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FOREWORD
Since its founding in 1991, the Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) has played a leading role in focusing public attention on the situation of the Roma (Gypsies) in eastern Europe. In April and May 1992, in cooperation with the governments of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and of the Czech and Slovak Republics, PER conducted a meeting in Stupava, Slovakia, entitled "The Romanies in Central and Eastern Europe: Illusions and Reality." (A report of the meeting has been published under the same title.) The meeting brought together for the first time leaders of the Roma communities of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, and Yugoslavia; government officials from the region responsible for social and minority problems; and academic specialists on interethnic relations from the United States and Europe.
On April 29-May 2, 1993, PER organized a follow-up conference at Lake Snagov (near Bucharest), Romania, in cooperation with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federation of Roma in Romania, the Romanian Cultural Foundation, the Romani Center for Romani Studies and Social Action (Romani CRISS), and the International Romani Union. This conference was entitled "Social Policies and Daily Life: An Evaluation of Current Action-Oriented Programs in Roma Communities." Its main purpose was to examine current methods and programs and to formulate further recommendations.
Part One of the present report is a summary of the Snagov conference. Part Two is a description of further activities, based on the deliberations of the two meetings and the practical experience that PER has accumulated in working with Roma groups and in field missions since 1991 (the summary of one of these field missions is included). Both parts were written by Larry Watts, PER senior consultant. The report also includes an appendix, "The Snagov Declaration," which was adopted by the participants at that conference. Robert A. Feldmesser, PER senior editorial consultant, edited the report.
This document was prepared as a contribution to the seminar on the Roma in the CSCE region, held in September 1994 in Warsaw, Poland, under the auspices of the CSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and of the CSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, in cooperation with the Council of Europe. The seminar emerged in part from the request of PER's Roma Advisory Council, which participated in the preparatory session held in Strasbourg, France, in July 1994.
Allen H. Kassof, Director
Livia B. Plaks, Associate Director
Princeton, New Jersey
July l994
PART ONE: THE SNAGOV CONFERENCE
INTRODUCTION
The Roma are the most disadvantaged population in Europe by all important indicators: education, opportunity, income, and employment. In addition, they are often scapegoats for society's ills and the object of violent attacks. The problem is especially acute in the former Communist states of central Europe and the Balkans, where governments had sought to homogenize their populations rather than to pursue awareness and tolerance of diversity. For the first several years following the collapse of Communism in 1989, the new governments in the region failed to treat the problem with the seriousness it deserved or to devote sufficient resources to its resolution. The problem was exacerbated by a lack of organization among the Roma communities themselves; their competing and contradictory demands both added to the confusion and permitted governments to continue to ignore the problem.
Although governments in the region are now more willing to view this situation seriously, and although some progress has been made by the Roma in their internal political organization and project development, it is nevertheless true that little progress has been made in addressing and resolving the basic issues facing the Roma. In a number of cases, the situation has, in fact, worsened.
In April 1993, a conference was held at Lake Snagov, Romania, to consider the problems of the Roma and possible solutions. This conference was a follow-up to a meeting of Roma community leaders in eastern and central Europe and the Russian Federation, which had taken place a year earlier in Stupava, Slovakia. The aims of the Snagov conference were to evaluate the current methods of addressing the issues involving the Roma populations that had been identified at Stupava and to formulate further recommendations on these matters. The Snagov conference took up three main issues of concern to the Roma community in eastern and central Europe: education and equality of opportunity; the transnational status of the Roma minority; and provision of basic human and civil rights, particularly protection against violent attack. Working groups examined each of these issues.
Among the outcomes of the Snagov conference were the creation of a PER Roma Advisory Council, consisting of specialists on Roma ethnicity drawn from five countries of the region; a PER mission on the prevention of mob violence; a series of sessions for the exchange of information among governmental, police, and justice authorities and Roma leaders in Romania; the creation of a Department of Prevention within the Romanian police; a PER-sponsored series of U.S. Department of Justice mediation seminars in Bucharest and Tirgu Mures, Romania; and a projected series of seminars to be held in Romania by the Southern Police Institute (U.S.) on effective intervention and neutral policing in ethnically diverse communities.
Finally, in April 1994, members of the Roma Advisory Council testified on the Roma in eastern Europe before the Subcommittee on International Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U. S. House of Representatives. This testimony was preceded by a memorial ceremony at the U. S. Holocaust Museum for the Roma who died in the Holocaust.
At the conclusion of the conference, the participants approved "The Snagov
Declaration," which expresses their support for the adoption at national
levels of all necessary policies and measures to promote equal opportunity
and full participation for the Roma in the political, economic, and social
realms. The declaration also called for individual states to respect the
human rights of all citizens including the Roma.
EDUCATION AND EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
The transition to democratic forms of government in eastern and central Europe has led to changes in policies that directly affect the traditional livelihoods of the Roma people and in some cases, has also reduced their access to educational and other opportunities. For example, as these societies continue applying the principles of merit and open competition to the sphere of employment, the Roma suffer a greater degree of de facto exclusion than they had under the former Communist regimes. Formerly, the Roma were not only permitted to enter secondary schools, but they were even forcibly pressured to do so. Under current conditions, most officials feel that guarantees of equality and the equitable distribution of resources among ethnic groups are sufficient to deal with the problem and should mark the limits of their efforts. However, this approach neglects the handicaps that the Roma have traditionally suffered in competing with more favored groups or in taking advantage of existing possibilities without some outside assistance.
