum of 800 euros per day per child -through thefts and acts of
prostitution in Piazza Trento. The most sensational case involved 31 children who
were pickpocketing around the Central Station of Milan. It is hard to believe that a
group of Rroms living in makeshift huts, in the cold and in great poverty, had
organized a racket of illegal money making to the equivalent of 9 million euros a year
through children pickpocketing. (The sum of 9 million euros comes from a simple
calculation: 31 children x 800 euros x 365 days in the year). And yet this is the
minimum “turnover” for that group of Rroms according to the authorities. No
confiscation of current accounts, no police statements made by the victims of the
thefts, however, was shown by the authorities or magistrates as evidence of the
data divulged in the media. In any case, no programme has been put forward in
recent years to put an end to the poverty of the Rrom in Milan (or any other Italian
cities) or to encourage their integration and a dignified life for their children. It is
obvious, and sanctioned by the Human Rights charters and Children’s Rights that
the priority is to fight the cause of the problem (poverty) and not the effects (the
desperate struggle for survival).
After the sentences issued by the Juvenile Court of Milan to the eight Rroms
considered guilty of exploiting minors, their children were entrusted to a “protected
community” while waiting to be fostered out. The 31 children from the Central
Station were also sent to these “protected communities”. These are places where
the children are under constant surveillance and where they are forbidden any
freedom for fear of them trying to escape and return to their families. In the
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beginning the social services had entrusted the children to normal communities. But
all 31 children had escaped and returned to the huts from where the police had
taken them. We may wonder why the children returned to their parents, seeing that,
according to the authorities, they were beaten and tortured and kept on leads like
dogs. We may also wonder what value statements may have signed by children
looked upon with contempt, who have never received any help either from the
authorities or from the social services. How authentic can those testimonies be,
and how far can they have been exploitable? One last but not negligible point: were
the statements signed by the children written in Italian or Romanian? And even if
they were written in Romanian, what evidence can they provide seeing the 31
children were illiterate?
The reform schools are crowded with young Rrom inmates. They are considered a
“social plague” by the authorities. According to the Prosecuting Magistrate of the
Court of Appeal in Milan, Mario Blandini, there are such things as “schools of
pickpocketing and burglary” attended by Rrom children. The police are very severe
when dealing with Rrom children and adolescents. A member of EveryOne had to
snatch a young Rrom boy of about 12 from the brutal reaction of the police. In
another case members of EveryOne had to snatch Rrom children away from a
furious crowd under the nose of the municipal police who just stood there doing
nothing. The usual excuse: “They were caught stealing”. In this particular case,
EveryOne was able to prove the innocence of the children being accused, and
convince the authorities to let them go.In Italian detention centres the majority of
inmates are Rroms; in some cases, like in Milan and Naples, in the women’s prison,
Rrom women make up over 80% of the total number of inmates. In the case of
offenders imprisoned for theft, the same thing happens in the men’s prisons. The
solution the authorities and experts are aiming at in these cases is to take the
children away from their families, and entrust them to children’s homes and Italian
families (Source: Caritas)
Concerning the phenomenon of Rrom children being taken from their parents (with
the excuse that they are not able to guarantee them the necessary care) and
entrusted to children’s homes, in the first stage, and then to Italian families, it is a
widespread practice and it is difficult to know to what extent it is being carried out.
The authorities refuse to divulge the data. Opera Nomadi and other organizations
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have also asked for this data on several occasions, without any success. The
justification remains the same: we have to protect the children from possible
kidnapping by their families and their group. However, we know of about 500 cases
registered in the years between 1986 and 2006 (Source: Alberto Prunetti, “Against
the clichés concerning Rrom and Sinti”) In recent years, however, the number of
cases has increased and at least 300 Rrom children were taken from their families in
the years between 2003-2007.
“The Rroms generally lose their children in two different circumstances.
a) the first (and most disturbing, probably rare but there is no documentation on the
phenomenon) concerns some cases of Rrom babies born in Italian hospitals being
taken from their mothers after their failure to recognise them, or after long periods in
hospital and in the absence of regular visits from their relatives. I will deal with point
a) further down.
b) the second circumstance (well publicized and documented) is that of older
children being taken from their families using the excuse that they cannot guarantee
them the necessary care (housing, schooling etc.)”. Alberto Prunetti, “Against the
clichés concerning Rrom and Sinti”.
A Rifondazione Comunista MP recently reported the “theft” of Rrom children by the
Florentine social services from their young parents, Ciprian and Florica: “They
arrived in Italy a few years ago. They arrived in Florence by bus from Romania with a
son of 10, Madalin, and a young daughter, Sara, who gave them the strength to
look towards the future with hope. Together with other Romanian Rroms they had
fled from poverty and marginalization, finding various short-term situations in the
outskirts of Florence. They made do the best they could and their situation attracted
the attention of the local social workers. Except this attention, rather than improve
the living conditions of the family, was concentrated on ‘protecting’ the children.
With a strange idea of ‘protecting’. First Madalin, then little Sara were taken from
their parents and taken far away.”
Two more Rrom Kosovar children were also taken from their parents, again in
Florence, and were put in permanent custody at the home of a social worker who
worked in the Rrom assistance department! EveryOne has come across -
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protesting when possible - slanderous attempts to criminalize Rrom parents,
probably with the aim of obtaining custody of their children for Italian families –
Attachment 7.
To conclude, we find particularly serious the suggestions put forward by the
European MP Roberta Angelilli from Alleanza Nazionale (a party that has often been
in the limelight for racist initiatives), who is to present to the European Parliament in
the next few days the parliamentary text “Strategies on the rights of minors”, in
which she does not denounce the persecution of the Rrom children being carried
out by the Italian institutions - persecution that is forcing their families into an
inhumane situation of poverty, and causing the Rrom children unheard-of suffering,
a tragic infant mortality rate and serious conditions of marginalization. No, instead
Mrs Angelilli’s document claims that it is the Rrom parents of “over 50 thousand
minors” who are reducing their children between 2 and 12 years of age to slavery,
forcing them to beg in the streets for a total turnover of 200 million euros every year.
In short, the parliamentary text claims that practically ALL (expressed clearly in the
numbers) Rrom parents are criminals of the worst possible kind: slave drivers and
child exploiters. It is an inverted and distorted reality and we are astonished that
organizations like Unicef, Save the Children, Caritas and Telefono Azzurro have
given their support to this anti-gypsy slander put forward by Roberta Angelilli.
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau, George Scarlat, Jean (Pipo) Sarguera, Dott.
Santino Spinelli, Daniela De Rentiis, Marcel Courthiade, Saimir Mile, Ahmad Rafat, Arsham Parsi, Laura Todisco, Glenys Robinson, Steed Gamero, Fabio Patronelli,
Stelian Covaciu, Udila Ciurar, Alessandro Matta, Cristos Papaioannou, Paul
Albrecht.
Promoters and Consultants
Centre Culturel Gitan, Pavillons-sous-Bois (France) • La Voix des
Rroms (Paris) • Gypsy Lore Society (Usa) • Group of Migrants &
Refugees of Salonica • Union Gypsy • Roma Right Watch •
Union Rromani • Roma Press Center (Budapest) • Opera Nomadi
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• Associazione Çingeneyiz (Rroms in Turkey) • Romani Yah Association and Newspaper of Romas from Transcarpathia • Roma
Virtual Network • Tamara Deuel (Israel), Holocaust survivor –
activist against the discrimination of Rroms • Mercedes Lourdes
Frias, Italian Republic Depute (Rifondazione Comunista - Sinistra
Europea) • Etudes Tsiganes (Paris) • Alain Reyniers, anthropologist
at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgium), expert in Rroma,
Sinti and Kale cultures • European Roma Information Office •
Roma Diplomacy Programme • John Pearson, Secretary,
Democratic Socialist Alliance, UK • Gady Castel (Israel), director,
director of the Jewish Film Festival "Jewish Eyes" of Tel Aviv, author of
documentaries on the Holocaust • Cristina Matricardi, founder of the
first Multiethnic kindergarten "Oasis" - Genoa • Maria Eugenia
Esparragoza, cultural mediator, member of the Ministerial
Intercultural Technical Committee • Professor Matt T. Salo,
researcher and publisher, expert in Gypsy culture • Emiliano
Laurenzi, giornalista • Paolo Buconi, Yiddish and Klezmer musician
• Marius Benta, journalist • Seven Times (Romania) • Ted Coombs,
Director of Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide art) • Steve
Davey, co-director of the Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide
Art) • Mirjam Pinkhof, survivor of the Shoah, Holocaust heroine who
saved 70 Jewish children from the Nazis • Halina Birenbaum,
survivor of the Shoah, writer and teacher • Oni Onhaus, Holocaust
witness • Manzi Onhaus, Auschwitz survivor • Elisheva Zimet,
Auschwitz survivor • Alice Offenbacher, Bergen Belsen survivor•
Mirko Bezzecchi, survivor the Samudaripen • Antonia Bezzecchi,
survivor the Samudaripen • Hanneli Pick-Goslar, friend of Anne
Frank, Holocaust survivor • Michael Petrelis, veteran Human Rights
Advocate (Usa) • Stichting Buitenlandse Partner • Professor
Saimir Mile, jurist, lecturer in Rromani, Sinti and Kale culture at the
University of Paris (INALCO), General-Secretary of the Centre of
Research and Action in France Against all Forms of Racism, member of
EveryOne Group • Jean (Pipo) Sarguera, President of the Centre
culturel gitan – Paris • Emeritus professor Marcel Courthiade,
holder of the chair of Rromani, Sinti and Kale language and civilization
at the University of Paris (INALCO) • Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, Israel •
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Antonia Arslan, essayist and writer • Caffé Shakerato Intercultura - Genova • Simona Titti, Caritas Livorno • Gazeta de
Sud, Cotidian al oltenilor de pretutindeni (Romania) • Oana Olaru,
journalist (Romania) • Fabio Contu, playwright and teacher, Comunità
Sant'Egidio, Genova • Allie, Gypsy News, NE, Ohio, United States •
Guri Gentian - Group of Migrant&Refugees of Salonica •
Associazione Yakaar Italia Senegal • Associazione
Secondoprotocollo Onlus • Elisa Arduini, Cristina Monceri,
Miriam Bolaffi, Roberto Delponte, Noemi Cabitza, Giorgia
Kornisch, Claudia Colombo, Andrea Pompei, Chiara Maffei,
Federica Battistini (Members of Secondoprotocollo) • Thèm
Romano ONLUS Association
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Report on the situation of the Rrom
children and adolescents in Italy.
