In our western societies where the rich are becoming richer because they will not share even crumbs from their wealth with the poor no one should be surprised that the town of Assisi, home of St Francis, the saint of the poor, has banned all beggars from its churches and streets....

We say NO to to the the ethnic filing of the Rroms - with or without fingerprints’ record, which recalls the darkest years of European and world history! Let us not forget that the Rroms were often « guinea pigs » of repression and extermination policies, as those Rromani children from Czech on which the Nazis tested the "Zyklon B" before generalizing its use it in the gas chambers.

Imagine now that today is not 2008, but about 10 years earlier. Leave aside that you are 10 years younger – besides now you are much more mature, you have broader perspective on life, gained quite some living experience, now you can say in a seriously manner “ten years ago the life was different…”

WHEN THE US INNOCENT ARE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY !

Press release and open letter from the protest organized on June 3rd at the Italian Embassy:

A few nights of raids with baseball bats and molotov cocktails have done the job…
Why didn`t we see the sensational images of burning gypsy camps, terrified and crying children and desperate people in our European press?

On Commissionism[1] and Roma issues

The Commission is living a dream; the majority of Roma continue living a nightmare[2]

An inventory of existing Roma bodies and Roma-relevant documents of the intergovernmental organisations would be quite impressive. When it comes to the European Union (the focus of this article) the situation as seen by people in Brussels is better than the average. There is a Commissioner in charge of Roma issues, and hundreds of documents have been produced since 1984 detailing the problems Roma face in Europe . Most of those documents and official speeches refer to the need for positive action “to reverse the effects of centuries of prejudice and exclusion.[3]”

The Roma in Italy are not criminals, they are families living in conditions of great hardship. Out of the 150,000 “gypsies” present in our country, 90,000 are children. The average life expectancy of the Roma in Italy is 35 years, compared to the 80 years of the other citizens.
Infant mortality among Roma children is 15 times higher than that of other children.

Ecuadorian police detained five journalists associated with Ecuador Indymedia -  http://www.ecuador.indymedia.org/ - late Tuesday night, May 6th. Four of the five were released from custody on Wednesday afternoon. The government says that the four activists were detained because of their relationship with the fifth detainee, Ecuadorian resident and Colombian national Antonio Alcívar.

May 15, 2008


RACISM ALERT: FOOTBALL FANS THREATEN GYPSY CHAMPIONS PIRLO, IBRAHIMOVIC AND MIHAJLOVIC



EVERYONE GROUP: “RACIST CAMPAIGN AGAIN THE ROMA GYPSIES PUTS THEIR SAFETY AT RISK”



The prejudice that is hitting the Roma community in Italy is in danger of degenerating into an indiscriminate man hunt. In Naples attacks are still being carried out against the Roma people. In Via Malibran a makeshift shelter was set on fire by a gang of racists and 13 people

(six adults and seven children - two of them newborn babies) suffered burns and almost perished in the fire. In Ponticelli a group of young people armed with metal bars attacked some Romanian Roma. In Via Argine, some Roma children were chased by racists who hid their faces behind scarves. The latest episode is that of a six-year-old Roma child who was attacked by a “patrol” in piazzetta San Domenico, slapped, insulted and thrust under a public fountain. But all over Italy, from north to south, episodes of violence and anti-gypsy sentiments are underway, practically ignored by the media. “The European Commission must take immediate action”, say the worried leaders of EveryOne, Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau “because instigation to racial hatred through the press and racist policies are expressly forbidden by the Directives, European Resolutions and Charters of Fundamental Rights of individuals and peoples. We have sufficient evidence to affirm that the case of the Roma teenager attempting to steal a baby in Naples is a put-up, but before the magistrates have issued a sentence, our politicians and media have issued their own verdict - not only towards the girl, but towards the gypsy community as a whole. For some time now EveryOne has been warning public opinion, the press and honest politicians against cases deliberately set up to sow the seeds of hatred towards gypsies and open the way for racial laws like the imminent safety decree and the notorious “Roma commissions” which are reminiscent of similar Nazi institutions. These are illegitimate measures that will be torn to pieces in the European Parliament” say the activists of EveryOne while they sound the alarm that in the present climate even the safety of the most famous Roma and Sinti could be jeopardized: “Due to the xenophobic madness stirred up over the last few days, no one is safe from the Italians’ anger which has been seriously fomented by propaganda. We have heard a group of football fans (probably with extreme right-wing sympathies) issue statements and serious threats against the champion from Milan, Andrea Pirlo, who is a Sinti gypsy, and the Roma players in the Inter team Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sinisa Mihajlovic. “We don’t want a gypsy on the Milan team. We don’t want gypsies in Milan”, they said, using much coarser and heavier language, of course. We have alerted the Milan-based football teams and the authorities in Milan and Parma where these teams will play their last matches of the football season, but to prevent the spread of racial intolerance it is essential that the media begins to stick to the international laws that were intended to fight prejudice and the instigation towards racial hatred.”


