Roma student offers beacon of hope By Barnaby Phillips, Europe correspondent
In Kosovo, school attendance by Roma children is notoriously poor
A few months ago, I travelled to Naples, in Italy, to report on hostility
against the Roma, or Gypsy, people.
Neapolitans blamed the Roma for a crimewave, and burnt down one of their camps.
In video
<http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MlMFRamBVsk>
http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2008/7/5/200875111012591734_8.jpg
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlMFRamBVsk> Italian 'intolerance' hits Roma
community
The story was posted on You Tube by Al Jazeera (you can watch it on the link to
the right).
Here is a sample of some of the comments posted in response; "gypsies are just
parasites", "gypsies cannot adapt to a modern way of living and will never be
welcome", "only a dead gypsy is a good gypsy", and so on.
Many comments are not printable, but you get the drift.
Now, it iss true that the anonymity of the internet has a depressing tendency
to encourage people to publish offensive views.
But, reporting for Al Jazeera from Europe, I've been surprised by the
widespread and deep-rooted prejudice against the Roma.
In Greece, and elsewhere, I'm often taken aback by remarks from otherwise
broadminded people.
Sometimes it seems that the one form of racism that is still socially
acceptable is that against the Roma.
Shocking incident
Last week, I was in Kosovo, where the Roma are in a difficult situation.
Phillips' European diary
<http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/09/200891141140854392.html> Part 1: A
Balkan view
Part
<http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/09/2008911143122594641.html> 2:
Divided Cyprus
Part <http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/09/200892414729697883.html>
3: European split
About 150,000 Roma (at the risk of causing offence, I'm using the term "Roma"
as short-hand for three different communities; the Roma, the Ashkali and the
Egyptians) lived in Kosovo in the early 1990s.
Today the population is about 40,000.
The exodus of Roma from Kosovo at the end of the war in 1999 did not receive
nearly as much attention as that of the Serbs, but it was dramatic nonetheless.
In many parts of Kosovo, the returning Albanian population accused the Roma of
having collaborated with the Serbs, and they drove them out in retaliation.
In perhaps the most shocking incident, in Mitrovica, Albanians destroyed an
entire Roma neighbourhood, home to some 8,000 people, whilst international
troops looked on.
But it is what happened next that is truly scandalous.
Brain damage
Nine years on, only a handful of those Roma people have returned to their homes
in southern Mitrovica.
The UN, which has spent many millions on reconstruction in Kosovo, did not
rebuild any of the Roma houses until 2006.
Hundreds of Roma have spent years living in squalid refugee camps which are
contaminated with high levels of poisonous lead.
Activists blame the lead poisoning for several deaths, and believe that dozens
of children have suffered irreversible brain damage.
The story of the Roma camps is long and complicated, with many competing
interests, but one conclusion is inescapable; in Kosovo today, it's impossible
that any other ethnic group would have been treated with such indifference.
Sons gone
Ramadan Gidzic is a friendly Roma man, in his 50s. He lives in the village of
Preoce, in a Serb enclave near Pristina.
Ramadan misses his grandchildren, and worries whether any Roma will stay in
Preoce
He has been unemployed since 1999, when most Roma fled from Pristina, and he
lost his job working in a library.
Two sons, seeing no way to make a living, have gone to Germany, taking their
children with them. This is a typical story in Preoce.
Fifteen out of 50 Roma households have left, and others are preparing to go.
In private, many admit that they pay smugglers to help them travel to Germany
illegally.
Ramadan misses his grandchildren, and worries whether any Roma will stay in
Preoce.
He says "everyone with relatives abroad will sooner or later go; there is
nothing to do here, and we can’t just stay here and starve to death".
Some human rights workers think that Kosovo's post-war Roma population is now
declining even further, to the extent that there may be none left in five years.
Others say population statistics are unreliable, and it is impossible to draw
any conclusions.
It is certainly not true that all the Roma in Kosovo have given up hope of
building a future there.
Role model
Perhaps the biggest challenge is education. In Kosovo school attendance by Roma
children is notoriously poor.
Tefik is the only Roma student at the American University of Kosovo
According to a 2006 study, only 1.4 per cent finish secondary school. So it was
a pleasant surprise to meet Tefik Agushi, who is 22 years old.
Tefik is the only Roma student at the American University of Kosovo, and a role
model for his community.
He says that Roma children are disadvantaged at school by the absence of any
instruction in their native language.
But he also says that with commitment, young Roma can achieve what they want.
"We can't just sit back and wait for others to help us", says Tefik, one young
man determined not to allow prejudice to stand in his way.
Source:
Al Jazeera
Feedback
Number of comments : 1
Romano Them
Serbia and Montenegro
12/10/2008
Roma student offers beacon of hope
Roma no reason to congratulate Nobel Prize nominee 11 October 2008 – In
reaction to the nomination of the Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari to the
Peace Nobel Prize, Romano Them said that the Kosovo Roma have no reason to join
the chorus of congratulants. “Mr. Ahtisaari’s achievements in bringing back
peace in other parts of the world are undeniable, but in the case of the Kosovo
Roma his action was a complete failure.”, the organisation added.
http://kosovoroma.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/ro
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/10/2008109175143189442.html
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
