Assaulted Roma boy awarded compensation

29 August 2007

Niš Municipal Court has awarded Dragiša Ajdarević compensation for the pain he suffered during an attack in April 2000.

The court ruling instructed Oliver Marković and Nataša Stojanović to pay 150,000 RSD (EUR 1,875) each to Ajdarević as compensation for mental and physical pain he suffered when a group of the so-called skinheads attacked him in 2000.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed a compensation lawsuit on behalf of the victim on March 7, 2006.

The HLC said in a statement today that it will appeal against the ruling on the grounds that the amount Ajdarević had been awarded was insufficient and did not constitute compensation for the pain he had suffered as a victim of a serious racist incident.

On the night of April 8, 2000, Ajdarević, a fifteen-year-old boy at the time, was on his way back from a store with his friend Miloš Stamenković, when he was confronted by a group of young skinheads in Niš.

As they were passing by, one of the group asked him out loud: “Hey, you! Are you a Gypsy?” Soon after, the entire group surrounded Ajdarević and started punching and kicking him in the head and all over his body.

A girl from the group, later identified as Nataša Stojanović, threw an empty bottle at Dragiša but missed him because he ducked. After beating him, the skinheads tore off his jacket and his T-shirt, leaving him half naked. Also, they shouted insults at him saying: “Gypsy, what are you doing in Serbia?”

In the meantime, Dragiša’s friend had fled the scene and informed his father, Nebojša Ajdarević, of the incident. He quickly came to the store together with his wife and daughter and found Dragiša lying on the ground.

At that moment one of the attackers shouted: “Hey, Gypsies, what are you doing here? This is not your country!”, and proceeded to attack Nebojša Ajdarević as well. However, he fought back and they ran away.

Gypsy family to be booted out of their caravan homes

Published on 23/08/2007

A GYPSY family facing eviction from caravans on land they own near Carlisle are pleading to be allowed to stay.

Peter and Lorraine Carrigan were last week refused planning consent for two caravans on the land next to Newtown Farm at Blackford.

The couple and their six children moved there in April because their previous home, a chalet at Hadrian’s Park gypsy site, was too small.

Carlisle city councillors are likely to order action to remove the caravans next month. That will make the family homeless.

Mrs Carrigan, 31, said: “They will have to drag us off. Then we’re going to have to live on the side of the road.

“All the council wants is to shove us on a site out of sight and out of mind but they can’t even do that for us.”

Five of the children, aged five to 13, attend or have attended Houghton School. The youngest, four-year-old Isaac, starts in September.

Mrs Carrigan says they will have to leave the school if the family is evicted.

That would be a bitter blow as three of the youngsters have hearing difficulties, yet have thrived at Houghton.

School staff and a specialist advisory teacher from the education authority sent letters in support of the Carrigans’ planning application.

Headteacher Lisa Bird wrote: “The whole family are a delight to have in the school.”

The Carrigans were first refused planning permission last year on the grounds that their caravans would “represent a discordant feature to the detriment of the rural character of the area”.

They appealed but the council’s decision was upheld by a government inspector.

The family reapplied this May after putting up a fence to screen the caravans and were led to believe they would be allowed to stay temporarily.

But councillors meeting on Friday refused consent, although did give temporary permission to another gypsy family in a similar plight.

Their decision came despite a planning officer’s report warning that the children’s education would be disrupted and eviction could breach the Carrigans’ human rights.

Councillors argued that Mr Carrigan had failed to provide information on drainage, something he denies.

The planning application brought objections from four neighbours and Westlinton parish council, which argued the caravans would “have an adverse effect on the character of Newtown” and be “detrimental to adjacent property”.

Mrs Carrigan believes some of the objectors are motivated by prejudice.

She said: “We’ve never had a bad word with any of them but they have a problem with us because we’re gypsies.”

There are two gypsy sites in the Carlisle area, Hadrian’s Park and Ghyll Bank.

