The government plenipotentiary for Roma Affairs, Miroslav Pollak, has spoken out against the clearance of two illegal Roma shanty homes in the town of Vrutky last week, saying a legal analysis will be prepared to examine the legality of the step.
The local council decided to demolish the homes, which were located illegally on the town’s land, but Pollak, while not advocating such illegal housing, pointed again to how the law protects dwellings in any case, and how only a court can rule to have it removed. Mayor of Vrutky Miroslav Mazur justified the move with the argument that there is no definition of a “dwelling” in Slovak law.
With the argument that the shanty homes were not in fact dwellings, the town of Vrutky is not obliged to provide the evicted inhabitants with alternative accommodation. Other nearby residents are reported to be relieved that their ‘non-conforming’ neighbours have been cleared off the land.
The case will surely be closely watched by Marian Kotleba, head of the extreme People’s Party-Our Slovakia (LS-NS) who plans to get rid of land-squatting Roma families on 800 m2 land he acquired as a donation in Krasnohorske Podhradie. The settlers said they were willing to sit round the table with the new owner and discuss the option of buying the land off him, but earlier the original owner refused to sell the land to them, donating it instead to Kotleba.
Over the past year in Slovakia there have been several cases of Roma settlements being razed to the ground by local authorities as well, something that Amnesty International drew attention to recently. In Kosice 80 Roma were moved into tents after they had their homes crushed in May of last year, then in June the town of Ziar nad Hronom did the same, moving the unsettled dwellers into porta-cabins. A similar fate currently hangs over around 90 families in Plavecky Stvrtok near Bratislava.
I must say it’s quite a relieve to see that they are also normal foreigners living is Slovakia like Alec and Ian. I believe most of them are, some just don’t have so much time to spend posting on the internet.
I must say I’ve changed my attitide on Chinese here in China. It feels really great. Today I had lunch with my colleagues /English and American men/, they got a bit negative about things in China and after a while I found myself defending the Chinese.
In the end both of them agreed that China is actually a nice place to live and the biggest problem is the politics.
Surprisingly I must say thank you to George M. and all his slugging off comments that he made me a better man.
I wish I could write my opinions here on this web site and after thinking about the Roma issue I came up with 2-3 ideas. I also would like to share some stories /positive ones/ about Roma. But I know that it won’t be appreciated and I will be called racist anyway so I won’t do that.
I really hope that SVK will be the first country that will find the way how to solve this problem and make the life for everybody better. It might take 10-20 years but I know this process will start and before the end of this century it will be history.
George M.&com it’s your turn to kick my ass now…go ahead!!
My God that old warn out chestnut Mr Snob ….YOU, YOU …look at you own country bla bla bla before you, bla bla etc etc …How many times have I heard that crap excuse for excusing the Aryan Race in Slovakia of racism and discrimination. Normally, it is the local white comments that harp on, forgetting this is a forum for Slovak News issues and not those of the UK, Ireland , the USA etc . That is why we are dealing with that issue . Now we we have the quorum US Red Neck excuses appearing to support Racism.
So lets not Slag off Slovakia them , lets all stand and watch ( Smug & Ian Mc with their collective heads up there own rear ends, so they cannot see any wrong ) as the Ayran Slovaks then, deliberately ignore every human right and EU Roma Rights directive for the next 50 years .
Lets blame everyone else, because everyone else in the EU has the problem ….or perhaps no one is to blame of course and it is the Roma`s own fault
….kinda makes you wonder how this problem ever started with THOSE people . Personally I think the Smug and the Snob are the ones who need compulsive corrective teaching . Perhaps another EU directive that can be ignored .
Ian I think you missed the previous comments where Alec gets his ass kicked.
Well said Alec I agree with everything you said. What happening in Slovakia happens in all countries across Europe so George can not complain and slag off Slovaks when the exact same sitution are happening in Britian. Look at your own country before commenting on others.
Well lets all remind Alec that we are in Slovakia, discussing Slovakia and currently pointing fingers at Slovaks for treating other national Slovaks poorly. However, we commenting are not `based` the UK, or on a UK based news website but again in Slovakia . Given the news reports I read in the UK, they are already very inflamed and without George and his assistance . Perhaps his missionary work is better served here, no ???
A public debate is ongoing in the UK over the Roma ….I do not see one here in Slovakia over the Slovak Roma thou ?
So why should George not point out the wrongs and those things out here ? However , like most things in Slovakia, problems like the Roma are just ignored, or brushed under the carpet like they never even happened ?…. So, come on guys, lets all ban George because he makes us Slovaks, or those challenged Red Neck`s like Alec and Dr P, Losgar ( whatever AKA he uses today ! ) feel uncomfortable about ourselves, our stupidities ….Is it wrong that George`s comments inflame the bigoted, the racist or the plain we dont care about them, just us and we are the only ones that matter in our country as many nice white ( Ayran to steal a phrase) Slovaks seem to be ?
Lets all start how America still treats the Black people ….Oh yes sorry, I forgot we are in Slovakia and we just dont have Black people here 🙂
Smug , Most the people at Dale Farm were not Gypsy or Roma , they were social squatters and opportunists on Private Land, not Public . The dwellings that were removed and I may add many homes were not for legal reasons, were ALL done , after over 12 years of court proceedings and challenges and due process, then found to be build without permit some on Green Belt land . BTW, These were not poor people needing shelter from wind and rain , they lived in expensive homes made either brick, or were mobile and drove new expensive 4×4 and other executive cars . There were social housing options offered and open for them to use. They chose not to use these, I suspect as they were working somewhere, not paying income taxes and wanted not to be found by the Taxman, as they had no formal address or could move around .