Attachments
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 1
Liberty and justice for the
parents of the Roma
children burnt to death in
the fire of Livorno fire on
August 10th, 2007
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Liberty and justice for the
parents of the Roma
children burnt to death in
the fire of Livorno fire on
August 10th, 2007
Lenuca Carolea, Victor Lacatus’ young
daughter, burnt to death in the Livorno fire.
The EveryOne Group and the “Amici degli Angeli” are asking
concerned for the immediate release of the parents of the
young victims,
as well as immediate assistance, starting with a home and state benefit. The
groups also request an all-out inquiry against GAPE, a gang of racist murderers,
who are responsible for this monstrous crime.
On August 10th, 2007, four Roma children, Eva, Menjii, Danchiu and Lenuca
Carolea, perished among the flames that had enveloped the miserable hut they
were living in. After the tragedy, their parents said they had chased after some
people (most probably Italian) who had inveighed against them and gypsies in
general. When they returned to the shed they found it in flames are were helpless to
do anything to save the children. The investigators did not believe the parents and –
with no respect for their suffering or any consideration of their precious testimony –
they threw them into jail charged with “abandonment of a minor” and “arson”.
EveryOne
A few days later a racist organization, GAPE (Armed Group for Ethnic Cleansing)
claimed responsibility for the crime in a letter to local newspapers, “Il Tirreno” and
“La Nazione”. The letter was admitted as evidence by the investigators, but they
decided to ignore it, and confirm the charge against the parents, who were not
released from prison. To date, it does not appear that the inquiry has concentrated
on finding the real murderers, who have already claimed responsibility for the crime.
Following an inspection of the scene of the fire carried out by the forensic team and
the Fire Department, shards of glass and a bottle neck which had been molten in
the fire were recovered.
The parents of the four children had in fact told investigators that they had
spotted a person holding a bottle among the assailants. As Gruppo EveryOne has
demonstrated, the bottle neck is proof of the racist origins of the crime: glass only
melts at a temperature of over 1000 degrees centigrade, while a normal fire does
not cause temperatures over 700 (the temperature of the fire at the Twin Towers
was 700 degrees centigrade). On the contrary, a petrol bomb can reach and
exceed a temperature of 1000 degrees centigrade. Roberto Tartarelli, the chemical
engineer, has written out a report stating the truth: the fire was a case of arson, and
racist infanticide.
Shortly before the children’s funeral, the father of one of the children, Victor
Lacatus (aged 30) attempted suicide for the second time in “Le Sughere” prison in
Livorno where he is being detained. The following day the wardens miraculously
prevented him smashing his head in against the wall of his cell. The other father,
Menjii Clopotar (aged 44) is in a desperate physical and psychological condition, as
are the two mothers, Elena Lacatus (29) and Uca Caldarer (38), one of whom was
caught smashing her head against the edge of a table.
The story of the young Romanies of Livorno is indicative of the oppression that
Italian institutions – and often everyday citizens, due to prejudice and ignorance –
exert on Romanies. In tears, the parents confirm the version of racist infanticide. In
the meantime the investigators have cleared the parents of the charge of arson, but
continue to insist with the charge of abandonment of a minor: a serious charge, but
one which cannot be applied to people who live a life of marginalization, poverty
and persecution. It is the institutions, if anyone, that are guilty of abandoning
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minors, adults and elderly people: the gypsies who try to survive in our country,
driven out, tormented, harassed by everyone.
At the present there are about 100,000 gypsies living in Italy, half of them children
or young adults. There are too few authorized camps to house them all, and the
transit camps (with their right to camp and sojourn) which were taken from them by
the Nazi-Fascist regime have not been reinstated. Therefore, among general
indifference, we are witnessing a new genocide of Romanies., the new Porrajmos.
Victor, Elena, Menjii and Uca, who are now in the hands of an unjust justice, loved
their children so profoundly that they were never separated from them. The
authorized camps had turned them away: they had not been offered any help or
welfare, and yet they had stuck together. Heroically united, so much so they chose
the only roof available to them where they could build a hut: the arches of a bridge.
And that’s where, on the outskirts of the city, the two groups of parents succeeded
in bringing up their children, they fed them and brought them up offering all they
possessed: love for the family and very little else.
After claiming responsibility, we are aware that a gang of murderers, who have
issued death threats to all the nomad communities in Italy, are running around our
country unpunished, seeing the authorities appear not to want to look for them. And
why is that, we may ask? Sadly, at the gypsy children’s funeral, some people –
stirred up by the press and the new generation of racists – were saying things like:
“Just as well, they were little thieves. And their parents are murderers.”
The Italy of prejudice, racial hatred and horror has prevailed for the time being. It is
time for the Italy of Human Rights to speak out. It is time to raise a chorus of voices
to defend the rights of four innocent people oppressed to the point of abuse. This
chorus must become the symbol of a new campaign against the prejudice against
Romanies which kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people every year, as
demonstrated in a report written by the EveryOne Group a report that will soon be
distributed in the seat of the European Parliament.
When the media has forgotten this new case of prejudice and violence, the four
Roma parents – the only witnesses to this
brutal racist murder – will be helpless against those who claim that the Roma
“problem” can only be solved by wiping them out, or by obligatory repatriation,
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using funds set aside by the European Union for the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
And believe us, it is quite an amount.
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Italian citizens kill four Gypsies children, but the Italian authorities
jail their parents instead. Gruppo Everyone is promoting a petition
for their release and against the racism of Italian institutions.
“We have carefully analysed the dynamics that led to the
deaths of four Roma children in Livorno and we are now able
to affirm that it was a case of racial murder. The murderers
threw a petrol bomb and then ran away,” say the leaders of
Gruppo EveryOne, Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and
Dario Picciau.
The representatives of Gruppo EveryOne explain that there is evidence and
testimonies to back up their claim, and ask for the immediate release of the parents
of the young victims of the fire that broke out among the huts under a flyover in the
suburbs of Livorno on the night between Friday 10th and Saturday 11th August.
As well as witness statements and claims of responsibility from a group of racists,
the fireman found a molten bottle neck among the ashes of the huts. Glass cannot
melt in a fire (500 degrees centigrade), but does melt in the case of a Molotov
cocktail (petrol reaches a temperature of 2200 degrees centigrade and glass melts
after a temperature of 1200) In spite of this evidence, the authorities have decided
not to look for the killers (a group of local people from Livorno maybe) and instead
to imprison the fathers of the young victims, Victor Lacatus and Menjii Clopotar.
Separated from their wives, who are under house arrest in Cecina (one of them in a
psychological condition that deteriorates day by day), the two men are still detained
in prison. Victor, devastated by pain over his loss, and worn out after the hardships
of imprisonment, has attempted suicide twice. Menjii has run out of strength . In
spite of this, the magistrates are keeping them in jail. “They are treating them like
animals” say the leaders of Gruppo EveryOne.
They have been accused of “abandonment of minors” because they chased after
EveryOne
the killers, and when they got back they found the huts on fire. It was no ordinary
fire, but an impenetrable wall of fire, caused by a petrol bomb. Obviously the
accusation is unfounded, it is the umpteenth violation of the Gypsies human rights
in an Italy that is proving to be more and more racist. If we consider the level of
discrimination against Gypsies in Italy, we must expect for them the maximum
sentence, and a long detention in inhumane conditions, seeing Italian prisons are
authentic concentration camps for the Gypsies, as reported by Amnesty
International.
