Milan, November 5th, 2009. EveryOne Group receives numerous letters concerning the situation of the Roma people and the racism they are subjected to in Italy.

We recently received a letter stating that the Roma and Sinti are “criminals and violent because of their culture”. In another letter, a Milanese teacher - after reading information given out by EveryOne Group and its experts - asks us why the Italian press accuse the Roma people of every kind of crime, often referring to a “racket” and a “Mafia” organized by Roma families. 

“If they are so clever at committing crimes, how come they live in conditions of total poverty and have an average life-span of only 35 years? In his letter, the teacher expresses his doubts about the facts reported in the news of the recent murder in Rozzano (near Milan) of Giovanni D’Angelo. The newspaper report speaks of a young “Roma prostitute” who slipped the elderly man a sleeping-pill, before her accomplice brutally murdered him. In his letter, the teacher points out how the press and politicians often speak of “Roma prostitution”, a phenomenon which in his opinion is non-existent or extremely rare, considering the sacredness of the woman in the Roma and Sinti culture.

EveryOne Group replies:
 In answer to the question posed by the user we point out that the history of Romania and its Roma minority is well-known and well-documented in the papers and chronicles of the time. After five centuries of slavery in the Romanian princedoms (where the life of a Roma was considered worthless - so much so it was not deemed a crime to kill one) they were finally “liberated. Prince Constantin was the first to oppose this slave trade of Roma people in Moldova and Wallacchia, claiming that they were “created by God and equal to all other human beings”. In1856, they were liberated, but not integrated, and therefore they remained in conditions of extreme poverty, marginalized and looked down upon by everybody, partly because of their traditions which had remained miraculously intact. 

The many fair-haired Roma with blue eyes testify to the numerous rapes the women were subjected to by their “masters”. The Roma then emigrated to Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and other Central and East European counties. New forms of persecution and new mass exoduses accompanied the Roma people until the dark years of the massacre ordered by Adolf Hitler. 

In the post-war years the Roma people received no compensation whatsoever (except for rare cases with ridiculously low sums) for the Samudaripen (The “Gypsy Holocaust”) and they found themselves in an even more miserable and vulnerable situation - so much so, that their average life span in those years fell to 30 for the men and barely 17 for the women. 

The years went by and Ceausescu’s regime awarded equal rights to “gypsies” and Romanians in theory only, because the dictator planned a second Samudaripen, as can be seen in diaries written in his own hand. Ceausescu wanted to hand Romania over to the “Daci” (“pure” Romanian peasants and farmers) and allow the able-bodied Roma to survive only in slavery. As for the present, the Roman people maintain their ancient, rather strict, code of ethics and morality which condemns violence in all its forms, war and falsehood. The traditional Roma legal system, the Kris-Romani (“Judecata” in Romania) is considered an advanced model of justice even by British jurists, because it aims to bring the two opposing parties together, instead of dividing them or forcing them to accept unjust sentences through summary trials or plea bargaining. In Italy and in other countries where institutional racism exists, when the Roma come before the magistrates, they always plea bargain, even when innocent, in order to regain their “supreme good”: freedom. 

As for the persecution of the Roma people, the situation of Italy is emblematic: out of about 6,500 Romanian Roma present on Italian soil, over 3,000 of them are detained in prison. It is an astonishing figure and points to deep-rooted and ruthless discrimination. Over recent years EveryOne Group has prevented the unjust imprisonment of dozens of Roma citizens by simply contacting the lawyers and magistrates and supplying elements for their defence, something the Roma (used to a different kind of justice) fail to supply.

We answer Paolo’s letter, the teacher from Milan (a city that has become the symbol of Italian intolerance) by telling him we totally agree with him. After the distribution of information by the activists and scholars of EveryOne Group (an organization which finds itself seriously hindered by politicians, media and racist groups) some political figures in Milan are starting to open their eyes and ask themselves why the government is putting at the forefront a “Roma emergency” that does not actually exist. With the money spent on the bulldozing and clearance of “squatter camps” and persecutory measures over the last 12 months, the authorities could easily have created a successful integration plan, which would have provided decent living quarters and a decorous social position for all the families from the Roma ethnic group. Politicians and authorities in Milan and the Lombardy region are covering up obscure interests and connivances, throwing in the face of the voters “the bogeymen”, the “gypsies” - the way the aristocracy and Church did in times gone by. 

The “scapegoat” is an ancient instrument used by people in power - especially the deviant and corrupt  forms of power. It allows them hold to on to their privileges while dumping the blame for social, political and economical problems on predestined victims specially chosen for their marginalization and their vulnerability. If you regularly read the national, but more specifically the local newspapers, (the insert from the Corriere is a perfect example of this) you will have noticed that when they speak of the “presence” of Roma citizens (journalists call it “squalor” or “unauthorized building”), or report crimes Roma people are accused of, the articles are always highlighted. They obtain a great deal of space in the paper, with shocking headlines and a choice of language dictated by sentiments of intolerance and racial hatred (after all, the Roma people are unlikely to sue them). 

We will point out for Paolo’s benefit that there are no “gentle souls” among the politicians, authorities and journalists. All of them, both those in power and those in the opposition, are perfectly familiar with this reality and perfectly aware of how it can be exploited or distorted. Milan is a great Italian chief town of the Mafia, but it is also the capital of the "Ndrangheta".  Over the last few years the ‘Ndrangheta has infiltrated everywhere, on every level, and is able, unfortunately, to direct local politics as it does national politics; move capital; influence laws and measures; corrupt and terrify. 

The news item Paolo mentions is easy to interpret in this light. Rozzano, like Cinisello, Sesto, Corsico and a large part of the district south of Milan, are in the hands of the ‘Ndrangheta allied with the Catanesi families, which place the weaker social groups, including the Roma, but also “illegal immigrants” in a condition of total subjection. There is no such thing, as the teacher rightly pointed out, as “Roma prostitution”, precisely because of the position of sacredness that women hold inside the Roma community. However, Roma settlements are often used by Italian organized crime for running their own prostitution racket and other illegal trafficking from Romania and other countries. No one knows how the murder of Giovanni d’Angelo took place, and unfortunately the authorities are reluctant to allow EveryOne to collaborate in the inquiry, in spite of the group’s attested experience in this kind of situation. 

One thing is sure: in this area “not a leaf moves without the ‘Ndrangheta’s permission”. One thing is certain, and that is that the idea of a “Roma Mafia” made up of “gypsy” prostitutes and “nomad” killers, expert in the art of seduction and the administration of powerful sleep-inducing drugs, provides an ideal scapegoat. It allows the institutions and authorities to turn a blind eye (and open their pockets) to the huge (and “italianissimo”) Mafia turnover, while the blame is thrown onto the most unfortunate and poorest human beings that live among us.

Picture: Gypsy slave in Romania