The persecution the Italian institutions are perpetuating against Gypsies, described perfectly by Barbie Nadeau in the article “New Union, Old Prejudices” (Newsweek, October 5, 2007) has become even more brutal.
The murder of Giovanna Reggiani by a Gypsy has triggered off a terrible racial campaign led by Italian politicians and the Italian media. The day after the crime, the decree was approved and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale which foresees the possibility of driving away European citizens for security reasons. In fact, tragic clearances of Gypsy camps and deportations have begun all over Italy. It has effected the weakest who live on the fringes of the cities: nomad families thrown out onto the streets in the middle of winter, surrounded by racial hatred of ordinary people influenced by a vast media campaign aimed at criminalizing Gypsies.
The Romanian Foreign Office has made an official complaint against xenophobia in Italy, particularly after a punitive expedition in Rome carried out by a gang of armed racists, who, their faces covered, attacked four Gypsies, savagely beating them up and leaving one of them in a critical condition.
The nomad is now in Viterbo hospital. In the meantime, the leaders of the Left and Right have contributed to stirring up hatred with their declarations. Gianfranco Fini, the leader of Alleanza Nazionale and party representative in the Casa delle Libertà, has put forward as the solution to the problem the “destruction of the camps and deportation of those who have no means of support”.
This means that the thousands of poor, 50% children, without any health care, undernourished, poorly-dressed and often sick, are supposed to find within three months of their arrival in Italy a permanent job and lodgings suited to the number of people in the family: a condition that only a few fortunate Italians are guaranteed.
But most of the Italian politicians, both Left and Right wing, tend to follow the same line. An exception are the groups that are traditionally linked to battles for human rights. Fini himself in the “Corriere della Sera” published November 4, 2007 gave an interview in which he calls for, against the Gypsies, “a policy made up of intransigence, deportations, order and legality”. And he clarifies his crusade: «We have to be clear about integration: there are those who don’t want to integrate because they refuse to accept the values and principles of the society they live in. I ask myself how it is possible to integrate people who consider theft almost admissible and not immoral. People who consider it admissible not to work, because it is the women’s job, at times resorting to prostitution. People who have no qualms about kidnapping children or generating children destined for begging on the streets. Talking about integration for those with a “culture” of this kind does not make sense».
Fini produces against the Gypsies the same prejudices used by Nazi-Fascist propaganda, and in centuries past by the Inquisition - among which the Gypsy bogeyman who kidnaps children. Over the last 100 years in Italy there is no record of one sentence being inflicted on a Gypsy for kidnapping a child. In a moment of great tension between Italian citizens and Gypsies, the media continues to foment hatred. Roberto Calderoli of the Lega Nord declares: «Patrols are the only possible form of legitimate self-defence available to citizens. Patrols I myself would take part in”. In a civilized country, “not administrated by friends of Gypsies, terrorists, criminals and rogues, these above-mentioned Gypsies would immediately be driven away, metaphorically speaking, with a kick up the backside»
The Romanian who was brutally beaten up by a gang of racists in Rome is still in hospital, yet the “Corriere della Sera” is publishing a survey by Renato Mannheimer, aimed at presenting Gypsies as the most “odious” ethnic group among those living in Italy. The journalist writes: “If one asks the Italians what the first thing that comes to mind is when I say the word ‘Rom’ or ‘Gypsy”, the most frequent reply (more than one in four) is ‘thief’ followed by ‘nomad’. Faced with this situation it is not surprising that 70% of Italians consider it difficult, if not impossible, to live alongside Gypsies”.
Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Rome and leader of the PD, calls for “emergency action. We cannot ignore the problem, it is an important national issue that concerns all the large cities.”
The “social dangerousness” of the people removed is decided by authorities who do not have an antiracist culture (see the case of the Livorno fire, in which, in spite of a racist group claiming responsibility for the murder of four Gypsy children, the authorities imprisoned and condemned the parents of the young victims - parents who now risk deportation as they are considered “dangerous” !) At the same time the poverty caused by discrimination and the lack of projects to help them integrate in the world of labour cannot be used as an excuse for their deportation.
Gyspies in this racist Italy do not have any chance of finding a job and decent lodgings, and the only course of action should be that of defending their rights in obtaining means of support and lodgings. Everyone Group is well aware of the problems, we find huge obstacles when we attempt to find a job and home for the Gypsy people - in spite of self-financing the first three-months rent and endless emergencies.
The same goes for the anti-racist and humanitarian work of a few associations committed to defending the rights of the Gypsies. The Church does very little, the State does nothing. Italy has always persecuted Gypsies, forcing them to live in the dirtiest, most-polluted and degraded areas. Amnesty International has denounced the abuse carried out on the Gypsies by the police, especially where children are concerned. The Italian press has for many years been conducting a slanderous and ignoble campaign against nomads, presenting them as thieves, exploiters of children, idlers, child kidnappers and violent.
As we said before, the Gypsies have no chance of defending themselves before the magistrates, and to avoid being sent to prison they are often forced to plea bargain for crimes they have never committed.
