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Human Rights centre documents anti-Roma police violence

By Liz Fekete

1 December 1996

The European Roma Rights Centre, an international initiative for monitoring the human rights situation of Roma and providing legal defence in cases of human rights abuses, has produced a document, Sudden rage at dawn: violence against Roma in Romania.

From communal violence to institutional violence

The report documents the spread of violence against Roma since the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, and concludes that 'the previous pattern of community violence has been replaced by a new pattern of police raids systematically conducted in Roma communities'. Furthermore, police racism has been strengthened by the deportations of Romanian Roma from Germany - where the Roma fled to escape communal violence - following a German-Romanian repatriation agreement in 1993. 'The ultimate result of the futile flight and return was that the Romanian government received tacit international approval to deal with Roma however they saw fit.'

Following mob violence in the early 1990s, the Interior Ministry, in conjunction with the Romanian General Inspectorate of the Police, formed a 'Mob Violence Prevention Programme'. Yet instead of progress in the policing of racist violence, local police forces have increasingly resorted to wild acts of force and massive raids, and the Programme itself acts as though the presence of Gypsies in itself is the cause of communal violence.

Police raids

Many police raids are carried out with no official justification. In other cases, police say they are searching for Gypsies illegally residing in the area. For instance, the Roma in the Colentina neighbourhood of Bucharest are continually harassed by police since their domicile has no legal ground. The Roma moved to Colentina in the 1970s to work on construction sites. But after the fall of Ceausescu, construction stopped and the Roma lost their jobs. Today they are regarded as squatting the area.

In cases where police claim the purpose of the raids is to fight crime, no arrest or search warrants are shown.

Excessive force and use of firearms

Excessive force and the use of firearms has resulted in death in the following cases:

19 April 1996, public guardian shot dead the 35-year-old Roma Dumitru Margean after he entered a construction site.
9 May 1996, Mircea-Muresul Mosor, 26, shot and killed by police in Maruntei commune in Olt County, southern Romania. Police claim self-defence after Mosor hit a police officer with a stick, but hospital reports indicate that the Roma was shot in the back.

Sudden Rage at Dawn: violence against Roma in Romania. A Report by the European Roma Rights Centre, September 1996

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