France starts removing Roma camps

France has begun dismantling illegal Roma (Gypsy) camps following a presidential order for hundreds of such camps to be removed.

On Friday, about 100 people were moved on after police emptied a camp in the central city of Saint-Etienne.

The Roma had been living there in makeshift shelters and tents since May.

It was the first such move since President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a week ago plans to shut 300 illegal camps within the next three months.

Mr Sarkozy also said members of the Roma community who had committed public order offences would be deported immediately.

The order was a response to last month's attack on a police station in the Loire Valley town of Saint-Aignon by a group of young Roma.

'Shocking living standards'

Police began the operation to clear the makeshift homes and tents on council-owned land in Saint-Etienne shortly after dawn on Friday.

Officers first sealed off the area, and then removed the occupants.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says a Romanian police officer was present, a sign that these members of the Roma community were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe.

President Sarkozy's government has recently struck a hard line towards what he has defined as "certain elements" in theRoma and traveller communities, our correspondent says.

This followed the riot in Saint-Aignon, which erupted after a gendarme shot and killed a traveller who had driven through a checkpoint, officials said.


The government's decision to clear 300 unauthorised camps - reportedly half the total in France - has been condemned by human rights groups, who say it is deliberately stigmatising a generally law-abiding section of society to win support among right-wing voters.

However, a poll out this week suggests that the majority of the population approves of the government's toughening line on law and order, our correspondent adds.

The government has said it cannot "tolerate" the camps, describing them as "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime".

There are hundreds of thousands of Roma or travelling people living in France who are part of long-established communities.

The other main Roma population is made up of recent immigrants, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. They have the right to enter France without a visa but must have work or residency permits to settle over the long-term.

BBC News

Disabled Australians subjected to hate crimes

New research reveals thousands of Australians with disabilities are increasingly being subjected to hate crimes.

But the researcher making the claims, visiting US academic Dr Mark Sherry, says the lack of legal recognition of disability hate crime means it is often characterised as abuse and penalised lightly.

One cerebral palsy sufferer has told ABC Radio's AM that he and his wife have been victims of hate crime in Brisbane and it was not taken seriously by authorities.

Aboriginal man Byron Albury says the hate crime was perpetrated by past neighbours because he and his wife have cerebral palsy and rely on wheelchairs.

"They'd leave abusive notes in our mailbox; they'd abuse us for parking maxi taxis [that were] dropping off in front of their property or picking up in front of their property because of their size," he said.

"We tried to resolve this like rational people and they just weren't interested, basically.

"We got comments from them like 'you've devalued the property, [it was] bad enough that nobody told us that you lived here, because if [we had known] you lived here we wouldn't buy the property'."

Such treatment is common, and it often gets much worse, according to Dr Sherry, who has written a book about it.

He cites the self-described Teenage Kings of Werribee who were alleged to have sexually assaulted and urinated on a disabled girl in 2006. They received suspended sentences.

But Dr Sherry says thousands of Australians experience disability hate crimes each year.

"Some of it goes back to social Darwinist ideas about survival of the fittest; some of them talk about their images of disabled people being smelly or dirty or bad karma, possessed by the devil," he said.

AM spoke to a former Australian adult guardian, the statutory appointee who oversees the affairs of adults with disabilities.

He said he had not encountered the issue of hate crime against people with disabilities.

Dr Sherry says that is "exactly the level of ignorance" that allows it to continue.

He says Australia must follow the lead of the US and others and legally recognise disability hate crime so that it attracts higher penalties, and then efforts can be made to tackle the problem.


ABC News

Romanian central bank accused of racism

Romania's central bank has been accused of racism by the Holocaust Museum in Washington over a coin depicting an inter-war Orthodox Church leader who held anti-Semitic views.

The central bank marked 125 years since the setting up of the Romanian Orthodox Church with five silver coins, the first of which was of Miron Cristea, who led the Church between 1925 and 1939 and headed the Romanian government 1938-39.

As prime minister, Cristea amended the citizenship law, thereby stripping 225,000 Jews (or 37 percent of the country's total Jewish population) of their Romanian citizenship.

"By minting these coins we definitely did not wish to send a racist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic message," BNR governor Mugur Isarescu said.


He added the BNR was making "a clear distinction between the patriarch and the prime minister".

But he stressed that after receiving a letter of protest from the Holocaust Museum he decided to set up a commission that will "analyze the situation and come up with a solution".

"The decision should be made public in a few days' time," Isarescu said.

In a study published in 2004, an international commission of historians said Cristea "demonized the Jews" and called for their deportation.

The commission also established that some 270,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews died between 1940 and 1944, during marshal Ion Antonescu's pro-Nazi regime, while some 25,000 Gypsies were deported, half of whom died.

Romania had long denied its participation in Nazi Germany's Holocaust, triggering criticism from Israel and Jewish organizations.