When a camp is cleared, a procession of desperate, emaciated families, with inadequate clothing, often barefoot, without food and medicines, are forced to wander around until they find another squalid shelter, from where they will again be driven away by the authorities, using harsh methods against men, women and children. Gypsies are peaceful people. For centuries they were slaves in Romania and persecuted throughout Europe. From 500,000 to 1,000,000 of them perished during the Holocaust. Post-Fascist Italy and post-Nazi Germany then failed to return the thousands of homes and properties confiscated from them, and the right to live in camps, (there were 10,000 of them in Italy, some of them had been camps set aside for nomads for centuries). We are now witnessing a new Holocaust that is taking place among total indifference, one that institutions and media – which is becoming more and more racist – are hiding, covering each other’s crimes against these people. There are thousands of Gypsy children, women, and men dying in this hidden extermination, yet no one speaks or writes about it. The few human rights associations that fight for nomads’ rights undergo all kinds of pressure and threats: newspapers, television and radio censor their efforts to divulge the news.
The lecturers in the Rom, Sinti and Kale culture at the University of Paris, Marcel Courthiade (section head) and Saimir Mile (member of the department of Rom, Sinti and Kale culture and rights of EveryOne Group) agree with the analysis of the Italian situation reported on various occasions by our group and affirm that there are “many similarities with the early stage of fascism”.
It is necessary for Europe to intervene with serious inspections and harsh measures in order that the persecution Italy is carrying out against Gypsies, in violation of the most basic human rights, becomes unacceptable in a democratic and civil world. That is why we are requesting urgent intervention from the European Council and the European Court of Human Rights. EveryOne Group, in consideration of all the points laid out in this motion, and acting as promoter of initiatives aimed at opposing discrimination against gypsies and encouraging a dignified integration into Italian and European society urgently requests intervention from the European Council and the European Court of Human Rights in order that Italy:
a) is asked to withdraw the emergency decree of November 1st, 2007, number 181. on the matter of urgent dispositions involving the removal of Gypsies from Italian territory for security reasons:
b) is asked to adhere to the European policy that admits expulsion only on grounds of national security and terrorism (on condition that the sentences issued against the Roma, Sinti and Travellers are based on proven crimes and not just on prejudice, as often happens unfortunately in Italian courts);
c) asks that the competence on the matter of expulsions be returned to the magistrates, and not the mayors and prefects:
d) asks for a reintroduction of the regulations contained in the Mancino law with specific dispositions on racism;
e) asks for European and ministerial funds to be granted for projects aimed at improving the conditions of the Gypsy population both in Italy and their country of origin. EveryOne Group is promoting throughout Europe the Romanesia Project, a brief description of which is attached. The Romanesia Project was created in synergy with experts in gypsy culture and lifestyle and with important figures in the Roma world. It was created to finally encourage a serious and positive integration of the Roma and Sinti into Italian society. The project is an attempt to create suitable structures in Romania (for Romanian gypsies) to develop the traditional activities in which gypsies excel, mainly agriculture and animal farming with houses, on collective farms suited to their domestic and social habits. This is a new idea developed after a careful study of the needs of the Gypsy people: the Romanesia Project, which EveryOne Group is willing to discuss and explain in greater detail to interested parties.
f) asks that training and refresher courses that make use of experts on the subject of fighting discrimination (including the EveryOne Group and its consultant) and prejudice against the Gypsies be offered to the Italian institutions, Police Force, Carabinieri and the authorities in general;
g) asks that socio-cultural educational awareness programmes be set up directed at Italian citizens, starting from children and young people. Programmes which have the aim of teaching respect for the Gypsy peoples and a correct knowledge of their history and culture while promoting the protection of their fundamental human rights. In this sector EveryOne Group backs the proposal for a Memorial Museum in Italy which will also serve as an observatory dedicated to the Roma, Sinti and Kale culture, as well as to Gypsy history and the Porrajmos - the Gypsy Holocaust. Concerning this initiative, EveryOne Group is asking for donations of exhibits, documents, art objects, old and new photographs to form the basis of the collection of the memorial museum. It is also offering its contribution towards its creation and its educational and antiracist objectives.
h) asks for a campaign to be addressed to the media in order that it becomes aware of, respects and follows an ethical protocol and avoids the diffusion of racist ways of thinking against Gypsies through the press, radio and TV – something which has been taking place in a serious manner in Italy for many years. EveryOne Group is willing to collaborate on the writing up of this ethical code if necessary by contributing its experience and competence in the subject;
i) asks that the brutal clearance of non-authorised camps and summary expulsions cease immediately until concrete integration projects are underway, socio-employment projects with social assistance and health care that will allow Gypsies on Italian territory to enjoy equal opportunities, equal dignity and equal rights to those of other EU citizens.
l) we ask that regular inspections be carried out by European authorities and organizations that defend the rights of ethnic minorities in order to prevent further acts of discrimination, persecution and criminalization of the Gypsy people in Italy.