The problem of making an economic livelihood in rural areas is particularly
acute in this regard. Under the Communist regime in Romania, Roma in rural
areas were given jobs in cooperative agricultural production enterprises
(CAPs). The pay was minimal, but it provided for basic requirements, and the
job allowed for the possibility, characteristic of Communist societies, of
the theft of chickens or corn to raise their standard of living. Since the
collapse of Communism, priority has been given to the return of property
confiscated by the Communists. This has resulted in the dissolution of the
CAPs and the division of property among the former owners. In almost no
cases were Roma former land owners and consequently, the rural Roma lost
their employment but did not qualify for land. (Law No.18 allows for the
granting of land to persons who are not former owners, but only if there is
land remaining after former owners have reclaimed theirs, though this is
seldom the case. When land has been available, it has sometimes been in a
location that would require the Roma families to be resettled in order to be
able to cultivate it.) Thus, desperate economic straits have compelled rural
Roma to resort to theft more frequently than before. Now, however, the
victims of such theft are no longer an impersonal and negligent state, but
fellow villagers who react negatively and, on occasion, violently.
Government authorities have recognized the need to deal with this problem as
soon as possible.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The working group on education and opportunity noted the strong relationships between education and economic possibilities and between education and the development of trained manpower. The working group recommended:
- Establishment of an international school for young Roma teachers that would enable them to return to their home countries and train other Roma teachers.
- The provision of additional instruction in the Romani language in already existing schools. In Romania, for example, such additional instruction would be provided in both Romanian-language and Hungarian-language schools.
- Establishment of schools specifically for the study of the Romani language.
- Establishment of schools in which instruction, aside from majority language and literature courses, would be in the Romani language.
- Establishment of mobile schools for nomadic and seminomadic Roma communities .
- Establishment of vocational and trade schools for the Roma.
- Revival of the traditional trades of the Roma.
- Creation of small Roma-owned and Roma-operated factories--for example, brick-making factories.
The working group also noted that creating opportunities for education was
only half the battle; incentives and other measures would be needed to
persuade some Roma communities to send their children to educational
institutions. It was therefore recommended that governments provide
subsidies for children to encourage attendance.
TRANSNATIONAL STATUS OF THE ROMA MINORITY
As a people in diaspora without a claimed homeland, the Roma are unique in
Europe. This lack of a territorial base has had a significant effect on the
way in which majority populations perceive the Roma, since territory is
closely associated with ideas of permanence, stability, and reliability. As
a transnational group, the Roma are perceived as both unstable and
untrustworthy. Moreover, they have no single "mother country" to champion
their cause. The disadvantage this causes can be seen in the negotiations
presently taking place in the former Yugoslavia--the sizable Roma community
is completely excluded from these negotiations because it does not control
any territory although the community will be directly affected by the
outcome.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The working group on transnational status emphasized that it will be exceedingly difficult to resolve the problems of the Roma in any one state if they are not dealt with in an integrated European approach.
Recently, it has become increasingly obvious that a de facto effort is under way, particularly in the international media, to identify the problems as primarily Romanian and, to a lesser extent, Slovakian. In this connection, it was noted that the majority of government representatives at the conference were border-guard, migration, and internal-affairs officials, rather than justice, education, or social-policy specialists. Acknowledgment of the problem as transnational one requiring more cooperative and coordinated approaches by states and international organizations, is necessary if real progress is to be made.
Representatives of the Roma Federation and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly drafted a declaration that was adopted by the participants at the meeting and sent to governments and other organizations concerned with human rights, minority rights, and the rights of the Roma population. This "Snagov Declaration," as it was named, is an appendix to this report.
Immediately after the Snagov conference, participating officials from the
German, Polish, Macedonian, and Moldovan governments met in Bucharest with
Viorel Hrebenciuc, Secretary General of the Romanian government and
Coordinator of the Council for National Minorities. At this meeting, a
program was agreed upon to institutionalize Roma input into policies
affecting their community and to provide a body of expertise on relevant
issues to other governments of the region. Hrebenciuc suggested, for
example, that his government determine what Roma organizations exist in
Romania, then ask these organizations to describe the problems that confront
them, and finally consider, together with other governments, the means of
solving these problems. In addition, the Romanian government offered to
sponsor, perhaps with the cooperation of various bodies in central and
eastern Europe, a Roma policy center that would address the issues and
problems of the daily life of the Roma in the region.
HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
For centuries, the Roma in a number of European countries have been subjected to capital punishment merely for being Roma. The Roma were also among the main victims of the Holocaust. Police and judicial authorities, when they have not lacked the will, have often lacked the capability, resources, and methods for dealing effectively with local incidents of mob violence directed against the Roma.
Much of this violence can be traced to a combination of anti-Roma prejudice and a generalized perception among local populations that police authorities have been ineffectual in combating crimes committed by individuals belonging to the Roma minority. In most cases, the target of the violence is broadened from the Roma protagonist in the precipitating incident to the Roma in general. The problem is exacerbated when, as a result of poor communications or deficient procedures, the central authorities are ill-informed, or altogether uninformed, about the developing tensions. Central authorities, therefore, fail to provide the necessary material support or to exert pressure for the implementation of state policies and the enforcement of laws at the local level. As a result, the local authorities are left to their own devices and their behavior has ranged anywhere from very effective to totally lacking. In a few cases, there has even been possible criminal complicity in the violence.
