Hindu
statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that these
racist and anti-Roma billboards should not be acceptable in 21st
century Europe which boasted of its human
rights record.
Zed,
who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that Roma
maltreatment incidents had been reportedly frequently popping-up in Slovakia;
like erection of a wall in Ostrovany to segregate Roma, attempts of turning
Roma settlement in Veľká Lomnica into a tourist destination, reported continual
segregation of Roma children in Slovakia schools, involuntary sterilization of
Roma women in the past, etc.
Slovakia and Europe
needed to improve the conditions of Roma who lived in medieval squalor in mud
houses without running water, gas and sewage in 21st century. Was
this a part of the vision of post-Berlin Wall European Union, Rajan Zed asked.
Zed
pointed out that it was shocking to see how inhumanely Europe
was treating its about 15-million Roma brothers-sisters. It was clearly reprehensible,
hazardous and immoral and a brazen failure of Europe
to meet its international obligations. When it came to Roma, Europe
frequently failed to implement its own laws distinctly mentioned in its own
books.
Rajan
Zed stated that apartheid conditions faced by Roma people were a social blight
for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly faced social
exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant
illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate
margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations,
discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human
rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, etc.
Besides
the absence of any serious efforts at their inclusion, Roma were being used as
“punch bag” and blamed for the social ills of Europe
and many politicians even exploited segregation to their political advantage.
European neglect was trapping Roma in cycles of persecution and poverty. Roma
issue should be one of the highest priorities of human rights agenda of Europe and world, thus reversing the history of
persecution, Zed stressed.
Rajan
Zed said that “Tatra Tiger”, one of the fastest growing economies and country
of Juraj Jánošík; Slovakia
should not continue staying apathetic and silent spectator ignoring Roma
apartheid. It was moral obligation of Slovakia to take care of its most
disadvantaged Roma population and stop human rights violations reportedly
suffered by them. There are reportedly about 350,000 Roma in Slovakia. Ivan
Gasparovic is President and Iveta Radicova is Prime Minister of Slovakia.
References
to Roma people in Europe, who are believed to
have their roots in the Indian subcontinent, reportedly went as far back as ninth
century CE.
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