There is a shortage of space at Hadrian’s Park and Mr Carrigan says Ghyll Bank is unsuitable for children and cannot accommodate his wagon and 15 horses.

Gypsy camp evicted in Spain

Three hundred Romanian citizens, Roma ethnics, were evicted from a tent camp near the city of La Herrera (Albacete, Spain) in a Civil Guard intervention, daily El Mundo reads, quoted by the Realitatea TV station. according to the newspapers, the police demanded their documents, then forced them to leave the area.

The Spanish papers informs that tens of tents remained near the Tajo-Segura aqueduct, where the Roma camp was, while other immigrants still remained in the area saying that they have nowhere to go.

The camp was largely publicized in Spain during the past few weeks, after the local authorities discovered that the immigrants used the aqueduct water to wash themselves and their clothes, the water then arriving in the village homes.

HotNews.ro, Aug 23, 2007

Undercover Investigation Reveals Cruelty to Animals at PetSmart Stores

For years, PetSmart has assured PETA that sick and injured animals in its stores are provided with veterinary care when they need it. We didn't take their word for it. During an undercover investigation at the PetSmart store in Manchester, Connecticut, a store that has a Banfield Hospital right inside it and that PetSmart boasts of as having an "outstanding pet care team" and an "exceptional pet care record," PETA documented more than 100 small animals—including hamsters, domestic rats, lizards, chinchillas, and birds—deprived of effective veterinary care and slowly dying, out of customers' sight.

The small animals sold at PetSmart cost the multimillion-dollar company next to nothing and make up a minuscule percentage of the company's total sales. So why does PetSmart buy them by the thousands only to leave them to die from disease and injury?

The answer is simple. Tiny, adorable hamsters—who can feel pain just as keenly as any dog or cat—are frequently bought on impulse when parents can't resist their child's pleading to bring a small animal home. The hamster may not cost much, but supplies add up quickly. Cages, bedding, food, and other paraphernalia—as well as future supplies (as long as the little animal stays alive)—amount to millions of dollars in annual profit. But these tiny animals victimized by this business mogul often pay the ultimate price—forgotten and neglected in a messy back room where they depend on untrained employees to guess what ails them, hamsters and other tiny beings suffer horribly and often die, unseen and untreated.

We alerted PetSmart's corporate headquarters to animal suffering at the Manchester store while our investigator was working at the store undercover. An e-mail message sent to PetSmart executive Bruce Richardson, reporting "animals … routinely deprived of veterinary care [who] often suffer and die as a result" yielded nothing but a meaningless, dishonest reply from Mr. Richardson in which he wrote: "This particular store has an outstanding pet care team and an exceptional pet care record. No pet that has required a vet has been deprived of that service."

Just three examples of many disturbing entries from the PETA investigator's daily log: "On October 23, 2006, a hamster in cage 10 in the sick room was found dead. This was one of the hamsters that I took to the vet on October 20, 2006, due to her having wet tail and crusty eyes. [The Pet Care Manager] had brought her back to the sick room before the vet could see her and told me that … she did not need to see the vet." "On October 26, 2006, E [a supervisor] brought out a long-haired hamster who had died in the sick room. She had been isolated on October 22 for wet tail, and the chart records showed her slow and painful death. Initially the hamster had diarrhea, but she continued to deteriorate and the night before she died the log notes stated, 'eyes shut, hard, dying.'" "On December 21, 2006, [PetSmart's corporate communications department] sent an e-mail to all store managers stating that there has been an outbreak of salmonella in a couple of stores."

The PetSmart back room log notes document the suffering of animals who are "diagnosed" by store employees. Over a three-day period, three different supervisors—including the pet care manager—in the Manchester store wrote on a dying calico hamster's chart, "[Day 1, morning] wobbly, dehydrated, diarrhea … [Day 1, evening] very lethargic/dehydrated, regressing … [Day 2, morning] very wobbly, dehydrated … [Day 2, evening] dehydrated/getting hard, very lethargic … [Day 3, morning] dying, no meds given, can't swallow, regressed … [Day 3, evening] dead" but did not take the animal to a veterinarian even to have her put out of her misery.