The pressure on the parents is terrible and there is a real risk that they will be forced
to withdraw their statements and confess to any crime in order to interrupt the
persecution in any way possible. “They lost their children while trying to protect
them”, Jasmine, a nomad tells us in tears, “but they threw them into prison as
though they were criminals”.
Roberto Malini and Dario Picciau (EveryOne Group) with the father (Victor Lacatus), mother, aunt
and grandfather of Lenuca Carolea, one of the four children who died in the Livorno fire.
The city seems prey to hatred against the Gypsies. At the children’s funeral many
people, instead of offering their sympathies, expressed contempt. Some even said.
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”Just as well, that’s four Gypsies less.”
Gruppo EveryOne is leading an international campaign pressing for the intervention
of politicians, intellectuals, human rights organizations and activists. We are in
constant contact with the mayor, and the town council, we have sent the results of
our investigations to the authorities (a courageous newspaper did publish our
report, while others papers and TV channels, even Left-wing ones, have ignored our
findings and criticised the parents). One of our leaders has been subject to heavy
intimidation, which is a further sign of arrogance and prejudice.
Considering the gravity of the case, Gruppo EveryOne, has urged Avvocato
Callaioli, the lawyer, to obtain permission for a well-known (and courageous)
psychiatrist, Dr Anna Maria Davoli Cassanese, to visit the murdered children’s
fathers to see whether their psychiatric condition is compatible with imprisonment.
The lawyer knows how urgent it is to put in a request to the magistrate so that
precious time is not wasted and the assessment is carried out as soon as possible.
It is time Italy stopped its persecution of the Gypsies, persecution that has lowered
their life expectancy to the age of 47, compared to 80 for Italian citizens: in other
words, a genocide.
The tragedy of the Gypsy parents appears even sadder when we consider that both
the Lacatus and the Clopotar families underwent numerous deportations during the
Holocaust where parents and children were gassed in Auschwitz and other death
camps. Members of both families underwent interrogation and were unjustly
imprisoned. The judges had already written out their sentence on the grounds of the
prejudice that had surrounded the Gypsies of Europe for centuries.
Today we can prove that we are different. Gruppo EveryOne and the “Amici degli
Angeli”, the group of associations, activists, intellectuals, political figures and
everyday people who have got involved in the case of the Gypsy children, have
initiated an international petition for the release of the parents of the young victims
of the fire in Livorno.
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
The Fire of Livorno. European symbol of a new persecution of Gypsy
people.
In Romania people are talking and writing about the fire in
Livorno. The European Roma Grassroots association has
begun an awareness campaign informing people of the
serious abuse carried out in the Tuscan city and the tragedy
Victor and Menjii are experiencing due to prejudice;
The members of EveryOne initiated this campaign which is spreading from
Bucharest to Timisoara, from Krakow to Braila. We began by writing to the
organizations that defend the rights of the Gypsies and by publishing the Livorno
episode on Indy Romania. Now everybody in the county where almost three million
gypsies live is talking about it and a popular and political movement has emerged
manifesting horror and indignation. It is no coincidence that the Romanian
authorities have now stigmatized Italy’s attempt to repatriate the gypsies originating
from Romania:
it is a deportation procedure that goes against European law. This public opinion
movement that has risen from the ashes of the fire in Livorno is an important result,
a result we have to support to prevent further abuse and further violations of human
rights. Today the Mayor of Livorno, Alessandro Cosimi, who has not realised how
serious the events that took place in his city were, is promoting a campaign to clean
the streets of child beggars. But, at the same time, he is offering no support to
Gypsy families. He has asked, instead, for the children to be placed in the care of
social services, and maybe even put up for adoption. All these violations of human
rights, for a single man! The National Socialist Party initiated a similar solution before
it began the Porrajmos, the extermination of the Gypsies. Taking away their
resources for making a living, however meagre, means killing. Begging will
disappear, or become less frequent, on its own if the authorities approach these
people’s poverty in the only way possible: with aid, subsidies, homes, and serious
programmes of integration into the world of labour. And with the setting up of
EveryOne
camps with proper facilities: small camps, much easier to manage. As for
schooling, it would be better to send teachers to the camps (when the camps exist)
and offer supplementary exams. The European culture, which turns children into
lambs and then into sheep, is too different from the Gypsy culture, which considers
freedom and creativity fundamental values in a child’s growth. Gypsies youths, in
fact, are able to marry according to natural law: when they reach puberty. The
Gypsy people live according to natural laws, while other nations fight such laws.
With nuclear energy, genetics, bioengineering and the destruction of resources, they
are leading our planet towards its demise. They are criminals from several points of
view, not only where human rights are concerned. Over the last few weeks we have
offered Livorno and its authorities a lesson in civil behaviour which could have
opened new doors and led to a better coexistence with gypsies, something which
will take place anyway, as written in the history of migrating peoples, history that has
always allowed humanity to regenerate and survive. I believe the mayor and
authorities of Livorno represent a negative example of the oppression of the poor,
the “different” and the weak.
Cemetery of Livorno. The site where Lenuca Carolea is buried.
It is a rare example of a lack of humanity, so much so that even in Romania, where
coexistence with gypsies is not without its problems, spontaneous protests have
been raised. Livorno is becoming a European example of inhumanity and
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ruthlessness and it is to be hoped that the citizens of this “beautiful rumbling city”
will stop this policy of persecution and death and let themselves be represented by
men and women who represent their spirit of equality and welcome. The actions of
the present city leaders put Italy in a bad light, one of incivility and cruelty that
recalls darker years. In the “Corriere della Sera” the outpourings of a single man
were published on the same page as those of Beppe Grillo, which very likely
instigated the new fire at Casoria. A page that encloses our shame. It is not the
voice of Livorno, but the voice of a man incapable of distinguishing the history of an
evolving city, incapable of realising that without respect for human rights one slips
into darkness and disappears.
Cemetery of Livorno. The site where the four children are buried.
Europe is alive - and on the move. One must not defend one’s own “blood”, one’s
own “nation”, one’s personal idea of “homeland” and “family”. Whenever civilizations
have tightened their defences to protect these false ideals, they have fallen into a
decline. At the present barely 100,000 gypsies live in Italy: a number that would be
easy to deal with using a humanitarian approach. If the hundreds of millions of euros
invested by local and national authorities to “fight” the Gypsies were invested in
facilitating their insertion and integration, in respect of a civilization, there would be
no “gypsy problem” to solve. We would have the 10,000 camps (some transit
camps, others more permanent) that existed before fascism took them from the
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nomads. There would be more street artists, of course, gypsy women reading
palms and children asking for the odd coin while learning the language and making
friends. Only in our culture is the street a place of transit.
Only in our culture are camps inhospitable places. Only in our culture is begging
humiliating. In the nomads’ world, the street is life, the camp is home, begging and
small services of music, poetry and magic are ways of surviving on the cheap,
picking up the crumbs so the world will not be depleted of its natural resources. Let
us remember also that Gypsies are a proud people. People who cultivate peace
and respect for life as the greatest possessions, as sublime ethical and religious
values. If however, oppression tries to destroy them, they will rebel, as they have
every right to: it is laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And
when Gypsies are forced to face weapons, they are transformed. The British
traveller and chronicler Thomas Coryat saw them in this role and wrote: “one has
never seen such a tremendous army”. The Bohemians, the King’s Guards, the
Ciganos, the Ingermanland Dragoons characterized the history of Europe with their
heroism in battle. And the partisan gypsies in Rakoczy’s service are still
remembered in the words of a gypsy song:
“Fire, dear fire/I will build two homes for you/ I will build two towers for you / with the
large heads of the Turks / with the arms of the Kurutz soldiers / with the feet of the
Saxons.”
And we mustn’t forget it was the gypsies interned in Auschwitz who fought the
greatest, most moving and heroic battle against Hitler’s butchers on May 16th,
1944. The SS rounded them up to take them to their deaths in the gas chambers of
Krematorium IV, but the gypsy men and women had organized a desperate battle in
an attempt to protect their children. They had fashioned makeshift weapons and
they stood up to the most powerful and well-organized murderers of all time. They
did not die as animals for slaughter, but they fought hard against their persecutors,
spilling a great deal of German blood in the Death Factory. Two generations later,
the Gypsies find themselves in the same conditions of hardship, bearing the same
yoke of prejudice and cruelty they were burdened with back then. We were not able
to be at their side during the glorious and terrible days of Auschwitz, but we can be
now, we stand by them, ready to defend the lives of their children and the
inheritance of their forgotten heroes.
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EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 2
Racist attack in Rome.
250 Rroms risk being
burnt to death.
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Racist attack in Rome. 250
Rroms risk being burnt to
death.
Rome. January 4th, 2008. Last night, at about 10 p.m., a
devastating fire broke out inside the two sheds of the former
Mira Lanza warehouse (each about 500 mts square) in the
Marconi area of the city.