In the first few years of post-Communist governments, judicial authorities uniformly failed to prosecute anyone other than Roma individuals themselves following mob violence against Roma persons and property. There are signs that this situation is now improving, and more and more cases against non-Roma instigators of mob violence are beginning to appear in the courts. Nevertheless, there is still a widespread feeling that the law is being applied unfairly and that perpetrators of violence against the Roma are "safe" from effective prosecution. The failure of central authorities to publicly and persistently condemn ethnic violence in general carries ambiguous significance to populations already permeated with negative images of the Roma. One sign of change for the better was the prompt and decisive reaction of the Polish authorities when Roma houses were burned down in Mlawa in 1991. Since then, no other such incidents have occurred in Poland.
In contrast, in the first six months after the revolution m Romania when the police had virtually ceased to exist and a new legal framework had yet to be constructed, a number of attempts at the forcible expulsion of Roma were made. In the towns of Bolentin Deal and Ograzeni in 1991, the local Roma community was threatened with the burning of their homes and was pressured to sell their homes and leave the village. Neither the police nor any other agency took action. This precedent is often referred to in the Romanian media when tensions between the Roma and non-Roma communities appear and since 1989, there have been several other incidents. However, some progress has been made. Recently, in the village of Racsa, police moved quickly to arrest the instigators of violence against local Roma, as a result of changes in policing policies.
Violence against Roma, except in Romania, has become primarily an urban phenomenon since 1989, usually engaged in by "skinheads" and neofascist groups (and often widely televised). In these cases, the expulsion of Roma has taken a more organized and legalistic form.
A significant number of Roma have responded to hardships by attempting to migrate to western Europe. The governments of western Europe, however, have sought ways of keeping Roma out of their countries. They have made efforts to conclude intergovernmental or interministerial agreements for the transport of Roma back to Romania, as in the German case, and to reach contractual agreements directly with the Roma concerned, as in the French government's payments to Roma families to leave France. Meanwhile, very little assistance, material or otherwise, has been rendered by these governments for dealing more constructively with the migration problem. Instead of recognizing Roma migration as a problem affecting all of Europe, there is a tendency to think of it as primarily a Romanian problem, due to the current demography of the Roma in the region. Romania, however, has neither the economic resources nor the expertise needed to cope with the problem.
Similarly, eastern European governments are trying to control the internal migration of the Roma. For example, in 1993 in some Czech towns such as Jirkov, the authorities approved regulations that drastically limited Roma migration into urban centers and expelled Roma who could not meet restrictive residency requirements. Citizens were required to report visits that lasted more than three days, including those of immediate family members. Moreover, without any legal standing to initiate legislation, the prosecutor general of the Czech Republic introduced an antimigration bill in the parliament stipulating that visits (again, including those of family members) could not exceed five days every six months and granting the police authority to enter dwellings to check occupancy.
Although this bill and several local anti-Roma regulations were declared unlawful, they have nevertheless had concrete effects, such as the expulsion to Slovakia of Roma families from the Czech town of Usti nad Labem. Moreover, the new Czech citizenship law, which requires permanent registered residence for the past two years and an absence of convictions for crimes for the past five years, in effect discriminates against Roma who lived in what had been company housing, lived unregistered with friends and family, or who could not meet the absence-of-convictions criterion. These Roma are subject to expulsion to Slovakia.
The phenomena of institutional prejudice and anti-Roma violence are also
evident in other parts of Europe. In 1988, the Spanish Supreme Court cited
the Madrid mayoralty for racism toward the Roma, and in 1992, the prefect
for a town near Madrid expelled Roma families and destroyed their homes.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Human and Civil Rights working group noted in its conclusions that severe inequalities continue to exist between Roma and local and national majority populations. Often the Roma, who are generally at the lowest level on the social scale, are blamed for the decline of living standards and other hardships of the current difficult transition.
The situation is not the same in all the countries of central and eastern Europe. In Slovakia, Macedonia, and Romania, the constitutions and laws provide a favorable basis for the development of the Roma community. In other countries, such as Bulgaria, the juridical framework needs improvement. Even where the laws and constitutional provisions are favorable, however, implementation continues to be a major problem. The governments of the region should work with those of western Europe and with international organizations, such as the Council for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe, in order to ensure a more equitable juridical status for Roma populations.
The working group recommended:
- Efforts to revive the moral authority of the law and confidence in the judicial system. This is necessary to discourage and prevent further occurrences of mob violence and "street justice." In addition, efforts should be made to educate the Roma as to their rights, so that they can better resist illegal pressures to leave their homes. The working group proposed the organization of consultations for the Roma with legal authorities.
- More constructive action on the part of international organizations to implement mechanisms for the Protection of individual and human rights.
- Swift and unequivocal condemnation by governments of any ethnic or racial violence. While there are as yet no "skinheads" in Romania, as there are in the Czech Republic and Hungary, the ambiguous behavior of local authorities and the lack of central government response send unintended signals that encourage the spread of ethnic violence. The Romanian government representatives also underlined the fact that the population is in need of more serious education against racism.
