“Cowardly racist murders” – that’s what Romani Rose has called the recent attacks by neo-Nazis on Roma in Hungary. Rose was speaking on 2 August at the annual international commemoration at the site of the former extermination camp at Auschwitz. He went on to say the murders represented “a new dimension of the violence committed against this minority” and called on European governments to recognize Roma organizations as equal partners and to intensify cooperation with them. One week later, the Hungarian Police completed their investigation into the series of attacks and handed the file over to the state attorney. Media report that three men are to be charged with murder and a fourth, allegedly the driver, will be charged as an accomplice to one incident. Over the course of more than a year, six Roma people died as a result of the nine criminal acts under indictment.
At a commemoration of the Roma victims of the Holocaust held at the start of August in Hungary, János Bogdán, Jr. of the Party for Roma Unity (MCF) spoke of a “new Roma Holocaust” and pointed out that as a result of the recent parliamentary elections, numerous representatives of the “fascist party” Jobbik now sit in the Hungarian Parliament. According to Mária Silkó Szurmainé, a department head at the Hungarian National Resources Ministry, the recent economic crisis has brought citizens’ prejudices against minorities to the surface: “These problems, which were swept under the carpet for years, must be resolved. The Hungarians and the Roma do not face separate futures: Their future must be a joint one, and they must share responsibility for it.” After one of the most brutal of the attacks in Hungary last August, then-Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla said: “The Roma have become the target of an organized racist violence which feeds on political populism, verbal expressions of hatred, and media hogwash, making Roma the scapegoats for larger social problems.” Due to its previous governments’ unthrifty budget policies and its state debt, Hungary is one of the main victims of the global economic crisis, which has affected the daily life of a large number of its inhabitants.
Murder modeled on The Turner Diaries
The attacks featured a shocking brutality. The perpetrators selected Roma residences located on the outskirts of towns, specifically the very last house from which their escape route could be covered by a forest, or the last house on a street which could not be seen from the town. They then threw more than one Molotov cocktail at the targeted home and shot the Roma as they fled the ensuing fire. In one case they killed a five-year-old boy by shooting him in the head. These “executions” were performed with the same kind of felonious brutality that is described in detail in a book that has been called the neo-Nazi Bible: The Turner Diaries, a novel by US neo-Nazi William Pierce in which the main character has a good time shooting randomly selected Afro-Americans in the streets of the USA. The main aim of his efforts is to influence white-skinned people to either deport citizens of other skin colors from the USA or segregate them. At the start of August 2010, police in the US arrested a man at an airport in Atlanta suspected of committing a series of similar attempted murders against dark-skinned people in recent weeks there. The perpetrator injured or stabbed his victims using either a hammer or a knife. Police say the attacks were racially motivated.
A lengthy, desperate, and costly investigation
The investigation of these murderous attacks in Hungary was accompanied by partial inaction and numerous police mistakes similar to those committed during the investigation of arson attacks against Roma in the Silesian area of the Czech Republic. It often took a long time before police released any information whatsoever about the cases, and when they did release information, it was very vague, indicating that the probable motivation for the murders was revenge by loan sharks who had not received payment. For months the hypothesis that this was a series of racist attacks committed by the same group of perpetrators was rejected, even though the various attacks were very similar to one another in terms of how they were performed. The most brutal attack was responded to by an ambulance that did not arrive until almost an hour after the crime - without medical staff on board. One victim of the shooting was still alive when it arrived, but the crew did not succeed in saving his life. Local police said the fire had occurred due to an electrical short even though bullets were found at the scene, and the investigation of the case did not even begin until 10 hours after the crime had been committed. The police officers responsible were eventually disciplined in response to public pressure over a long period of time.
Eventually police increased the amount of the reward being offered for information about the perpetrators, which in the end reached the previously unseen amount of EUR 380 000 (that is not a typo). This breathtaking amount of money testifies to the amount of pressure being placed on police by the government, which primarily faced harsh criticism from the international community over the inability of the Hungarian authorities to investigate and halt this series of violent murders. FBI profilers even flew in from the US to assist Hungarian police in compiling profiles of the perpetrators and identifying them. No one ever got the reward. Police say they managed to track down the alleged perpetrators by wire-tapping a total of 4.5 million telephone calls. Experts estimate the investigation could not have cost taxpayers anything less than dozens of millions of euro. In mid-August of last year, a team of 120 detectives arrested the suspects at two night clubs in the eastern Hungarian town of Debrecín, where they were working as private security. Police allegedly also discovered the weapon used in the crimes at one of the clubs, a hunting rifle hidden in a secret space behind a wall in one of the rooms. A map was also found, marked with the sites of the previous attacks and three planned for the future. The day of the arrest was chosen in order to prevent the next attack. Of the six men arrested, two were released after interrogation and entered a witness protection program.
