[size=75:182a4v2p]Sofia echo 14 January 2010

Roma ghetto in Bourgas flattened


Bourgas Municipality has ordered the Roma ghetto in the city's Slaveikov borough razed, and the Roma dispersed from the site, Dnevnik daily said on January 14 2010.

The Roma site, which currently consists of about 20 shacks and other "
shelters"
, is close to a major railway junction.

On January 14, bulldozers flattened five barracks, and the occupants of the remaining 15 or so shelters were told to collect their belongings and clear out by January 15, when the bulldozers will return.

Most of the Roma in the camp site are from different municipalities in Bulgaria.

Last year, more than 30 sheds were cleared by the municipality, after a Roma camp site suddenly arose in the same area. At the time, a small girl had died after being hit by a passing train. Authorities say that Roma children and their "
domestic pets"
had been playing and roaming close to the railway lines.

"
We are trying to get the message across clearly, that every time illegal construction takes place here, it will be destroyed and cleared. We will not allow roaming Roma here,"
Bourgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov was quoted as saying by Dnevnik


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Just found this in the Novinite paper, it seems there is some sort of Oppression going on with the Roma ?

Bulgaria has once again been found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, this time for police violence against the Roma minority, the foundation ‘Romani Baht’ reported.

The case was bought by after a lawsuit was filed in 2003 for police brutality during the arrest of three Roma men in 2001. The police were accused of shooting at the men, brutally beating them and then locking 2 of them in the trunk of their police car.

The ECHR ordered Bulgaria to pay EUR 3000 to each of the 3 Roma men and EUR 4500 for the expenses of the case.

Attorney Alexander Kashumov explained that "
Firstly, Bulgaria has violated Article 3 of the Convention by allowing inhuman and degrading treatment against three complainants. Secondly, Bulgaria has violated Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights because it did not adequately investigate the case.”

Bulgaria has been convicted by the Strasbourg Court on more than 200 occasions since the court's inauguration.

It's such a dreadful shame people have to live like this.

Oddy

This is such a shame,when in England local councils have the same problem,but these people and lets not forget they are people,need somewhere to live,in Yambol we have a gypsy area,they live their lives as they want,as far as i am aware they bother no one,but the traveling type of gypsy is a differant breed,but still need somewhere to live,maybe they should have a few proper camps where they could stay,and then also they could be monitored,i am not a lover of gypsies but their culture goes back a long way,and they also need a chance in life.theres lots of space here in Bulgaria,for everyone.

Mike

I know the place your talking about just outside Yambol and I agree they don't seem to bother anyone but as in all cultures there will be good and bad, in our village I think there is only 1 gypsy that I've come across and he helped me one day to move a load of rubbish took us about 2 hours but he wouldn't take a cent from me for the help he gave so speaking as I find for me Gypsies are fine but more importantly they are people as we all are

What I find most disturbing is that the Mayor of Bourgas has chosen once again (because he did exactly the same last winter too) the very heart of the winter to make these people completely homeless. Is there anywhere set up for them to go - I doubt it. Will he care if they die of hypothermia? Doubt it.

Gypsies are widely regarded as a problem in some areas and are held responsible for theft, burglary and begging, to name but a few - these are families with children. Do children deserve to be turned out in the snow - literally - just because they happen to have the misfortune to have been born Roma in Bulgaria or even worse in Slovakia, Hungary or across the border in Romania, where a man and his 5 year old son were shot dead by villagers after being burnt out of their house by neighbours?

In countries IN Europe, IN the EU and IN the 21st century.

Statistics show that the Roma will be the majority population here in less than 20 years due to the falling birth rate among "
ethnic Bulgarians"
and I think that there needs to be some serious re-education of the population and a re-adjustment of common sense..because the Roma are Bulgaria's workforce of the future. there's no old age pension without people working to fund it, nor much of anything else for society.

At the moment Roma are marginalised to the n'th degree, if their children attend school at all then it is normally a second rate one especially for Roma. Many Bulgarians here will not associate with Roma and consider them dirty (as you or I would be living in some of the dire conditions they do) as well as mentally subnormal. If you get told all that often enough and get accused of bad acts for long enough well hell, might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb as the saying goes.

If they live in hovels which disgrace the town they are berated, but heaven forfend anyone suggest social housing and education opportnities as, according to Bulgarians I have spoken to, the general population of ethnic Bulgarians are vehemently opposed to any kind of aid or betterment of the Roma even if other Bulgarians are also offered the same improvements!