- Closer monitoring of the extreme right press is necessary. Effective procedures must be developed that would permit groups and individuals to call the media to account. Additionally, programs must be implemented to train eastern and central European journalists in nonpolitical professionalism and unbiased reporting of ethnic issues.
- Development of projects to remedy the inequality of economic opportunities that exists in all the countries of the region. In Romania, the Council for National Minorities is an institution in which the Roma can present their own proposals for improving their economic situation to the various ministries. So far, however, only a small portion of its potential has been developed. Governments should ensure an amount from the budget for Roma-directed projects.
- Active measures to assure consultation with the Roma on all problems concerning their community. At present, all the national and local governments of the region provide an "open door" through which the Roma can enter to speak with authorities. However, the Roma do not have a tradition of such activity, nor have the authorities been able to gain their trust sufficiently to encourage them to change. Authorities, especially at the local level, should undertake supplementary efforts to reach out and at least meet the Roma halfway. The Roma deputies have an important role to play in the establishment of such lines of communication.
In addition, the encouragement of books, radio programs, and television
broadcasts that portray Romani culture, history, and problems in other than
a negative light was requested, as part of an effort to combat the
widespread and profound anti-Roma prejudice in central Europe and the
Balkans and, evidently, in the West as well. Concurrently, a very serious
program to explain the nature of prejudice and discrimination, their
prevalence and destructiveness, and the necessity of guarding against them
should be directed at the international and local majority populations.
PART TWO: POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Efforts to raise the level of civil and human rights have both political and technical aspects. The political aspect aims first at drawing the attention of governments, institutions, and populations to problems that primarily affect minority populations or individuals and are therefore, often ignored. Once attention has been drawn to the problems, the goal of political activity is to persuade elites to dedicate material and human resources to their resolution.
The technical aspects involve the allocation of resources, provision of expertise, and assistance with reform. These come into play only after political activity has been successful, since elites generally must first be made aware that the problems exist and then convinced of their seriousness before they will be willing to commit resources.
Once their attention has been drawn to a problem and they have been persuaded as to its seriousness, government elites normally undertake such procedures as examining the hierarchical levels of authority to determine where direct responsibility lies and evaluating the effectiveness and reliability of communications between central and local authorities. However, when governmental structures are relatively fluid or are in a stage of massive transition, expectations of normal organizational behavior may be unrealistic. In such circumstances, which characterize all of eastern and central Europe to some degree and southeastern Europe to a much greater degree, continued political actions without technical assistance may well lead to politicization of the problems and decrease the likelihood of their being addressed in a constructive manner.
When governmental authorities have expressed a willingness to deal with issues connected with the improvement of human and civil rights, but institutional frameworks, organizations, and practices are not yet adequate to the task, the need is to find ways of engaging the authorities rather than merely to denounce them. Continual condemnation, particularly at the international level, for failure to prevent mob violence or to bring to justice those guilty of provoking it politicizes both the problems and the personalities involved, making it less rather than more likely that outside advice will be taken seriously and increasing the probability of the least desired reaction.
In this respect, the case of Hadareni, a mixed Romanian-Roma-Hungarian village in the Transylvania portion of Romania which experienced anti-Roma violence four months after the Snagov conference, is instructive. Following a period of rising tensions among Roma families in the village and a concomitant rise in tensions between its Roma and non-Roma inhabitants, a Romanian resident was killed by a Rom, provoking retaliatory killings of three Roma and the burning of fourteen homes belonging to the Roma community. The event was heavily covered in the media, with more than 160 articles appearing in the Romanian press. Many politicians and more than a score of humanrights groups visited the Roma in the village immediately after the violence, and significant amounts of aid were publicly dedicated to the rebuilding of the Roma homes both by the government and by nongovernmental organizations.
The result, however, was a severe cleavage between the populations, serious
levels of hostility to outsiders, and a deliberately cultivated solidarity
with the local officials who were implicated in the instigation of the mob
violence. Clearly, this had not been the aim of the activists. Rather, they
had attempted to draw attention to the event by holding the central
authorities responsible for the incident and attributing to them a "lack of
political will" for allowing it to happen in the first place. The emphasis
on laying blame backfired in such a way as to impede the legal process and
to make further progress toward improving intercommunity relations in
Hadareni exceedingly difficult. Authorities were able to identify the
principal instigators and bring them in for questioning only after nine
months, when the bulk of the population was occupied by the harvests. Even
then, the instigators were released almost immediately upon orders from the
prosecutor general's office in Bucharest.
POLICE AND JUSTICE REFORM
The technical approach generally avoids the question of blame altogether, focusing instead on the development of policies and the encouragement of actions that would prevent violence from occurring. In the case of mob violence against the Roma in Romania, such policies and actions would be directed at effective and neutral policing at the local level and at effective and timely prosecution by the justice system.
The problems in local policing are due to a number of factors. (I) After the fall of Ceausescu, there was a reluctance--lasting from 1987 until late in 1993--to become involved in any but the most straightforward situations that required police intervention. This had the effect of often excluding local police as an element of informal social intervention to prevent the buildup of social tension and to actively assist in the establishment of social peace and order on a daily basis. (2) The local police have continued the practice of treating all problems as purely local phenomena and of only local concern, thereby failing to report tendencies and tensions that might be beyond the capacity of local authorities to handle. This practice began when problems reported by local authorities to the central authorities were interpreted as a failure on the part of the local authorities to contain the situation and often resulted in centrally mandated sanctions against them. (3) The local police lack adequate transport facilities and reliable communications. Often two or three junior officers are responsible for policing a community of dispersed villages with as many as 7,000 inhabitants--on foot and with only an unreliable phone system to link them with regional centers. (4) In addition, local policing authorities generally share the prejudices and preconceptions of the local population and usually lack special training and instruction in procedures for neutral policing. All of these problems seem readily remediable with appropriate expertise and technical assistance.