Charges filed two years after the first crime occurred
Zoltán Csizner, director of the Hungarian State Bureau of Investigation (NNI), took advantage of the closing of the investigation to present the results of the detectives’ work. The Slovak Press Agency TASR quoted him as saying members of the gang could be proven to have attacked nine sites, murdering six people and injuring dozens (five severely). They used approximately 80 rounds of ammunition total; at seven of the sites they also threw a total of 11 Molotov cocktails at residences. As if wanting to explain why the investigation had taken so long, Csizner said a series of such killings has never been seen anywhere in Europe. In his view, the suspects selected sites for attack where recent events had caused social unrest related to Roma. Another criterion was the possibility for a rapid escape from the crime scene. The motivation of the attacks was said to have been revenge for alleged wrongdoing committed by the Roma long ago (not, however, committed by the victims of the attacks) and an effort to spark fear in society. There was no personal connection between the victims and the perpetrators.
András Dócs, head of the detective division at NNI, said at the press conference that three of the four men detained were suspected of having shot the Roma. The fourth detainee, according to police, was the driver during two of the anti-Roma attacks. NNI said the attacks were exceptional in terms of their motivation, which unlike other cases was neither financial nor sexual, but purely racist. Media reported that three of the attackers had publicly endorsed racist opinions and two had previously been connected with the Hungarian branch of the neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor. During the 1990s, this organization also had a chapter in the Czech Republic which led to the establishment of the main Czech neo-Nazi group, National Resistance (Národní odpor). One of those charged in Hungary had worked as a professional soldier and served with a foreign mission in Kosovo. The group carefully rehearsed their attacks. Investigators say their attack on a refugee camp in Debrecín was their first test with live ammunition.
The media report that some of the attorneys for those indicted deny their clients’ guilt. Even though the suspects are said to have admitted to having been present at several crime scenes, they have denied taking part in the crimes which injured people. The expectation is that it will not at all be easy to convict the suspects of participating in specific crimes. Only one witness ever looked any of the perpetrators in the eyes: A 13-year-old Roma girl who survived the attack with serious injuries (her mother did not survive). Police are refusing to report the names of those detained and have not revealed which of the 15 total attacks from that time period they have managed to solve.
An international construction brigade helps the victims
Reconstruction of one of the burned-out homes is currently taking place in Hungary at the instigation of representatives of the German Football Union. During preparations for a match between Germany and Hungary, Theo Zwanziger, head of the German Football Union (DFB), asked representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg how the union might help the victims of this racism. The Council turned to a branch of the International Building Camps (Internationaler Bauorden) in the nearby town of Ludwigshafen, which has been organizing building camps for years. In collaboration with Hungarian Roma organizations, they contacted the victims’ families to ask whether they would be interested in assistance. Three towns in which Roma homes had been burned down were eventually selected. In the town of Tatárszentgyörgy, approximately 80 km south of Budapest, the most brutal attack of all took place last February. Those shot were a father and his five-year-old son. The mother of the family hid herself and an infant from the assailants’ gunfire by staying in the burning house. One year after the attack, the survivors had nowhere to live and their insurance company was refusing to pay compensation for the damages so they could buy a new apartment.
This past May, a delegation of representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the football unions of both countries visited the family along with Petra Pau, Vice-Chair of the German Parliament, in order to negotiate how construction would proceed. The mother of the murdered five-year-old boy had moved into a relative’s home with her other children, but in the end she decided to return to her own home if it would be reconstructed. During the visit, the guests gave the local elementary school gifts of football t-shirts and footballs. The DFB reported about this visit on its website, but the published text does not mention the racist attacks. This summer, volunteers from Germany, Poland and Romania as well as members of the surviving family transformed the ruined house into a new home. Volunteers received tickets and air travel to the Germany-Hungary match at the end of May as a reward for their work.
Romea
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
French expulsion of Roma to begin Thursday (France)
The deportation of Roma from France back to their countries of origin is to begin on Thursday the French government has announced.
With 51 Roma camps across the country now broken up over the past month and a further almost 250 to meet the same fate by October, some 700 Roma will be put on planes by the end of August
The first of Roma will leave France on Thursday when 79 are to be returned. Immigration minister Eric Besson said that the Roma involved had agreed to return of their own will, reports Le Monde. Adults receive €300 in cash for returning while €100 is given for children.
To prevent them coming back again and receiving return monies again, the French authorities are planning to take biometric data from those who are flown home.
