Deputy Charges Slovenia Police Over Gypsy

Slovenia's ombudsman is charging police for unauthorized surveillance of reporters and a relocated Gypsy family, media said Wednesday.

Ombudsman Matjaz Hanzek told a news conference in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana he filed charges against the police for secretly following movements of the 31-member Gypsy family and scores of reporters who covered the events for weeks, Serbia's B92 radio reported.

Hanzek said he asked the state prosecutors' office to investigate police activities relating to the Gypsy family, whose members included 14 children.

The Slovenian journalists' union also said the behavior of the police administration was unacceptable.

At the moment, the Gypsy family is accommodated temporarily at Ljubljana's military base to spend the winter months, before authorities provide them with permanent housing.

The family has made frequent moves across Slovenia since the government relocated them in October, after villagers at Ambrus, east of Ljubljana, threatened to kill them.

© 2007 UPI

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Slovenia Pulls Down Gypsy Homes

Demolition teams Thursday pulled down homes of a Gypsy family at Ambrus, Slovenia, on land the family legally owned, local media reported.

The demolition was carried out under police protection after local authorities declared two small brick houses and three wooden cabins had been illegally erected on land the 31-member Strojan family owned, Belgrade's B92 radio said.

The family, including 14 children, was relocated from the village to a former military barracks 30 miles away late in October after local villagers threatened to kill members of the family.
Wherever the government tried to resettle the family, vigilantes blocked roads to their villages, the report said.

B92 radio reported that one woman with 10 children refused to leave the property even after their homes were demolished, saying they will remain on their land and live in a trailer and tents until the government finds a permanent solution to the problem.

© 2006 UPI

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Roma family returns home, under Slovenian police escort

International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com)

AMBRUS, Slovenia: Members of a large Roma Gypsy family returned to their home Friday with a police escort, a month after they fled to escape their neighbors' hostility.

Seven members of the Strojans, a 30- strong Roma family, about half of whom are children, returned to the village of Ambrus in central Slovenia, which they left after local residents rallied and threatened to expel them, accusing them of theft.

The government then evicted them, saying the Strojans' home in Ambrus was built without permits and could not be made legal. "We decided to stay here until the government finds another place for us," Rajko Strojan told state television. "We are not afraid because the police are protecting us."

They had spent a month in three rooms at a former army barracks at Postojna.

The remaining members of the family remained there.

The government has promised to help find them a permanent settlement elsewhere in Slovenia, but its efforts so far have failed because of protests by local Slovenes.

About 100 Ambrus villagers gathered near the Strojans' house Friday but did not protest against their return. About 10 police vans were at the scene, a Reuters photographer said.
The plight of the Strojans drew criticism of Slovenia, a European Union member since 2004, from the Council of Europe's human rights watchdog.

"The police will ensure general safety of people and property," said a police spokesman, Leon Keder. He declined to say how many police officers were guarding the Strojans.

Last weekend the family tried to return home, where they had lived for 40 years, but around 1,000 angry villagers blocked the road and prevented them from coming.

Slovene villagers turn back Roma seeking to go home

International Herald Tribune - France
By Nicholas Wood / The New York Times.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia: About 1,000 villagers have thwarted the return of a group of Roma to their homes in central Slovenia, a month after they first forced them to flee the area.

Fighting took place between riot police officers and local residents late Saturday afternoon when the Strojans, an extended family of 31 people, tried to return to Ambrus, a village 50 kilometers, or about 30 miles, southeast of Ljubljana, after four weeks in a refugee center.

The standoff prolonged a crisis that has dominated politics here for a month and has prompted criticism of Slovenia from the Council of Europe, the Continent's human rights watchdog, and from independent rights groups.

The Roma family, who are Slovene citizens, agreed to leave Ambrus on Oct. 28 when a mob surrounded their homes. Local residents demanded their removal after a fight between a man from Ambrus and a Slovene who was living with the Strojans, after which the villager fell unconscious.

The government said it was justified in moving the family to the refugee center, saying it acted to protect the Strojans. But human rights groups contend that ministers sanctioned the mobs' ouster of a minority from their homes.

The government had promised to resettle the group, but other communities have protested and stopped the government from sending the Strojans there.

The fighting Saturday began when the Roma group left an army barracks that had been their home since their expulsion from the village. Residents from Ambrus and surrounding areas set up a series of barricades across the approaching roads. The riot police were deployed and three people were injured in the scuffling that followed, witnesses said.

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Slovenia PM defends Gypsies relocation

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Slovenia's prime minister said he plans to build a new settlement for a relocated Gypsy family once flaring tempers cool.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told state-run Ljubljana Television the relocation of the 31 members, including 14 children, of the Gypsy family is the least-bad solution.

Wednesday, hundreds of villagers in eastern Slovenia protested the government's decision to move the Gypsy family close to their village, while in Ljubljana hundreds of rights groups supporters condemned the government for the "pogrom and deportation" of the Gypsies.

Vigilantes blocked approaches to the Ambrus area, in eastern Slovenia, from where the Gypsy family was moved some 30 miles to a former military barracks late in October.

The government organized the move to the barracks after villagers in Ambrus threatened to kill the Gypsies.

Jansa said once the tempers return to normal the government is to build a "legal settlement" for the Gypsy family.

Gypsy harassing mars Slovenia Europe image

AMBRUS, Slovenia, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Slovenia has given in to demands by local residents and moved a Gypsy family some 30 miles away from the village that sparked the protests.

The Gypsy family, including 14 children, was forced to leave their two brick houses and a group of shanties on the edge of the village of Ambrus, close to Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia, The New York Times reported Monday.

Late in October, several hundred Ambrus villagers and other from nearby threatened to kill the Gypsies unless the government moved them away.

Riot police prevented violence and the government moved the Gypsy family to a former military barracks outside Novo Mesto, not far from the border with Croatia.

A European Roma (Gypsy) Rights Center official condemned the Slovenian government move as a serious violation of the basic civil rights, the Times said.

Rights groups officials criticized the Slovenian government for forcibly removing Gypsies, calling it one of the most serious incidents in Europe in the past 10 years. The groups expressed fears other neighborhoods may demand eviction of Gypsy communities, the newspaper said.

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