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AI criticises police treatment of Roma

By Liz Fekete

1 October 1996

Amnesty International's half-yearly report on Romania singles out the increasing number of incidents in which police shoot unarmed people who do not constitute a threat.

Incidents involving Roma include:

Kerim Asim and Dervis Givan, both Roma, shot at by police after evading arrest on 2 June 1996
Four public guardians shot at groups of youths in the Roma district of Coltan on 2 June 1996. The Roma were protesting at the beating of a young man caught stealing cherries. Zoltan Rezmives had to have a leg amputated.

Also documented by AI is the ill-treatment of the Roma, Iulian Vlad, who was allegedly beaten by police in Trgoris because they suspected him of stealing hay.

No protection

Police handling of anti-Roma violence has long been an AI cause of concern. An arson attack on a small Roma community in Curtea de Arges, a suburb of Bucharest, on 14 June 1996, left 21 Roma houses destroyed. The arson came after fights between the Roma and the majority population and could easily have been predicted. But the police response to the earlier instances had been to raid the Roma community while allowing mobs from the majority community to carry out their murderous attacks.

AI Concerns in Europe: January-June 1996

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