June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO warcrimes in Yugoslavia
Roma: A People Facing a "New Age Holocaust."
by Shani Rifati
Shani Rifati, originally from the Romani community in Kosovo, publishes an English-language newsletter about Romani affairs named Voice of Roma. As his talk was not written, we publish instead parts of his articles published in Voice of Roma covering the same material.
All over Western Europe a new generation of Roma are arriving, in flight from persecution, discrimination, ethnic cleansing and/or other hardships in Eastern Europe. The reemergence and acceleration of genocidal attacks on Romani populations in Eastern Europe, since the collapse of Socialism, have lead Roma into forced flight and migration.
In Western Europe too, skinhead and mob attacks against Roma are on the rise. International organizations have done virtually nothing to help this group of people, a population who both historically and currently bare no responsibility for initiating or voluntarily participating in ethnic conflicts or wars. This is the situation faced by tens of thousands of Roma who have fled from Kosovo during and in the aftermath of the NATO bombing which ended in June, 1999.
International Human Rights Monitors are busily debating whose rights come first and whose needs are greater. Some argue that economic, social and cultural rights should come before civil and political rights; a person's right to eat is more important than another person's freedom of expression. Others argue that civil and political rights are most important, and only when these are achieved will people be insured of their economic, social, and cultural rights.
The fact is that all human rights are inter-dependent. The daily reality confronting the Romani people across Europe is that they do not enjoy any of these rights, nor do they have anyone advocating on their behalf. In general, Roma have received little or no help from the community of international human rights organizations and nongovernmental organizations, prior to the NATO bombing of Kosovo.
Now there are a few, precious few, humanitarian organizations helping Roma in and from Kosovo. But the occupation of Kosovo by Western Governmental Institutions and NGOs, whose purposes are supposedly the benign offering of economic and humanitarian aid to the people there, is compounded by Western jingoism. There are often political motivations, far less benign than they are made out to be, underlying the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Who receives this aid and how the aid distribution is publicized, indicates the needs of many of these international institutions to show the world how great they are and how politically correct they are; in other words, a self-serving public relations game. In the meantime, even the NGOs and governmental bodies themselves admit that what aid is reaching the people of Kosovo is pathetically meager, and not equitably distributed amongst the different ethnic groups in and from the region.
Only a handful of Romani organizations have begun to tackle the enormous task of making the world aware of their invisible people's plight; a people facing a "New Age Holocaust." The lack of world attention for what Roma in Europe are currently facing is analogous to what befell the Romani victims of the Holocaust after WWII. Very few Holocaust spokespeople have ever mentioned that there are estimates that more than 1.5 million Roma were the victims of the Third Reich's extermination campaign.
This Romani invisibility is still going on, with very few NGOs advocating for and providing aid to Roma inside and out of the former Yugoslavia. Roma are dying in cities and villages throughout the country they used to call home; prior to the war, 1.2 million Roma lived in the former Yugoslavia. The only victims of the turmoil there who receive ongoing and persistent public attention are the Bosnians, Croats and Kosovo Albanians.
Why does this division exist between the recognition of Kosovo Albanian, Bosnian Muslim, and Croatian refugees and the Romani refugees? The first three ethnic groups are seen as political refugees, in strong opposition to the Serbian regime of the former Yugoslavia, with ties to extreme nationalist movements, former fascist collaborators, and eager to ally themselves to the interests of Western Capitalism.
Roma, on the other hand, are a people with no historical or current territorial claims within the former Yugoslavia. They have no political representation, are economically weak, have no leadership, and lack organizational structure due to their place at the bottom of the economic scale. Their energies are entirely consumed by the struggle for survival. The reason why Roma are overlooked is because they are completely irrelevant to the explicit and implicit goals of the Western powers, whereas the other groups of "political refugees" support, encourage, and embrace the Westernization of the former Yugoslavia.
Background on the flight of Romani refugees from Kosovo to Italy
Since the end of the U.S./NATO Bombing of Kosovo, thousands of Roma were forced by ethnic Albanians to flee at gunpoint, with only the clothes on their backs. Most Romani neighborhoods in Kosovo have been burned and destroyed, with a few of the nicer houses left intact, now occupied by Albanians in front of the eyes of KFOR forces and UNHCR.
In fact, some of the Albanians now occupying the homes of Roma who were ethnically cleansed, are reportedly renting their former homes to Western NGO representatives and workers. Since July 1999, thousands of Roma have made the perilous 18-24 hour journey from Bar, in Montenegro, to Brindisi, Italy, crammed onto small fishing from which the boat captains jumped ship one to two hours out to sea.
Ships carrying hundreds of people and riding dangerously low in the water have been reportedly arriving in Italy regularly since shortly after the entry of K-FOR troops and the return of the refugees from Albania and Macedonia. The Italian daily Il Manifesto reported on July 7, 1999 that 700 Roma had arrived in Puglia.
On August 3, 1999, Il Manifesto reported that 1,010 Roma from Kosovo had arrived by ship from Montenegro on July 31. A ship with 300 refugees arrived in the Italian port of Brindisi, according to Reuters on August 18, followed by another large ship with 1,120 Roma arriving in Bari on August 19, according to the same source.