250 Rrom citizens had take shelter in the sheds, living in very harsh conditions. The
fire broke out suddenly and spread with unprecedented speed throughout the
sheds of the derelict warehouses.
Some of the Rroms noticed the flames and gave the alarm, allowing all the families,
including 100 children, to make their escape. The fire was obviously a case of arson
because it broke out in the same moment in both sheds, which stand many metres
apart. It is impossible that the flames spread from one shed to the other. What is
more, the speed with which the flames developed and spread and the height of the
flames are typical of fires caused by Molotov cocktails.
The survivors of the fire told the authorities it was an incendiary bomb. The online
press has not made any reference either to the evidence of an anomalous fire
EveryOne
(arson), which developed in the same moment in two separate sheds (and which
were not adjacent) or to the witnesses accounts (except for Il Velino, edited by
Daniele Capezzone which reports the fire correctly). The presence of gas cylinders
inside the sheds shows that the racist assassins intended to cause a massacre. The
Rrom families have been transferred to the pavilions of the former Fiera di Roma.
from where – it has already been announced – they will soon be ordered to leave.
An investigation is underway, but experience teaches us that they are unlikely to
reveal the cause of the fire, which was without doubt a case of arson.
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EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 3
Attempt on the lives of
100 Rroms
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Attempt on the lives of 100
Rroms
The fire on monday 7th january in Aprilia (Latina): The daily
magazine “Il Tempo” also considers the fire an attempt on the
lives of 100 Rroms. EveryOne Group: “we will report this
episode to the European Parliament too. Urgent measures are
needed”
Their intention was to kill a hundred or so Rroms who had been living for some time
in an abandoned wine-making factory, “Enotria”, on the Via Nettunense road at
Aprilia, Latina. This was the aim of 10-12 Italians (probably very young) armed with
wooden bars, as some passers-by and car drivers who witnessed the attack
reported to the authorities. At about 10.30 p.m., the gang threw some Molotov
cocktails and incendiary bombs into the abandoned factory where about 100
citizens of Rrom origin had taken refuge, and against several parked cars belonging
to the same. The news was reported (as well as by the Romanian press Mediafax
and Hotnews, and Realitatea TV) by the Latina edition of “Il Tempo”. “The episode
that took place on Monday evening was a definite act of intolerance and an attempt
to intimidate”, wrote the journalist Letizia Floreno.
“Finally, and for the first time, a daily newspaper has admitted that the fire was a
racist attack”, commented Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, the
leaders of Gruppo EveryOne. “There is a need now for a serious inquiry and urgent
measures against these racist criminals that will discourage other groups from
carrying out similar actions in defiance of these people’s fundamental rights”.
EveryOne
George Scarlat, the Romanian journalist who writes for the newspaper “Ziua”, also a
member of EveryOne, describes the attempt as follows: “There was an obvious
intention to kill. I saw on Romanian TV the scenes of the burnt walls and traces of
smoke that reached up to the second floor, between two windows. Fortunately, the
thugs missed their target when throwing the incendiary bombs into the building.”
The Senza Confine association has reported the case, the MPs Frias, Deiana and
Falomi have taken it to the Home Secretary and now Gruppo EveryOne adds its
voice to theirs: “We will take the case to the European Parliament and send an upto-date dossier of the latest terrible episodes of racial violence carried out against
Romanian Rrom citizens to the UN High Commission on Human Rights and to the
International Criminal Court of the Hague - to which we have already sent an
international denunciation for crimes against humanity in reference to the
persecution of the gypsies in Italy by the central and local authorities, who have
permitted (when they are not carrying it out themselves) the spread of xenophobic
violence, by minimizing the disastrous consequences”. These violent episodes are
exasperated by conditions of extreme poverty, hunger, cold and serious infections
the Rrom gypsies are now subject to after being thrown onto the street by the
recent camp clearances.
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EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 4
EveryOne Group reports
the persecution of the
Gypsies in Italy on BBC
radio
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
EveryOne Group reports the
persecution of the Gypsies in
Italy on BBC radio
The BBC broadcasts a radio programme devoted to Gypsies
and Travellers: “Rokker Radio”, Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m.
On Sunday December 13th, Rokker Radio spoke about the situation of the gypsies
in Italy, the European Parliament Resolution of November 15, 2007 – denouncing
the racial persecution being carried out against them by the Italian institutions – and
the tragedy of the Rrom families after the camp clearances. EveryOne gave an
interview to the network explaining in detail the conditions of oppression that
gypsies are subject to in Italy. Glenys Robinson, representing EveryOne, described
the aims of our association to the radio listeners, the urgent need for international
action to protect a minority, victims of one of the greatest crimes against humanity,
and the need to guarantee the Rrom the legal status of “national without a territory”,
the basis for any request for emancipation, recognition of human rights and positive
integration in full respect of the gypsies’ cultural and traditional values.
What is the role of Everyone Group?
EveryOne
EveryOne Group is made up of people who are committed to fighting discrimination
and in particular the persecution of minority groups. It can be compared to the
EveryOne
Westerweel group that opposed the oppression of the Jews during the Nazi period
and saved many Jewish children from the Holocaust in Holland. Some of the
founding members of EveryOne Group have been working together promoting
human rights for over ten years, but the group only took its name two years ago.
Most of the articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights start with the word
“everyone”. EveryOne Group is mainly committed to stopping the persecution of the
Rroms in Italy and their marginalization in many European countries. It’s no
coincidence that it is now an international group made up of experts and specialists:
Roberto Malini, Dario Picciau and Matteo Pegoraro are not only activists, they are
scholars of the Holocaust and the mechanisms of persecution, and have also
produced many important works. Saimir Mile, Marcel Courthiade, Jean Sarguera,
Santino Spinelli are Rroms, and are university professors, scholars, and respected
authors. Glenys Robinson, George Scarlat, the Romanian journalist, and Paul
Albrecht, the activist have international experience in the field of human rights.
EveryOne Group, with the support of some European political groups, was able to
obtain from the European Parliament the Resolution of November 15, 2007, which
reprimanded the Italian institutions for their racist policies and for failing to obey
Directive 2004/38/CE, concerning the free movement of EU citizens inside member
states. The group is active in the field too, contacting ministers, MPs and local
politicians in an attempt to prevent - by reminding them of the laws that protect
ethnic minorities - acts of persecution, often very brutal ones, including camp
clearances that have thrown Rrom families out into the street, without shelter, a
means of support, without assistance, without anything at all. When we find out
about the camp clearances, some of our members go to the site to prevent terrible
abuse taking place. Police officers have been seen ill-treating and insulting children
and pregnant women. These camp clearances are similar to the pogroms against
the Jews. One of our members, during a camp clearance, was kicked by a
policeman - who when we protested justified his actions by saying: “I’m sorry, I
thought you were a gypsy”. We are working hard to inform people of what is taking
place in order to create a network of “just” people, and to bring these actions before
the international institutions asking them to intervene and make sure these racists
answer to their actions.
Many members of our group, too, are using their savings to help some Rrom
families. No one in our group is wealthy, just people on an average wage. We are
able to follow about 60 Rroms and prevent them becoming homeless. That’s our
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role therefore: to strongly oppose this racist folly that has taken hold of Italy and
which is leading to the destruction of the Rrom - all this with the complicity of the
media which is concealing the truth. For example, did you know that Romulus
Mailat, the man accused of killing Giovanna Reggiani, is not a gypsy at all, that he is
a Romanian of the Banjas ethnic group? Did you know that the racial attacks by
armed groups like GAPE in Pisa (who burned four children alive in Livorno) are never
taken to account by the authorities? After losing their children in the fire in Livorno,
the parents found themselves in jail accused of “abandonment of minors” and it was
only after our group intervened that they were released from prison and avoided
being expelled as “criminals”. Do you know that there are wealthy families who have
permanent custody of children taken from their Rrom parents by the social
services?
What happened during the attack on the Roma Gypsies on the 4th January?
EveryOne
On January 4th, at about 10 in the evening, a serious fire broke out inside the two
large sheds of the former Mira Lanza factory (each of them about 500 metres
square) in the Marconi area in Rome. About 250 Rroms (roughly 100 of them
children) had taken refuge in the buildings and were living in very difficult conditions.
The fire was obviously a case of arson as it broke out in the same moment in the
two sheds which stand a few dozen metres apart. The fire broke out suddenly and
spread rapidly seeing there were no particularly inflammable materials lying around.
The flames were very high which indicate that the buildings were hit by incendiary
bombs. Fortunately some Rroms noticed the flames, and gave the alarm allowing all
the families to flee from the building. The witnesses, dozens of Rroms, alerted the
authorities that it was an incendiary attack. The racists were obviously familiar with
the structure of the sheds and the habits of its occupants. There were many gas
cylinders in the sheds which could have caused a massacre had they exploded. As
for the investigation into the attack, we must point out that in Italy those responsible
for fires in Rrom settlements are never identified or charged. And that’s probably
what will happen this time too.