At the level of the justice system, the problem is more intractable and potentially more damaging. Romania has proclaimed the independence of its justice system and its courts and has established a constitutional and legal framework to ensure this independence, particularly from the executive authority which under Communism had often intervened to determine the outcome of investigations and prosecutions. Unfortunately, however, this change was made at a pace and in a manner that did not allow for the replacement or retraining of Justice Ministry personnel or of judges and magistrates to bring them closer to western standards of neutral, nonpartisan, timely, and effective conduct of investigations and judgments.
The result has been a highly politicized justice and court system, which has frequently refused to hand down judgments that might not be popular or that are believed to run counter to the desires of central authorities. The system is also subject to delays, some that are politically motivated and others that are attributable to the difficulties of institutional rebuilding and redesigning. These delays are sometimes used as an excuse to initiate vigilante justice, and to the degree that this is seen as acceptable and effective, progress toward the rule of law and a state of social peace and stability is impeded.
To complicate matters, even many self-professed "democratically oriented" members of civil society have retained a mind-set that assumes that central authorities still control all of the actions of government personnel at both the central and the local levels. The lack of effective policing or of timely prosecution is therefore, often interpreted as an indicator of an absence of political will on the part of central authorities. For instance, human-rights activists hold central authorities responsible for the failings of a legal process even when intervention by these authorities would give rise to charges of recentralization and dictatorial authority and would undermine the very concept of an independent justice system. Such habits tend to produce a cycle of condemnation and frustration. Furthermore, the attempt to blame individuals or specific agencies or organizations in the government and to place them "in the dock" and punish them, however symbolically, interferes with an understanding of the nature of the problem and the assumption of responsibility for redressing it. Here again. there is an important role for technical assistance and expertise.
Often, the nature of the problems facing the Roma have less to do with aspects of Romani culture, education, and rights than with the obstacles to the institutionalization of basic democratic institutions and civil and individual rights. This is not to say that there are no problems specific to the Roma, nor that the Roma do not suffer directly and especially severely from these broader problems. However, until the more basic problems of institution building and development of respect for civil and individual rights are resolved, it will be extremely difficult to separate out ethnically specific problems or to address them effectively.
Currently, the situation is made even worse by the fact that most of those
dealing with the problems of the Roma are experts on Roma culture and
society rather than specialists in the areas of democratic
institution-building, police and justice reform, and arbitration and
mediation. As such, they tend to perceive the problems facing the Roma as
being specific to the Roma or to the relationships between the Roma and the
majority population or government rather than as shortcomings in the
movement toward democratic institutions in general.
THE PER MISSION
Although international attention and pressure and condemnation by governments can play a vital role in bringing an end to ethnic prejudice and discrimination, PER believes that the provision of technical and expert assistance to governmental authorities is no less vital. When the governments are willing to accept such assistance, and particularly when they request it, the international community, nongovernmental organizations, and concerned individuals have a moral obligation to take them at their word and extend it whenever possible.
In February 1994, PER sent a mission to Romania to study the problem of violence against the Roma and to formulate recommendations for combating it. The mission was organized by PER's associate director, Livia B. Plaks, together with senior consultant, Larry Watts. The mission's participants included a specialist on police and police management, Robert Wasserman of Harvard University, Donald Horowitz, Valery Tishkov, and Nicolae Gheorghe, members of PER's Council on Ethnic Accord, and Andrzej Mirga, representing PER's Roma Advisory Council. The visit was coordinated by PER's Bucharest office, with the cooperation of Romania's Ministry of the Interior, General Inspectorate of the Police, and Council for National Minorities. Over the course of a week, the team visited eleven localities in Romania where there was a serious potential for violence or where violence had already occurred in the past four years.
The team's report covered a broad range of issues of both a general and a Roma-specific nature. It dealt with the improvement of the technical capability for responding to incidents, the development of policies and procedures for effective intervention, and the development of a centralized capacity for data collection and response oversight. In a series of meetings, the mission's findings were presented to Romanian police and governmental authorities and to President Ion Iliescu. Following is a summary of the findings and recommendations contained in the report.
Police at the local level bear an enormous burden when faced with difficult situations in conditions of poor mobility and primitive communications. It is often the case that those with the least experience are charged with the greatest responsibility and receive very little regular supervision from superiors. When social tensions result in mob violence, the ability and experience of these police officers have often proven insufficient, resulting directly in the loss of lives and property, and indirectly in the loss of prestige and moral authority, weakened morale, decreased effectiveness, and political scapegoating of the police. Immediate measures are necessary to enhance the capacity of local police officers, though it cannot be expected that they will become sophisticated conflict managers in the near future. In the current period of economic transition and severe budget constraints, it has become doubly important to marshal resources carefully and allocate them intelligently. Careful consideration should therefore be given to the sequence in which technical improvements are made. The general rule should be that resources are directed first toward those regions and localities where tensions are most acute.
