DRC: Who is Afraid of the Roma?

CRNPS

12 December 2007

The Roma Children Centre of Serbia (DRC) reacted to the statement by the Mayor of Topola, who �rose to prominence� leading the action against the promotion of Pescanik radio show in Arandjelovac, to Blic daily (Saturday, 8.12.), that he plans to �...fence off the Roma with walls and wire�.

- Serbian Constitution defines Serbia as the country of Serbs and all citizens living in it. Judging from the statement of its leadership, it is not certain if Roma belong to that category. We also wonder why are the citizens of Topola, or the part of the town called Torovi affraid of the the Roma?�, akss DRC.

DRC reminds the representatives of executive power in the country that Serbia is a member of the Decade of Roma Inclusion and has addopted appropriate action plans to include Roma in all layers of democratic society. Furthermore, the counry received certain funds towards that aim.

- We are quite sure that those funds are not to be used to �build walls topped with wire�. If there are people who believe otherwise, we would like to hear why�, commenta DRC.

DRC also finds interesting the fact that not a single support or trust network, or political party, apart from the Democratic Party, has reacted to this obviously racist statement.