Under EU rules, Roma are free to travel to France but have to prove they can support themselves in order to be allowed to stay longer than three months. Some 15,000 such Roma coming from central and eastern Europe, but predominantly Romania, are thought to be in France.
The destruction of camps is part of a wider security clampdown announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the end of July. The move attracted immediate criticism from the left opposition but more recently also from politicians within the ranks of the president's centre-right UMP party.
"We are not stigmatising a community, but making people respect the law," interior minister Brice Hortefeux said justifying the moves on Tuesday (17 August).
The French authorities point out that last year some 10,000 Roma were deported from France to Bulgaria and Romania.
Mr Besson, for his part, acknowledged that some deportees might return and are allowed to "as it is the law" but they "cannot settle illegally, let alone receive assisted voluntary return."
He also hit back at criticism by a fellow UMP politician who likened the evacuation of the camps to World War II round-ups, saying he would rather such language is not used.
"People are interviewed, their identity is verified and we offer them money to go back to their country of origin," he told radio station RTL on Tuesday. "I would like someone to explain the connection with the round-ups of World War II."
Meanwhile Romania has expressed its concern about the potential problems arising from France's policy.
"I am concerned about the risks of this sliding into populism and generating certain xenophobic reaction against the backdrop of the economic crisis," foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said in an interview with RFI Romania.
"If we trade accusations or we collectively criminalise ethnic groups, we revive memories, among them less pleasant ones, and instead of finding solutions we will generate tensions," he added.
Two Romanian secretaries of state are due to travel to France on 30 August to discuss the integration of Roma and "how to prevent crimes."
euobserver
With 51 Roma camps across the country now broken up over the past month and a further almost 250 to meet the same fate by October, some 700 Roma will be put on planes by the end of August
The first of Roma will leave France on Thursday when 79 are to be returned. Immigration minister Eric Besson said that the Roma involved had agreed to return of their own will, reports Le Monde. Adults receive €300 in cash for returning while €100 is given for children.
To prevent them coming back again and receiving return monies again, the French authorities are planning to take biometric data from those who are flown home.
Under EU rules, Roma are free to travel to France but have to prove they can support themselves in order to be allowed to stay longer than three months. Some 15,000 such Roma coming from central and eastern Europe, but predominantly Romania, are thought to be in France.
The destruction of camps is part of a wider security clampdown announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the end of July. The move attracted immediate criticism from the left opposition but more recently also from politicians within the ranks of the president's centre-right UMP party.
"We are not stigmatising a community, but making people respect the law," interior minister Brice Hortefeux said justifying the moves on Tuesday (17 August).
The French authorities point out that last year some 10,000 Roma were deported from France to Bulgaria and Romania.
Mr Besson, for his part, acknowledged that some deportees might return and are allowed to "as it is the law" but they "cannot settle illegally, let alone receive assisted voluntary return."
He also hit back at criticism by a fellow UMP politician who likened the evacuation of the camps to World War II round-ups, saying he would rather such language is not used.
"People are interviewed, their identity is verified and we offer them money to go back to their country of origin," he told radio station RTL on Tuesday. "I would like someone to explain the connection with the round-ups of World War II."
Meanwhile Romania has expressed its concern about the potential problems arising from France's policy.
"I am concerned about the risks of this sliding into populism and generating certain xenophobic reaction against the backdrop of the economic crisis," foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said in an interview with RFI Romania.
"If we trade accusations or we collectively criminalise ethnic groups, we revive memories, among them less pleasant ones, and instead of finding solutions we will generate tensions," he added.
Two Romanian secretaries of state are due to travel to France on 30 August to discuss the integration of Roma and "how to prevent crimes."
euobserver
White supremacist arrested (USA)
A white supremacist leader has been arrested after allegedly threatening a boy with a weapon .
Neighbors told police they saw Brian J. Moudry, 33, run at 8 p.m. Sunday into the road in front of his house at 304 S. Reed St.
"He was holding (what looked like) a silver handgun and yelling at someone who had just ridden near his residence," Chief Fred Hayes said.
Witnesses were unable to describe the ethnicity of the boy, who fled from the armed man.
"Mr. Moudry was standing outside the doorway when officers arrived, but went inside and refused to exit the house or talk to them," Hayes said. "As police established a perimeter, the subject began yelling statements about white supremacy from inside."
Moudry had claimed to be the local leader of the Creativity Movement, a white supremacist group.
Police remained at the scene until around 9:30 p.m. Sunday before determining Moudry was not going to shoot anyone from inside his home.
"We obtained an arrest warrant for unlawful use of a weapon and took him into custody around noon Monday," Lt. Brian Dupuis said.
