More on the Roma

Continuing SOYMB's coverage of Europe's ethnic-cleansing policy (described as integration) of the Roma people we read at the Al Jazeera's website that when Hitler started his ethic cleansing of the Gypsies he inherited elaborate discriminatory legislation specifically designed to keep the Gypsies away. Germany had anti-Gypsy laws since the end of 19th century. During the early days of Nazism, existing anti-Gypsy measures were strengthened and led to mass sterilisation and murder. Mayor Eckersley of Prestatyn in North Wales said Adolf Hitler had the ‘right idea’ about dealing with Germany’s gipsies. His comment came as research from the Welsh Equality and Human Rights Commission identified the country’s Gypsies and Travellers as one of four groups most likely to be discriminated against.

Under the Communist Party dictatorships, hundreds of Gypsy women were sterilised in Czechoslovakia. Human rights organisations claim that the practice continued after 1989. A couple of years ago, a Bulgarian Facebook group appeared under the title - "Sterilise first the Gypsies and then the dogs" (There are a lot of street dogs in Bulgaria and there are debates about whether it is humane to sterilise them.) The group quickly gathered 20,000 members, and then grew by several hundred every a day. "Model" citizens - most of them with higher education - with detailed personal profiles, family and wedding pictures, proudly listing their professional achievements publishing their names, addresses, emails and mobile numbers were competing with each other about who could suggest a better method for getting rid of the Gypsies. According to Bulgarian law, many of the members of this group could have been prosecuted and even jailed for up to four years. Yet, no one in Bulgaria or anywhere in the European Union reacted.

The truth is that people know very little about the Roma beyond the reported horror stories and the general prejudices that occupy peoples' minds. The European Parliament has only one person of Roma origin. Around 10 per cent of the Bulgarian population is Roma, but there is exactly one half-Roma member in the 240 seats of the Bulgarian parliament.