For further information:

EveryOne Group

Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527

www.everyonegroup.com ::  info@everyonegroup.com

E' in arrivo un decreto sulla sicurezza assolutamente iniquo, frutto
dell'ignoranza, dell'incompetenza, ma soprattutto dell'intolleranza,
del razzismo e della xenofobia.

Un agente di polizia milanese mi ha confessato, con molta vergogna: "Dobbiamo seguire un ordine: cercare i rom e i romeni che delinquono e se non li troviamo, dobbiamo inventarceli". E ora, il più recente episodio di persecuzione nella città della Madonnina.

The persecution of the Rroms (Roma) in Italy: EveryOne Group and the Committee for the Rights of the Roma of Casilino 900 have launched an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights following a serious humanitarian emergency at the Casilino 900 camp, in Rome.

solidarity from vienna with a spontenous demonstration to the romanian embassy

translations of some info posted earlier on the romanian newswire

After the sites contra-doxa.com and summitnato.ro, which have published anti-summit materials, were attacked for the first time in the middle of the day on April 2nd and were subsequently brought back online, during the evening of the same day they crashed for the second time as a consequence of a new online attack.

EveryOne asks all the antiracists and political figures and parties who have not become insensitive to a tragedy of such huge proportions, to recover their humanity and sense of justice and not abandon our Rrom brothers and sisters, who are the victims of an operation to destroy them, a crime both the perpetrators and the indifferent are responsible for, a mass crime they will once day be asked to answer to in court – and that is not taking into account their great moral responsibility.

EveryOne Group and other human rights associations are launching a desperate appeal to the international institutions asking them not to ignore the effects of a vast and ruthless racist campaign.

A new photographs competition organised by
LibLab.

This competition will be a travelling exhibition and a show
Book.

Find out more.

Http://www.liblab.org/scatti-di-resistenza/

To cooperate

 Info@liblab.org

On Saturday the 2nd of February an anti-fa demo took place in Athens, Greece. Some short reports and information can be found at the links below.

Urgent campaign to save Sulukule (Turkey) and protect the oldest Rrom community in the world.

Italy reported to the United Nations and to the International Criminal Court of the Hague for crimes against humanity.

Milan, January 23, 2008

In a matter of weeks (on February 20th) the Italian Government will have to appear before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). A result EveryOne Group - in collaboration with ERCC (European Roma Rights Centre), La Voix des Rroms, Sucar Drom, Osservazione and other international organizations who are fighting for the rights of the Rroma and Sinti people - obtained after the presentation of the international denunciation for crimes against humanity which accused the Italian central and local authorities of carrying out persecutory measures against the Rroma in Italy.
Yesterday our request was formally accepted, by the International Criminal Court of the Hague too, which has assured us, in a letter addressed to the leaders of EveryOne, the first signees of the document, that it will give the case its maximum attention when assessing it.

CERD will have to ascertain the violations of articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.” Italy, in fact, is accused of carrying out a series of measures, both on a national level and on a local level, aimed at hitting the Rrom and Sinti communities on Italian territory - from the 14 security packages to the emergency expulsion decree for EU citizens put forward by Giuliano Amato. The International Criminal Court of the Hague will evaluate the actions carried out by the Italian institutions against the Rroma to determine whether – and to what extent – any crimes against humanity were committed. In the document drawn up by EveryOne Group, which is being examined by the international committees for the protection of human rights, we read: The oppression of the gypsies is taking place in many forms: by denying them the right to be protected as an ethnic minority recognised by international conventions, and by denying them assistance and programmes of integration necessary for obtaining access to the world of labour and decent living conditions. Gypsies are also being persecuted in the only activities which – in the conditions of marginalization they are relegated to – would allow them to survive, such as begging and street peddling (thus pushing them to activities which, if they were a free choice, would be considered unlawful). There have been frequent press campaigns carried out with the aim of criminalizing gypsies [...]; The government has carried out camp clearances similar to pogroms that are razing their makeshift shelters to the ground and turning innocent families out into the street, families who are then forced to undertake tragic “death marches” towards nowhere. The authorities have failed to investigate racial attacks against individuals and Roma families, and has violated the laws that guarantee free movement of citizens of the Union in the territory of the Member States, [...] There has also been an attempt to censor and ignore the laws that protect the gypsies in Italy, among which the Resolution of the European Parliament of November 15th, 2007 regarding the application of Directive 2004/38/CE [...]

