EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN - Institute of Race Relations

employees, nearly 15 per cent of the capital’s population. IfMoroccan and Turkish immigrants were allowed to vote, up to140,000 voters would be added to the register in Brussels alone.(Guardian 20.7.98)New political party infiltrated by extreme-RightExtreme-rightwingers have been accused of infiltrating the Partyfor New Politics (PNP) founded earlier in ‘98 by the father of agirl allegedly murdered by the paedophile Marc Dutroux. Thechair of Namur province has already resigned and 28 othermembers, who accuse Marc Similon of running a dictatorialorganisation, have threatened to resign. (Bulletin 24.9.98)Anvers schools accused of discrimination againstMoroccan childrenThe Federation of Moroccan and Turkish Associations ofAnvers are taking legal action after alleging that schools are, ineffect, reserving places for white children only. According toFederation President Mohammed Chakkar, schools willing toenrol the children of immigrants are becoming increasingly rare.Schools either put children on a waiting list or merely informtheir parents that they have filled their ‘immigrant quota’.(Solidaire 16.9.98)Tax discrimination against Moroccans allegedDozens of Moroccans living in Belgium are being taxed retrospectivelyfor the year 1996/7 because an official inquiry intothe Bank Chaabi of Morocco linked money in some savingsaccounts to drug laundering. Now, all Moroccan investors at thebank are being penalised for the actions of some by being taxednot on their incomes but on their savings accounts which arebeing regarded as undeclared income. (Solidaire 28.10.98)BULGARIAPoliceRoma are victims of killings, torture and illtreatmentAccording to Amnesty International (AI), at least five peopledied in 1998 as a result of torture or ill-treatment by lawenforcementofficers and shootings in disputed circumstancesresulted in at least nine deaths. Many of the victims of tortureand ill-treatment were Roma. AI is particularly concerned aboutthe situation in the Montano region, where two officers are frequentlyinvolved in incidents of ill-treatment. They also citecases in Mechka, Pleven region and the ill-treatment of tenRomani men in the village of Bahovitsa.Deaths in custodyIn May, Kolyo Todorov died after being shot by a police officerwho observed him leaving the police station in Plodiv. Todorovhad been arrested on suspicion of theft. Then, on 20 June, a 26-year-old Rom named Yordan Assenov Yankov was shot dead bya police officer in the Ovcha Kupel neighbourhood of Sofia.Police claim that the shooting happened after Mr. Yankov triedto escape a passport check. A warning shot was fired but somehowa defective bullet managed to hit Mr. Yankov in the head5IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999and he died instantaneously. The family dispute that this wasthe pattern of events. They claim that Mr. Yankov was stoppedby police after he had picked some plums. After a police officershot him in the foot, he managed to crawl several metres, followedby the police car. According to witnesses, one police officerthen got out of his car, approached Mr. Yankov and shothim in the head. (AI report: Bulgaria 1998, Roma Rights,Summer 1998)Roma villagers terrorised by indiscriminate massraidAccording to the Sofia-based Human Rights Project (HRP),over thirty Rom were beaten with truncheons when around 80police officers raided the Romani neighbourhood in the villageof Mechka. Police officers broke into houses without showingwarrants and indiscriminately assaulted men, women and children.A 60-year-old woman says that police officers repeatedlyassaulted her with truncheons on the back and all over her legs.An 11-year-old child received a fractured arm after being beatenwith a truncheon. (Roma Rights, Summer 1998)CZECH REPUBLICRacism and fascismInternational condemnation of plans tosegregate Roma in Usti nad LabemA delegation from the Council of Europe was among thoseexpressing concern about the decision by the town authoritiesin Usti nad Labem to erect a wall the length of a street in frontof a tenement block housing Romani families (see bulletin no.28). And the European Commission has linked the situation ofthe Roma to the Czech application for EU membership.Meanwhile, President Havel has expressed his willingness tointervene to bring about ‘mutual tolerance between the citizensof our nation’.Usti town profileUsti nad Labem in northern Bohemia is a petro-chemical towna few kilometres from the German border. Its situation – in thatpart of the Czech Republic which was once known as theSudentenland and was home to ethnic Germans prior to theirexpulsion after the second world war – goes some way toexplaining the unique situation that has developed in a townwhich is just half an hour’s drive from the site of the concentrationcamp at Theresienstadt. During the occupation, Usti wasenthusiastically pro-nazi. A terrorist organisation known as theWerewolves continued to launch violent attacks on industrialtargets until as late as 1947 – providing one of the justificationsfor the expulsion of the Sudetan Germans. Usti’s 8,000 Romapopulation, on the other hand, is the product of the post-warpopulation transfer promoted by the Communist governmentwhich forcibly imported Slovak Roma to do menial tasks in thede-populated industrial north.Council of Europe rebuffedIn September, a group of experts on Romani matters from theCouncil of Europe visited the mayor at Usti nad Labem. Butmayor Hruska attacked the visit, saying that the focus shouldhave been the other problems of the town which are more