Gypsies face hostility, poverty in Eastern
Europe
By JONATHAN LUXMOORE
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Usti nad
Labem, Czech Republic
In mid-1999, Maticna Street on the edge of this dusty northern
Bohemian town made its bid to become the symbol of post-communist Eastern
Europes underside.
Here, city councilors decided to put up a wall to separate a
grimy, unpainted tenement from the rest of the town. The reason: to keep at bay
the dark-skinned Roma people -- more commonly known as Gypsies -- who occupy
the building.
The wall quickly became a cause célèbre in the
European media. To many, it was emblematic of the revival of racial and ethnic
tribalism in the political void left by communisms collapse. The
parallelism was perfect: In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, allegedly heralding a
new era of freedom and prosperity for Eastern Europe; in 1999, the Usti Wall
went up, a symbol that for the ethnic minorities of the region, the new age
might be even more hostile than the old.
Unlike its counterpart in Berlin, the Utsi Wall lasted only a few
weeks; it was dismantled in late November 1999, after being condemned by Czech
President Vaclav Havel and ruled illegal by the countrys parliament.
The reverberations, however, continue. The Catholic church here
finds itself taking a lead role in efforts at healing.
Dominican Fr. Pavel Jancik, who helped mediate the dispute over
the wall, doubts local Czechs are really hostile to Gypsies and insists Usti
schools have good tolerance programs. With at least three Czech families living
in the tenement, too, Jancik thinks the idea of a bitter racial divide is
artificial.
After holding regular prayer meetings at Maticna Street, the
Dominican hopes to set up a Catholic parish for the area. Though few go
to Mass regularly, theyre open to the church. But we cant wait for
them to come -- we have to go out to them, Jancik said.
The Usti wall controversy follows a spate of violent attacks on
Gypsies, who make up around 3 percent of the Czech Republics 10 million
inhabitants. Roma women were pressured to accept sterilization here until the
early 1990s; the countrys Civic Solidarity Movement claims to have
documented two-dozen Gypsy murders in the past decade.
In 1997, the Czech government said it was taking immediate
steps to ensure equal opportunities for the Roma, up to 90 percent of
whom are unemployed and illiterate in some districts.
Tensions have been evident all over Eastern Europe. The Slavic
word for Gypsies -- Tsigani -- means untouchable and dates from the
11th century, when Gypsies first reached Europe after migrating from the Indian
Subcontinent. At 5 million, Eastern Europes Roma currently make up half
the worlds total. After being assured housing and health care under
communism, today they are the regions largest, least organized and most
disliked minority.
Hungarys Gypsies, officially put at 500,000, have increased
by half since the 1970s. They have a school dropout rate of 40 percent.
Bulgarias 800,000 comprise 8 percent of its population but account for a
quarter of the nations recorded crimes.
Meanwhile, war-torn Kosovos 150,000 Roma were forced to flee
last summer to refuges in Macedonia after being accused of collaborating with
the Serb army. In October, Gypsies petitioned Polands civil rights
ombudsman, claiming they felt unsafe.
In neighboring Slovakia, Roma comprise a fifth of inhabitants in
some eastern districts. With a birthrate four times the Slovak average,
theyre set to become the countrys majority by 2060.
Roma leaders have taken steps to highlight the worsening
conditions. An International Romany Union has promoted greater representation
in national parliaments, while a Roma Rights Center in Budapest has publicized
anti-Gypsy incidents.
Yet efforts like these are hampered by indifference.
The 54-state Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
which runs a special Roma program, warned in 1998 of plans to resettle Gypsies
in fenced-in shelters outside the western Czech city of Plzen, and to house
them in metal containers at Szekesfehervar in Hungary.
While some Roma are fully integrated, living and working like
their non-Roma neighbors, many survive in extreme poverty in isolated
communities. A third group exists in between, on the margins of assimilation.
Its people like this that Eastern Europes Catholic church has tried
hardest to reach.
In the Czech Republic, a bishops conference commission
issued a statement at Roma request this October, endorsing Fr. Janciks
view that the Usti conflict had social causes.
It was only the latest of several Catholic interventions. In a
1998 pastoral, the Czech bishops urged citizens to show solidarity
with Gypsies, adding that many were losing hope of ever being
treated with dignity.
Bishops conference spokesman Fr. Daniel Herman says the 1998
letter triggered a series of local parish initiatives. Wed like
more Gypsy priests -- but most have no secondary schooling and cant
obtain higher education, Herman told NCR. So for now, we
need to motivate ordinary clergy to bring Gypsies into normal parish
life.
The Polish church has helped integrate the countrys 30,000
Roma, organizing special pilgrimages to the shrines of Jasna Gora and Limanowa.
Croatias Catholic bishops conference also runs Gypsy projects,
including a summer school.
Even in the church, however, there are problems.
In Hungary, a Childrens Bible was printed in 1996 in Lovari,
the language spoken by most East European Roma. But a separate New Testament
for adults still awaits Vatican authorization nine years after being presented
to the pope.
In villages with large Gypsy populations, attempts have been
made to use Gypsy languages in the liturgy, explained Miklos Tomka, a
Hungarian sociologist.
But there are great problems in conveying the correct image
of Jesus, as well as with simple words such as Dervla, which means both God and
Devil in Lovari.
Despite the obstacles, efforts continue.
In Slovakia, where a Roma Bible and catechism were printed last
year, a special church and school are planned at Jarovnice. One of
Slovakias five Gypsy priests has inaugurated the first Catholic parish
for Roma at Brezno, where Gypsies make up half the population.
Meanwhile, the church is working on plans for the worlds
first Roma diocese.
Its task will be to supervise the systematic catechization
of Gypsies and end their marginalization within the church, said Fr.
Josef Hrtus, an assistant to Slovakias bishops conference chairman,
Rudolf Balaz.
Sr. Atanazja Holubova, one of Slovakias six Roma nuns,
thinks the church can make a key contribution in raising the Gypsies
level of life. At the Roma slum where Holubova works outside Bardejov, many of
the 900 inhabitants have no electricity. But 60 percent attend Mass in the
nearby church-run culture center, which contains the worlds first chapel
to Spanish Gypsy martyr Blessed Ceferino Jimenez Malla (1861-1936).
Ironically, though half a million Roma were killed by the Nazis
during World War II, the Porajmos, or Gypsy Holocaust, was commemorated for the
first time only in 1993, largely thanks to efforts by the pope and church
leaders in Eastern Europe.
In a move meant to ease tensions, the Czech government has agreed
to help Maticna Streets few Czech families move out by buying up their
houses.
The mayor built [the wall] illegally so the whites
wouldnt have to look at us. But we have to coexist, and Im sure the
government wont allow such things, said Bozena Goralova, a Roma
council member.
Such expectations of harmony arent shared by taxi drivers in
Ustis town center.
Those Gypsies can go to hell the short way, the
drivers leader said angrily. They should be sent to Germany and
Sweden. The trouble is theyre not wanted there either.
National Catholic Reporter, January 21,
2000
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