Roma in Croatia

[John Lacny <deathtocapitalism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

     Here's an article from Feral Tribune (a Croatian
dissident newspaper) on the conditions of the Roma in
Croatia and ex-Yugoslavia generally.  This article is
from August, so keep in mind that when reference is
made to the HDZ as the ruling party, this is no longer
the case, although things can scarcely have gotten
better.

     Sorry about the crappy formatting, by the way.

     John Lacny

> Kasum Cana, President of the Roma Party in Zagreb,
> talks about the Albanian terror over Gypsies in
> Kosovo, Gypsies in the Jasenovac concentration camp
> and the trial of Dinko Sakic, and life in misery for
> the majority of Gypsies in Croatia
>
> Flight of the Gypsies[1]
>
> Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, August 9 1999
>
> by Iva Karabaic
>
> According to information available to me, it can
> hardly be said there are
> any Gypsies living in Kosovo, except in a camp at
> Kosovo Polje; they are mostly older people who were
> unable to flee. Nearly
> all the houses owned by Gypsies have been burned.
> Albanians started retribution because some Gypsies
> were drafted into the
> Yugoslav Army. Because of the fact that a few
> Gypsies were drafted, between five and ten thousand
> Gypsies were ousted
> from Kosovo. Kosovo is being discussed as if it were
> either Serbian or Albanian property. What belongs to
> my father in Prizren
> is nobody else's, regardless of whether Serbs or
> Albanians rule. Croatia has not taken in a single
> Gypsy refugee from
> Kosovo, except perhaps those who came to join their
> families. There are only Albanians in the refugee
> camp near Djakovo; there
> are no Gypsies there.
>
> FERAL: You have announced you will be having talks
> with Kosovo Albanian
> leader Hashim Thaci in order to help solve the
> problem of the Gypsy exodus from Kosovo. What do you
> hope to achieve with
> that meeting?
>
> Kasum Cana: I would like to reach an agreement
> regarding the safe return
> of Gypsies to Kosovo. I will ask Hashim Thaci, if he
> is indeed
> the leader of Albanians, to sign that agreement; the
> agreement should also
> be signed by KFOR representatives, who ought to
> guarantee
> the safety of Gypsies in Kosovo. If that doesn't
> take place, Gypsies will
> not be coming back to Kosovo, because they wouldn't
> feel safe.
> My father was beaten up in Prizren and is today in
> Switzerland; he is
> still afraid and says he doesn't wish to go back for
> at least five
> years.
>
> According to information you have, how many Gypsies
> are left in Kosovo
> today, after the end of NATO attacks and the arrival
> of KFOR?
>
> According to information available to me, it can
> hardly be said there are
> any Gypsies still living in Kosovo, except in a camp
> at Kosovo
> Polje; they are mostly older people who were unable
> to flee. We do not
> have exact figures on the Gypsy exodus from Kosovo.
> We never
> even knew the exact number of Gypsies living there,
> because for their own
> security they have been declaring themselves as
> Albanians,
> Turks, Serbs.
>
> ALBANIAN REVENGE
>
> According to reports from Kosovo, many Gypsy
> settlements were destroyed
> after NATO attacks.
>
> Nearly all the houses have been burned. Albanians
> started retribution
> because some Gypsies were drafted into the Yugoslav
> Army.
> Because of the fact that a few Gypsies were drafted,
> between five and ten
> thousand Gypsies were ousted from Kosovo. The
> Albanians
> who expel Gypsies from towns, are not those who
> lived with us, but those
> who do not know us at all. Some Albanians in Croatia
> tell me
> that only Gypsies who bloodied their hands have been
> expelled from Kosovo.
> That means that five or ten thousand Gypsies have
> blood
> on their hands! I regret that Gypsy assets, earned
> with hard work, are
> being destroyed: these were not neighborhoods of
> small houses or
> tent dwellings, these were valuable multistory
> buildings. In Prizren, the
> district of Dusanova has been burned down, only
> Terzi-mahala
> remains. Meanwhile, media show pictures of laughing
> British KFOR soldiers
> with burning Gypsy houses in the background. KFOR
> does
> its job very badly.
>
> It seems that Kosovo Gypsy leaders have not appeared
> in public and
> attempted to avert the exodus by negotiations?
>
> Kosovo Gypsy leaders have little public presence
> because they are afraid.
> Besides, most fled Kosovo at the beginning of the
> war.
> Currently, the only Gypsy group with organized
> presence in Kosovo are
> Egyptian Gypsies who speak Albanian. I regret that
> Rajko Djuric
> [well known Gypsy activist and writer from Serbia],
> who is in Berlin, and
> Dragoljub Ackovic, author of a book about Gypsy
> martyrdom
> in the Jasenovac concentration camp during WWII, who
> is now in Belgrade,
