Romania
Recent stories
Far-right party gains
In the general elections held at the end of November, the far-right Romania Mare (Greater Romania) party polled well and now has forty-eight seats in the lower house of deputies (total 332) and twenty-one senate seats (total 137).
5 December 2004 (86 words)
Reports reveal continued discrimination and prejudice against Roma
A report by the EU Monitoring and Advocacy Programme and the Open Society Institute says that many of Romania's efforts to improve conditions for its Roma minority lack the necessary resources and authority.
8 October 2004 (185 words)
Private security firm involved in two Roma deaths
The organisation Romani CRISS is investigating the circumstances under which two Roma have recently died at the hands of security guards employed by S.C. Protector International SRL.
1 April 2004 (167 words)
Harghita County: Roma forced out
A group of Roma were attacked by over 50 ethnic Hungarians in the village of Betesti in Harghita County in an incident which started over where a tractor should be parked.
1 January 2003 (121 words)
AI documents Roma death in custody
In June 2002, 18-year-old Romani, Nelu Balasoiu, died in Jilava Penitentiary Hospital after being severely beaten by police officers in a Tirgu Carbunesti lock-up in April.
1 January 2003 (107 words)
Law outlaws memorials to war criminals
In the Spring of 2003, the government issued a decree outlawing the display of symbols of a racist, fascist, xenophobic or extremist character.
7 November 2002 (278 words)
Mayor of Piatra-Neamt plans Roma ghetto
In October 2001, Ion Rotaru, the mayor of Piatra-Neamt outlined a plan to move local Roma into a disused chicken farm (the rooms of which are without water, sanitation and infested with insects) surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by police and dogs.
1 August 2002 (84 words)
Police raid linked to Roma census campaign
On January 9, 2001 police raided the offices of the NGO, the Romani Bah Foundation, allegedly in retaliation for the foundation's attempts to include Roma as assistants and census takers in the compiling of the 2001 census.
1 January 2002 (107 words)
Focus on Brasov
Roma hounded off trains near Brasov
1 January 2002 (252 words)
Security guards involved in anti-Roma attacks
Cuiciulatra - security guards open fire
1 January 2002 (216 words)
Border deaths
Three Somalian migrants died, and ten others were injured, when the minibus carrying them from Bucharest to the Hungary-Romania border which they planned to cross illegally, crashed in the Salaj region.
1 October 2001 (51 words)
Romania confronts sex trafficking scourge
The trafficking in women as sex slaves is becoming a major issue in Romania with 'Reaching Out', Romania's first and only facility for women escaping from the sex traffickers, opening in the industrial city of Pitesti.
1 October 2001 (157 words)
EU pressure for tighten border controls
As part of its bid to enter the EU, Romania is tightening up border controls, particularly along its northeastern borders with Ukraine and Moldova which is a point of entry.
1 October 2001 (96 words)
Anti-Semitic attack at Bucharest's Jewish History Museum
Two men who said they were looking for 'soap made of human fat' punched and tried to strangle a guard, smashed windows and hurled objects in the Bucharest Jewish History Museum.
1 April 2001 (67 words)
General election sees gains for Greater Romanian Party
Following the general election of 25 November, the far-Right Greater Romanian Party (GRP), led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor, has emerged as the second strongest party and will now take up key parliamentary posts.
1 April 2001 (78 words)
More Roma killed and injured in police shootings
AI has called on the government to reform the law which allows police to shoot to apprehend a suspect 'caught in the act' and attempting to escape while ignoring an order to stay at the scene of the crime.
1 January 2001 (342 words)
Official endorsement for anti-Roma views
Head of Bucharest police made inflammatory remarks
1 August 2000 (176 words)
Roma shot dead in Bucharest
An investigation was launched after a police officer shot and killed Radu Marian, an unarmed Romani man during a police raid on a group of cigarette smugglers in Bucharest in October 1999.
1 March 2000 (112 words)
Fifa call for investigation into soccer personality accused of anti-Semitism
Fifa, the world football authority has asked the Romanian football federation to hold an investigation into Dumitru Dragomir, a leading figure in the soccer world.
1 November 1999 (156 words)
How police crime statistics fuel anti-Roma racism
The Romani Associations of Romania has protested strongly against the police practice of compiling and publishing date on the alleged criminal offences of Roma.
1 March 1999 (411 words)
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