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Three days later on January 7th, at about the same time in the evening, another
racist attack took place near Rome, at Aprilia, in the Latina province. A group of
young racists threw Molotov cocktails at an abandoned wine factory, Enotria, on the
Nettunense road. About 100 Rroms had taken shelter in the building. The
explosions destroyed the façade, near the windows. Just a few more centimetres
and the incendiary bombs would have entered the building. George Scarlat, the
Romanian journalist who writes for “Ziua” , another member of EveryOne, described
the attack as follows: “There was an obvious intention to kill. I saw on Romanian TV
the scenes of the burnt walls and traces of smoke that reached up to the second
floor, between the two windows. Fortunately, the thugs missed their target when
throwing the incendiary bombs.” For some time EveryOne Group has been warning
the authorities and the press of the risks of the racial campaign being carried out
daily in the newspapers and on TV screens by politicians and journalists. Every day
the gypsies are accused of new crimes - while any violence they are subject to is
hushed up. In 2007 at least 30 Rroms or Romanians were murdered by Italians, and
there were countless other episodes of violence towards them. These are always
labelled “accidents” and “settling of accounts between Romanians”.
What IS the current situation for Gypsies living in Italy?
EveryOne
The situation of the Rrom in Italy is getting more and more tragic. Both the central
and local authorities are systematically carrying out this ethnic cleansing, in violation
of the international laws on human rights. Recently the Italian Home Secretary,
Massimo D’Alema, on a visit to the Romanian Home Secretary, Adrian Cioroianu,
played down the extent of this persecution against the Rrom in Italy by saying: “We
have only expelled 163”. The truth is, the Italian institutions have been carrying out a
ruthless “Rrom hunt” for some time. The Rrom settlements have been cleared one
by one, without the families being offered alternative lodgings. After the clearances,
they set off on “death marches” to nowhere. The families wander around in the cold,
without food, health assistance, in search of new shelters in areas that are more
and more inhospitable. The racial campaign being carried out against the Rrom stirs
up hatred in Italian citizens, who in turn show their hostility by reporting the
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makeshift camps to the authorities - which leads to new camp clearances. The
Rrom move from place to place until they are exhausted. Thousands of Rroms, in
desperate conditions, have made their own way back to Romania. Those who have
remained are weary and tired. They live in filthy conditions without food, suitable
clothing and medicines. Out of 170,000 Rroms, about 100,000 are children and
young adolescents. The persecution has brought down their average life
expectancy to 40, compared to 80 for Italians citizens. The infant mortality rate is
ten times higher. These are horrifying figures because the Jews caught up in the
Shoah had the same average life expectancy. There is just one difference: the
Germans used gas and ovens to carry out their massacre; the Italian authorities are
using the cold, hunger and infections. Marcel Courthiade, an Albanian Rrom,
Emeritus Professor of Rromani Culture and Language at Paris University, and a wellknown scholar and author, has called the persecution in Italy a genocide. “Today the
Rrom are subject to conditions of humiliation, marginalization and oppression which
we call “a living death”. It will soon be the end for them.” As for the expulsions, not
only are they a violation of the conventions protecting minorities (including the
Copenhagen treaty of 1993) but also the recent Directive 2004/38/CE which
defends the free movements of EU citizens in member states. Article 14, point 4, for
example, states that no EU citizen can be expelled if they are here in Italy to look for
work. What’s more, it states that citizens who belong to a minority or are in a
position of hardship must be protected and helped. The Italian racial laws, however,
foresee expulsion for those who have no job and sufficient means of support for
their families. At the same time the authorities have criminalized begging, which is
the Rrom’s last resort for survival. The Italian institutions’ plan is to expel the Rrom
“en masse” or to wipe them out by leaving them in a situation of extreme hardship.
What has Everyone Group been doing in relation to this situation?
EveryOne
EveryOne Group is active on many fronts. The most urgent and dramatic one
concerns the families we help on a daily basis. Without our contribution they would
plunge into the greatest poverty. In Italy, unfortunately, no one offers work to Rrom
citizens because of the racial campaign being carried out by the politicians and
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press. It is very difficult to find them lodgings; in some cases we have had to find
them references and guarantees of every kind. It is not sufficient to offer to pay their
rent! We are also active in trying to spread information. In Italy there is almost total
control of the media by the institutions. It is practically impossible to report on the
persecution of the gypsies, on the nature of the fires and the attacks they are
subject to. It is impossible to deny the lies that are spread to criminalize them. There
are very few exceptions. That is why our group has developed campaigns of correct
information in France, Romania, the United States, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom. We have created a network, with the collaboration of some of the most
important associations working for the protection of the Rrom. We have taken
evidence of the persecution to the European Parliament, resulting in the European
Parliament Resolution dated November 15th, 2007 reprimanding racist Italy. But
even this was not sufficient, because it appears the lives of the gypsy people in Italy
are worth next to nothing. We witness scenes reminiscent of the Warsaw Ghetto,
children dying in the mud, pregnant women without nourishment, left out in the
cold, families living on the edge of society, wearing torn and inadequate clothing,
subject to lice and other parasites, and serious illnesses. For this reason we have
presented a report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the
European Parliament and Council; the European Court of Human Rights; the
International Criminal Court of the Hague, denouncing the Italian central and local
authorities for crimes against humanity. We hear that these institutions have not
ignored our plea, that they are weighing the report up carefully. We are hoping that
international proceedings will take place which will finally bring to the attention of the
other countries the shameful tragedy underway in Italy, a situation that reminds us of
the sinister years of the Holocaust. Our most urgent aim is to save the lives of
thousands of human beings but it’s not our only objective. We have to throw down
the roots for a law that will ensure that the brutal tragedies like the ones the Rrom in
Italy are subject to are not repeated. A very important step will be to present a
statute (or Moral Charter) of the Rromani people to the European Union. For
centuries, despite the persecutions, slavery and massacres, the Rrom have been
contributing to the development of European culture. It is necessary for Europe to
recognise them as a “Rromani Nation without territory” with their own traditions,
history and language (Rromani). It is vital that the Moral Charter be signed by the
other states, that the Rromani Nation obtain its rightful legal status with the start of
an integration process, equality of rights, a rejection of marginalization and respect
of their cultural identity. This document already exists, it has been written up over
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the years by serious and respectable Rromani associations. EveryOne Group has
studied it carefully in an attempt to contribute to the final draft which will then be
taken to the European Union, counting on - we hope - the support of antiracist and
truly progressive political parties.
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 5
Report after the approval of the
Resolution of November 15, 2007,
regarding the continuation of the
racist campaign in Italy against the
Rroms.
Report after the approval of the Resolution of November 15, 2007,
regarding the continuation of the racist campaign in Italy against the
Rroms.
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau
Prepared for
The European Parliament Assembly
President: HANS GERT POETTERING
European Commission
President: JOSE MANUEL BARROSO
Commission members: MARGOT WALLSTROM, GUNTER VERHEUGEN, JACQUES
BARROT, SIIM KALLAS, FRANCO FRATTINI, VIVIANE REDING, STAVROS DIMAS,
JOAQIN ALMUNIA, DANUTA HUBNER, JOE BORG, DALIA GRYBAUSKAITE,
JANEZ, POTOCNIC, JAN FIGEL, MARKOS KYPRIANOU, OLLI REHN, LUIS
MICHEL LASZLO KOVACS, NEELIE KROES, MARIANN FISCHER BOELS, BENITA
FERRERO-WALDNER, CHARLIE MCCREEVY, VLADIMIR SPIDLA, PETER
MANDELSON, ANDRIS PIEBALGS, MELGENA KUNEVA, LEONARD ORBAN
copy to:
Servizio Eurojus
Avv. Carlo Forte, Servizio Eurojus, Italian Representative of the European Commission,
Via IV Novembre, 149 - 00187 Roma [email protected]
Avv. Elke Kuehnel, Servizio Eurojus, Representative in Milan for the European
Commission, Corso Magenta, 59 - 20123 Milano [email protected]
European Council
JAVIER SOLANA, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy,
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
EveryOne
Report after the approval of the Resolution of
November 15, 2007, regarding the continuation of the
racist campaign in Italy against the Rroms.
For some time now there has been a tragic series of camp clearances and
expulsions involving vulnerable citizens who live on the fringes of Italian cities:
families of Rroms thrown out onto the street in the middle of winter and beset by the
racial hatred of ordinary citizens influenced by a vast media campaign aimed at
criminalizing Rroms. Following the European Parliament resolution on the application of Directive
2004/38/CE, concerning the rights of EU citizens to circulate freely and reside in
member states - approved by the Parliamentary Assembly of November 15, 2007 the Italian press has only partially reported the news of the resolution and in a totally
precarious and distorted fashion.