Thomas Hammarberg is hardly representative of the the entire EU Council .
The UK effect the Human Rights and positive approach to the Roma people, I just Slovakia would start on item one . Discrimination ….lets start with the police ?
Sadly I have no knowledge of the 2008 incident, but if the Gypsy had been like they were at my local pub, when the Pub Owner invited them to use his country venue, as a staging post for there annual meeting, I am not surprised they were not welcome at an event . It was nothing to do with their Kind, but their drunken, hooligan bahaviour at the Pub and the fact the police had to arrest 10 of them, or they were going to drive home, on Public Roads in their expensive horse and traps . I guess you can play the race card here, but anyone, any colour, any race any national would be banned or arrested for public disorder, no ….well perhaps not in your Smug world .
Dear George,
you have much missionary work to do in your own homeland so please don’t inflame the situation here in Slovakia.
Headline Western Mercury England \ 04 04 2012
Gypsy camps right next door to new homes
Dale Farm evictions of Gypsies by violent force Essex England October 2011
The English have criminalised the travelling way of life and refuse to honour the agreement to provide travellers with proper sites.
No blacks no dogs no gypsies everywhere anywhere anytime
Tuesday 1st march 2012 Thomas Hammarberg Council of Europe for Human rights / please end this disgrace. Speaking of the treatment of gypsies by the English.
Royal Horse show Windsor Home park 2008. Gypsies refused entry/
Quote from a Steward. “The Queen does not want your kind here”. When questioned the show organisers stated that the stewards were under strict orders to refuse entry to gypsies.Using your logic I suppose we could make some derogatory remarks about the English, but then that would lower us to your level
You clearly know little about Gypsy culture or Slovakia George. If you did you would surely choose your words and arguments a little more carefully.
Alec my friend, your selection of quotes only serve to highlight the difference between our two societies when it comes to Traveller issues.
Traveller is an important word as it is used to describe all the nomadic cultures in the UK, – Gypsy, Irish, Show People all of who are free to maintain their cultural and historical nomadic life and more recently, New Age Travellers. That right was removed from the Roma in the SK by the reds.
Did you read the Western Mercury article or were you just atracted by the headline? The article explains in great detail the efforts being made by the local council to integrate Travellers into local communities and how much consultation it has with all the communities involved. If you follow the story up, the spokesman for the Travellers applauded the efforts being made AND I could find no negative comments from the local residents.
Dale Farm and Oak Lane – evictions.
After 10 YEARS of legal process, Basildon Council removed only those properties that had been built without planning permission ( You and I can’t build a shed in our own gardens without PP in the UK). The council fulfilled its legal obligations by offering every evicted family housing. The violent force – sorry but if you throw bricks at a British Copper you get what you deserve. The majority of those arrested had nothing to do with the Travellers or the two sites, they were the usual bunch of anarchists who jump on everyones cause intent on violence and causing damage.
Thomas Hammarberg’s quote, if you read the article in full, condemns Basildon Council for not offering ” culturally acceptable housing ” I.E. alternate sites for the caravans. ( Brick built houses not being acceptable! )
The Governments immediate response was to allocate funds for the construction of 627 additional traveller caravan pitches, however, and this is fully accepted by both National and local government there is still a shortfall in the number of caravan pitches available around the country – 15,274 ( +627) when the latest census of Travellers shows a need for 18.383 pitches. The itinerant nature of the Travellers means that it is highly unlikely that there will never be enough pitches in any one area to satisfy demand at certain times of the year. In response many councils are allocating land for additional itinerant ( temporary) caravans or negotiating with private tourer parks for additional pitches.
The Royal Horse Show 2008 – History but true! It would appear, however, that although the Queen is the patron of the show, she has no part in the organisation, administration or the funding of it. It is a private commercial venture which at the time was run by Horse Power ( H Power Group) Simon Brooks-Ward (MD) and it was their employee who, on instructions from H P management, stopped some Travellers from entering the show ground.
I don’t know if any legal action was taken but it would appear that they lost some subsequent contracts and there have been no further or similar incidents at any of the events they organise.
” No Gypsies, No Blacks, No Dogs ” A bit of history last seen in the 60’s. Do it now and you will get your collar felt but it does illustrate how our society has moved on.
” English have criminalised…….” Sorry Alec where did you get this from? I can only find one publication with that quote in it and that is in a book written by a New Age Traveller” a group of people who have no historical or cultural connection to their nomadic lifestyle and have ridden on the back of the true Traveller community who despise them. The quote appears in a paragraph about the NAT attempt to occupy the Stonehenge site which they quite righlty were prevented from doing.
Your quotes only serve to highlight how a modern society deals with its problems, how attitudes and behaviour can be changed, that a peoples lifestyle, culture and heritage can be preserved, that Local Government makes a real effort to fulfill its obligations to the entire community and how National Government takes swift action in the face of international comments.
How different it is here!
I always judge a people by the way they treat the poorest, less able, less fortunate , the less knowledgeable in their own society . This is way I Rap on about Ayran Slovaks and the was they are mean ans rude to the rest of us . The expats are ripped off by the Ayaran Slovaks, because they abuse our trust ( I have dozens of sad tale stories ) and the Roma, they treat as they are an invading race, not even fellow human beings , let alone Slovaks themselves .
This was a Mayor of a village, voted in by Aryan Slovaks , dancing with legal terms , to demolish someones shelter from the snow and rain……..would he have done the same if Penta or J&T were the Black Builders ?????
SHAME ON YOU ALL SLOVAKIA ….