Moudry allowed police to search his home.
"We found the remnants of a silver bb gun inside that matched the description of the weapon witnesses saw him with," Dupuis said.
Bomb allegations
On July 17, Moudry reportedly threatened to bomb a mail truck after having trouble restarting his mail delivery.
Moudry was questioned by federal postal inspectors.
No criminal charges were filed, but he was "encouraged to behave," reports said.
Suburban Chicago News
Neighbors told police they saw Brian J. Moudry, 33, run at 8 p.m. Sunday into the road in front of his house at 304 S. Reed St.
"He was holding (what looked like) a silver handgun and yelling at someone who had just ridden near his residence," Chief Fred Hayes said.
Witnesses were unable to describe the ethnicity of the boy, who fled from the armed man.
"Mr. Moudry was standing outside the doorway when officers arrived, but went inside and refused to exit the house or talk to them," Hayes said. "As police established a perimeter, the subject began yelling statements about white supremacy from inside."
Moudry had claimed to be the local leader of the Creativity Movement, a white supremacist group.
Police remained at the scene until around 9:30 p.m. Sunday before determining Moudry was not going to shoot anyone from inside his home.
"We obtained an arrest warrant for unlawful use of a weapon and took him into custody around noon Monday," Lt. Brian Dupuis said.
Moudry allowed police to search his home.
"We found the remnants of a silver bb gun inside that matched the description of the weapon witnesses saw him with," Dupuis said.
Bomb allegations
On July 17, Moudry reportedly threatened to bomb a mail truck after having trouble restarting his mail delivery.
Moudry was questioned by federal postal inspectors.
No criminal charges were filed, but he was "encouraged to behave," reports said.
Suburban Chicago News
Alan Berg's neo-Nazi killer dies in prison (USA)
Bruce Pierce, who was serving a life sentence for the 1984 slaying of Denver talk radio host Alan Berg, has died of natural causes, prison officials said.
Pierce died Monday at the federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., where he had been locked up since 1987 when he was sentenced to 250 years.
Pierce, a resident of Montana, was a reputed neo-Nazi who pumped 13 shots into the Jewish talk-show host from KOA radio in 1984. The incident was the basis for "Talk Radio," a play by Eric Bogosian that was adapted into the feature film of the same name, directed by Oliver Stone.
A prison spokesman told The Denver Post Pierce was "an average inmate" who passed the time working at the institution and taking part in recreational activities.
UPI
Pierce died Monday at the federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., where he had been locked up since 1987 when he was sentenced to 250 years.
Pierce, a resident of Montana, was a reputed neo-Nazi who pumped 13 shots into the Jewish talk-show host from KOA radio in 1984. The incident was the basis for "Talk Radio," a play by Eric Bogosian that was adapted into the feature film of the same name, directed by Oliver Stone.
A prison spokesman told The Denver Post Pierce was "an average inmate" who passed the time working at the institution and taking part in recreational activities.
UPI
English Defence League march should be banned, say police chiefs
Banning order request of far right rally in Bradford follows 10,000-name petitionPolice chiefs have called on the home secretary, Theresa May to ban a march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) due to take place in Bradford later this month.
Bettison said: "Having carefully considered the issues arising from any planned or unplanned march by protesters in Bradford, I have decided to apply to Bradford council for an order prohibiting the holding of a public procession on that day."
The move follows a campaign that saw more than 10,000 people in Bradford sign a petition, while community, religious and anti-racist groups joined local politicians in calling for the march to be banned.
Paul Meszaros, who co-ordinated the Bradford Together initiative, said: "It is nice that the people of Bradford have been listened to.
It is a victory for the campaign that saw thousands of Bradfordians come together and say clearly that we do not want these people coming to cause divisions and violence."
The council is expected to make a formal application to May who will decide whether to grant a ban.
However, police say that even if May agrees, there are no powers to prevent the EDL holding a "static demonstration", as they have done in other towns over the past year. Bettison said: "If the home secretary agrees to a ban, it does not prevent static, visible demonstrations taking place. But I believe that this would be less disruptive to residents of Bradford and would enable the force to better manage the operation."
Tonight a spokesman for the EDL said that although it may have to "modify its plans slightly" its demonstration on 28 August would "most definitely still go ahead".
Nick Lowles from Hope not Hate, which organised the anti-EDL campaign along with Bradford council, said the police decision was a victory for "people power". He added that a ban would stop the EDL marching through predominantly Asian areas of the city.
"While the EDL threat hasn't completely gone away our campaign has contributed to the racists being kept away from Muslim communities in Bradford," said Lowles. "This is a victory for the people of city and especially the 10,700 who signed our petition."