> are not more active. Also, I expected that Luan Koka
> and
> Bajram Haliti would fight more for Gypsies in
> Kosovo.
>
> Have international mediators mentioned the Gypsy
> departure at all?
>
> No, nobody ever mentions Gypsies. For example, there
> is no talk at all
> about the return of Gypsies to Bosnia-Herzegovina. I
> used to
> really respect Madeleine Albright, but now I am very
> angry at her, because
> she demands return to Kosovo only for Serbs, without
> mentioning Gypsies or other ethnic groups, like
> Turks who lived in Kosovo.
> People discuss Kosovo as if it were either Serbian
> or
> Albanian property. What belongs to my father in
> Prizren is nobody else's
> property, regardless of whether Serbs or Albanians
> rule.
>
> Which countries are main destinations for Gypsies
> fleeing Kosovo? Has
> anybody come to Croatia?
>
> When NATO attacks begun, I asked the Police to allow
> some Gypsies who fled
> from Kosovo to Serbia, to Novi Sad or Kragujevac, to
> go to Croatia. They answered that to enter Croatia
> one must have all the
> necessary papers and visas. Croatia has not taken in
> a single
> Gypsy refugee from Kosovo, except perhaps those who
> came to join their
> families. There are only Albanians in the refugee
> camp near
> Djakovo; there are no Gypsies there. Kosovo Gypsies
> like to go to Italy,
> Switzerland, Canada. Lately, they have stopped going
> to
> Germany because some Albanians there have pictures
> of Gypsies mobilized
> into the Yugoslav Army, and are looking for them.
>
> SAKIC'S EMBLEM
>
> You have been threatened for your activism in
> connection with Kosovo
> Gypsies, but most threats have to do with your
> attendance of the trial of Dinko Sakic, the former
> commandant of the
> Jasenovac concentration camp during WWII.
>
> European Roman Rights, an organization with
> headquarters in Budapest,
> asked me to attend the trial and try to find
> surviving Gypsy
> inmates of Jasenovac and place them under American
> Embassy protection.
> Many applauded my efforts in connection with the
> trial of
> Dinko Sakic, and they were not Gypsies or Serbs, but
> youth, students who
> thought that he must be tried. I attended a part of
> the trial, but
> gave up after the threats. Just appearing at the
> trial caused fear in some
> Gypsies. For example, at a meeting with two of
> senior Gypsy
> leaders in Zagreb, one complained that his son had
> problems: people would
> not buy his firewood "because Gypsies are meddling
> in Dinko
> Sakic's trial". Also, I gave up on attending the
> trial, because I could
> not stand, for example, Dinko Sakic turning toward
> me and the
> Jewish community representative and pointing at the
> Ustashe emblem on his
> folder.
>
> Have you found any Gypsies, former inmates of
> Jasenovac?
>
> It seems that all the surviving Gypsy inmates from
> Jasenovac are dead by
> now. According to our data, there were between three
> and five
> Gypsy witnesses. Lawyer Cedo Prodanovic informed me
> that one surviving
> inmate lives in Vinkovci. I could not find him. I
> was told that
> he had died long time ago. I tried to find other
> witnesses in Rijeka.
> Maybe they are really dead, maybe they are afraid to
> appear and
> testify. But Gypsies need no proof that they
> perished in Jasenovac, that
> is well known.
>
> The suffering of Gypsies is mentioned only few times
> in the evidence given
> the trial?
>
> Every witness speaks of suffering of his group in
> Jasenovac (e.g.
> communists, Jews) and claims that they suffered the
> most. Nobody
> mentions that not only Jews, but also Gypsies had to
> dig graves; they
> could not spread the truth about what they've seen,
> not being able
> to speak language other than Romani[Gypsy language].
> That has not been
> mentioned at all. For sure, Dinko Sakic, who
> apparently was
> always tidy and wore shining boots, had these very
> boots cleaned by some
> poor Gypsy. However, I'm grateful to witnesses who
> did
> mention Gypsy suffering. One such witness gave an
> account of a pregnant
> Gypsy woman who, when asked by an Ustashe solder
> what
> she carried in her belly, answered "I don't know,
> brother"; the soldier
> then ripped her belly open with a knife because she
> called him a
> brother. A Gypsy was murdered for playing a song
> ordered by an Ustashe,
> unaware that that was a partisan song. Gypsies were
> held in
> camp 3c, the so-called "camp within the camp", which
> was separated by
> barbed wire from the rest of the camp. Ustashe said
> that
> Gypsies "had warm blood, and are not bothered by
> cold". I think that
> Pichili "tested" Gypsies, more than others, in his
> ovens.
>
> CROATIAN CALVARY[2]
>
> According to your data, how many Gypsies were killed
> in Jasenovac?
>
> All in all, more than 20,000 Gypsies died in
> Jasenovac; perhaps up to
> 40,000. Gypsies were also killed outside Jasenovac.
