A Roma settlment in Kralovsky Chlmec, Slovakia, March 2015. Petr David Josek / Press Association. All rights reserved.On
April 1, Slovak Interior Ministry investigators stopped prosecutions in all
cases against police officers and announced that there was no torture, no illegal
entry into homes and no inappropriate coercion during a notoriously violent
police raid in the Roma settlement of
Budulovská in the town of Moldava nad Bodvou in Moldava back in June 2013.
The earlier decision by the prosecutor to shut down the investigation
into police brutality prompted protests from the European Roma Rights Centre
(ERRC) in a case which was described by the Ombudswoman as “shameful for
Slovakia.”
ERRC President Đorđe Jovanović, said, “Once again the justice system in Slovakia has failed its Romani
citizens. This conclusion is completely at odds with the evidence and the
opinion of many international observers.”
In a public statement the ERRC and the Centre for Civil and Human
Rights (Poradňa) described the investigation as wholly ineffective and
condemned the decision not to prosecute any of the 60 police officers involved
in the raid which left several people injured and in need of medical attention,
and caused widespread damage to property and belongings. Some of those detained
in police custody afterwards claimed that they were subjected to brutal ill
treatment by police officers.
The
raid attracted much international condemnation; and the foot-dragging,
irregularities and delays in the subsequent investigation were widely
criticized. The prosecution only started half a year after the raid took place
and then it took another year and a half for the investigator to gather all
testimonies and evidence before publishing the decision. At
one point, in an attempt to discredit the plaintiffs, the investigator
requested an expert inquiry into the mental conditions of the victims.At one point, in an
attempt to discredit the plaintiffs, the investigator requested an expert
inquiry into the mental conditions of the victims.
The
ERRC earlier reported that state authorities – the Parliament and the
Government – refused
to examine the Ombudsperson’s report or hear her
personal intervention. Instead, the Prime Minister and
the Minister of Foreign Affairs charged her with breaking the existing law, and
the Ministry of Interior reacted
with labeling her “a liar, who unfortunately politicizes the issue”.
“The conduct and the
outcome of this investigation suggest that Slovak law
enforcement officers operate in a climate of complete impunity. There is an
urgent need for an independent police complaints commission with a remit to
ensure that justice is served, in a prompt, timely and transparent fashion,” stated Jovanović.
The decision not to prosecute any police officers came as little
surprise and is entirely consistent with a recent
verdict of the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT)
that systematic repressive action by the police goes hand in hand with
ineffective investigations of police misconduct.
Such
was the case last year when ten current and former police officers charged
with abusing Romani children at a police station in 2009, were acquitted. The
case was particularly scandalous because the officers who forced the children
to undress, to slap each other, and threatened them with dogs, filmed their
torture and humiliation of the children. The film went viral on YouTube with
Kosiče police station being dubbed in some media as Slovakia’s Abu Ghraib. The film went viral on YouTube with Kosiče police
station being dubbed in some media as Slovakia’s Abu Ghraib. The
acquittal was also a scandal: the judge did not allow the video material to be
used as evidence and threw out the case because “The evidence is not
sufficient to find the defendants guilty, nor to express a conclusion beyond
the shadow of a doubt that the crime took place as the prosecutor alleges.”
Beyond
police brutality and the culture of impunity, it is clear that Slovakia’s
governing party has embraced the model of illiberal democracy currently
favoured by two members of the Visegrad Four. Back in 2013, Prime Minister
Robert Fico in a tirade against ‘minority rights extortion’ declared that: “We
did not establish our independent state to give preferential treatment to
minorities, however much we appreciate them, but to privilege the Slovak nation-state
in particular. It holds here that the state is a national one and our society
is a civic one. It is a curious situation when minority problems are being
intentionally foregrounded everywhere to the detriment of the Slovak
nation-state. It’s as if there are no Slovak men and women living in Slovakia.”
Amnesty
International reported in 2015 that despite a district court ruling in 2012
that segregation of Romani children was illegal, children now face even more
severe segregation by being placed in “container schools”, where they are
completely cut off, not just from their peers, but from almost anybody from the
non-Roma population. The Commission in 2015 initiated infringement proceedings
against Slovakia for school segregation. The government dismissed such
criticism and tried to explain away the disproportionate placement of Romani
children in special schools as the consequence of incest: “One of the
reasons why there is higher occurrence of genetically determined disorders is
that Slovak Roma have the highest coefficient of interbreeding in Europe.”
When it comes to residential segregation, in a country where 14 walls
and barriers were erected in the last couple of years to separate Roma from the
rest of society, a recent survey confirmed that things are getting worse. Greater
numbers of Roma live in poor and segregated settlements in substandard housing,
unprotected from environmental hazards that include toxic industrial waste,
rubbish tips, seasonal flooding, and the intermingling of waste and drinking
water. In January five children died, one froze to death and four died in fires
in such shocking conditions. In a public statement following these tragedies,
ERRC President Đorđe Jovanović described these small
children as “the fatal casualties of more than two decades of discriminatory
neglect in housing policies for marginalised Roma communities.”When it comes to racial segregation and discrimination, Slovakia has
become Europe’s own ‘Deep South’.
When
it comes to racial segregation and discrimination, Slovakia has become Europe’s
own ‘Deep South’. Amongst many Roma there is a sense of
resignation that EU inclusion strategies won’t make a whit of a difference,
that discrimination is so normal and pervasive that it’s just not possible to
get justice. As one activist put it: “With or without the EU Roma
Framework, access to justice within a prompt a timely framework should be a
priority, a fundamental right in every democratic society; where the victims
can feel that something happened to remedy what is wrong and unjust, to make it
right – this is the justice we need – but it’s the justice we don’t have.”
Council
of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks echoed such sentiments
and expressed his ‘serious concern’ with the “persistent manifestations of
anti-Gypsyism and hate speech, and instances of excessive use of force by the
police during raids in Roma settlements.” He stated that the authorities seriously
underestimate the incidence and implications of racist hate crime, including
racially motivated police violence, affecting Roma. Muižnieks called for “more and
resolute efforts to condemn, effectively investigate and sanction such crimes,”
and urged Slovakia to protect the human rights of Roma “in line with the
Council of Europe standards.” In this context he called for the creation of an “independent
and effective complaints mechanism covering all law enforcement bodies to fight
racially motivated police violence, and establish accountability for all human
rights violations.”
The
recent general election successes of the neo-Nazi party "Kotleba –
People's Party Our Slovakia" (LSNS) sent shock waves across Slovakia. More
than 200,000 voters cast ballots for LSNS, giving it 8 % of the vote and 14
seats in Parliament. This should not have come as a surprise, for this is what
happens when mainstream parties embrace racist and populist agendas. This should not have come as a surprise, for this is what
happens when mainstream parties embrace racist and populist agendas.
While
the European Union ponders what action to take against the governments of
Poland and Hungary for their transgressions, it should pay closer heed to
happenings in Slovakia as it continues to fall short of ‘Council of Europe
standards’ in a seemingly inexorable shift to the dark side of democracy:
illiberal, majoritarian, Christian and national.
April
8 marked International Roma Day and European institutions lined up to signal
their recognition of the place of Romani people in society, and the need for
more inclusion. This recognition is welcome, but it would be more useful to
hear from these institutions what it’s going to take to deliver basic justice
beyond racism in 21st century Europe.