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RECORD
Call
for Roma
of the Former Yugoslavia (Kosovo and Metohija) A
people in danger We,
the undersigned, request from the international community the protection of the
Roma people of the Former Yugoslavia against persistent attacks on its physical
safety and the systematic destruction of its goods and culture. We ask the
suffered physical and moral damage are duly recognised. We
consider as criminal and premature any attempt to return Roma who are in exile
to Kosovo. As long as the fundamental rights to safety, access to employment,
education and health are not guaranteed a return cannot be considered as an
option. The events of March last year show very clearly that these guarantees
are not given yet. 1)
The Kosovo Roma continue to be the victims of a war, which has never been
theirs. Of the more than 140,000 Roma who lived in the province before 1999,
more than 90 per cent have been forced to exile. Those who remained live in a
state of interior exile, in misery, under permanent threat, the majority of them
in camps (without however profiting from the refugee status) or in enclaves
where they are imprisoned and insulated under daily terror. What remains of the
Roma settlements continues to be exposed to plundering and destruction. We
denounce:
1.
the persistent insecurity, 2.
the lure presented to the world (in the Albanian parts of the province) of a
preserved multi-ethnicity, artificially maintained by some alibi cases in a zone
where a policy of “ethnic cleansing” against non-Albanian people goes on,
and the “ethnic cleansing” of Roma is almost completed, 3.
intimidation campaigns, aggressions, murders, disappearances, 4.
the destruction of goods and Roma settlements, 5.
the incapacity of the Roma "leaders" to defend their people, their
non-representative character, their compromising with those in power, who act
against the interest of the Roma people, 5.
the inertia, the carelessness or indifference of the international institutions
and organisations in their function as defenders of justice, democracy and
security of the victims and the most vulnerable populations, in a situation
where violence and crisis persists. We
demand:
1.
that the safety and freedom of the Roma people are guaranteed trough the
establishment of a true protection of people and goods including the Roma
settlements which should be declared cultural heritage of Mankind and protected
as such, 2.
access to legal, human and social rights for all, 3.
the establishment of a truly democratic process with the recognition of Roma as
equal partners -
through guaranteeing the voting rights of the Roma who are in exile at the time
of the consultations to the elections, -
by putting an end to the proxyism with the recourse to party members and phantom
voters as well as other forms of election fraud, 4.
a real engagement on the behalf of the international community towards the Roma
people and the recognition of the despoiled families as victims, victims of
moral and physical damage. 2)
The Roma people of the republics of the Former Yugoslavia belongs to the
richness and human, economic and cultural heritage of the region. It has the
same right as the other people and citizens of the Former Yugoslavia to live on
the ground of his ancestors in justice, safety and freedom. The
Roma people of Kosovo are today despoiled, massacred, scattered, scorned and
forgotten. The tragedy the Roma continue to endure since the war in 1999 is the
biggest catastrophe they have undergone since the genocide of the Second World
War. Whether
it is in Bosnia, in Kosovo or elsewhere, in periods of war or crisis Roma are
the victims or scapegoats of conflicts which are alien to them, and when comes
the time of settlement, their rights and existence are systematically neglected
and forgotten. We
ask This
letter will be addressed to the main representatives of the international
community.
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