Once violence has occurred, it can easily expand and is likely to do so for several reasons. Among them are: (1) the potentially provocative role played by the media in describing each incident involving the Roma as a "new Bolentin" or a "new Hadareni"; (2) the low threshold of mob violence, whereby an individual mugging, rape, or knife fight may trigger the burning of many or even all houses belonging to members of the Roma community, regardless of whether or not they were implicated in the initial event; and (3) the slowness of the criminal justice system in prosecuting and sentencing those involved in past mob violence.
Although the police obviously cannot put an end to profound social tensions, it is also true that the police must control the violent outcomes of such tensions and prevent their spread. Moreover, the belief, accurate or not, that the police as well as other political authorities are supportive of, or indifferent to, violence against a minority is itself a contributor to ethnic tensions. It is therefore important that there be no ambiguity about the attitude of the authorities. To this end, clear guidelines for a decisive approach to interethnic violence must be developed and promulgated, directed both to the policing institutions and to the general public. There should also be frank and open discussions within the police organization regarding the evolving standards and strategies; the development of training manuals and materials on the management of intergroup tensions and violence, based on case studies that explicitly identify appropriate procedures; and an effective exchange with the international police community on developments in this domain.
Serious acts of violence tend to follow a period of rising tensions, and
during that period, various sorts of intervention--such as discussions with
community leaders and implicit and explicit warnings that those who
instigate violence will be promptly and firmly punished--can be effective in
averting violent outcomes. (Further discussion of these opportunities can be
found in the recent PER publication, Managing Ethnic Conflict: The Kona
Statement.) Moreover, there are often regional, demographic, and seasonal
patterns that can be identified, enabling capabilities and expertise to be
concentrated at the right place and the right time. It would therefore be
useful to establish a central office to collect and analyze the level,
dynamics, and status of violence throughout the country. Within this office,
there should be a small group of experts on community relations and social
intervention, who would act as a quick-response team and would also provide
the central office with information needed to keep the database on
intergroup violence up to date.
ENSUING ACTIVITIES
At least in part as a result of the PER mission's recommendations, the Romanian General Inspectorate of the Police established a central Department of Prevention with branch offices in the provinces, staffed by criminologists and sociologists. Intensive courses in English and French have been held, in order to facilitate interchanges between Romanian police and their foreign counterparts. Although the police were already seeking to improve mobility and communications in the field, the mission's recommendations were also useful in stimulating a systematic approach to these efforts.
Further benefits of the mission could be seen in local police response four months after the PER mission, when an incident of mob violence broke out in the village of Racsa, in the county of Satu Mare in northwestern Romania. The police responded quickly and effectively, arresting eleven of the instigators immediately and several more after a short period of further investigation. The number of arrests in Racsa exceeded the number of arrests made in all previous incidents of mob violence in Romania since 1989. It is doubtful that this one instance will be powerful enough to deter further outbreaks of violence, but it may be the beginning of a new period in the protection of human and civil rights in Romania.
Subsequently, in an effort to increase the possibility of meaningful dialogue between local majority populations and Roma communities, PER sponsored a series of seminars on mediation in the Romanian city of Tirgu Mures, designed primarily to train Roma mediators. The seminars were conducted by Miguel Hernandez of the Community Relations Service of the U. S. Department of Justice. Following the week-long series of seminars Hernandez consulted with Romanian police authorities on the development of police mediators as well. The testimony by members of PER's Roma Advisory Council before a subcommittee of the U. S. House of Representatives, mentioned in the introduction, was also an outgrowth of the PF.R mission to Romania
In mid-October of 1994, PER will sponsor a series of two-and-a-half-day seminars on effective community intervention and neutral policing in ethnically diverse communities. These seminars will be offered to Romanian police officers stationed in regions that have experienced ethnic tensions and to members of the Department of Prevention. They will be organized by the University of Louisville (Kentucky) and the Southern Police Institute.
There are still many formidable obstacles to the realization of basic human and civil rights for the Roma community. Even though Roma housing destroyed in mob violence is being reconstructed with government aid, the great majority of Roma forced from their homes have not yet been able to return. The mass media rarely devote much attention to efforts by authorities to prosecute and punish offenses against the Roma, even though they routinely describe any crimes committed by individuals of Roma ethnicity as "Gypsy" crimes. The government is not consistent in its attention to the problems of the Roma, nor does it coordinate its programs with those sponsored by the Roma community. And there is still the problem of the politicization of ethnic tensions on the part of political parties and ethnopolitical entrepreneurs.
On the positive side of the ledger, active engagement with governmental and
police authorities, despite initial resistance, has produced significant
gains in coping with violence against Roma persons and property. The
training of local police officers in preventive and ethnically neutral
practices and effective social intervention promises to provide a basis on
which future programs on the awareness and tolerance of diversity can build.
The sooner that general issues affecting all members of society, such as the
establishment and implementation of the rule of law and basic human and
civil rights, are dealt with, the sooner the problems specific to the Roma
can be addressed and the necessary resources and expertise can be focused on
the goal of achieving full equality for the Roma people.
