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INTER PRESS SERVICE
Dec. 17, 2002, n.p.
Copyright © 2002 by INTER PRESS SERVICE, distributed by Global Information Network.
Russia: Roma Groups Face Hate Crimes
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW, Dec. 17 (IPS)--A court in Volgograd, southern Russia, has convicted seven young men of the murder of two Roma gypsies.
The case highlights frequent violence in Russia against the Romas.
The convicted youths were given prison sentences of five to nine years. They were arrested after a group of about 30 youths armed with metal bars had attacked a tabor, a Roma settlement camp on August 5. Four Roma men were badly beaten up, and two died in hospital later.
The Roma, or the Romani people, are believed to have migrated to Europe from India centuries ago. They are often spoken of as gypsies, and face widespread discrimination in Europe. They number about 60,000 in Russia, where they are also called Tsigani or Tzigane.
Russian law gives them protected status and settlement rights as an "ethnic minority" but several instances of hate attacks on them have been reported. In May this year another group of Roma were attacked by a crowd in Novopavlovsk town in the Stavropol region of southern Russia.
In July about 600 residents of Pashino suburb of Novosibirsk in Siberia gathered to demonstrate against a group of Roma gypsies who they accused of selling "magic powder" to their children. The tabor of about 100 Roma, who had earlier been expelled from nearby Kemerovo region, was placed under police protection.
Hate attacks against Roma have been reported also in other post-Soviet states. Police chief of Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea, Nikolai Ilyichev, announced Monday that two persons had been arrested for the murder of a Roma couple and their five-year-old son.
"Theoretically, Russian legislation protects minority groups," Alexander Salitsky, researcher at the Moscow-based Institute of International Relations told IPS. "However, poor enforcement leaves openings for hate attacks."
An enduring stereotype about Roma is that they live well from the proceeds of criminal activities. The fact is that Roma face massive unemployment. Following a government decree in 1956, Roma were forced to work on Soviet collective farms under police control. Most became skilled collective farm workers. It was a hard life, but it brought a stable income. The collective farm system collapsed in the nineties, and most Romani workers were fired. Many ended up begging.
Prejudice against the Roma has risen after the collapse of communism. The police launched "Operation Tabor" in March this year in which they raided Romani settlements to check identity papers. Fingerprints and personal data were taken from Roma who lacked proper documents.
The police action was backed by media propaganda painting Roma as criminals who cheat and rob Russian citizens, and entice them to drugs. Announcements were made on national and local television, on the radio and in newspapers that the raids were a part of stepping up the fight against drug trafficking. Expressions like "drug dealer" and "Gypsy" were often used synonymously. Alleged Romani drug dealers not convicted of any crime are regularly shown on TV.
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest law group which monitors the situation of Roma and provides legal support in cases of human rights abuses, wrote to Russia's Press Minister Mikhail Lesin in May expressing concern over the anti-Romani reporting in the Russian media. The group has gathered considerable evidence of media misreporting.
The ERRC says that a documentary film on "Gypsy drug dealers" was shown on the state television channel RTR on February 25 this year. The film quoted a comment: "We spread a rumour that drug dealers would be beaten and their houses burnt, and 10 Gypsy families immediately left the city."
Two days later the popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets carried a headline on its front page "Moscow Gypsies will be crushed" and another article under the headline "Gypsies will soon face close relations with police."
The ERRC says Russia cannot live up to its commitments under international human rights law so long as racist speech prevails in the media.
ERRC executive director Dimitrina Petrova has urged Russia's Press Ministry office to take a firm public stand against hate speech in the media, and called upon all journalists in Russia to refrain from anti-Romani remarks.
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