EU must take especial responsibility for Roma and Ashkali in Kosovo

On the occasion of the World Day of the Roma (8th April) the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) wrote on Tuesday to the member states of the European Union with the demand that they at last take on especial responsibility for the Roma and Ashkali, the second largest national minority in Kosovo after the Serbs. International public opinion, the media, parties, churches and trades union movement of the EU had hardly noticed the collective persecution and deprivation of rights after the invasion of the NATO troops in 1999, criticised the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch in his letter to the foreign ministers of the 27 EU states.

After the declaration of independence of Kosovo steps must now be taken to ensure that the rights of Roma and Ashkali are no longer ignored.

Following the burning or destruction of 75 estates of the Roma and Ashkali by Albanian extremists, after mishandling, rape and murder, in the years 1999 and 2000 about 80% of the approximately 150,000 members of this minority left Kosovo. "Straight after the invasion of the NATO I myself witnessed with horror these hate campaigns of extremist Kosovo-Albanians, who a few weeks before had been the victims of Serb war crimes”, reported Zülch. The property of these minorities was soon plundered or stolen.

For this reason the GfbV calls for the clarification and recognition of the property rights of the Roma with respect to their possessions. A reconstruction programme extending all over the country must be started at long last. The minority must be considered on the pattern of South Tyrol in a proportional system in the distribution of public workplaces. The discrimination of Roma and Ashkali must also be overcome in the health system and a special medical care programme must be set up for this neglected minority.

The 8th April was declared the World Day of the Roma in 1971. At a congress in London, at which Roma from 22 countries attended, the Romani Union was founded. This was the first world-wide organisation of the Roma and it was recognized by the UNO in 1979. In 1981 the GfbV organised the third World Roma Congress in Göttingen with participants from 28 countries, for which Simon Wiesenthal together with the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Ghandi, had taken on the patronage.