APPENDIX
THE SNAGOV DECLARATION
(Translated from the Romanian)
- The participants in the conference entitled "Social Policies and Daily Life: An Evaluation of Current Action-Oriented Programs in Roma Communities," which was held at Lake Snagov, Bucharest, from April 29 to May 2, 1993, examined different aspects of the situation of the Roma in their respective countries, expressed their concern with issues related to them, and effected an exchange of experience regarding possible methods of addressing their common problems. In order to assure that policies followed at the national and international levels take into account, as much as possible, the actual situation and preoccupations of the Roma as minorities in their respective countries, all participants agreed to bring to the attention of their states and of pertinent international organizations the following recommendations.
- The participants expressed the conviction that the Roma can and should live as members with full rights in every country of the world, "together and equal" with all other citizens--the motto under which the conference proceeded. The participants believe that states should take all necessary measures to assure respect for constitutional provisions and national laws regarding equality of rights and nondiscrimination--in short. respect for the human rights of all citizens, including the Roma. The participants declared their support for the adoption, at the national level, of policies and measures necessary for developing an adequate program with the purpose of providing equal opportunity and full participation of Roma in the political, economic, and social realms, together with and alongside all other citizens of their respective countries. The participants also consider it necessary to act at the governmental level and in the framework of Roma organizations and associations to stimulate the participation of Roma in democratic institutions, especially at the local level.
- The participants expressed their concern regarding acts of intolerance and xenophobia and manifestations of violence against the Roma and their communities. Although they are aware that such acts are of a social and local character, they believe that the risk that such acts will be repeated continues to exist. They expressed their desire that state bodies, as well as nongovernmental organizations, including those of the Roma, should act within their respective domains, as well as in cooperation with each other where possible, for the prevention of such acts and manifestations, which violate human rights and provoke human suffering. They also believe in the necessity of adopting national legislation that would punish the use of the mass media to incite intolerance. xenophobia, violence, and racial discrimination. It is necessary to take action to develop juridical procedures much more rapidly and much more objectively, so that all persons, including those who belong to the Roma minority, may have faith in the justice system. The participants emphasized the Importance of education for all people and of the need for a spirit of peaceful human relations in local communities, irrespective of ethnic origins. and the rejection of xenophobia and racism, which violate this spirit.
- The participants pointed to the specific economic and social problems of the Roma and of their communities, such as unemployment, lack of housing, and illiteracy. The necessity that state bodies devote full attention to the solution of these problems, with consideration for the full equality of rights and the specific conditions of each community. was emphasized. They also underlined the need for the solution of general problems of social security (unemployment assistance, social assistance, family allocations, medical assistance, etc.), especially for the most disadvantaged categories of the population, in whose ranks the Roma are often found. Similarly, importance was attached to the organization of vocational and professional training programs in order to attract the greatest possible number of Roma to productive activities. The participants consider especially necessary the promotion of a number of projects that would facilitate the development of Roma communities in the domains of housing, education, and health care, as well as the expression and development of their cultural identities. The participants stressed the importance of vigorously supporting actions at the local level, in the framework of municipalities and communes, for the development of programs and projects designed to address the problems of the Roma in the exercise of their rights as equal citizens. The participants appeal to all intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, to institutions and academic circles, and to bodies concerned with human rights to accord human and material support for the realization of such projects in as many countries and localities as possible. Roma associations and organizations are called upon to mobilize the members of the Roma communities to participate and cooperate in the realization of such projects in accordance with their respect for human rights and their acceptance of the corresponding civic responsibilities, and in the context of their specific culture and their need for equal access to decent living conditions in the localities in which they live
- The participants underlined the necessity for states that have returned Roma living there illegally to examine, together with the states to which these persons are returned, the initiation of certain projects and assistance programs for the vocational and professional training of these persons. Likewise, the participants believe that all states of Europe that decide to expel persons coming from other countries or that take other legal measures regarding such persons must assure the integral respect of these persons' rights, including their property rights and the return of personal goods. International organizations and nongovernmental organizations in the respective countries should be involved as much as possible in the establishment and realization of projects and programs in furtherance of this goal
- The participants declare their support for the extension of lines of communication and cooperation between localities and territorial units in all parts of Europe where stable communities of Roma live. Improved communication could lead to the promotion of cultural and artistic exchanges and to a reciprocal familiarity and understanding of their experiences. The participants call upon the territorial and local councils of Europe, as well as governmental and nongovernmental organizations, to establish regular contacts for the exchange of information and experience regarding the social integration and participation of Roma in the civic, economic, and cultural life of their respective localities and territorial units. In this way, a network of those councils and organizations that are interested in this domain can be created. The participants maintained the necessity of adopting and implementing a European program that would achieve a better understanding of the Romani culture and a better reflection of the situation of this minority in the mass median in order to eliminate anti-Roma prejudice. It was noted that the relationship that must be established between the school and the social medium of the Roma, in the sense of adapting the educational system so that the number of absentees and dropouts belonging to this minority is steadily decreased, was highly relevant. Taking note with interest of the activities of the Permanent Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, the participants address and appeal to the Secretary of the Conference to support initiatives for the creation of such networks for exchanging information and experience by according the special and logistical technical assistance necessary to include, on a step-by-step basis, as many localities within European countries as possible. During the conference, the participants took the initiative of organizing such networks, starting with the experiences of Romanian localities and counties in which such proiects have been applied over the past two years
- The participants underlined the necessity of international organizations, both those in the domain of human rights and those that deal with financial and economic problems, to include Roma issues in their activities and to support projects and programs of social and economic cooperation and development that would take into account the interests of the entire population, including the Roma.
