Re: Yugoslavia

[Johannes Schneider <johannes.schneider@xxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 15:15:37 -0400, Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Johannes:
> > I do not want to make a comparision here but I do not think Yugoslavia
> > or
> > Serbia was (or is) a paradise for Romas. From a UNDP report:
> >
> > "The situation of Roma living in Yugoslavia closely resembles the living
> > conditions of Roma in
> > other Central Eastern Europe countries, especially in Romania and
> > Bulgaria,
> > with the additional
> > dramatic circumstances of Roma IDPs.

Louis, why are you leaving out the key sentence from the UNDP report ?

"The plight of the Roma population in Serbia (unemployment, poverty, poor
housing, health, social tensions and educational disadvantages) has been
made worse by crisis
and conflicts during the last 10 years. The old obstruction towards public
spending on Roma is
exacerbated in the new political system, which encourages public scrutiny
of government
expenditures."

> > Full:
> > http://www.undp.org.yu/files/reports/roma_in_yugoslavia.pdf
>
> This is highly disingenuous. The report deals mainly with the *current*
> situation of Roma in the Serb republic rather than during the Milosevic
> period.

> From the passage you have left out it is clear, that the report deals about
the last ten years.

> Moreover, even now it does not compare to the general pattern of overt
> racism in Eastern Europe, including pogroms. It notes that the Roma lack
> sufficient food and face a general condition of poverty. No joke.

Even a superficial Google search will give you examples of pogroms against
Roma in Milosevic's Yugoslavia. E.g:

"On 14 and 15 April 1995, following an alleged rape of a non-Romani girl by
two Romani youths, several hundred non-Roma gathered and, with the
acquiescence of the municipal authorities and the police, destroyed the
Romani settlement in Bozova Glavica, Danilovgrad. The police simply stood
by and did nothing as the pogrom unfolded. The Roma were able to flee but
their homes and other belongings were ultimately burned or otherwise
destroyed. Several days following the incident, the debris of the Romani
settlement was cleared away by heavy construction machines of the Public
Utility Company, thus obliterating all traces of the existence of Roma in
Danilovgrad. In fear for their lives, the Danilovgrad Roma fled the town
and moved to the outskirts of Podgorica where most still live under
terrible conditions and in abject poverty. Moreover, in the aftermath of
the incident, several Roma were fired from the jobs they held in
Danilovgrad, under the excuse that they had stopped coming to work. The
fact that they had to leave the town in mortal fear was clearly not taken
into account by their employers."

From:
http://www.pili.org/lists/piln/archives/msg01059.html
(I know, it is from a Soros sponsored source, but the facts itself are
undisputed)

Reports like this make me doubt that the situation of Roma in Yugoslavia is
substantially better than elsewhere in Europe.

> The UN, whose report Johannes blithely recommends to the list, imposed
> criminal sanctions on the Serbs in 1993 just as they did on the Iraqis.

I know that comrade Lenin taught us that the League of Nations is a thieves
kitchen. But does make this all information coming from the UN worthless ?
Or should http://www.tenc.net be our only source about Yugoslavia and
Palestine ?

Johannes


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