The photos of some of the animals treated for diseases such as wet tail and upper respiratory infections show just how miserable they were as they languished, untreated, in PetSmart's custody.

PetSmart's millions mean nothing but penny-pinching shortcuts and misery for the little animals neglected by the company, which is clearly unwilling to or incapable of caring for animals, period. Please do not buy anything from PetSmart until it stops selling all animals. Buy your supplies online or at a store that does not sell animals.

One lucky hamster girl, Gigi, was adopted from the Manchester store's sick room by PETA's investigator and has a “happily ever after” story.

Sign to end animal sales at PetSmart: http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/petsmart_jails_birds

For more information: http://www.peta.org/feat-petsmart.asp




Learn More at PETA.org

Rules May Limit Health Program Aiding Children

From NY Times

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: August 21, 2007

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said yesterday that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children and would impose standards that could not be met.

“We are horrified at the new federal policy,” said Ann Clemency Kohler, deputy commissioner of human services in New Jersey. “It will cause havoc with our program and could jeopardize coverage for thousands of children.”

Stan Rosenstein, the Medicaid director in California, said the new policy was “highly restrictive, much more restrictive than what we want to do.”

The poverty level for a family of four is set by the federal government at $20,650 in annual income. Many states have received federal permission to cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four. In New York, which covers children up to 250 percent of the poverty level, the Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent— $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.

California wants to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level, from 250 percent. Pennsylvania recently raised its limit to 300 percent, from 200 percent. New Jersey has had a limit of 350 percent for more than five years.

As with issues like immigration, the White House is taking action on its own to advance policies that have not been embraced by Congress.

In his budget in February, President Bush proposed strict limits on family income for the child health program. Both houses of Congress voted this month to renew the program for five years, but neither chamber accepted that proposal. Legal authority for the program expires on Sept. 30.

The administration’s new policy is explained in a letter that was sent about 7:30 p.m. on Friday to state health officials from Dennis G. Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations. The policy would continue indefinitely, though Democrats in Congress could try to override it.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush. The House passed a more expansive bill and will try to work out differences with the Senate when Congress reconvenes next month.

In his letter, Mr. Smith set a high standard for states that want to raise eligibility for the child health program above 250 percent of the poverty level.

Before making such a change, Mr. Smith wrote, states must demonstrate that they have “enrolled at least 95 percent of children in the state below 200 percent of the federal poverty level” who are eligible for either Medicaid or the child health program.

Deborah S. Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said, “No state in the nation has a participation rate of 95 percent.”

And Cindy Mann, a research professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University, said, “No state would ever achieve that level of participation under the president’s budget proposals.”

The Congressional Budget Office has said that the president’s budget, which seeks $30 billion for the program from 2008 to 2012, is not enough to pay for current levels of enrollment, much less to cover children who are eligible but not enrolled.

When Congress created the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997, it said the purpose was to cover “uninsured low-income children.” Under the law, states are supposed to make sure public coverage “does not substitute for coverage under group health plans.”

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Smith said, “The program was always meant for children in lower-income families.” As a state increases its income limits, he said, “it’s more likely to substitute for private coverage.”

To minimize the risk of such substitution, Mr. Smith said in his letter, states should charge co-payments or premiums that approximate the cost of private coverage and should impose “waiting periods” to make sure middle-income children do not go directly from a private health plan to a public program.

If a state wants to set its income limit above 250 percent of the poverty level — $51,625 for a family of four — Mr. Smith said, “the state must establish a minimum of a one-year period of uninsurance for individuals” before they can receive public coverage.

That is considerably stricter than past requirements. In February, for example, the Bush administration allowed Pennsylvania to increase its income limit to 300 percent of the poverty level after the state agreed to a six-month waiting period for children who were 2 and older with family incomes exceeding 200 percent of the poverty level.

