EveryOne Group reports the persecution of the gypsies in Italy on BBC radio

The BBC broadcasts a radio programme devoted to Gypsies and Travellers: “Rokker Radio”.

Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. On Sunday December 13th, Rokker Radio spoke about the situation of the gypsies in Italy, the European Parliament Resolution of November 15, 2007 – denouncing the racial persecution being carried out against them by the Italian institutions – and the tragedy of the Rrom families after the camp clearances. EveryOne gave an interview to the network explaining in detail the conditions of oppression that gypsies are subject to in Italy. Glenys Robinson, representing EveryOne, described the aims of our association to the radio listeners, the urgent need for international action to protect a minority, victims of one of the greatest crimes against humanity, and the need to guarantee the Rrom the legal status of “national without a territory”, the basis for any request for emancipation, recognition of human rights and positive integration in full respect of the gypsies’ cultural and traditional values.

BBC Rokker Radio: What is the role of Everyone Group?

EveryOne Group: EveryOne Group is made up of people who are committed to fighting discrimination and in particular the persecution of minority groups. It can be compared to the Westerweel group that opposed the oppression of the Jews during the Nazi period and saved many Jewish children from the Holocaust in Holland. Some of the founding members of EveryOne Group have been working together promoting human rights for over ten years, but the group only took its name two years ago. Most of the articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights start with the word “everyone”. EveryOne Group is mainly committed to stopping the persecution of the Rroms in Italy and their marginalization in many European countries. It’s no coincidence that it is now an international group made up of experts and specialists: Roberto Malini, Dario Picciau and Matteo Pegoraro are not only activists, they are scholars of the Holocaust and the mechanisms of persecution, and have also produced many important works. Saimir Mile, Marcel Courthiade, Jean Sarguera, Santino Spinelli are Rroms, and are university professors, scholars, and respected authors. Glenys Robinson, George Scarlat, the Romanian journalist, and Paul Albrecht, the activist have international experience in the field of human rights. EveryOne Group, with the support of some European political groups, was able to obtain from the European Parliament the Resolution of November 15, 2007, which reprimanded the Italian institutions for their racist policies and for failing to obey Directive 2004/38/CE, concerning the free movement of EU citizens inside member states. The group is active in the field too, contacting ministers, MPs and local politicians in an attempt to prevent - by reminding them of the laws that protect ethnic minorities - acts of persecution, often very brutal ones, including camp clearances that have thrown Rrom families out into the street, without shelter, a means of support, without assistance, without anything at all. When we find out about the camp clearances, some of our members go to the site to prevent terrible abuse taking place. Police officers have been seen ill-treating and insulting children and pregnant women. These camp clearances are similar to the pogroms against the Jews. One of our members, during a camp clearance, was kicked by a policeman - who when we protested justified his actions by saying: “I’m sorry, I thought you were a gypsy”. We are working hard to inform people of what is taking place in order to create a network of “just” people, and to bring these actions before the international institutions asking them to intervene and make sure these racists answer to their actions.
Many members of our group, too, are using their savings to help some Rrom families. No one in our group is wealthy, just people on an average wage. We are able to follow about 60 Rroms and prevent them becoming homeless. That’s our role therefore: to strongly oppose this racist folly that has taken hold of Italy and which is leading to the destruction of the Rrom - all this with the complicity of the media which is concealing the truth. For example, did you know that Romulus Mailat, the man accused of killing Giovanna Reggiani, is not a gypsy at all, that he is a Romanian of the Banjas ethnic group? Did you know that the racial attacks by armed groups like GAPE in Pisa (who burned four children alive in Livorno) are never taken to account by the authorities? After losing their children in the fire in Livorno, the parents found themselves in jail accused of “abandonment of minors” and it was only after our group intervened that they were released from prison and avoided being expelled as “criminals”. Do you know that there are wealthy families who have permanent custody of children taken from their Rrom parents by the social services?

BBC Rokker Radio: What happened during the attack on the Roma Gypsies on the 4th January?

EveryOne Group: On January 4th, at about 10 in the evening, a serious fire broke out inside the two large sheds of the former Mira Lanza factory (each of them about 500 metres square) in the Marconi area in Rome. About 250 Rroms (roughly 100 of them children) had taken refuge in the buildings and were living in very difficult conditions.
The fire was obviously a case of arson as it broke out in the same moment in the two sheds which stand a few dozen metres apart. The fire broke out suddenly and spread rapidly seeing there were no particularly inflammable materials lying around. The flames were very high which indicate that the buildings were hit by incendiary bombs. Fortunately some Rroms noticed the flames, and gave the alarm allowing all the families to flee from the building. The witnesses, dozens of Rroms, alerted the authorities that it was an incendiary attack. The racists were obviously familiar with the structure of the sheds and the habits of its occupants. There were many gas cylinders in the sheds which could have caused a massacre had they exploded. As for the investigation into the attack, we must point out that in Italy those responsible for fires in Rrom settlements are never identified or charged. And that’s probably what will happen this time too.
Three days later on January 7th, at about the same time in the evening, another racist attack took place near Rome, at Aprilia, in the Latina province. A group of young racists threw Molotov cocktails at an abandoned wine factory, Enotria, on the Nettunense road. About 100 Rroms had taken shelter in the building. The explosions destroyed the façade, near the windows. Just a few more centimetres and the incendiary bombs would have entered the building. George Scarlat, the Romanian journalist who writes for “Ziua” , another member of EveryOne, described the attack as follows: “There was an obvious intention to kill. I saw on Romanian TV the scenes of the burnt walls and traces of smoke that reached up to the second floor, between the two windows. Fortunately, the thugs missed their target when throwing the incendiary bombs.” For some time EveryOne Group has been warning the authorities and the press of the risks of the racial campaign being carried out daily in the newspapers and on TV screens by politicians and journalists. Every day the gypsies are accused of new crimes - while any violence they are subject to is hushed up. In 2007 at least 30 Rroms or Romanians were murdered by Italians, and there were countless other episodes of violence towards them. These are always labelled “accidents” and “settling of accounts between Romanians”.