On November 14, 2007, ANSA summed up the presentation of the European
resolution thus:
(ANSA) – STRASBOURG, NOVEMBER 14. The groups of the Pse and the Greens
of the European Left (Gue) have presented, together with the Liberal Democrats, a
common resolution on Directive 38 that regulates the free movement of EU citizens
after the debate on the events that followed the murder of Giovanna Reggiani. The
resolution presented at a press conference by Gianni Pittella (DS), Claudio Fava
(Sd), Monica Frassoni (Verdi) Alfonso Andria (Margherita) Roberto Musacchio (PRC)
and Marco Cappato (Radicali) emphasized that the free movement of people is a
‘fundamental and inalieniable right’ for European citizens, and that the directive,
while allowing for the possibility of a EU country to expel a EU citizen ‘has set this
possibility in well-defined limits for guaranteeing fundamental rights’. The text drawn up, which was also signed by several Romanian Euro-MPs, contains
an explicit criticism of the Vice-President of the EU commission Franco Frattini,
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judging his recent comments to the Italian press “in connection with the serious
incidents in Rome contrary to the spirit and the letter of the directive”. And it is
precisely on this second point that negotiations with groups from the centre-right to
reach a joint text to present to the commission came to a halt. The reference to
Frattini, said Frassoni, was considered ‘prejudicial’. But, as Fava (Sd) explained “It
was a polite reference to Frattini, who we called to account in his institutional role, in
that he is Vice-President of the Commission and political father of this directive”.
According to Fava, Frattini’s statement was published in several newspapers and
therefore it was unlikely to be a passing remark. “We though it important to remind
him to take a coherent and responsible stance”, observed the Euro-MP. (ANSA)
In an extract taken from the APCOM agency the same day we read:
Strasbourg, 14 November. (Apcom) – The Centre-Left Euro-MPs presented in
Strasbourg today the text of the resolution supported by Pse, Alleanza
liberaldemocratica, Verdi and Sinistra unitaria europea (Gue) that the European
Parliament is to vote on tomorrow concerning the free movement of EU citizens in
EU territory. The draft of the resolution contains a harsh reprimand of the VicePresident of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, responsible for Justice,
Freedom and Security, for his statements to the Italian press on November 2nd (and
in particular to his interview in Il Messaggero) in which he hinted at the idea that the
relevant EU laws (directive 38/2004) would have allowed for the immediate
expulsion of Romanian and Roma citizens on the simple verification of a lack of a
source of income.
The European Parliament debate and the vote on the resolution were decided after
the events following the murder of Giovanna Reggiani; the adoption of the
emergency expulsion decree taken up by the government; the racist attack on
several Romanian citizens; and Franco Frattini’s interview to ‘Il Messaggero’ and ‘Sole 24 ore’, excerpts of which were published in the British newspaper, the Daily
Telegraph. (Apcom)
The resolution of Directive 2004/38/CE is not simply a warning to Italy to
understand the spirit of the “directive on the free movement of EU citizens” and
therefore to put it into practice; it is also a clear criticism of the Italian institutions for
their discriminatory policies against the Roma people. The European Parliament,
with this resolution, calls on Italy to abolish the racism and abuse against the
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And we are not talking about minor violations seeing the laws broken by Italy are the
fundamental Treaties and Conventions: the European Union Treaty, the Charter of
the fundamental principles of the European Union, the above-mentioned Directive
2004/38/CE of the European Parliament and Council of 29 April, 2004 concerning
“the right of EU citizens and their family members to move and reside freely within
the territory of the Member States”; the general policy convention for the European
Council safeguarding national minorities: and the various resolutions “having regard
to the free movement of persons and the fight against discrimination in all its forms
and, in particular, to its resolution of 28 April 2005 on the situation of the Roma in
the European Union”.
Apart from the two news agencies mentioned above, taken up briefly the following
day by the Corriere della Sera and a few other dailies, the Italian media (in spite of
the many press releases and communications sent to them by EveryOne Group and
the vast network of international associations and consultants who, on November
7th, 2007 presented to the European Parliament assembly along with EveryOne the
document/motion against the discrimination towards Rroms) completely ignored the
approval of the resolution and its aim to condemn the behaviour of Italian politicians
and institutions who do not apply the directive, or else they have interpreted it
erroneously, with tragic consequences for thousands of human beings.
After the approval of the resolution we see a vast campaign of disinformation
taking place, capable of increasing racial hatred towards Rroms. Local
administrators and politicians are still today carrying out camp clearances and
expelling Rroms, without attempting to find solutions to make the most of the hard
work and integration programmes carried out by EveryOne Group and few other
associations and the Rroms themselves. Programmes throughout Italy that are
aimed at getting children into schools, finding work for young people and the heads
of families in order to guarantee better health and dignified lodgings for Roma, Sinti
and Kale families.
The Italian press has become an accomplice, almost a promoter of this process of
discrimination, by conforming to the ideas of the institutions, often restricting the
truth surrounding many episodes in Italy where Rroms are involved (assaults, brutal
attacks and murders, continually stigmatized and almost justified by the journalists).
The press has always ignored, particularly recently, the responsibility and the
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violations in law made by local authorities towards Rroms, while always being alert
and amplifying any crime news that involves Romanians and Roma, spreading the
blame of individuals to the entire ethnic group. This became evident in the case of
the murder of Giovanna Reggiani for which Nicolae Romulus Mailat, a Romanian of
Roma origin, was charged – despite a lack of incontrovertible evidence. The press
did not hear the side of the Rromani society and culture, taking away their right to
speak out and equal opportunities of information. The silence of the press and the
caution of the Italian politicians who do not side with the racists (even if they do so
indirectly by not taking a decisive stance) are the symptoms of the political negation,
rejection, marginalization and discrimination of the Rromani people, a policy of
patronage and individualism that ignores the needs of the whole community, one
which certainly will not guarantee the country security and legality.
Since November 15, 2007, when the resolution was approved, EveryOne Group
has intensified its monitoring of the situation in Italy. This has been made possible
partly thanks to information received from members, consultants and friend of
EveryOne Group and partly, in the more glaring cases, thanks to press agencies
and alternative information websites that have reported prominent facts such as
new camp clearances, expulsion orders and assaults carried out against the gyspy
community.
Among the many episodes we wish to bring to your attention:
• Opera Nomadi in Abruzzo has informed us of the prejudicial indifference of the
local administrators, and in particular the local authorities of Pescara, towards the
numerous Italian and European citizens of the Rromani ethnic minority. On this point
we have to add, as reported to us, that:
I. at the present time in the Abruzzo region, as in most other Italian regions, there is
no appropriate programme for the cultural integration of the Rromani minority;
II. the availability and the management of EU funds for such programmes are not
being used by Italy for this purpose;
III. Rroms are being forced to apply to the institutions to change their surnames in
an attempt to escape violent racial discrimination: this is taking place in Pescara,
amongst the total indifference of local authorities, institutions and society;
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IV. for the second year running, in a middle-school class in Pescara, 70% of the
pupils are from the Rromani ethnic group. They have therefore created “special
classes” (such as happened in Romania until last year) which is contrary to the laws
in force in Italy;
V. there is no policy for the right to an education and to discourage the failure and
scholastic dispersion of Rromani pupils at present in the Abruzzo region, as well as
in most of the other regions in Italy;
VI. there is no policy of any kind in Italy that guarantees the fundamental rights of
gyspy minors in obeyancce with the international convention of children’s rights.
VII. there are no policies in Italy for established camps set aside for European
Rromani citizens as foreseen in the European Directive 2004/38/CE.
On November 15, 2007, in the course of the “special services” set up by the police
chief Carmelo Casabona to single out non-authorized Rromani camps in the Agro
Aversano area, three Rromani camps were dismantled at Succivo (Caserta district)
in an operation carried out by the police, carabinieri and municipal police. Numerous
wooden huts were demolished, the homes of about eighty Rroms of Slav origin,
and 16 caravans were removed. Again on November 15, a maxi-raid was carried
out at the Casilino Rromani camp. From 4 in the morning until 10 o’clock, thirty
Carabinieri vans, with a helicopter flying low over the camp and a police dog unit
present, sealed off the area surrounding the camp to prevent anyone leaving.
Checks were carried out in the middle of the night, terrifying whole families and their
children and resulting in two Rroms being led away after being found without a
residence permit.
• On the eve of Universal Children’s Day, again on November 15, at Borgo Panigale
(Bologna) a Romanian child of 4 perished among the flames in his family’s makeshift
shelter. His father was able to rescue his two older brothers, aged 8 and 6, who
were taken to the burns unit in Padua. Their condition is critical, but their lives are
not in any danger. There were at least two electric heaters in the shelter, illegally
wired up to the electricity supply to protect themselves against the cold and an oil
heater in the children’s room. Arson, manslaughter and bodily harm: the possible
crimes the Public Prosecutor in Bologna, Lorenzo Gestri, has notified against
persons unknown. According to the Public Prosecutor, the investigation is aimed at
establishing “whether the fire developed from a specific cause, how the electric
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wiring was carried out and where the parents were when the fire broke out”. In this
umpteenth case, once again the politicians and media are doing their best to cover
up the responsibility of those who leave Rroms in living conditions that has led to
Italy being reprimanded by Europe.
