Your silence kills Roma, your voice can save Europe!
Hello you all,
Very briefly: Last night there were protests, however much smaller. This is what the media is reporting as well. Yet here I am posting something that I got from one of the people in the antira initiative:
“Since last night the situation, at least in sofia, has changed. The protests seem calm, there aren’t football fans, the Nazis are not a lot and quieter, there are signs against the discrimination and EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL, the cops calmed down… there wasn’t even that many of them.
BUT, they are gathering in small groups through the neighborhoods and are obviously trying to organize attacks in the ghettos and around them. It seems like they are starting a partisan war. That way the cops won’t be able to manage the situation and the media is already reporting how peaceful and friendly everything is. The rumors about the attacks spread throughout the Roma hoods and things escalate. Last night, in the Roma buildings in my hood, for the first time I saw people carrying stakes… my guess is that these stakes are not there just randomly.
Pretty bad… “
This article here
http://www.dnevnik.bg/bulgaria/2011/09/29/1165274_romi_i_skinari_se_sbiha_v_blagoevgrad/?ref=rss
says that in one of the Roma hoods in Blagoevgrad there has been fights against skinheads and Roma people. People have been hospitalized.
Thank you all for all of your support. i have forwarded your emails to the antira in Sofia.
Bron : Raia
http://www.romayouth.com/your-silence-kills-roma-your-voice-can-save-europe
Your silence kills Roma, your voice can save Europe!
Participants of the Roma Youth Conference in Strasbourg are using the
opportunity to share with you the Declaration about the unbearable
increase of violence and hatredparticularly in Bulgaria, Czech Republic
as well as other European countries. Moreover on 28th September 2011 the
participants of conference organized a solidarity event in front of the
European Parliament and Council of Europe with the Roma in those
countries. We strongly believe that you would not remain silent about
the current situation and will make Europe an equal place for Roma.
Bron : Tibor
Hi, attached the original article in “Süddeutsche Zeitung”? and here my translation:
Marc
Hatred on “Zar Kiro”
Police arrested more than 100 Bulgarians in order to prevent attacks on
Roma-families
A deadly traffic accident resulted in serious tensions between the
minority of the Roma and the majority of the population. According to a
statement of the Ministry of Interior from Tuesday more than hundred
young Bulgarians were arrested in order to prevent riots against
Roma-settlements. The leader of a big Roma-Clan, who is obviously hated
because of criminal behaviour, was brought to a save place in capital
Sofia by the police as said in a report by the Bulgarian TV.
The man is called “Kiril Raschkow”, who is living with his big family
in the village Katuniza in South-Bulgaria, close to Plowdiw, the
second-largest city of the country. He is known as “Zar Kiro” and is the
owner of big property. According to Bulgarian press-reports he is the
leader of an organization like the mafia and was already in Communism
before 1989 convicted to altogether 30 years in prison. The inhabitants
of the village accuse him to terrorise them and being unimpeachable
because of corruption, even the Roma have to suffer under him.
On the weekend, strong riots take place in Raschkow, after the 19-years
old inhabitant of the village, Angel Petrow, was struck by a mini-bus
and died on Friday evening. In the car were members of the Kiro-Clan.
According to reports by eyewitnesses, he act intentionally and went away
after the accident. In the meanwhile he stated, he has not stopped
because he thought a hit a dog. Now, the men is accused by authorities
for thunder.
After the accident, there were serous riots by ethnical Bulgarians.
Football fans joined them and other young people, including right-wing
persons from the close city Plowdiw, who organized themselves by
facebook. They burned down some luxury houses of the Roma-leader
Raschkow. There were brawls, during which a 16-year old boy died because
of heart failure. Altogether there were 141 arrests by the police, the
responsible prosecutor said. Seven of them were doomed in a fast
procedure. On Sunday, some hundreds right-wing rockers protested in
front of the house of “Zar Kiro” in Kutuniza, in the town centre some
thousand people met. On Monday, the riots spread to other cities. In the
capital Sofia was chaos, when 1000 demonstrators clashed with the
police. In some towns, young men tried to enter Roma-settlements but the
police was able to avoid this. In Sofia, young people threaten a mosque
but the security was able to oust them. Nevertheless, Prime Minister
Bojko Borissow criticized, that the police was not able to stop the
riots.
The conservative politician Borissow and President Georgi Parwanow, a
former socialist asked for silence on Monday in Kutuniza. Parwanow said,
the ethical clashes should not become a theme for the election campaign
which recently started because of the elections on the 23th October.
Furthermore he stated, that the conflict in Kutuniza is not based on
ethnical grounds, it´s a personal thing.
According to radio, the Bulgarians are tolerant and not separated
because of ethnical, religious and racist memberships. But the
politicians and the Roma-leader have to solve the problems of the Roma
now. According to the radio-report, the conflict exists since years.
Kiril Raschkow and his family seem to be registered as unemployed, the
same time they are rich. They became rich by producing illegal alcohol,
pick-pocketing and prostitution. The authorities and the political
parties didn´t do something against this, because the Clan controls a
lot of votes and a lot of judges, policemen and excise officers receive
bribes from them.