This is a catch 22 which is not going to be improved by turning already homeless people out into winter weather and I am sure that one day the worm will turn.. And if they have nothing, own nothing, cannot get work and are hungry so end up stealing, can you blame them? Apparently...you can, because whenever anything goes wrong they are always the scapegoat.

I don't want to be the victim of a burglary or theft anymore than the next person, but there is no doubt that Bulgaria has created an underclass that has very little in the way of legitimate opportunity. Small surprise then that they turn to the illegitimate ones. And it will take a lot of time and a lot of serious effort to undo the brainwashing of centuries on both the Bulgarians and on the Roma themselves.

Off soapbox now, sorry, but It's know it's bitter out there tonight - I grumbled about taking the dog for her night time walk. Imagine sleeping out there?

Karen

Very emotive subject this one, and one that I am not going to get into an arguement about, About 10 years ago Sofia did up about 5 large blocks of flats for the roma of that area, they were moved into the renovated apartments, within 6 months the apartments had been stripped of all pipework basically the apartments were stripped of everything. The area was turned into a ghetto area. These kind of actions make people say why should we help etc.

Look at the state of England , now you want to tell Bulgarians how to cock there country up as well . Learn the language the culture and the reason before you start spouting of about something you know nothing about . By the way one of the best surgeon's in Bulgaria is a Roma so he did OK maybe the rest would like to do the same ?.

Johnbaz I hope that you are not referring to my posting, as I said in my post I will not get into an arguement about this subject, but to be honest I think that I fully understand the Roma situation in Bulgaria after living here for 14 years

Admin
I have sent you a pm

No Flech but you do have a point , and i agree with what you say living here for 14 years doesn't make you a Bulgaria , and why you bring this up all the time just makes me laugh . My Partner is a Bulgarian and has been here for 43 years and i dont bring that up all the time . Did you know nothing about life before you come here is that what your saying ? . I thought gypsies are much the same in England as here , they build things in Essex they dont have planing permission for and in the end someone pulls them down . There a problem there as well as here.

Thanks for your reply Johnbaz

Well I think the views on this matter will always differ and one could say there are no rights or wrongs but to be honest there are places all over the world including the uk where people behave in the same way but there is always a reason for it I feel only recently I seen people in another country fighting over a piece of copper wire and the person had a brick in his hand so may be if your desperate you will take desperate measure and let’s be honest from what I gather there doesn’t seem to be much respect between the Roma and the Bulgarians and again does the government help the Roma in the same way as they help the Bulgarians ? I can't answer that but I fear the answer would be no so I think we will all have to agree to disagree on this one but it’s a very interesting post

Its the Bulgarians that are desperate , and the Roma that get all the help . Why do you think Bulgarians have small Families ?

Scott
I think we need to look at the definition of the word GYPSIES, also known as Roma's, Travellers, Pikies etc, (although I don't know where that word comes from) and put them into different categories. I don't think we can compare Bulgarian /Romanian gypsies with the UK gypsies. The real gypsies that we see in this country are the ones who set up camp on the side of the road, tether their horses on any green grass they can find, put their washing line from one caravan to another and leave all their litter anywhere and everywhere. When the council bailiff comes along they just move on and set up camp in another county. As far as I know they don't pay tax, insurance or anything towards being alive on this earth. Pikies, I think that might be slang for gypsies because I have heard my Son use the word when we had a skip outside our house and this scruffy group were caught rummageing through it
As far as travellers are concerned, I think these would be classed as upper class gypsies
Families who live in big posh caravans, usually on an organised site, drive big Mecede's type cars and usually have back-up lorries for their scrap metal collections
As far as Bulgaria is concerned I think most of the gypsies/Roma would come in the first category I have mentioned, having said that I know a number of Brit's who have given work to them ie:- gardening etc and complemented them as hard workers. Give them 10leva and see their face light up
Dictionary defination:- The language of the gypsies is Romany. Gypsies are found mostly in Europe, North America and North Africa, they are believed to have originated in the Indian sub-continent. The word Romany has nothing to do with Roman's, it comes from the Romany word Rom meaning 'man, husband'
So as far as the Roma's in Bulgaria are concerned, live and let live, don't hurt us and we won't hurt you