Forwarded from Greg Elich (Roma)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Lou,

In reference to:

"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."

This incident occurred in Montenegro, led in 1995 as now by that darling of
the West, Milo Djukanovic, who did his best to lead Montenegro as if it was
an independent republic, and specifically blocked Federal involvement in
the republic in every way possible.

In regard to Serbia, I can say what I saw when I visited Yugoslavia in
1999, just two months after the end of the war. The towns of Serbia were
filled were refugees from Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia (about 1 million in
all), and the rapid influx of refugees following the KLA rampage that
accompanied NATO occupation of the province, overwhelmed the ability of the
government to manage. Yet, even in those conditions, we saw not one
homeless person. Every refugee was accomodated. In Zemun, a suburb of
Belgrade, we talked to dozens of Romani refugees. The government had
arranged for citizens of Zemun to take refugees into their homes.

Throughout Yugoslavia, we saw refugees everywhere who were given hotel
rooms to live in, a far more humane arrangement than putting people in
tents, as would have happened elsewhere. In the hotel we stayed at in
central Nish, three entire floors were given to Romani refugees.

We met with Bajram Haliti, who was a member of the Yugoslav government in
Kosovo before NATO occupation. He told us that in a few months time, a new
national radio station, operated by Roma and devoted to Roma and in both
Romani and Serbo-Croat languages would be up and operational, and that he
would be in charge of Romani radio. I wonder how many countries have
national radio stations devoted to Roma. I can well imagine what happened
to this station after the October 2000 coup overthrew the socialist government.

The situation for refugees was indeed impoverished when I visited, and in
fact the entire society was impoverished by what was then 9 years of
draconian sanctions. To my eyes, the entire society was suffering in
poverty and deprivation induced by the sanctions, and the huge burden of
caring for 1 million refugees, entirely without assistance from outside
"humanitarian" and "aid" organizations. It didn't matter, Serb, Turk, Roma,
Croat, Muslim, whatever. All were impoverished.

I have no doubt that the situation for the Roma has become worse since
"democracy" came to Yugoslavia. For that matter, about a month or two ago I
saw a report in the Yugoslav press about the very same Roma settlement in
Zemun which we had visited. The new "democratic" government had announced
that it would be bulldozing a large number of these Romani homes in order
to make room for new profit-driven development. But then, that's
"democracy" for you, so I know that no one in the Western left would have
heard of it, nor would they care, since those ordering the bulldozing get a
free ride in the mass media, and therefore, among the Western left as well.

Best regards,

Greg


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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