In the most recent edition of REEIfication, PhD candidate M. Benjamin Thorne relates his perspective on Romanian-Roma relations. In 2008, he briefed Colleen Graffey, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Policy, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, on her visit to Bucharest as "part of a larger tour of East European states to discuss the application of new information technologies (such as Twitter) as a form of soft diplomacy". Given the recent Twitter-fired protests in Moldova, the US State Department's interest in Twitter late last year should be of interest to those following the events in Moldova.
In his meeting with Graffey, Thorne had intended to offer a basic outline of each minority group and its challenges in Romania. However, " events immediately before the day of our meeting led me to focus solely on Roma, and in particular on articulating why Romania’s treatment of Roma is pertinent to US interests".
Two days earlier, in the Czech city of Litvínov, 500 neo-Nazis were joined by at least as many ordinary local inhabitants in an attack on the Roma community there. While this kind of violent incident has not occurred in Romania for some time, and the particularities of anti-Roma extremism in the Czech Republic differ considerably from those in Romania, it provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the situation here. In October, for example, human-rights activist István Haller embarked on a hunger strike as a means of calling the world’s attention to Romania’s failure to comply with a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that requires the government to implement community development projects within Hădăreni, Plaieși de Jos, and Casinul Nou, communities in which anti-Roma violence took place in the early 1990s.
In addition to the humanitarian aspects, the Roma issue is of importance to the United States for several other reasons. The stability and vitality of democratic institutions and civil society in Romania are in the best interests of the United States and the European Union. Romania is located in a key strategic area, if the United States or NATO should require staging operations either in the Balkans or in the broader Black Sea region. The country could potentially play a key role as a logistical support base, transit point, or grounds for conducting exercises. This is only the case if Romania remains firmly in the camp of liberal democracies.
Romania periodically experiences two phenomena relevant to US foreign policy and its efforts to encourage stable democracy. The first involves outbursts of Romani dissatisfaction with the government, often manifested in riots which in the recent past have effectively shut down administration in large portions of the capital. In November 2006, for instance, a decision by Bucharest’s power company to shut off electricity to the largely Romani neighborhood of Rahova in response to arrears in billing sparked a serious riot. The neighborhood was essentially barricaded against city authorities and violence was narrowly averted only after populist politician Gigi Becali paid off the outstanding electricity bill.
The second result of this struggle has been the migration of thousands of Roma to other European nations, where they increase domestic tensions. Indeed, the influx of Roma from Romania has vexed Europe since the fall of Communism. Last year Roma immigrants from Romania living in Italy met with violence in the streets and angry declarations from the government in Rome.
Segregation and mutual mistrust between Roma and Romanians make reconciliation difficult. The current plight of Roma in Europe cannot be understood, much less ameliorated, without recognizing the painful legacy of the Holocaust and the manner in which racist thinking, combined with the rationalizing efforts of the modern nation-state, have continued to shape perceptions of Roma in these regions, and the policies affecting them. As Hungary, Romania, Germany, Austria, and other states come to grips with what it means to belong to a united Europe, the issue of how Roma are treated constitutes a serious challenge to the European Union’s commitment to democracy and human rights. These problems require continued efforts of government organizations working in concert with Roma NGOs. Such macro-level attempts will have little success, I fear, without sustained efforts at dialogue on the local level, where the day-to-day triumphs and challenges of Romanian-Roma relations continue to unfold.
After the briefing, Graffey and I had the opportunity to address Romanian alumni of the US-Romanian Fulbright Exchange and field questions from the audience. Not surprisingly, my presentation met with a certain amount of reserve. After the talk, however, one woman approached me and introduced herself as a journalist from TVR 1, one of the public television stations in Bucharest that focuses on cultural matters. She asked if I would be willing to grant her an interview about my research that would eventually air on her station. Flattered, and grateful that someone approached my topic with an open mind, I agreed. When we met for the interview several weeks later, however, I was a little disappointed by the journalist’s demeanor. Instead of a straightforward interview on my project, the conversation felt more like an argument. I was constantly asked to defend my position that the deportations of Roma merited scholarly study and continued to be a taboo subject that further alienates the Roma community from mainstream Romanian society. The interview has not been scheduled for an air date yet. I have been told that a string of newsworthy events, from the recent parliamentary elections to the fighting in Gaza, are behind the delay. I suspect, however, that the sensitive nature of the topic may be the primary reason.