They claim the Rroms are the only ones responsible for setting up their illegal camps
in the suburbs of our cities, of neglecting their children, of using heating systems
that cause fires, of exploiting young children by sending them out begging, “up to
100 euros a day even, when they are not trained to steal” (according to TG3 on
Monday 19, November). Not one word against the racist attacks (with various
attempts at arson) the Rroms have been subjected to for months. Sergio Cofferati,
the mayor of Bologna, has rejected the accusation of those who spoke of a
foreseen tragedy, one that could have been avoided: “It makes no sense to
associate this episode with the camp clearances carried out over the last few
months”, he claimed.
• On the night of November 15, 2007, in Naples, a Rromani family of six woke up to
find their shelter in flames. Three men and three women were attacked during the
night in their homes while they slept; one of them suffered burns to the foot. The fire
was lit by two Neapolitan minors and one adult – identified by the police soon after
– who claimed they wanted revenge for a theft the assaulted Rroms were not
responsible for. The Rromani family, terrified by the possibility of future attacks, fled
back to Romania, to Buzau, to their city of origin. The police officers of the San
Ferdinando police station in Naples immediately ruled out a political-ethnic motive
for the fire, while the Rroms tried to explain the connection between this episode
and the “hostile climate in Italy caused by Giovanna Reggiani’s murder”.
• On November 19, 2007, a fire broke out in the gyspy camp in Via Germagnano in
Turin. A dozen makeshift shelters caught fire, the only ones in the area that weren’t
occupied, and no one was injured. Some of the Rroms in the camp say they saw a
car stop on the ring-road viaduct and someone throw a petrol bomb. A version
investigators deemed unreliable. The episode went unpunished. In an article
published the following day in “La Repubblica”, the journalist commented as
follows:
"[...] there are many doubts surrounding the episode. First point: No one called the
police to report the car stationary on the bridge. No one noticed the four boys, their
faces uncovered, who attempted to set fire to the Rromani camp during the rush
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hour and in the light of day. Second point: Strangely the fire appears to have broken
out in the area furthest away from the bridge, too far away for the petrol bomb to
have been thrown from the road. Third point: Under the bypass itself – at the point
most likely to be reached from the bridge – there is a caravan full of gas cylinders
used by all the Rroms in the camp. Strangely - and fortunately – that caravan was
not involved in the fire. It was untouched, while the nearby huts went up in smoke.
After careful inspection the forensic experts found a smoking beer bottle neck
among the ruins.
• On 22 November, 2007 the Minister of the Interior, Giuliano Amato, during a
meeting at the Viminale with the prefects of the major Italian cities stated: “It is
important that as a means of deterrence, we continue to apply the emergency
decree to expel EU citizens, by adopting the various forms of expulsion that derive
from the European directive.
EveryOne Group is once more asking for the truth to be made known. The truth
surrounding the responsibility of these fires, all immediately described as
“accidental”; the truth on the responsibility of the exclusion and deviancy that
cannot be attributed to single individuals but are direct consequences of the
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treatment that Italy and its institutions (including the police force) reserve for the
Rroms. An attribution of responsibility that, on both a local and national political level should
order the immediate cancellation of the emergency decree on security and the
introduction of measures that will encourage integration for all Rroms, be they EU or
non-EU citizens. Without attempting to offload the blame onto Europe.
After the approval of the European resolution on November 15, nothing has
changed in the attitude of the politicians, who with their statements to the press and
TV are continuing to instigate xenophobia and repressive behaviour towards the
Rroms.
Borghezio (Lega) declares: “we need more checks on the Rromani at the borders,
with obligatory biometric identification and fingerprint taking: we have to know who
we are letting into our country and the precise date of entry, in order that we can
later apply the law that permits the expulsion, after three months, of those who have
no means of support”. Borghezio also emphasized during his speech in the
Strasbourg court on November 13th that “the spirit of the treaty is that of
safeguarding the security of European citizens, and therefore longer queues at the
border and airport are preferable to the free entrance of the worst kind of
delinquency”.
“There is an attempt to transfer a political vote into an official act of no confidence
towards the Italian European Commissioner”, claims Isabella Bertolini, the vicepresident of the Forza Italia MPs. “The ruling by the European Parliament cannot in
any way influence the rigorous and determined application of a European directive
that offers us the possibility of getting rid of those who live in our country with no
means of support”.
And lastly, Walter Veltroni, the leader of the Partito Democratico and Mayor of
Rome, already known for his statements (published in Newsweek in an article by
Barbie Nadau on October 5h, 2007) in which he “criminalized “ Europe’s Rroms,
declared a few days ago to the annual Ager assembly that “we cannot give homes
to the 700-800 people who arrive in Rome every week. This migration, after the
opening of the borders, is no longer sustainable, not only by Rome, but by any
other Italian city”.
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EveryOne Group, in consideration of the above-mentioned points, asks the
European Parliamentary Assembly, the European Commission and the European
Council, and their highest representatives, to take immediate action against the
discriminatory policies underway in Italy carried out by the Government and local
authorities. The state, city councils and local authorities have to take immediate
action to provide suitable shelter: these people must not be left to live in makeshift
sheds without heating during the cold winter months. Tragedies like the fire in which
the young child died in Bologna are becoming an everyday occurrence - all the
result of marginalization and the unhealthy conditions in which Roma and Sinti
citizens (even those with regular residence permits and steady jobs) are forced to
live in, and for whom protection is not a guaranteed right.
As for the policy of camp clearances, it cannot be used as a solution to this
problem. Europe has the moral and civil duty to reprimand Italy and call on it to
guarantee a better hospitality inside its cities, as well as to encourage suitable
integration policies.
From sources near to EveryOne Group, we have had confirmation that the camp
clearances carried out recently in Turin, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome
and Naples have had tragic consequences: dozens of families were kicked out of
the camps, their makeshift homes demolished. They were abandoned on the street,
without any programmes of social integration and completely isolated from society.
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These families, often accompanied by many small children, found themselves
robbed of even makeshift lodgings and forced to occupy abandoned buildings
owned by town councils, or to set up home illegally n open areas on the outskirts of
cities. There are many such cases in Lombardy and Tuscany, where EveryOne
Group and Caritas Livorno are following, in mutual synergy, various families who
have been subjected to threats and persecution. Signed
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau, Jean (Pipo) Sarguera, Saimir Mile,
Ahmad Rafat, Arsham Parsi, Laura Todisco, Glenys Robinson, Steed Gamero,
Fabio Patronelli, Stllian Covaciu, Udila Ciurar, Alessandro Matta,
Cristos Papaioannou, Paul Albrecht.
Promoters and Consultants
Centre Culturel Gitan, Pavillons-sous-Bois (France) • La Voix de Rroms (Paris) •
Gypsy Lore Society (Usa) • Group of Migrants & Refugees of Salonica •
Union Gypsy • Gypsy Studies in Paris • Roma Right Watch • Union Romani
• Roma Press Center (Budapest) • Opera Nomadi • Associazione Cingeneyiz
(Rroms in Turkey) • Romani Yah - Association and Newspaper of Romas from
Transcarpathia • Roma Virtual Network • Tamara Deuel (Israel), Holocaust
survivor – activist against the discrimination of Rroms • Mercedes Lourdes Frias,
Italian Republic Depute (Rifondazione Comunista - Sinistra Europea) • Etudes
Tsiganes (Paris) • Alain Reyniers, anthropologist at the Università de Louvain-LaNeuve (Belgium), expert in the Roma, Sinti e Kale cultures • Centre for Gypsy
Research • European Roma Information Office • Roma Diplomacy
Programme • John Pearson, Secretary, Democratic Socialist Alliance, UK •
Gady Castel (Israel), director, director of the Jewish Film Festival "Jewish Eyes" of
Tel Aviv, author of documentaries on the Holocaust • Cristina Matricardi, founder
of the first Multiethnic kindergarten "Oasis" - Genoa • Maria Eugenia
Esparragoza, cultural mediator, member of the Ministerial Intercultural Technical
Committee • Professor Matt T. Salo, researcher and publisher, expert
in Gypsy culture • Emiliano Laurenzi, giornalista • Paolo Buconi, Yiddish and
Klezmer musician • Marius Benta, journalist • Seven Times (Romania) • Ted
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Coombs, Director of Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide art) • Steve
Davey, co-director of the Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide Art) • Mirjam
Pinkhof, survivor of the Shoah, Holocaust heroine who saved 70 Jewish children
from the Nazis • Halina Birenbaum, survivor of the Shoah, writer and teacher •
Oni Onhaus, Holocaust witness • Manzi Onhaus, Auschwitz survivor • Elisheva
Zimet, Auschwitz survivor • Alice Offenbacher, Bergen Belsen survivor• Mirko
Bezzecchi, Italian Gypsy who survived the Porrajmos • Antonia Bezzecchi, Italian
Gypsy who survived the Porrajmos • Hanneli Pick-Goslar, friend of Anne Frank,
Holocaust survivor • Michael Petrelis, veteran Human Rights Advocate (Usa) •
Stichting Buitenlandse Partner • Professor Saimir Mile, Gypsy of Albanian
origin, jurist, lecturer in Roma, Sinti e Kale culture at the University of Paris, GeneralSecretary of the Centre of Research and Action in France Against all Forms of
Racism and member of EveryOne Group • Emeritus professor Marcel
Courthiade, holder of the chair in Roma, Sinti and Kale language ad civilization at
the University of Paris • Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, Israel • Antonia Arslan, essayist
and writer • Caffé Shakerato, Daniela Malini - Intercultura - Genova • Simona
Titti, Caritas Livorno • Gazeta de Sud, Cotidian al oltenilor e pretutindeni
(Romania) • Oana Olaru, journalist (Romania) • Fabio Contu, playwright and
teacher, Comunità Sant'Egidio, Genova • Allie, Gypsy News, NE, Ohio, United
States • Guri Gentian - Group of Migrant&Refugees of Salonica • Associazione
Yakaar Italia Senegal • Associazione Secondoprotocollo Onlus • Elisa
Arduini, Cristina Monceri, Miriam Bolaffi, Roberto Delponte, Noemi Cabitza,
Giorgia Kornisch, Claudia Colombo, Andrea Pompei, Chiara Maffei,
Federica Battistini (Members of Secondoprotocollo)
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 6
Public Security. Italy has
not adopted the European
Parliament Directive
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Public Security. Italy has not adopted the European Parliament
Directive
Public Security: Italy has not adopted the European
Parliament Directive 2004/38/CE
Article 14: the Union citizen in search of employment in a Member State cannot be
expelled. We wish to point out that the new security laws to be included in the
regulation to be debated in the next Council of Ministers meeting on December 28th
are unlawful, as they violate once again the European Parliament Directive 2004/38/
CE, as well as the Conventions on Human Rights and Protection of Ethnic
Minorities. It is already known that the Italian regulation will establish that all Union
citizens without a means of support will be expelled from Italy. What does the
European Parliament Directive 2004/38/CE have to say about this law which the
Italian institutions have chosen to misinterpret? This is Article 14, point 4 of the
Directive, concerning “Retention of the Right of Residence”:
By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2 and without prejudice to the
provisions of Chapter VI, an expulsion measure may in no case be adopted against
Union citizens or their family members if:
a) [...]
