A group of Roma people had to flee their homes, situated in vicinity of village Ambrus. Attended by police units, the family of twenty-five members surrendered the escalation of the non-Roma local residents who strictly demanded Roma people's immidiate deportation. A group of about five hundred angry locals approached Roma settlement on saturday evening, threatening to cast them out by force and damage their houses.
Sunday, October 29th, 2006: a group of Roma people had to flee their homes, situated in vicinity of village Ambrus. Attended by police units, the family of twenty-five members surrendered the escalation of the non-Roma local residents who strictly demanded Roma people's immidiate deportation. A group of about five hundred angry locals approached Roma settlement on saturday evening, threatening to cast them out by force and damage their houses. About 200 members of the special police units were mobilized to the site of the incident, trying to prevent the possibility of physical violence. The reaction of Slovene government, which holds the responsibility for years of xenophobic atmosphere, has proved to act utterly authoritarian.
General cause of this recent escalation originated in an incident that took place on Monday, October 23th, 2006. At this occasion one resident of Roma settlement, who is not of Roma origin himself, got into a violent argument with another local resident of the village Ambrus. As the latter ended up in the hospital, beaten, local villagers urgently decided to expell the whole Roma family away from their homes. They refered to ecological and safety reasons to prove their stance. The members of the Roma family dispersed in the nearby forest, terrified by villager's revengeful intentions. They did not come back, but stayed in the forest for days (and nights), sheltered only by two improvised tents. Amongst them were about twenty kids and one pregnant woman. On Saturday morning they had finally decided to return to their homes, but they soon discovered that they will not be able to stay there for long. Already in the afternoon the crowd of local villagers appeared on the nearby road, shouting rasistic insults and holding clubs in their hands. They placed branches and logs on the middle of the road and burn the wood at the stake. They demanded instant leave of Roma and threatened to attack them, as well as their property, if their requirements would not be fulfilled. It needed about 200 members of the special police units to protect the group of Roma from the furious crowd.
Shortly after the incident, Minister of the Interior Dragutin Mate appeared at the site as the negotiations started. He surrendered to the demands of the villagers' crowd and self-willingly ordained a deportation of all present Roma to the former Open accomodation center for refugees in Postojna. Already on Sunday morning Roma family left their homes and, attended by the police, set out to Postojna. Living circumstances in Postojna are quite unbearable and Roma family members all hope to return to their homes as soon as possible.
The racist outburst that imposed suffering upon Roma family with a residency in Ambrus might lead to an established pattern that can also be applied to other Roma communities and could spread to dealing with all kinds of 'undesired' citizens, said Zoran Grm, Roma councillor of nearby Novo mesto. Some voices draw parallels between the present situation and the act of 'the Erasure' which took place in 1992 – when Slovene government literally 'erased' 30.000 residents out of the register of permanent residence in the Republic of Slovenia. A good deal of responsibility rests on government authorities that helped creating conditions of spreading xenophobic atmosphere. As it is obvious from present case, Slovene authorities have succesfully proven of being incapable to react to these issues according to the democratic normatives; besides, it they are utterly incapable of handling the situation at all.
General cause of this recent escalation originated in an incident that took place on Monday, October 23th, 2006. At this occasion one resident of Roma settlement, who is not of Roma origin himself, got into a violent argument with another local resident of the village Ambrus. As the latter ended up in the hospital, beaten, local villagers urgently decided to expell the whole Roma family away from their homes. They refered to ecological and safety reasons to prove their stance. The members of the Roma family dispersed in the nearby forest, terrified by villager's revengeful intentions. They did not come back, but stayed in the forest for days (and nights), sheltered only by two improvised tents. Amongst them were about twenty kids and one pregnant woman. On Saturday morning they had finally decided to return to their homes, but they soon discovered that they will not be able to stay there for long. Already in the afternoon the crowd of local villagers appeared on the nearby road, shouting rasistic insults and holding clubs in their hands. They placed branches and logs on the middle of the road and burn the wood at the stake. They demanded instant leave of Roma and threatened to attack them, as well as their property, if their requirements would not be fulfilled. It needed about 200 members of the special police units to protect the group of Roma from the furious crowd.
Shortly after the incident, Minister of the Interior Dragutin Mate appeared at the site as the negotiations started. He surrendered to the demands of the villagers' crowd and self-willingly ordained a deportation of all present Roma to the former Open accomodation center for refugees in Postojna. Already on Sunday morning Roma family left their homes and, attended by the police, set out to Postojna. Living circumstances in Postojna are quite unbearable and Roma family members all hope to return to their homes as soon as possible.
The racist outburst that imposed suffering upon Roma family with a residency in Ambrus might lead to an established pattern that can also be applied to other Roma communities and could spread to dealing with all kinds of 'undesired' citizens, said Zoran Grm, Roma councillor of nearby Novo mesto. Some voices draw parallels between the present situation and the act of 'the Erasure' which took place in 1992 – when Slovene government literally 'erased' 30.000 residents out of the register of permanent residence in the Republic of Slovenia. A good deal of responsibility rests on government authorities that helped creating conditions of spreading xenophobic atmosphere. As it is obvious from present case, Slovene authorities have succesfully proven of being incapable to react to these issues according to the democratic normatives; besides, it they are utterly incapable of handling the situation at all.
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