The EDL started in Luton last year and has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front in the 1970s. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation opposed only to "militant Islam". But many of its demonstrations have ended in confrontations with the police after some supporters became involved in violence, as well as racist and Islamophobic chanting. In May, the Guardian revealed that the EDL was planning to step up its Islamophobic street campaign targeting Bradford and Tower Hamlets in London
The Guardian
SARKOZY FACES BACKLASH OVER ROMA EXPULSIONS (France)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's drive to expel illegal Roma from the country has provoked criticism from the Roma themselves and a backlash from within the ranks of his own centre-right party. On Sunday (15 August), over 250 cars and caravans belonging to Roma people were used to block a major road outside the southwestern city of Bordeaux. It is the first major protest to take place since the closure of illegal Roma camps began two weeks ago and it caused serious disruption on the public holiday weekend, French radio station RFI reported. Since Mr Sarkozy's crackdown started on 6 August, over 40 camps affecting some 700 adults and children have been closed, with the government aiming to shut down 300 in total over the coming months. Any illegal immigrants are to be deported to their country of origin. The president's move against illegal Roma is part of a wider security clampdown that began in the wake of the shooting of a youth by police in the Loire Valley in July. The killing, carried out after the youth committed an armed robbery at a casino, provoked a riot. Mr Sarkozy subsequently proposed tough new laws, including stripping French nationality from those who attempt to take the life of a police officer, thereby becoming the first French head of state to openly link immigrants and crime.
The proposals have attracted opprobrium from the left of France's political establishment but the action against the Roma camps has also drawn criticism from within the president's centre-right UMP party. Following the latest raid on Saturday on a camp in an eastern Paris suburb, UMP law-maker Jean-Pierre Grand said the government's policy was "turning disgraceful" and likened the camp evictions to round-ups during World War II. Mr Grand said he had to react after hearing "that the authorities, arriving very early in the morning, break up families, sending men to one side and women and children on the other, and threatening to separate mothers and children." He went on to note that these type of evictions do not work, as the Roma tend to regroup later. Other conservative politicians have also spoken out against the tightening security laws. In an interview with Le Parisien, ex-minister Christin Boutin, president of the UMP-allied Christian Democrat Party (PCD), called for an end to "cultivating fear" and "putting people up against one another." "Stigmatisation of one or another community exacerbates violence," she noted, adding that many French people have foreign origins, including the president himself, who has a Hungarian background.
While the EU has largely declined to comment on Paris' intentions towards illegal Roma or its proposed new laws, the UN has been quite blunt. An anti-racism panel from the United Nations last week said that France is experiencing "a significant resurgence of racism" and lacked the political will to deal with the problem. Some members of the panel expressed concern over the nature of the political discourse in the country, including on national identity and immigration. However, a survey last week by the pro-government Le Figaro newspaper indicates the hardline approach may make Mr Sarkozy, who has been slumping in the polls, more popular. The survey showed strong public support for his security crackdown, including 79 percent of those asked in favour of the dismantling of gypsy camps.
EUOBserver
The proposals have attracted opprobrium from the left of France's political establishment but the action against the Roma camps has also drawn criticism from within the president's centre-right UMP party. Following the latest raid on Saturday on a camp in an eastern Paris suburb, UMP law-maker Jean-Pierre Grand said the government's policy was "turning disgraceful" and likened the camp evictions to round-ups during World War II. Mr Grand said he had to react after hearing "that the authorities, arriving very early in the morning, break up families, sending men to one side and women and children on the other, and threatening to separate mothers and children." He went on to note that these type of evictions do not work, as the Roma tend to regroup later. Other conservative politicians have also spoken out against the tightening security laws. In an interview with Le Parisien, ex-minister Christin Boutin, president of the UMP-allied Christian Democrat Party (PCD), called for an end to "cultivating fear" and "putting people up against one another." "Stigmatisation of one or another community exacerbates violence," she noted, adding that many French people have foreign origins, including the president himself, who has a Hungarian background.
While the EU has largely declined to comment on Paris' intentions towards illegal Roma or its proposed new laws, the UN has been quite blunt. An anti-racism panel from the United Nations last week said that France is experiencing "a significant resurgence of racism" and lacked the political will to deal with the problem. Some members of the panel expressed concern over the nature of the political discourse in the country, including on national identity and immigration. However, a survey last week by the pro-government Le Figaro newspaper indicates the hardline approach may make Mr Sarkozy, who has been slumping in the polls, more popular. The survey showed strong public support for his security crackdown, including 79 percent of those asked in favour of the dismantling of gypsy camps.
EUOBserver
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