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Posted on Wed, Feb. 25, 2004

Gypsies raid Slovak supermarkets to protest welfare cuts




Chicago Tribune

(KRT) - Spurred by sharp cuts in their welfare benefits, Gypsies in eastern Slovakia are venting their fury and desperation by looting supermarkets and other stores.

At least a dozen businesses have been hit in the past week by mobs of rampaging Gypsies, also known as Roma. The Slovak government has responded by dispatching more than 20,000 police and soldiers to trouble spots in the east.

Troops were guarding supermarkets in several eastern towns, and the government was holding emergency meetings to discuss the situation on Wednesday.

In Trebisov, where hundreds of Roma have clashed with police over the past two days, water cannons were used against the citizenry for the first time since the 1989 "Velvet Revolution," when Czechoslovakia's communist regime collapsed. Sixty-eight people, including women and children, were arrested.

Roma groups planned demonstrations in major cities and towns this week to protest the welfare cuts, but these were canceled at the last minute by organizers who feared it might trigger more violence.

"People were getting injured," said Ladislav Fizik, head of the Roma Parliament, a civic organization. "We called it off after consultations with the government leadership."

Most of Slovakia's 500,000 Roma are in the eastern part of the country, where they generally live in dilapidated concrete housing blocks or in trash-strewn shantytowns that rarely have running water or sewers. Unemployment is rampant. Most men younger than 25 have never worked, and few youngsters manage to complete more than a couple of years of school.

The looting over the past week underscores the deep social and economic problems faced by an estimated 1.5 million Roma in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - four of the 10 countries that will become members of the expanded European Union in little more than two months. When Bulgaria and Romania join in 2007, the EU's Roma population will swell to nearly 5 million.

EU member states have already begun expressing alarm at the prospect of thousands of Roma who will soon be eligible to immigrate to wealthy West European countries. In Britain, the tabloid press has warned of tens of thousands of Roma poised "to leech on us."

In addition to poverty and unemployment, the Roma of Eastern Europe already face discrimination and human-rights violations in countries where they live.

Slovakia's center-right government announced welfare cuts of up to 50 percent as part of program designed to stimulate employment. Recipients who volunteer to do 10 hours a week of public-service work will be entitled to an extra $30 a month. Before the cuts, Roma families typically received benefits of about $125 a month.

But in the eastern town of Varhanovce, where 260 Roma applied for public-service jobs, local authorities admitted they could find places for only 90. Most Roma families stand to lose about 50 percent of their benefits.

Fizik said this week's rioting was caused "by hunger and also by some people who want to ruin the good name of the Roma people in the public eye."

Specifically, Fizik blamed Roma loan sharks who lend money at usurious rates and collect when welfare checks arrive. Fizik said the loan sharks, seeing their main source of revenue drying up, encouraged the looting to frighten the government.

The first incident occurred a week ago when about 80 Roma stormed a Billa supermarket - part of a large, Austrian-owned chain - and began cleaning off the shelves.

Interior Minister Vladimir Palko accused the Roma of using women and children in such incidents. "Police in no circumstances want to hurt children," he said.

Roma organizations have called on the community to stop stealing. On Wednesday the Roma Parliament was trying to organize a Roma civil guard that would protect businesses from looters.

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© 2004, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.


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