In March, head of the extreme People’s Party-Our Slovakia (LS-NS), Marian Kotleba, announced his plan to get rid of land-squatting Roma families by buying or acquiring the land they had erected their shanty houses on and then tear them down.
Kotleba now plans to go ahead with the move, after being donated around 800 m2 of land under a Roma settlement in Krasnohorske Podhradie. The nearby Krasna Horka castle was recently partially burned down by a fire, with blaming fingers being pointed at Roma children from the settlement of around 800 people.
The settlers say they are willing to sit round the table with the new owner and discuss the option of buying the land off him, says community head Ludovit Gundar, possibly naive to what is going on, as the original owner also 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.
[…] 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 […]
[…] Evictions Illegal, But Continuing The recent case of extremist Marian Kotleba getting his hands on land under a Roma settlement so he could tear down their shanty dwellings could run up against a legal problem, but that often […]
This brings to mind the Challenge the Americans face with the Indians (Native Americans – to be politically correct). We place them all on Reservations, with their own rights, laws and community. They didn’t have the same legal systems and have their own police and govenments within these reservations. They go smart though, as they could build casinos, which are illegal except for Vegas and Atlantic City… they then learned how to make tons of money off these casinos and dod at the cost of your “white American tourists”… I can just see it now, next to every Roma settlement a huge lighted and well advertised Casino/whore house/distillary/tobacco plant! They can become the next version of the Christan downfall for Europe, are they that far from this now? Anyway, to solve a problem is more than allocating land and saying “private property, keep out”…. They need to be shown how to start to, after how many hundreds of years, to “Fit In”…yeah good luck! Shame on those who think the problem is only with them, it is everyone’s issue! I am more shocked since I left Eastern Slovakia to find the people going throuhg my garbage here in Bratislava aren’t the Roma, but white people, and not the homeless looking dirty strre living low life kind! This country has a problem, and ignoring it makes it only worse!
Expat: I am not very sure, but are not casinos already legal here?
Mr Eigh,
I think a better solution is just to allocate some public land for them, give them healthcare and schooling, and leave them alone…….???
Why not go the whole hog in leaving them alone , give them their own in country in a country like Kosovo …I mean there is lots of Public land around …Hungary can have up to Nitra and east, the Austrians to the other side of Bratislava and Ukraine`s the Pol`s and the Czech`s can have their bite as well …..I guess the Slovaks may just end up with the Tatry ?
Sound fair ?
You see, my idea was a logical, real-world idea for a complex problem. Your idea (give them their own country) is just brainless, and it masks the fact that you clearly don’t understand the enormity of the situation. I sincerely hope you don’t vote in Slovakia.
Fee fi foe fum ………………I smell another smelly Loghead clone .
Mr Eigh – its quite clear that YOU do not undertsand the enormity of the situation. Your logical and real world idea is the current, failed, Slovak policy of out of sight, out of mind. The whole point of the debate, which you seem to have totally missed, is the integration of the Roma into Slovak society so how exactly is giving them their own this and that and then “leaving them alone” a solution.
If your’e representative of the avergae Slovak voter then Big Guys’ idea isn’t that stupid because its quite clear that bigotry runs so deep in this society that you, as nation, will never achieve a homegrown solution. Failed State?
The issue of voting should be something all “white” Sks should start getting their head around. The Roma, at conservative estimates, represent 10% of the electorate, a figure that grows every year, if they become politically active and start using their votes they could well hold the balance of power on the political scene. You may also wish to consider the future, whilst the Roma population continues to rise, the white population is at almost zero growth so you may all wish to reconsider your treatment of the Roma because eventually they will be the majority and the Masters.
Mister Eigh – the use of public or state land for the provision of decent housing would be a logical move however, there is little point in replacing Roma shanty settlements in remote villages with decent housing when the area has little or no employment opportunities and only limited amenities which the Roma are excluded from using.
In my opinion decent housing should be built for the Roma AND other disadvantaged Slovaks in locations that offer the possibility of employment and have sufficient infrastructure and amenities to support the population. Current policy, where there is one, is to create Roma only enclaves which only serve to amplify the problems. Integration will only take place if they are mixed into the local communities, provided with unsegregated education, have a genuine opportunity to gain useful employment and have the appropriate support mechanisms staffed by people who know and understand the problems these people will face adapting to “normal living”.
Unfortunately there appears be little or no desire or will to tackle this problem in a structured way. Politicians at National and local level either play lip-service to solving the issue or, as reported by various International organisations, deliberatly obstruct any attempt at making progress to avoid upsetting their voter base.
The more I read and learn about the disgraceful way Slovakia treats the Roma minority the more I believe the gloves should come off and that the EU and the International community as a whole should take steps to force the Sk to take real and measurable action. Perhaps if the white majority are no longer able to cheer on their “representative” sporting teams in international competitions etc. they may reflect upon the consequencies of aparthied. An immediate stop to all EU funding might help and would get my vote.
This doesn’t seem like a long term solution. The Roma will have to go somewhere if that land is removed from underneath them. Probably towns and cities, which I’m sure many Slovaks don’t want.
I think a better solution is just to allocate some public land for them, give them healthcare and schooling, and leave them alone. Yes it will cost money, but at least it keeps the Roma from living in extreme poverty or becoming a problem in towns. I think providing public land for them it’s the “least worse” option.
Mmmm…. Destroying Roma sub-standard shanties with no water and sanitation and then re-housing them in tents with no water and sanitation – that’s really going to solve the problem.
Moving them into Portacabins – slightly better policy – just!
The new land “owner” planning to clear the Roma from the site – If it is his land and they are there without consent then he has the right BUT I understand that the Sk has a law of aquisition by occupation – if you occupy land for a certain period then you get certain rights. If this is true then I assume no action will be taken until due legal process and any such actions will be adequately policed. If the world press are there and witness a bunch of Nationalist thugs “misbehaving” whilst the police stand around with their brains in neutral it could damage Slovakia’s less than shiney international reputation.
Going back to the bigger picture – Le Monde recently reported that there is over 13 billion in EU funds earmarked for Roma issues in this region but countries have failed to come up with any acceptable proposals as to how it would be used.
As a final note, I mentioned the village of Svinia in one of my related comments, may I recommend that readers look at the link http://svinia.org an excellent site which explains why projects to help the Roma fail in this country. A typical quote being;
“Just how entrenched the informal apartheid system is can be gleaned from the Slovak experience of Habitat For Humanity, the world’s largest builder of affordable homes. In 1999, HFH set up its Slovak headquarters in Svinia in order to help construct between twenty and thirty new homes. Confronted by a hostile white establishment, the organization pulled out four years later without any tangible accomplishment.”
Well if their the new owners then surely they have the right. I sure wouldn’t want a shed load of pikey peg sellers at the bottom of my Garden.
Love the banner ……what, no leap frogging entry allowed here ?