As another precaution, Mr. Smith said, states that want to cover children above 250 percent of the poverty level must show that “the number of children in the target population insured through private employers has not decreased by more than two percentage points over the prior five-year period.”

In New Jersey, which has a three-month waiting period, Ms. Kohler said, “we have no evidence of a decline in employer-sponsored coverage resulting from the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

In the Senate debate this month, several Republicans offered a proposal similar to the new Bush administration policy. They wanted to require states to cover 95 percent of low-income children before allowing states to expand eligibility.

Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, argued against the proposal, saying: “No state can meet 95 percent. No state currently meets 95 percent.”

In his letter, Mr. Smith said the new standards would apply to states that previously received federal approval to cover children with family incomes over 250 percent of the poverty level. Such states should amend their state plans to meet federal expectations within 12 months, or the Bush administration “may pursue corrective action,” Mr. Smith said.

Two Republican senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Pat Roberts of Kansas, urged the Bush administration last week to deny New York’s request to cover children with family incomes up to four times the poverty level. The proposal, they said, violates the original intent of Congress.

But Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York said that, “contrary to the senators’ objections,” federal law allows states to set higher income limits. “Granting this expansion,” Mr. Spitzer said, “is essential to the health and well-being of New York’s children.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21health.html?pagewanted=all

Bush/Cheney: Don't Play Politics With Our Wildlife!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/108913633

The Bush/Cheney Administration's politically-motivated draft "recovery plan" for northern spotted owls threatens to undermine years of progress in protecting these owls and the old-growth forests they need to survive.

Urge officials at the Fish & Wildlife Service to scrap the current plan and reconvene the Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Team to develop a real recovery plan that benefits the spotted owl, not just the timber industry.

There's just a few days left to take action. The Fish & Wildlife Service will only be accepting comments on this draft recovery plan until this Friday, August 24th, so thank you for standing up for the northern spotted owl today.

Read our "fast facts" about northern spotted owls and the draft "recovery plan."

Roma's isolation in Bulgaria - fertile grounds for tension

By Elena Lalova, dpa


Sofia (dpa) - Violence targeting Roma and committed by Roma is not unusual in Bulgaria. But the recent explosion of violent hatred in a quarter in the capital Sofia has gone far beyond the ordinary and finally raised the question about the cause of the problem.

Over two nights last week, hundreds of Gypsy men went on a rampage in the Krasna Polyana part of the capital. Waving knives, axes and poles and screaming "death to Bulgarians," the mob torched dust bins, damaged cars and demolished a shop.

Only a massive deployment of special police prevented anyone from getting killed. The media and politicians have since been speculating as to what caused the outbreak.

The Roma say that they wanted to protect themselves from the violently chauvinist, skinhead gangs who go about beating up and molesting the Gypsies on a regular basis.

So, in preventive retaliation, four Gypsies attacked a bald-headed man in a pub and three of his colleague. However, he turned out not a skinhead, but a well-armed employee of a security firm. It may be the fear and frustration of the foiled attackers which sparked the subsequent violence.

Frightened by what it saw, the public has been pressing the authorities for action. Interior Minister Rumen Petkov has promised the "full power of the law" against those responsible for the riot and discussed the issue with President Georgi Parvanov.

Some speculate that trouble was a result of "political interests" and aimed to "liven things up" ahead of municipal polls. That train of thought leads to the conclusion that Gypsies actually rioted to push up the price of their votes in the elections.

In Bulgaria, it is a public secret that the political parties effectively buy the Gypsy votes.

"The Roma vote is an expensive item," said Antonina Zhelyaskova, the head of the Sofia-based Minorities Research Centre.

Of the 7.6 million Bulgarians, some 650,000 are Roma, the centre estimates. Among them, the unemployment rate is a whopping 71 per cent and two-thirds of them survive on less than 100 leva (60 dollars) monthly. Some 68 per cent never achieve basic schooling.

