>BASILDON: BULLDOZER LAWPUTS TONY BLAIR ON TRIAL<
By Grattan Puxon

A dramatic legal victory this month
has highlighted the possibility that the
UK government would face international
condemnation should threats to bulldoze
Britain's largest Gypsy settlement be
carried out.

The proposed raising of a hundred
homes at Dale Farm would trigger damages
claims totalling anything up to eight million
euro. But in addition the Labour Government
itself could be challenged under European law.

Lawyers representing residents at Dale
Farm and nearby Hovefield, both threatened
with destruction by Basildon district council,
have been alerted by the news that 300,000
Roma in Greece have won an unprecedented
case against their own government.

Dale Farm representative Kathy McCarthy
plans to deliver a warning to Prime Minister
Tony Blair next week stating that eviction by
Basildon would violate Article l6 of the
European Social Charter.

"The law is on our side," she said. "We
intend to get a hearing before a judge as soon
this is possible."

It is Article l6, guaranteeing protection
of family life and accommodation for all EU
citizens, which has been broken by Greece,
according to a ruling on 8 June from the European
Committee on Social Rights.

The European Roma Rights Centre, which
brought the complaint, says it marks a turning
point in legal efforts to end systematic human
rights abuse of Roma from the Ukraine to the
United Kingdom. In Britain, more than 300
private plots owned by Gypsies have been
flattened and closed down in the past l8 months.

However, one family has this week
reoccupied a closed plot at Bulkington, scene
of two violent evictions by Constant. Legal
proceedings have been initiated.

"Evictions are illegal," says Claude Cahn,
the EERC acting director. "Any country that
allows such a policy to continue is now exposing
itself to a similar conviction."

As to the intention of Basildon to evict ten
Gypsy families at Hoverfield, preparations are being
made to seek a judicial review of that decision. Dale
Farm residents are already suing under the Human Rights
Act in respect of earlier evictions they suffered in
neighbouring Hertfordshire.

Strengthening the case against Britain is the
recent report by the Council of Europe's Commissioner
for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles. He says present
policy fails to meet accommodation and other basic
needs and that racism against Gypsies is rampant.


JEWISH APPEAL

Meanwhile, an appeal is being made to Basildon
councillors by members of the Jewish community not
to go ahead with evictions. Ruth Barnett, who escaped
the Nazi persecution in Germany, says she is concerned
both for the families involved and for the reputation
of Britain.

She is asking members of the council committee
which meets on Tuesday (21 June) to think again about
the families at Dale Farm, in particular the children, and
not to make a decision they could later regret.

A Jewish human rights monitoring team is
being formed to witness the direct action operation
by Constant & Co., a company which styles itself as
Gypsy eviction specialists. The firm has submitted a
blueprint for the domolition of what is virtually
a village at Crays Hill, Essex. It carries a price-tag
of three million euro.

Others preparing to observe the mass-demolition
include Liberal Democrat MP Nick Harvey. Some members
of Basildon council have expressed their opposition to
the operation and a petition signed by local residents
is to be presented soon.

Roma representatives will be reporting on the
crisis to the Romanu union parliament meeting in
Belgrade on 1 July. The planned destruction of Dale
Farm has been condemned by Romani organisations
in France, Germany and Serbia, as well as the US,
Canada and Australia.