The document then analyses the security package passed on December 28th, 2007 – with particular reference to the unlawfulness of the law that foresees expulsion from the country for EU citizens who have no means of supporting themselves (in obvious contrast with the European Parliamentary Directive 2004/38/CE) - the lowering of the average life expectancy for a Rrom to 42, the unmotivated harshness of the authorities and police force during the camp clearances and expulsions. The document then quotes the Italian Constitution, the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of peoples, the charters that protect the rights of ethnic minorities (among which the Copenhagen Convention of 1993) and the United Nations Resolutions (particularly the UN Resolution 1992/65, “Protection of the Sinti and Rroma peoples, art 1) and the European Parliament (Resolution 2005/2008/INI). EveryOne Group has detected in the racial and persecutory policies, in the ethnic cleansing and the deportations being carried out by the central and local authorities, evidence of crimes against humanity aggravated by premeditation and reiteration, in spite of the warnings received from the international authorities and the human rights organizations.

The report, which was also presented to the European Court of Human Rights, to the European Council and the European Commission, ends as follows: While condemning the oppression carried out by Italian institutions against the Roma and Sinti people, we point out that in law the definition of “crimes against humanity” covers criminal actions involving violence and abuse against people and ethnic groups, or crimes which can be perceived - for the general censure they arouse - as being perpetrated against humanity. On the basis of the already attested racial and persecutory measures being carried out by Italian institutions towards the gypsies, Gruppo EveryOne asks that those responsible for this persecution be called to testify in an international court for crimes against humanity.

Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, the leaders of EveryOne Group, flanked by important figures on an international level like George Scarlat, Saimir Mile, Marcel Courthiade, Santino Spinelli and many other important activists from EveryOne, hope that finally the Italian Government and local authorities will have to answer before an international court of justice for the discrimination and oppression that is still being carried out towards the Rroma and Sinti peoples. “If the international organizations of justice and protection of human rights act quickly,” say the leaders of EveryOne, “we will be able to prevent the wiping out of an ethnic group that has been present on Italian soil for centuries, the end of its traditions, its culture and its precious contribution to European social and cultural progress, which is as important as it is underestimated”.

Contact: Gruppo EveryOne
(+ 39) 334-8429527
www.everyonegroup.com ::  info@everyonegroup.com

Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. On Sunday December 13th, Rokker Radio spoke about the situation of the gypsies in Italy, the European Parliament Resolution of November 15, 2007 – denouncing the racial persecution being carried out against them by the Italian institutions – and the tragedy of the Rrom families after the camp clearances.

Un agguato razzista a Roma ha mandato a fuoco due capannoni industriali dismessi in cui vivevano provvisoriamente oltre 100 rrom. Gli edifici sono andati a fuoco e solo il caso e la prontezza delle famiglie a correre in strada ha evitato la tragedia. Le bombole del gas al'interno dei capannoni avrebbero potuto provocare una strage. Incredibilmente la stampa italiana e le istituzioni minimizzano l'evento, la cui dinamica è evidentemente dolosa. La persecuzione dei rrom, sostenuta da una potente campagna razziale mediatica conduce i rrom in una situazione tragica. Oltre alla fame, al freddo, alle infezioni, agli stenti, all'emarginazione, vi sono anche gruppi di assassini razziali che colpiscono nella totale impunità. Il Gruppo EveryOne esprime la sua protesta in ogni sede istituzionale italiana ed europea.

Oggi il Gruppo EveryOne ha espresso una ferma protesta nei confronti di quotidiani, agenzie stampa e network, che hanno censurato la notizia della morte di un ragazzo Rrom di 27 anni, ucciso da un'auto pirata in piena notte, vicino a Pavia, mentre tornava a casa. "Noi giornalisti pubblicheremmo senza esitazioni quel tipo di notizie," ha commentato una nota giornalista dopo l'ennesima censura, ma sono i nostri direttori a fermarle". Censurare una notizia così significa essere caduti in un regime non più rispettoso dei diritti dei cittadini, significa che le Istituzioni, che controllano la stampa e la TV, non vogliono che l'opinione pubblica sappia di un incidente mortale con omissione di soccorso da parte dell'assassino. Solo perché la vittima è un Rrom. Speriamo che domani, dopo la nostra protesta, la notizia sia divulgata, anche in forma essenziale. E' un brutto momento per i Rrom in Italia e anche per noi che ci occupiamo di Diritti Umani. Ma è questo il momento in cui bisogna impegnarsi con coraggio, con ogni energia, per un bene superiore, che è quello della verità, che è quello della vita umana.

EveryOne Group has reason to believe, after listening to the testimony of many Rrom families and Italian citizens who are in contact with Rrom families, that a further violation of the rights of the Rroms is about to take place.

La campagna razziale parla di crimini come il rapimento di bambini, le sevizie, la riduzione in schiavitù: le solite calunnie per criminalizzare i Rom