"There are parallel worlds here," Zhelyaskova said, referring to the absence of communication between the mainstream and the Gypsy community.

"That is fertile grounds for tension," she said, adding that relations have "significantly worsened," even as one-fourth of the period declared as the "Decade of Roma Integration" has passed.

Pressed by the European Union, which it joined on January 1, Bulgaria has launched a series of projects aimed to improve the integration of the Roma.

It will however take much more to eliminate the deeply-rooted prejudice, Zhelyakova warned. In some cases, the effort has backfired, drawing sour complaints from Slavic Bulgarians that the Gypsies felt themselves to be "above the law."

In a reaction, a nationalist "Volunteer Guard" has been set up in three cities. The fledgling organization so far has only around 35 "troops" in Sofia and branches in the second-largest city of Plovdiv as well as in Jambol and Veliko Tarnovo.

The declared goal of the group, dressed in uniforms that not by coincidence are reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany, is to "protect the life, property and families of citizens ... from the terror of Gypsies."

The West has failed to prevent anti-gypsy feeling

The debate goes on in Italy after a fire that caused the deaths of four children last week. Mario Marazzati, the Sant'Egido community's spokesperson, considers that "the west has not paid its dues to the gypsy Holocaust. And yet 300,000 of them were swallowed up into the Nazi extermination camps (The very doubt concerning the exact figures goes to show the indifference of historians). The West hasn't developed the antibodies that would stop the spreading of anti-gypsy feeling. There has been no compensation, no collective guilt, no shame. ... In Italy, the life expectancy of a Romany gypsy is 45. This is not because they are burnt alive in their caravans, but because of their living standards: illness accidents, malnutrition. ... The problem doesn't lie in the number of crimes they commit, because a normal country knows how to punish the guilty. The crimes are caused by poverty and marginalisation, not by 'gypsy culture'.

Deaths of gypsy children spark Italian political storm

AFP

August 13, 2007


ROME -- Italian politicians called for an inquiry into the living conditions of gypsies in Italy Monday after four Roma infants died in a fire on the outskirts of Livorno, central Italy.

"We need to understand why the laws are not applied, because in our country there are babies and children whose rights are neglected in the name of cultural diversity," said right-wing Forza Italia deputy Jole Santelli.

Four gypsy infants, three boys and a girl aged between four and 10 years old, were burnt to death late Friday night in a fire at a makeshift shelter under a motorway underpass near Livorno's industrial zone.

The parents of the children, two couples originally from Romania, were jailed on suspicion of non-assistance of a person in danger. A judge will rule on the case Tuesday, said Italy's ANSA news agency.

Livorno's left-wing mayor, Alessandro Cosimi, called for national talks to resolve the problem of integrating the Roma. But he warned that local authorities would need more funding if this was to be done.

The drama has reignited the debate over immigration. Between 140,000 and 160,000 gypsies currently live in Italy.

They include 60,000 gypsies recently arrived from central European countries who do not hold Italian nationality.

On Sunday, immigration minister Paolo Ferrero said the children's deaths were just the latest in a long series of such tragedies caused by the indifference of local authorities.

That drew a sharp response from the mayors of several large cities including Venice and Ancona. Regardless of their political allegiance, they were united in pointing out that the policy and funding for immigration policy was the central government's responsibility.

There are about 500 makeshift Roma encampments scattered across Italy and they are the worst in Europe, says Opera Nomadi, a group that acts as mediators between the Roma and the authorities.

Massimo Converso, the group's president, called for an urgent meeting with interior minister Giuliano Amato to find concrete solutions to the problem.

Italy is one of 14 countries listed by the European Commission as practising discrimination against the Roma community on the basis of their race or their ethnic background.

The commission has called on all 14 countries cited to answer the charge, before August 27, or face financial penalties.

