Withdrawal of riot police from Roma districts and release of those arrested are among calming measures requested today (26 Feb) in a petition to the Slovak Ambassador in London from the Trans-European Roma Federation. A demonstration is to be held outside the Embassy at 12 noon on Tuesday (2 March) in support of Roma protests throughout eastern Slovakia in the past week. There have been 70 arrests and many injuries, including that of a Romani girl hospitalized in Trebisov.

Thousands of police and troops have been drafted in to quell food riots and mass rallies in at least half a dozen towns. Slovak President Rudolf Schuster says benefit cuts were badly timed and could lead to wider disturbances.
Members of TERF are holding an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the situation. Chairman Ladislav Balaz says he believes the present government has got its policies wrong.

"High unemployment and a big cut in welfare benefits are at the root of the trouble," Ladislav comments. "Roma are now desperate because with price rises they can't buy enough food."

Protest action in Slovakia was initiated by the recently-formed Roma Parliament. Ladislav Fizik, its president, has called for an investigation into the use of EU and other funds made available to alleviate poverty among the country's 500,000 Roma.

For l3 years aid programmes have apparently failed to bring more than marginal benefit to those for whom they were designed. Unemployment has increased and educational and housing needs remain unmet. Ironically, Slovakia has reduced welfare payments to meet EU requirments prior to joining on 1 May. On Monday, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett announced new rules to prevent newly-arriving Slovak Roma from receiving benefits in Britain. "Roma are caught in a poverty trap", commented Balaz. "We have to find a way out."

Rudko Kawczynski, head of the Roma National Congress, has appealed to Romano Prodi to take steps to ensure fairer treatment of Roma. He has told the president of the European Commission that Slovakia has for years ignored discrimination against Roma, who represent 10% of the Slovak population. Before leaving on a fact-finding mission to Slovakia today, Kawczynski said he expected a large exodus of Roma as soon as the country joined the European Union.