VZCZCXRO6989
OO RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR
DE RUEHC #1658 0912154
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 012137Z APR 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE IMMEDIATE 8950
INFO ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS STATE 031658 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OSCE PREL PBTS GG RS
SUBJECT: OSCE/PERMANENT COUNCIL: STATEMENT ON 
INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY 
 
¶1. Post is authorized to present the following statement at 
the April 3 Permanent Council meeting in Vienna. 
 
Begin text: 
 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
 
On April 8, we will celebrate International Roma Day, an 
opportunity to call attention to the history, experiences, 
and human rights of Europe's largest ethnic minority.  The 
United States is committed to protecting and promoting the 
human rights of Roma.  Despite important progress that has 
been made in the last decade, too many Roma still live on the 
margins of society.  Roma continue to experience racial 
profiling, violence, discrimination, and other human rights 
abuses.  Too often, they lack identity documents or 
citizenship papers, which excludes them from voting, social 
services, education and employment opportunities. 
 
During the last year, the participating States and the OSCE 
have given much-needed attention to the situation of Roma, 
including through the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting 
last July, the visits by the High Commissioner on National 
Minorities and the ODIHR to Italy, and in our Ministerial 
Decision 6/08 adopted in Helsinki.  We look forward to the 
discussion of early education for Romani children during the 
Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw later this 
year. 
 
The United States also welcomes efforts by governments and 
nongovernmental organizations to ensure that the genocide of 
European Roma is never forgotten.  We encourage all 
participating States to consider ways to better incorporate 
the genocide of European Roma into educational curricula, 
including the publication this month of a book in Romania on 
the deportation of Roma to Transnistria.  We note that a 
monument to Romani victims of the "Porajmos," the term some 
Roma use to describe Nazi attempts to exterminate Romani 
people of Europe during the Holocaust, will be unveiled in 
Berlin later this year, and also welcome plans to establish 
an educational and documentation center on the site of a 
former Romani concentration camp in South Moravia. 
 
Unfortunately, as Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner 
Thomas Hammarberg observed at the 2007 HDIM, even after the 
genocide of Roma, "there was no genuine change of attitude 
among the majority population towards the Roma."  Today, in 
some of OSCE participating States, local officials continue 
to describe Roma as "unadaptable," routinely using a Nazi-era 
term. 
 
Governments have a special responsibility to ensure that 
minority communities have the tools of opportunity that they 
need to succeed as productive and responsible members of 
society.  The United States is deeply concerned about the 
escalation of anti-Roma hate crimes in some OSCE 
participating States.  In this regard, we would welcome 
information from the Italian delegation regarding efforts to 
prosecute individuals for participating in mob attacks on 
Romani camps in 2007 and 2008, when Italian police provided 
protection to camp residents.  We also support efforts by the 
Hungarian government to prosecute those responsible for 
recent violent attacks against Roma, including the February 
murder of Robert Csorba and his five-year-old son. 
 
In closing, the United States urges OSCE participating States 
to honor their commitment -- first made a decade ago at the 
1999 Istanbul Summit -- to ensure that national laws and 
policies fully respect the rights of Roma. Furthermore, 
governments must commit to effectively enforcing these laws. 
 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
 
End text. 
CLINTON