Fire at gypsy encampment in Italian port town kills 4 children

The Associated Press
Published: August 11, 2007

ROME: A fire broke out early Saturday at a makeshift gypsy encampment under a highway in Tuscany, killing four children, authorities said.

At least three of the victims, who were believed to be between the ages of 4 and 10, were related, police said. Their bodies were found amid the charred remains of the encampment under a highway overpass near the Tuscan port city of Livorno.

Prosecutor Antonio Giaconi said authorities had received contradictory versions of events from the parents of the children and other residents of the encampment who were questioned by police.

One hypothesis was that the blaze was set intentionally; the other was that it was sparked by a cooking fire and spread quickly because of the wooden huts in which the children lived.

"Both hypotheses obviously point to crimes of a certain seriousness," Giaconi told reporters, adding that the deaths represented a "serious lack of vigilance" over the children by the parents.

Charred metal bedframes and a shopping cart were all that remained intact from the settlement.

After the fire, Mayor Alessandro Cosimi of Livorno declared a day of mourning to be held on the day of the children's funeral. Flags were flying at half-staff in Livorno and an evening festival was canceled.

"As a father first and then as mayor, I can only express my heart-rending grief for the death of four children," he said in a statement.

Premier Romano Prodi phoned Cosimi to express his condolences to the families and the entire Roma community, a statement said.

Gypsy settlements — made up of ramshackle trailers and shanties — are common in Italy, dotting the outskirts of many big cities. Occasionally authorities announce crime crackdowns and try to resettle the residents, also known as Roma.

A relative of the victims told the ANSA news agency his family had set up camp under the highway in recent months because there was no more room for them in the more established gypsy settlement of nearby Pisa.

CMF funds library for Gypsy kids

Over 200 children gathered at the community centre at Kudagama in Thambuththegama on July 28 to celebrate the opening of their new children's library. The children are from a traditional Telugu-speaking gypsy community which has been living in Kudagama for over a decade. Their parents who can neither read nor write are out of the village for most of the month earning money by palm reading, snake charming and performing skits using monkeys.

The result is that older children have to stay at home, fetch water, cook, clean and look after the younger siblings. Children dropping out of school and child marriages are common in the community. It was a challenge that the local NGO Institute of Rural and Social Development (IRSD) undertook to work with this community with the support of Save the Children.

The first step was to set up a children's club. Children almost all of whom can sing and dance well, were keen to join this club as it gave them a place to meet and engage in recreational activities instead of idling. Many of them are members of the school Kabaddi team which has won the provincial championship. They have named their club “Elisha" and now even the parents are supportive of club activities.

Many parents and children in Kudagama do not have birth certificates. IRSD has already provided 200 birth certificates to secure their right to identity. It was also identified that there are children who have dropped out of school who were keen to get back to their books so 15 of them were given school books, bags and stationery and were re-enrolled into Kudagama School with the help of Zonal Department of Education, Thambuth-thegama.

The children's library will give them the space and opportunity to do their studies after school. The funding for school supplies for the children going back to school and for the children's library came from the Country Music Foundation of Sri Lanka which held its Country Roads Concert to raise funds for this project which is being monitored by Save the Children.

Gypsy museum to open in Budapest in September

By: All Hungary News
2007-08-09 11:13:00

The Budapest Gypsy Museum about the history of the Roma (Gypsy) people in Hungary will open in the middle of September, writes fn.h.u, based on a report in daily Népszava.

Education and Culture Minister István Hiller, who helped develop the Budapest Gypsy Museum (Budapesti Cigánymúzeum), said that similar institutions are needed in other Hungarian cities as well, including Pécs and Szolnok.

Hiller also said that the Hungarian Socialist Party would like to be a partner in collecting data about the number of Hungarian Gypsy people deported during World War II.

LEAVING DOGS IN HOT CARS IS CONSIDERED CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

By Abigail Van Buren


DEAR ABBY: For the second time this week, I saw a dog left in a car while its owner went shopping. Please remind your readers that anything over 70 degrees -- or even 65 on a sunny day -- can mean that the inside of a car will quickly climb to more than 100 degrees!