The Telegraph

IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER SEEKS ASYLUM (Turkey)

The lawyer who defended a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran is in Istanbul and has applied for asylum in a third country, a source at the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday. Defence lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei disappeared from Tehran on July 24th after questioning by Iranian authorities, and his wife and brother-in-law were later arrested, according to an Amnesty International report. “At the moment he is in Istanbul and he is in a facility where migrants are being held,” said a UNHCR source. “He requested asylum and his claim has been registered,” said the source, who added that his office was working with the Turkish government to find a third country to take Mr Mostafaei. Amnesty International called on Iran last month to end what it called the harassment of human rights lawyers. Mr Mostafaei is an outspoken critic of the Iranian judicial system, criticising the execution of minors as well as the use of stoning in executions. Most recently he defended Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whom Amnesty International said was convicted in 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men. She received 99 lashes as punishment, but was later convicted of “adultery while being married” and sentenced to death by stoning. She denied the charge. Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered last week to give the woman asylum, but Iran rejected the offer. The stoning sentence was suspended pending a review but could still be carried out.


Reuters

RACISM HELP CENTRE PLAN FOR BELFAST (N. Ireland)

A centre for victims of racial harassment is to open in Belfast. The migrant centre will provide a one-stop shop with bilingual staff and will be funded with a £424,276 grant from the Big Lottery Fund. It will open in December and will be operated by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Nicem). Nicem executive director Patrick Yu said: "The Belfast migrant centre is an exciting ground-breaking project set up under the umbrella of Nicem. It is the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland." The centre will help people access public services and support victims of racist attacks. It will provide education and training and increase rights awareness. A panel of ministers will be established to take forward the Government's commitment to equality and inclusiveness through a Cohesion, Sharing and Integration Initiative (CSI). The Executive will examine what support can be given to migrants who are working but then find themselves out of a job.


Belfast Telegraph

Mayor defends Cork town from anti- Semitism charges (Ireland)

The Mayor of Midleton has defended the east Cork town after an anti-Semitic page attacking orthodox Jews on a vacation there was published on Facebook.

It was later taken down after protests by Jewish leaders.

The existence of the site titled “the Invasion of Jews in Midleton" was first reported by IrishCentral.com and was later picked up by the Jerusalem Post among other leading Jewish newspapers.

The page, was created after the arrival of a number of Orthodox Satmar Jews into the East Cork town best known for Jameson’s distillery for a two-week vacation.

Among the slurs were pictures of menacing looking Jews, a reference to the nearby town of Ovens and a large number of messages approving of the site.

The Mayor of Midleton, Niall O’Neill, said the anti-Semitic comments posted on the page did not no way representative of the local people.

“Facebook is a forum for discussion for individuals to post individual opinions; it is no more and no less than that. The people of Midleton would certainly not be considered a community that would not extend a warm welcome to people of all shades, colors and creeds,” he said.

Mr O’Neill stated: “There’s been no case in point where there have been issues with any people, from any background, coming to the town."

Fred Rosehill, the chairman of the trustees of Cork’s Jewish community, said he was deeply upset.

“The strictly Orthodox dress brings attention of course, but it doesn’t warrant this.

“There is no reason to accept any form of anti-Semitism.”

He added: “The reference to Ovens is quite startling.”
 
Irish Central

Rise in racism among schoolchildren (UK)

Discouraging figures, revealed by Suffolk County Council (SCC) as a result of a Freedom of Information request by The EADT, show incidents of racism rose by nearly 12% in a year.

The increase will be particularly galling for education bosses who last year welcomed a marked drop across much of the region in verbal abuse and racially motivated ostracism.

Reports of racism among primary school pupils totalled 231 during the 2008/09 academic year – up from 206 in 2007/08.

At middle school level, reported incidents fell slightly from 121 to 119, but at high school racism has become more common, with reported incidents rising from 214 in 2007/08 to 261 in 2008/09.

The most startling increase came in the form of physical assaults and ‘‘racist graffiti’’ – reports of which more than doubled at schools in the west of the county.

In four years, since 2005, reports of racism in all of Suffolk’s schools have increased by nearly half, with incidents in high school’s more than doubling from 112 to 261. Schools have been reporting incidents of racism since 1993 and the council has insisted upon a 100% declaration of reports since the 1996/97 academic year.

In response to the findings, SCC said schools with an increase in the number of incidents have improved reporting systems and have made it clear to staff that all incidents must be reported, which the council said has led to more incidents being recorded.

Adrian Orr, the council’s senior advisor for social inclusion who has been leading the battle against racism in schools, said: “There has been a rise in the number of racist incidents that has been reported by schools across the county and it is an issue that we are closely investigating.

“Schools are reporting more incidents than they did in the past. We are now proactively checking for this kind of incident – where schools may in the past not have reported incidents they are doing so now.”

Mr Orr said there were many complex issues surrounding racism at school and the nature of the schools themselves was an important factor.

He said: “There are more students from a black or minority ethnic background in schools in the southern part of the county rather than the north or west.

“But that does raise different questions. If there are smaller numbers, does that increase the danger of people feeling isolated or ostracised?

“We will be getting new figures later in the year and they will tell their own story again – this is an issue the county is determined to remain on top of.”

The percentage of minority pupils in Suffolk schools has increased from 8.7% in the January 2008 school census to 12.7% in January 2009.

But Jane Basham, Chief Executive of Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality said: “The impact of racism on young people is not properly being addressed.

Attitudes towards immigration and Islamaphobia are spilling over into our schools and is cause for concern.

“Some schools report incidents quickly, while others don’t appear to take them as seriously. And the report doesn’t tell us what schools are doing about it.

“We face a real challenge, but feel confident that Adrian Orr is listening to our concerns.”

EADT