The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) will present to the Conference of Ministers of the Interior in Hamburg today, Thursday, a declaration signed by holders of the Göttingen Peace Prize against the deportation of Roma from Kosovo. In this Göttingen Declaration the holders call for the approximately 10,500 Roma refugees, who have for many years had temporary residence permits, and their children, who were born and have grown up here, to be granted permanent right of residence. The situation of the Roma in Kosovo is dreadful and a return in safety and dignity is not possible.

"Germany has a double duty to the Roma minority from Kosovo”, says the Declaration. "Firstly, hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti were victims of the Holocaust. Secondly, German troops also of the Nato force just accepted the expulsion of the Roma by Albanian extremists after the victory over Serbia in the summer of 1999. These refugees have now been entrusted to us. It is quite wrong for us to drive them out of the country.”

The Göttingen Peace Prize of the Dr Roland Röhl Foundation has been awarded each year since 1999 to groups and individuals in public life. In the award for the year 2010 to PRO ASYL a joint statement of former prize-winners on the present situation of the Roma in Germany was proposed. The STP (the prize-winner for the year 2003) then prepared the Göttingen Declaration.

The text:

GÖTTINGEN DECLARATION

In the tradition of the Göttingen Seven (Göttinger Sieben) and the Göttingen Eighteen (Göttinger Achtzehn) the holders of the Göttingen Peace Prize and individuals of public life in Germany appeal to the German Parliament and government not to deport the 10,500 Roma refugees from Kosovo and to grant them the right of permanent residence in Germany.

In the spring of 1999 German troops were involved for the first time since the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in military action: in the Nato air raids on military targets in former Yugoslavia. In June of the same year Kosovo was occupied by Nato troops and one million Albanian displaced persons and refugees could return to their homes.

The members of a fact-finding mission of the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) were then witnesses of how many of the hitherto persecuted Albanians became into criminals themselves and turned against the coloured minorities of the Roma and Ashkali. Over 70 of their 75 estates and villages were destroyed by Albanian extremists or burned down. Roma and Ashkali were mistreated, tortured, abducted, raped or murdered. Countless refugees drowned in the Adriatic.

Four fifths of the former approximately 150,000 Roma and Ashkali have fled or been driven out since 1999. Thousands of these two ethnic communities fled already from the repression of the Milosevic troops at the beginning of the 1990s. Since that time some 30,000 Roma from Kosovo have been living in Germany as refugees. About 10,500 of them are threatened with compulsory deportation although their children were born here or have grown up alongside us.

These refugee children speak German as their mother tongue, often with a regional accent. For their integration teachers, social workers, ministers of religion. Christian communities, refugee councils, human rights activists and many other citizens have worked hard and done a great deal for their integration both in material and non-material terms.

Germany has a double duty to the Roma minority from Kosovo. Firstly, hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti were victims of the Holocaust. Secondly, German troops also of the Nato force just accepted the expulsion of the Roma by Albanian extremists after the victory over Serbia in the summer of 1999. These refugees have now been entrusted to us. It is quite wrong for us to drive them out of the country.

German laws have not given these people the possibility of planning their lives even in the medium term. They have not been allowed to work and their children have not been allowed to take up training. They have been forbidden to leave their own district. The forced inactivity – often lasting for many years – has driven many into depression and despair. The result has been a vicious circle. Only a few can profit from the new residence regulations.

Contrary to the reports of the Foreign Office the situation of the Roma minority in Kosovo in the opinion of human rights organisations and also of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Council of Europe and the OSCE is dreadful: violations of human rights against Roma are frequent, but are not reported to the police. Nearly all Roma are unemployed and employment quotas anchored by law for members of minorities are disregarded. The nourishment of most Roma children is quite inadequate and no proper provision is being made for their education. Adequate medical care for those returning is unaffordable. The elderly and seriously ill are in a hopeless situation.

In the light of this unbearable situation and of the persecution and the annihilation of the Roma and Sinti by the Nazi regime we call on the German government and the provinces to establish a contingent solution for the approximately 10,500 Roma refugees from Kosovo and thus to display their good will towards this minority, which is threatened in its existence. In this connection we would like to draw attention to the exemplary solution in the case of other communities like the 200,000 Jews and the two million Russian Germans from the Russian Federation.

We stand out firmly against the compulsory deportation of the Roma from Kosovo in the hope that the solidarity of the citizens of Göttingen, a city pledged to the tradition of humanism, will be reflected in other towns and cities in which Roma refugees from Kosovo live. We hope that our action will help to ensure that these people can be allowed to stay in Germany.

Göttingen, 27th May 2010

For the Society for Threatened Peoples:

Tilman Zülch

For the Committee for the Award of the Göttingen Peace Prize of the Dr Roland Röhl Foundation: Prof. Dr Jürgen Schneider

Holders of the Göttingen Peace Prize signing the petition: