• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Romania: Romani murdered (1)

Romania: Romani murdered (1)

01 January 1991

Romania: Romani murdered
artdoc July=1994

An inquiry report by the International Federation of Human Rights
and the `Agir ensemble pour les droits de l'homme' has found
official inaction and racist attitudes in reaction to the murder
of a Romani (gypsy) and the burning of houses in Hadrani on 21
September 1993.
The village of Hadrani has a population of 863 people - 595
Romanians, 193 Hungarians and 130 Romani. Following the killing
of a Romanian in a fight with two Romanis nearly the whole
Romanian and Hungarian population gathered around a house where
the gypsies had fled and set it on fire - two escaped but one
died. The crowd then set fire to another fourteen houses and
destroyed fifteen others as the occupants fled to the surrounding
countryside. These events took place despite the presence of two
police officers.
The inquiry team found that officials excused these actions by
pointing to `anti social behaviour' of a section of the gypsy
community. This view was reflected in the media which portrayed
Romani as being thieves, violent, traffickers, uncivilised and
undesirable. They found that noone had been arrested for the
murder and attacks even though lawyers for the Romani knew the
perpetrators. The authorities had also used these events to
forcibly move members of the Romani community out of the area by
using an old law, Law no 5 of 1971, on `the rights of residence
of Romanian citizens'.
La Lettre, FIDH, 24.3.94.

Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994