The dog today, an adorable pug, was panting desperately against the window, which had not even been cracked a couple of inches in an attempt to do the right thing. Abby, the car had a couple of doggie decals on it, as if the owners believed themselves to be animal lovers!

Please also let your readers know it's OK to leave a polite note on a car, telling the owner that it's too hot to leave a dog in a car, and to alert the manager of the store (if they know which one) so an announcement can be made that there is a dog in distress. It is worth the extra minute to try to courteously educate and alert the careless animal owner. -- NO DOGS IN THE CAR AFTER MEMORIAL DAY

DEAR NO DOGS: Thank you for your important message. I spoke with Capt. David Havard of the Los Angeles SPCA, who kindly provided the following information: "Leaving a dog in a car can be considered neglect or abuse. There are laws governing cruelty to animals, and enforcement of those laws would fall under local jurisdiction."

So, readers, if you see a pet left in a parked car, the first thing to do would be to alert security personnel for the parking lot. And if the lot has no security personnel on duty, notify the police. Leaving a note on the offender's car is not enough, because the poor animal could be dead by the time the owner returns.

£2m to create new gypsy communities

By Jonny Muir

THE Government has handed Fenland District Council nearly £2.2 million to build two traveller and gypsy communities.

The authority will use the money to purchase land and create 29 new pitches.

Meanwhile, Peterborough City Council has been told it must also provide an additional 13 to 15 pitches.

The targets have been imposed by the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA), following the findings of a Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment in the East of England.

Consultants concluded there was a need for an extra 1,220 residential pitches and 300 "transient" pitches between 2006 and 2011.

Fenland District Council bosses are engaged in "commercially sensitive negotiations" with private landowners to purchase two plots of land.

Today, spokesman Terry Brownbill said the gypsy community and residents living close to allocated sites would be fully consulted before the sites were created.

Mr Brownbill added: "We do not know when the process will start because anything could happen in the negotiations."

There are already 66 traveller pitches spread across five sites in Fenland District Council's administrative area.

It is hoped a pot of Government money, totalling £5.7 million in the East of England, will reduce unauthorised camping.

This year, travellers have pitched up on Peterborough's River Nene Embankment, on a car park at Ferry Meadows Country Park and on former Parkway Sports and Social Club playing fields, near Eye.

There are about 117 caravans on two city council-managed sites, in Norwood Lane, Paston and Oxney Road, Eastern Industry.

In addition, there are nine private sites established on land owned by traveller families, which a recent survey revealed were home to 30 caravans.

Last year, the city council was successful in securing two site improvement grants – £483,850 for Oxney Road, where work began last autumn, and £431,402 for Norwood Lane, where discussions are continuing on the best use of the funds.

Council spokesman Mike Lennox said: "There are currently no transit or authorised short-stay sites in Peterborough and no sites have been identified for the proposed additional pitches.

"When potential sites are identified, they will be subject to a rigorous planning and public consultation process."

Minister for Gypsies and Travellers Iain Wright said: "The problem of unauthorised camping will only be tackled through sufficient site provision, coupled with effective enforcement.

"Providing more authorised sites reduces the cost to taxpayers of costly enforcement action, and makes it quicker and easier to take action where unauthorised camping does take place."

Roma camp goes up in smoke

THE Roma camp in Ballymun was set ablaze last week shortly after its 99 gypsy residents left for a charter flight back to Romania.

Our exclusive pictures show flames and smoke rising from the deserted camp just hours after the last remaining gypsies left following talks with gardai and representatives from Pavee Point.
Firefighters were called to tackle the blaze which was quickly brought under control.

Workers from Fingal County Council moved swiftly onto the camp after it was vacated and secured the site with steel fencing.

The Roma began to leave the camp on Tuesday but women and children continued begging at the roundabout up to last Wednesday morning.

By lunchtime on Wednesday the camp was deserted as the inhabitants prepared for their journey home.