> It is not
> mentioned that there were Gypsies killed on the
> Croatian Calvary; they
> were perhaps drawn in as musicians or craftsmen [in
> the Ustashe
> Army].
>
> Some Gypsy associations in Croatia announced they
> will demand that the
> indictment of Dinko Sakic be expanded to include
> genocide. Can they succeed?
>
> That statement was made by a gentleman from the
> Gypsy Club of Croatia; he
> was just showing off. We don't want and aren't
> capable of
> expanding the indictment, because we don't have
> enough evidence. Our
> position is that it is up to state prosecutors
> whether to expand the
> indictment, because they handle all the evidence and
> witnesses. It is up
> to them to try Sakic for genocide. It is terrible to
> see injustice
> winning; the trial looks as if he were somebody who
> killed two or three
> people. I guessed that Sakic's trial would be
> somewhat like
> Artukovic's. In any case, it would have been a
> completely different story
> had the trial taken place earlier, say in 1981.
>
> What do Croatian Gypsies want from Dinko Sakic?
>
> Only former German chancellor Kohl has made a formal
> apology to Jews,
> Gypsies and other victims of the Nazis. In Croatia
> nobody has
> done that. We want Dinko Sakic to express his regret
> for what he did,
> publicly, through media. We will forgive the evil.
>
> How safe do Gypsies feel in Croatia today,
> considering that, this spring,
> one Gypsy was beaten up in Rijeka, and one in
> Zagreb.
> Have the perpetrators been found?
>
> No. European Roman Rights has begun its
> investigation of the case. Tatjana
> Peric is the Croatian representative in that
> organization.
> However, for now, Croatia is a safe country for
> Gypsies, because racism is
> not prevalent here. Still, there are Gypsies who say
> they have
> been beaten up, but, more often, they keep quiet
> about it, because they
> haven't been injured heavily.
>
> EMPTY PROMISES
>
> How many Gypsies live in Croatia and how are their
> minority rights
> regulated?
>
> According to the official data there are 6,000
> Gypsies in Croatia. Our
> estimates are that the actual figure is over 80,000.
> The ruling party
> has made all kinds of promises, yet today, Gypsies
> do not have even a
> small office where they could work on solving their
> problems and
> integrating into the Croatian society. Everybody has
> their plaques on
> buildings except for us. I don't wish to suggest
> that HDZ should go
> back to their shed [the founding congress of HDZ,
> ruling political party
> in Croatia, was held in a shed], but give us some
> space too! I was
> a candidate in the third election district for the
> Zagreb City Hall. My
> issue was the urbanization of Gypsy settlements;
> bringing of drinking
> water and sewage. HDZ simply paved 500 meters of
> road and won the
> election. Around 40% of Gypsies in Croatia live in
> misery.
> Besides, in order for Gypsies to assimilate into the
> Croatian society,
> they need to have papers. But they are denied
> Croatian citizenship
> because they are illiterate or because their names
> are Stevan, Jovan
> [typical Serb names].
>
> An important minority right is being able to study
> your mother tongue as
> an extracurricular activity at school.
>
> It is a great shame that the Ministry of Education
> and Sport did not
> facilitate summer school for Gypsy children,
> although minister
> Pugelnik is boasting that everything is being done
> to represent languages
> of minorities in extracurricular programs. If we
> talk to somebody
> in local government from an opposition party, they
> will tell you that "HDZ
> has taken all the money"... I would also mention
> that there is a
> school in Medjimurje [region in north-western
> Croatia] that has a separate
> entrance for Gypsy children.
>
>
> [1] Original title (ROM ZA BJEZANJE, Gypsy for
> fleeing) is a wordplay with
> the title of 1989 Emir Kusturica's movie DOM ZA
> VESANJE (= Home for hanging) about Gypsy life in the
> former Yugoslavia
> (Best screenplay award, Cannes 1989). The movie was
> released in the US as TIME OF THE GYPSIES
>
> [2] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the
> way of the cross), an
> episode in Croatian history, when, in 1945, the
> Ustashe
> army surrendered, with a great number of civilians
> who were fleeing
> communist Partisans, to the British at the town of
> Bleiburg in
> Austria. The British, in turn, surrendered them to
> Tito's army. Most of
> them were soon executed without a trial, some in
> death marches
> led throughout the country. The Croatian official
> history compares the
> plight of the "Croatian martyrs who were executed
> only for being
> Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his carrying
> of the cross on the way
> to crucifixion.
>
>
> Translated by Z.M. in August 1999

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