The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 5050 THE SCARS OF THE ERASUREthe bottom. The policeman, my friend, offered to give me something from time to time,but I didn’t want to take it. From time to time he paid for a drink, but that’s different.I didn’t want to take money. I’m like that, stubborn. You’re afraid to ask your colleague,because you’re afraid that you’ll lose him. I was lucky to have this friend.I maintained contact with my son and daughter to a greater or lesser degree despiteall the losses I suffered. But I was ashamed because I couldn’t offer them anything.For some time I visited my son in secret. But I had contact with my daughter from myfirst marriage all the time; she is older and she could understand it. Now she helps usbuild a relationship.We learnt that the erasure was an unlawful measure only in 2002, no sooner thanthat. I knew that I didn’t have a permanent address, that I didn’t have the right to healthcare, to employment, social aid, in short, no right to anything. But we didn’t know thatit was a mistake by Slovenia, until Todorović and Krivic appeared in public with thedata and explanations. Before that, we were only “southerners.” Then when we learntthat there were many of us and that it was a mistake by Slovenian politicians, we beganto fight, but you cannot fight the system alone. Right up to 2002, when the erased peoplewent public, I didn’t know any erased person. It seems that all of us were hiding, nobodytalked about it. When I heard about the association and got Aleksandar Todorović’snumber, I called him straight away and told him about my situation. We began to meeteach other at that time and we still fight together. I’m a member of the Civil Initiativeof the Erased People, and the Vice-Chairman for the Ljubljana district. This associationdoes not receive donations; we have no resources. The only thing we have is moral support,and we too offer moral support to everybody.We demand that all the people who were stripped of permanent residence permitsin 1992 be given back their status, retroactively as well, and that all injustices be remedied.For example, I lost 11 years of qualifying years for pension, because I was not “employable,”although I had to work. I lost my health, I lost my sight, I lost my family. Nofinancial compensation, no matter how high it is, can give me back my health and myfamily; these cannot be evaluated in terms of money. But those who were responsiblefor the erasure, meaning those who ordered this measure and allowed it, must be heldresponsible for what they did, morally and in court. Bavčar was the Minister of the Interiorin 1992 and he signed the document that made the erasure legitimate.In 2003, on 13 October, I obtained Slovenian citizenship based on Article 19 ofthe Citizenship Act. After that I immediately went out to find a job. I “bamboozled” myemployer, to be honest, because I didn’t tell him that I was ill. It was really urgent forme to get a job and health insurance. I spent a lot of time on sick leave and that’s whyI was dismissed. Now I receive a disability pension, but it is very low because of the insufficientnumber of working years.Now that I have citizenship, certain things have changed for the better. I don’thave to hide from the police any more, and I have the right to legal employment. But Ihave the same health problems as in the past; the only difference is that now I can go toa doctor. But I cannot work as I did in the past – not because I don’t have the right to