Debris was left strewn around the site and uneaten food left on broken pieces of furniture. Damp mattresses and soggy armchairs highlighted the third world conditions the Roma were living in.
Empty cans of baby food and filthy nappies were scattered around the site and a wad of empty bank bags for coins left on a table.

The Roma had set up a camp on the roundabout at the busy junction just over two months ago.
Motorists complained that gypsy children were putting lives at risk as they dodged through early morning traffic to beg as adults watched from nearby bushes.

Just last month, Northside People reported how children – some as young as 10 - were weaving through busy traffic begging for cash from frustrated drivers.

The aggressive begging tactics shocked locals and the Roma were soon in the national media spotlight.

An alliance of 20 strong non-government organisations (NGOs) came together to highlight the appalling conditions in the camp. However, despite the squalid, makeshift, rain soaked conditions, the Roma claimed the camp was better than their living conditions back in Romania.

The Romanian embassy strongly denied the claims saying that unlike in Ireland, the gypsies were entitled to social benefits in their home country.

Pavee Point – who provided representation to the Roma community – defended their intervention in the crisis.

“We have every confidence in the role we have played over the past number of months in relation to the Roma and that we have not deviated from our remit,” a spokesperson said.
“Pavee Point never ever attempted to undermine or question the integrity of the Department of Justice or the courts to decide on the fate of the Roma on the M50.

“Pavee Point’s exclusive concern from the very start was the humanitarian crisis on the M50 roundabout. We were attempting to highlight the crisis and call on the State services to provide the basic necessities of life - accommodation, food, heating and clothing to allow the Roma live a dignified existence until the department or the courts decided on their fate.

“Pavee Point in its reporting obligations to its funding agencies has always emphasised the need for work with Roma. This has been reflected in our annual reports to funders, submissions and strategic plans. These are freely available for anyone who wishes to inspect them.

“We will of course cooperate with any request from the Government in their enquiries into this matter.”

Cart ban infringes gypsy rights: Bulgarian MPs

2 August 2007 21:43 FOCUS News Agency

Sofia. A Bulgarian parliamentary committee Thursday accused the city of Sofia of discriminating against gypsies by banning the use of horse carts around the city.

"Carts are listed as 'vehicles' under Bulgarian traffic rules so the ban is a form of segregation," committee chairman Lalo Kamenov told bTV television.

"The inhabitants of the Filipovtsi gypsy neighbourhood just outside Sofia cannot even cross the ringroad" around the city with their carts, he said.

Many gypsies, or Roma, provide for their families by gathering scrap iron and transporting it on carts to recycling centres.

Sofia's authorities have long banned the circulation of horse carts in the city centre but the gypsies have not protested that ban as they rarely travel downtown.
Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov said he would not lift the measure despite the committee's recommendation to do so. He advised the gypsies instead to "turn their carts into carriages and attract tourists the way they do in Vienna."

Source: AFP

Hundreds gather at Auschwitz to remember Gypsy Holocaust victims

Aug 02 2007, 17:20

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Several hundred people gathered at Auschwitz-Birkenau on August 2 to remember the Roma, or Gypsy, victims of the Holocaust 63 years after the last of them were gassed in the camp.

A letter from Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek read out to the crowd stressed the importance of remembering the suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Gypsies, the PAP news agency reported.

"We must remember the Holocaust of the Roma," Kaczmarek said. "It is the concern of the Polish government that this memory not disappear, and that the next generation of residents of this republic know how tragic was the fate of our Roma citizens."

PAP said the hundreds gathered included Roma from Poland and abroad, survivors of the camp and a deputy speaker of the Polish senate, Maciej Plazynski.

The Nazis liquidated the Gypsy family camp - the so-called Zigeunerfamilienlager - at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex on August 2, 1944, sending most of the last 2,900 of them to the gas chambers, including many women, children and elderly people. Others were sent to German factories as forced laborers.