Sources in Kosovo and Montenegro told the European Romani Rights Center that smugglers charged between 1,500 and 3,000 German Marks (approximately $1,000 to $1,700 at the time) per person.
The Italian weekly newspaper, Panorama, wrote on July 22, 1999 that the Italian consulate in Bar, Montenegro had refused as many as 3,000 Romani applicants for political asylum. Roma reportedly make the illegal crossing in very poor conditions. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti reported on August 26 that the bodies of 36 Roma had been found in the Adriatic Sea by the Montenegrin Coast Guard. The Roma were refugees from Kosovo who were being smuggled into Italy when their ship sank on August 20.
Many of the refugees who traveled to Italy in this way have reported that the Kosovo Albanian Mafia organizes this illegal, lucrative method of smuggling Romani refugees. Further, these refugees claim that the Albanian Mafia is working in conjunction with Milos Djukanovic, the leader of the Montenegrin opposition [to Milosevic ] and secession movement, who is openly sponsored by Western countries. Needless to say, this story has received virtually no coverage in the international press.
Upon reaching Italy, Roma have been put in locked camps for “illegals,” where the lucky ones have waited two weeks to a month for temporary (usually 30 day) permits to remain in Italy. From here, some Romani refugees have traveled to various overcrowded ghetto settlements in Italian cities. The living conditions in these Italian ghetto camps are appalling, and the new arrivals are under constant threat of deportation.
According to United Nations High Commisioner of Refugees reports and documentation from the European Roma Rights Center, there are currently 5,000-6,000 Roma remaining in Kosovo, the majority of whom are living in makeshift camps and receiving nominal aid and protection from the international agencies operating on the ground there.
A recent survey conducted by an independent researcher, Paul Polansky, placed the number of Roma currently in Kosovo at approximately 30,000. In his report he stated: "Since the arrival of KFOR forces and the return of ethnic Albanians to Kosova, more than 14,000 Roma homes have been burnt. It is not only the local Albanians who are discriminating against the Roma, but also the major aid agencies in Kosova. In many districts I found Mother Teresa Society openly refusing to deliver food to Gypsies. Islamic Relief also seems to have a policy of not providing aid to Gypsies although the Roma are Muslim.
Even at Oxfam, who have done more for the Roma than any other aid agency in Kosova, deliveries to minorities are sometimes delayed for long periods by local Albanian staff. Urgent requests for food aid for hungry Gypsy families made to several major aid agencies months ago have gone unfulfilled. Although the Roma are the second largest minority in Kosova (and may soon be the largest minority at the rate the Serbs are leaving) no aid agency including UNHCR and the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe have hired a Kosovar Rom, although many Roma speak passable English."
Throughout the 78 days of NATO bombings, many Roma remained in Kosovo, while others fled to Serbia, only to find themselves in equally life-threatening circumstances in Belgrade, Nis, and other Serbian cities. Many Roma attempted to flee to Macedonia or Albania, only to be turned back at the border, or to be refused assistance at refugee camps inside these countries by Albanian officials who falsely accused them of being allied with the Serbs. Those that remained in Kosovo, and those that returned or tried to return to their homes there after the bombing ended in June, found their lives threatened once again by the now triumphant ethnic Albanians.
Thousands of Roma were forced to flee at gunpoint, with only the clothes on their backs. Estimates range from 125,000 - 200,000 Roma from Kosovo who have fled to other parts of Serbia, or sought refuge in other European countries from the southern tip of Italy to the Northern Scandinavian countries. Paul Polansky's survey concludes: "As seen by the results of this survey, most Roma have left Kosova to save their own lives. They are not economic emigrants as some UNHCR staffs depict them, but people desperately trying to survive. From my interviews in the refugee camps in Macedonia and Montenegro, most want to return when it is safe to do so. It is in their culture, their heritage and their tradition that Roma are buried in the homeland of their ancestors. For at least seven hundred years, Kosova has been their homeland."
Since July, thousands of Roma have made the perilous 18-24 hour journey from Bar, in Montenegro, to Brindisi, Italy, in groups numbering several at a time, crammed onto small fishing boats from which the boat captains jumped ship one to two hours out to sea; (over 100 Roma drowned in the Adriatic in August, when one of these boats capsized, a story which received virtually no international press). Upon reaching Italy, Roma have initially been put in locked camps for illegals.
They are often coerced into registering as Albanians in order to receive assistance and documents. This not only requires them to adopt the identity of the very people who have driven them out of their homeland, but once again makes them invisible in the eyes of the international help organizations and the media. When released with temporary papers, many have gone to join friends or family at overcrowded ghetto settlements in various Italian cities, where living conditions are appalling and the new arrivals are under constant threat of deportation.
Other Romani refugees from Kosovo are awaiting uncertain outcomes to their political asylum claims, in locked camps with poor food and housing situations in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Holland, etc. Given that this is taking place fifty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - with its promise of the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution; this promise certainly rings hollow for the Roma from Kosovo.
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