A Problem Brewing: Media Coverage of Roma in Romania

By Valeriu Nicolae, deputy director of the uropean Roma !nformation "ffice in Bru##el#
An overwhelming majority of Romanians do not know or do not believe that the Romanian
state was involved in the extermination of Roma and Jews during WWII. The majority are in favour of
refusing Romanian Roma the right to travel abroad and almost half of them think that a demographi
poliy aimed at hindering the growth of the Roma population in Romania would be a good idea.[1]
For several weeks during late September and early October, 2003, the international media
covered extensively the arranged marriage of two oma !"ypsy# children in omania, $3 year old
%na &aria 'ioaba !$2 years old according to some reports# and $( year old &ihai )irita*
+he widespread media coverage forced a strong reaction to this flagrant violation of children,s
rights from powerful politicians at the -uropean level* +he )aroness -mma .icholson and -/
commissioner %nna 0iamantopoulou spoke critically about the event and under pressure, the
omanian authorities felt obliged to intervene* +hey annulled the marriage and separated the couple*
&ass media failed to explain the roots and the perpetuation of a tradition that came initially
from 1ndia 2 child marriage among omanian oma* 0uring the (00 years in which oma were
enslaved in omania, young oma girls were fre3uently raped by their owners or the sons of their
owners* %fter this, the girls and the 4half5breed6 children they often bore were re7ected by both the
oma and the non5oma communities* +he oma found that marrying their daughters off while they
were still very young was a good solution, as once married and no longer virgin, the girls were no
longer 4clean6 enough to rape* 1n fact, the same tradition of child marriage was practiced in the past in
very poor omanian villages, where the young girls were also targets for rape by the estate owners*
%n explosion of extremist nationalism accompanied the creation of the omanian state,
following the liberation of oma from slavery in omania in $8(9* 1n the following century came the
:olocaust, during which hundred of thousands of oma were killed in the name of racial purity, and
then communism and its aggressive forced assimilation* 1n order to survive through decades of
persecution, and to preserve their identity despite policies of forced assimilation, the oma isolated
themselves and clung to their traditions, the harmful along with the useful*
1 offer this background information, and believe that the media should have included it in their
reportage, not as an excuse or 7ustification for the violation of children,s rights, but in order to help the
public fully understand the situation* 1 do not suggest that an abusive tradition be respected, but
merely that the history and suffering that led to this tradition be acknowledged, in the process of
looking for ways to eliminate the abuse of human rights*
%s it happened, the nature of the international coverage merely provided the omanian press,
already struggling with racism[2], with yet another opportunity to show that the oma alone are
responsible for tarnishing omania,s image in -urope and delaying omania,s accession to the -/*
;ust a few days before the marriage, on September $<, 2003, over 300 oma took to the
streets of 'raiova !one of omania,s ma7or cities, in the south west of the country# protesting against
the ethnic omanian organisation 4Fratia6 !the )rotherhood# which not only attempts to deny oma
access to restaurants and clubs but is also well known for threatening and beating oma* &any
members of the Fratia are former members of OF%" !Organisation for Fighting %gainst "ypsies#,
outlawed several years ago2 well known omanian mafioso with strong connections in the business
and political circles of 'raiova* OF%" was a fascist group which spraypainted 40eath to the "ypsies6
on walls all over town, and established the trend of denying oma access to restaurants and clubs*
+his trend was openly adopted by many restaurant and club owners2 until $=== the most popular club
in 'raiova had a poster announcing that it forbade access to oma and dogs*
+he connections of Fratia members with local politicians and businessmen, in addition to the
large number of bodyguards they employ, makes the organisation virtually untouchable in omania,
despite the fact that a number of its members are convicted criminals in >estern -uropean countries*
0uring the course of the protests, < oma were shot by the police with rubber bullets and 3?
oma were arrested* 1n stark contrast, despite numerous reported incidents involving members of the
4Fratia6, none of them has ever been arrested by the local authorities*
Of the (0 omanians 1 3uestioned in 'raiova, $00@ believed that the events surrounding the
protest were a fight between two oma gangs of mafiosi, as most of the omanian media had
suggested* +he omanians were convinced that the police had taken the side of the oma, as the
press had instilled the idea that the mafioso members of the Fratia were actually also oma* +he fact
that none of the Fratia were arrested was regarded as proof of the police complicity with the oma*
+he violent uprising in 'raiova and the violent police reaction, including illegal arrests, is not an
isolated incident* % similar incident took place in 2002 in )uhusi, where two oma were killed by the
police and several others were seriously wounded, including a $? years old boy shot in his back*
%mong the wounded was a <0 year old woman, badly beaten by police*
%lthough these were the two most extreme cases of ethnic violence in omania in the last
years, there was almost no coverage of either in the international press*
+he case of the $? year old boy shot in his back is not the only case of unreported abuse of
children,s rights2 in a settlement in 'raiova,s garbage dump last year, two oma children were buried
alive under the garbage dumped by the trucks while they were looking for something to eat* %n infant
was accidentally suffocated in his sleep by his own mother, in their bed shared by five people* +wo
children with %10S live in a cardboard shack of ten s3uare meters, shared by eight people[3]* .ot to
mention the thousands of other oma kids in omania and other countries fighting desperately for
survival, caught between an openly racist ma7ority and their desperately poor and often abusive family
environments*
...on the train to the airport! just before I left Romania! the person sitting next to me told me
"#ypsies do nothing but steal and rob us $ the Romanians. The polie protet them instead of
proteting us Romanians. We %Romanians& are the niest and hardest working people in this world.' It
wasn(t a member of the Iron #uard or a skinhead sitting next to me! but an elderly lady travelling with
her five)year)old grandson. I asked her if she had ever had a personal inident with a Roma! and she
replied* "no! but didn (t you see on T+ how savage they are,' The - year old boy nodded his
agreement! and looked sared when I told them that I was Roma.
.uring the years preeding the onflit in ex)/ugoslavia tens of reports were presented to 01
offiials and everybody looked at 0urope to do something to prevent the predited disaster. 0urope
looked away. There is a problem brewing in 2raiova! and many other ities in 0astern 0urope. It(s not
a reipe to solve the problems of hildren dying in the garbage dumps looking for something to eat!
nor to bring tolerane and normality into soieties split on ethni grounds. Whether or not it is the
same reipe from 3osovo and 4osnia only the future will tell5
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[1] "allup poll in omania
http:$$www%gallup%ro$romana$poll&ro$relea#e#&ro$pr'()')*&ro$pr'()')*&ro%htm
From the same poll2 39 @ of omanians believe oma should live separately and 3$@ think
forbidding oma access to public places !restaurants, clubs and bars# should be legal* +he ma7ority of
omanians also think that the public interest should prevail over individual rights and that a strong
and radical leader is needed*
[2] eport of the omanian monitoring agency 4%cademia 'atavencu6
http:$$www%mma%ro$+rame#et#$ng&Publication#%htm
[3] http:$$www%romanetwor,%org