- The participants examined a series of concrete proposals and ideas in various domains concerning the methods of acting at the local level, in localities and communities, to address the economic and social concerns of the Roma, as well as the problems of cooperation with other segments of the population in each country. They recommend that governmental and international organizations examine these proposals and ideas within the context of current possibilities and concrete conditions in order to incorporate and implement them as part of their short-term and long-term policies.
- Many participants referred to international documents that establish standard norms regarding fundamental human rights and liberties and the rights of persons belonging to minorities, including the Roma: the Universal Declaration on Human Rights; the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights; the International Agreement on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE); the Final Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the CSCE; the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages; and the Declaration Concerning the Rights of Persons Belonging to Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic, or National Minorities in 1992. They underlined the necessity that the European states take into account the provisions of these documents in the policies that they adopt and in the implementation of these policies.
- The participants in the Lake Snagov conference believe in the necessity of organizing similar meetings in the near future, and they express the hope that other countries and organizations will join in this initiative and support the organization of such meetings. The participants in the conference request the appropriate international organizations to distribute and present this declaration as a working document at those meetings that have themes related to our conference.
Lake Snagov
Bucharest
May 1, 1993
SNAGOV CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS (PARTIAL LIST)
ALBANIA
Marcel Cortiade, International Romani Union
Guraliu Mejdani, Armorodives
AUSTRIA
Ievremovici Dragan, Roma Center
Meissner Paul, Roma Center
BULGARIA
Vasil Chaprasov
Yasia Ivanov Danev
Manush Romanov Demirev, Roma Union
Dimitar Georgiev, Helsinki Citizens Assembly
Ivo Todorov, Bulgarian Embassy
CZECH REPUBLIC
Ladislav Body, Czech Parliament
Ladislav Goral, Government of the Czech Republic
Maria Reizmerova
ENGLAND
Peter Mercer, Romani Union
FRANCE
Claire Auzias, Institute for Children & Family
Bernard Barbereau, French Embassy
Laurence Duchenede Barras, Doctors without Borders
Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir
Anne Wasmer, Friends of Roma
GERMANY
Godehard Flener, Home Office
HUNGARY
Bela Bogdan, Roma Parliament
Agnes Daroozi, Hungarian Institute of Culture
Florian Farkas, Lungo Drom
Aladar Horvath, Roma Parliament
Tamas Peci, Hungarian Parliament
MOLDOVA
Pavel Andreychoko
Stefan Bozbei
NETHERLANDS
Galjus Orhan, Patrin
POLAND
Pawet Kazaneck, Ministry of Culture
Andrzej Mirga, Roma Association of Poland
Jacek Radomsky, Council of Ministers
Stanislav Stankiewicz, Romani Union
Wieslaw Adamczyk, Ministry of Interior
ROMANIA
Dumitru Ion-Bidia, Romani Ethnic Community
Vasile Burtea, Ministry of Labor
George Botescu, Home Office
Augustin Buzura, Romanian Cultural Foundation
Ion Cioaba, King of the Roma in Romania
Gabriela Ciubuc
Gabriela Coman
Constantin Constantinescu, Home Office
Nadia Constantinescu, Ministry of Justice
Atanasiu Corolan, Ministry of Labor
Josif Covaci
Radu Demetrescu
Ion Diaconu, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Corneliu Dorot
Ioan Dragan, Institute of Sociology
Alexandru Dumitru
Sorel Farcas
Carmen Firan, Romanian Cultural Foundation
Ilie-Vasile Fonta, Romanian Presidency
Petru Gavrilescu, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nicolae Gheorghe, Rromani CRISS
Mihai Giugariu, Romanian Cultural Foundation
Vasile Ionescu, Ministry of Culture
Nikolaus Kleininger, Ministry of Education
Angela Martin, Ministry of Culture
Ion Maxim, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Elena Muresan
Rodica Nitulescu, Ministry of Labor
Geza Otvos, Doctors without Borders
Ion Peleanu
Valeriu Petrovici
Angelica Popa, Romanian Cultural Foundation
Mariana Popa, Institute of Sociology
Gherorghe Sarau, Ministry of Education
Carmen Seuleanu, Romanian Academy
Matache Stan, Romani Ethnic Community
SLOVAKIA
Adam Gejza
Erika Godlova, Slovak Radio Broadcasting
Karol Horvath, Roma Civic Initiative
Jan Kompus, Roma Civic Initiative
Anna Koptova, Romathan Theatre
Klara Orgovanova, Government of Slovakia
SPAIN
Manuel Martin Ramirez
SWITZERLAND
Kristina Kruck, Soros Foundation
UKRAINE
Fedor Andras, Roma
UNITED NATIONS
Egbertha Greve, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Rudolph Aggrey, Howard University Press
Dorothy Atkinson, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
David Binder, The New York Times
William Duna, U.S. Holocaust Council
Isabel Fonseca, Kaplan Fund
Ian Hancock, International Romani Union
Allen H. Kassof, Project on Ethnic Relations
Kay Atkinson King, Office of U.S. Congressman Swett
Jeff Kuster, Doctors without Borders
Geeta Pasi, U.S. Embassy, Romania
Livia B. Plaks, Project on Ethnic Relations
Larry Watts, Project on Ethnic Relations