b) the Union citizens entered the territory of the host Member State in order to seek
employment. In this case, the Union citizens and their family members may not be
expelled for as long as the Union citizens can provide evidence that they are
continuing to seek employment and that they have a genuine chance of being
engaged.
Therefore, not only is the Rrom minority not being protected, as laid out in the
Conventions on the Protection of Ethnic Minorities, its members are being expelled
EveryOne
from Italy without any reason, seeing that in every Rrom family in Italy, at least one
adult is in search of employment, and has an excellent chance of finding it seeing
they often accept the most humble and arduous jobs that Italian citizens and often
non-EU workers are reluctant to do. The only obstacle to their finding employment
is the discrimination and hardship the Rrom people are subject to in Italy.
Extract from the document on the measures put into effect by the Italian Institutions
against the Rrom population, presented to the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights: European Parliament and Council, European Court of Human
Rights, International Criminal Court of the Hague.
Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau - Gruppo EveryOne
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Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Prepared for
European Roma Rights Centre
Prepared by
EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini
Matteo Pegoraro
Dario Picciau
Attachment 7
Hands off the Rrom
children.
EveryOne
Group for International Cooperation
on Human Rights Culture
Hands off the Rrom children
EveryOne Group is keeping a careful watch on the situation of
the Rroms in Italy.
It is not an easy job seeing the authorities and institutions are putting up increasingly
impenetrable barriers between the places where the persecution of the Rroms is
talking place and everyday citizens by putting constraints on the free press and the
right of humanitarian organizations to observe what is going on during the camp
clearances and expulsion operations. As we have reported on several occasions,
the conditions of the Rrom people have become more and more disastrous as the
pogroms against their settlements are throwing thousands of helpless human
beings (most of whom are children and adolescents) out into the street without any
means of support.
Our group has been attempting to report the institutional destruction of the Rrom
community in Italy by appealing to international authorities, and on November 15th,
2007, thanks to the support of enlightened political parties, it obtained the approval
of the European Parliament Resolution on the application of Directive 2004/38/CE
concerning the rights of citizens of the Union and their families to move freely and
reside in the territory of member states. Undeterred, however, the Italian institutions
have stepped up these unjust operations of camp clearances and expulsions which
violate a series of laws - among which Directive 2004/38/CE itself (which forbids
governments of the Union to expel citizens from other members states who are
EveryOne
here to seek work) and the above-mentioned Resolution of the European
Parliament. The most serious crimes against humanity are emerging, which we
hope will be prosecuted - also thanks to our report - by the relevant international
tribunals.
The aim of EveryOne Group is to save human lives and stop the persecution and
massacre (due to hunger, cold, infections, hardship and poverty) that the Rroms are
subject to. As always happens with discriminated minorities, next to this general
tragedy we find local tragedies from the various regions and cities involving single
families and individuals. The case of the parents of the Rrom children who perished
in the Livorno fire is typical: a group of racist murders, GAPE (who claimed
responsibility for the crime in a written statement) set fire to four children, but in
response to this horrifying case of infanticide the authorities decided instead to
arrest and sentence the children’s parents. The four parents were only released from
prison when the sentence was suspended after our group, with few allies in situ,
took action on their behalf. The conditions of the Rroms in Italy today is totally
unbearable. The persecutory measures carried out by the various local authorities
have left thousands of people without a shelter, without a means of survival, without
assistance of any kind. And while a slice of humanity is fighting desperately to
survive with the help of a few just citizens (fortunately not all Italians are prey to this
racist folly), new acts of discrimination are in store for them. EveryOne Group has
reason to believe, after listening to the testimony of many Rrom families and Italian
citizens who are in contact with Rrom families, that a further violation of the rights of
the Rroms is about to take place.
It has become obvious that the institutions have no intention of activating (unless
they are forced to by international authorities) any real programme of assistance and
support to encourage the social integration of Rrom men and women whose
conditions are getting worse by the day. Instead, we fear that they are planning –
and Rosy Bindi’s speech in New York would appear to confirm our fears – that the
Government is planning a policy of eradication of Rrom children from their families
and tribes in order to “Italianize” them through coercive measures. Some mayors,
among whom the Mayor of Livorno, for example, have suggested that any child
caught begging on its own or in the company of its parents must be taken away
from its family. In the latter case, however, if the child is not accompanied by an
adult the parents are accused of “abandonment of a minor”. Therefore it is up to the
Juvenile Court to decide whether the children are to be handed back to their
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parents (in the miraculous event of them being able to leave their poverty behind, by
finding a job in a matter of days and a home suitable for, at times, five or six
children) or whether they are to be put up for permanent adoption to Italian families.
The extreme depredation. As shown by the Romanian journalist George Scarlat in
an article published on the Anne’s Door website, Italy is bleeding Romania dry by
buying up the best land without using it to create jobs. Italy is also exploiting, again
in Romania, the Rrom and Romanian workforce. Hence, it has decided to make a
clean sweep of the life and the Rrom culture in Italy by systematically carrying out
the stages of a kind of “Final Solution” that has been planned for some time. What
is more, again according to the monitoring of the situation, our country appears to
want to satisfy the often obscure desires of Italians who have set their eyes on the
young Rrom children, people who see their families as a mere obstacle to be done
away with. It is a method that brings to mind the situation of many Jewish children
during the Holocaust. When the persecution seemed imminent, Christian families
first took in entire Jewish families, then – when the risks became even more evident
– they took in only the children. When the war came to an end, the few families who
survived were denied the comfort of having their children returned to them, even by
the Catholic authorities. On October 20th, 1946, Pope Pius XII and the Church
authorities established that baptised Jewish children “cannot be handed over to the
custody of institutions that cannot guarantee a Christian education”. EveryOne
Group, together with the major international organizations who fight to protect the
rights of the Rroms, defends the value of the Rrom family unit. It will devote its
efforts to ensuring that the institutions propose official programmes of support and
survival instead of breaking up these family units and finally decide to commit
themselves to overcoming the real obstacles, which are discrimination and poverty.
At the same time, our group will act as an attentive watchdog and carry out suitable
actions in defence of human rights, in order that the attempts to throw further
discredit on the Rrom families (or even worse, the efforts to criminalize them) will not
succeed. Our group is following several of these cases directly as we have seen
that these racist measures have the grim goal of taking Rrom children away from
their legitimate parents by turning an unhealthy and reprehensible action of childkidnapping into a lawful act. The group will defend the Rrom families as a whole and
commit itself to helping them emerge, united, from poverty and marginalization and
prevent them being torn apart in the name (at best) of false and seriously
discriminatory “protection of children”.
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Group
Group for International
Cooperation on Human
Rights Culture
via delle Magnolie 25/c
20060 Cassina de Pecchi (MI) Italy
www.everyonegroup.com
[email protected]
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