BBC Rokker Radio: What IS the current situation for Gypsies living in Italy?

EveryOne Group: The situation of the Rrom in Italy is getting more and more tragic. Both the central and local authorities are systematically carrying out this ethnic cleansing, in violation of the international laws on human rights. Recently the Italian Home Secretary, Massimo D’Alema, on a visit to the Romanian Home Secretary, Adrian Cioroianu, played down the extent of this persecution against the Rrom in Italy by saying: “We have only expelled 163”. The truth is, the Italian institutions have been carrying out a ruthless “Rrom hunt” for some time. The Rrom settlements have been cleared one by one, without the families being offered alternative lodgings. After the clearances, they set off on “death marches” to nowhere. The families wander around in the cold, without food, health assistance, in search of new shelters in areas that are more and more inhospitable. The racial campaign being carried out against the Rrom stirs up hatred in Italian citizens, who in turn show their hostility by reporting the makeshift camps to the authorities - which leads to new camp clearances. The Rrom move from place to place until they are exhausted. Thousands of Rroms, in desperate conditions, have made their own way back to Romania. Those who have remained are weary and tired. They live in filthy conditions without food, suitable clothing and medicines. Out of 170,000 Rroms, about 100,000 are children and young adolescents. The persecution has brought down their average life expectancy to 40, compared to 80 for Italians citizens. The infant mortality rate is ten times higher. These are horrifying figures because the Jews caught up in the Shoah had the same average life expectancy. There is just one difference: the Germans used gas and ovens to carry out their massacre; the Italian authorities are using the cold, hunger and infections. Marcel Courthiade, an Albanian Rrom, Emeritus Professor of Rromani Culture and Language at Paris University, and a well-known scholar and author, has called the persecution in Italy a genocide. “Today the Rrom are subject to conditions of humiliation, marginalization and oppression which we call “a living death”. It will soon be the end for them.” As for the expulsions, not only are they a violation of the conventions protecting minorities (including the Copenhagen treaty of 1993) but also the recent Directive 2004/38/CE which defends the free movements of EU citizens in member states. Article 14, point 4, for example, states that no EU citizen can be expelled if they are here in Italy to look for work. What’s more, it states that citizens who belong to a minority or are in a position of hardship must be protected and helped. The Italian racial laws, however, foresee expulsion for those who have no job and sufficient means of support for their families. At the same time the authorities have criminalized begging, which is the Rrom’s last resort for survival. The Italian institutions’ plan is to expel the Rrom “en masse” or to wipe them out by leaving them in a situation of extreme hardship.

BBC Rokker Radio: What has Everyone Group been doing in relation to this situation?

EveryOne Group: EveryOne Group is active on many fronts. The most urgent and dramatic one concerns the families we help on a daily basis. Without our contribution they would plunge into the greatest poverty. In Italy, unfortunately, no one offers work to Rrom citizens because of the racial campaign being carried out by the politicians and press. It is very difficult to find them lodgings; in some cases we have had to find them references and guarantees of every kind. It is not sufficient to offer to pay their rent! We are also active in trying to spread information. In Italy there is almost total control of the media by the institutions. It is practically impossible to report on the persecution of the gypsies, on the nature of the fires and the attacks they are subject to. It is impossible to deny the lies that are spread to criminalize them. There are very few exceptions. That is why our group has developed campaigns of correct information in France, Romania, the United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. We have created a network, with the collaboration of some of the most important associations working for the protection of the Rrom. We have taken evidence of the persecution to the European Parliament, resulting in the European Parliament Resolution dated November 15th, 2007 reprimanding racist Italy. But even this was not sufficient, because it appears the lives of the gypsy people in Italy are worth next to nothing. We witness scenes reminiscent of the Warsaw Ghetto, children dying in the mud, pregnant women without nourishment, left out in the cold, families living on the edge of society, wearing torn and inadequate clothing, subject to lice and other parasites, and serious illnesses. For this reason we have presented a report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the European Parliament and Council; the European Court of Human Rights; the International Criminal Court of the Hague, denouncing the Italian central and local authorities for crimes against humanity. We hear that these institutions have not ignored our plea, that they are weighing the report up carefully. We are hoping that international proceedings will take place which will finally bring to the attention of the other countries the shameful tragedy underway in Italy, a situation that reminds us of the sinister years of the Holocaust. Our most urgent aim is to save the lives of thousands of human beings but it’s not our only objective. We have to throw down the roots for a law that will ensure that the brutal tragedies like the ones the Rrom in Italy are subject to are not repeated. A very important step will be to present a statute (or Moral Charter) of the Rromani people to the European Union. For centuries, despite the persecutions, slavery and massacres, the Rrom have been contributing to the development of European culture. It is necessary for Europe to recognise them as a “Rromani Nation without territory” with their own traditions, history and language (Rromani). It is vital that the Moral Charter be signed by the other states, that the Rromani Nation obtain its rightful legal status with the start of an integration process, equality of rights, a rejection of marginalization and respect of their cultural identity. This document already exists, it has been written up over the years by serious and respectable Rromani associations. EveryOne Group has studied it carefully in an attempt to contribute to the final draft which will then be taken to the European Union, counting on - we hope - the support of antiracist and truly progressive political parties.

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