Life is No Film

Destiny and everyday life of the Romanies in Macedonia may look nice only in films that are made about them

AIM Skopje, 31 January, 2000

According to the latest census made under supervision of the European Union and Council of Europe in 1994 in Macedonia, there were 43,707 persons who declared themselves as Romanies, or 2.4 per cent of the population. Connoisseurs of the situation believe that the number of the Romanies in fact varies between 62 and 150 thousand. There is one Romany who is a member of Parliament, the Romanies have their own political parties and associations. Macedonia is the only country in Europe where the Romanies have their own municipality - Suto Orizari.

The Constitution of the country granted the Romanies the status of an ethnic minority which offers them the possibility of elementary education in their mother tongue in the places where they live, the possibility of use of Romany language, opening of radio and TV stations and similar. Despite all that, the Romanies are on the very bottom social stratum due to high unemployment, poor qualifications etc.

The study titled "Analysis of the Status of Romany Women and Children" recently published by UNICEF Office in Skopje offers precise data. In the population of the Romanies there is not a single person who is over

1. The Romanies quickly spend their genetically predetermined resistance to sicknesses: death rate of the children is lower than among others because they are highly immune, but this advantage quickly disappears as the result of poor quality of their diet, bad conditions of living, sickness... High death rate of women at the age of forty is striking. As a comparison, among other ethnic groups in the country the average length of life for women is 72 and for men 68. The Romanies in Macedonia have always lived in cities, but this did not help them to improve their standard of living. They are usually concentrated in suburbs where they often do not have even the fundamental conditions for normal life. Even in the municipality Suto Orizari there are parts in which there is no sewage. Mirjana Najcevska, one of the authors of the mentioned study explains the impossibility of small Romanies to join the education process. Principal of the local elementary school Sain Iseni recently claimed in a daily newspaper that the awareness is growing in this sense: "With the help of the parents' council in which respectable local people are engaged we visit people and persuade the parents to enable their children to continue their education. The children do not go to school for simple reasons, especially in winter - because they have no clothing, no shoes, no school equipment". With the support of the government, a project for opening a secondary school in municipality Suto Orizari should start and in this way education should be improved.

Data presented in the study about the position of the Romany women and children show that in the age group between fourteen and nineteen there are three Romanies per every 100 citizens, but in secondary education there are three Romanies per 1000 inhabitants. The data show that every tenth Romany of school age continues education in secondary school. Moreover, the position of girls is worse than that of the boys of their age: 46 per cent of Romany women are illiterate. "Children start school with delay - when they are eight or nine - because they cannot pass the test before; the reason for that is the attitude of the people who test them - their intolerance and repulsion, but also the fact that the children are shy with the examiners. The whole process of educating Romanies lasts longer. The obstacle to education of women is their early marriage between the age of fourteen and nineteen". says Najcevska. The situation in university education is even more shocking. In school 1993-94 year, out of the total number of graduated student at the university in Skopje there was only one Romany. There are no more recent data. Erduan Iseni, student of the Stomatological Faculty says for daily Vecer that as a Romany he was not faced with prejudice during education. "If one knows how short a time has passed between the nomadic and civilised life of the Romanies, along with the factor of their bad social status, it is clear why education among us Romanies is of secondary importance".

In Suto Orizari municipality 80 per cent of the citizens are unemployed. The latest exact data on employment of the Romanies are the ones collected in 1991 census: the total of 8,520 or every eighth Romany is employed. Out of this number, only 80 are employed in state administration mostly holding posts which require elementary school education. The quoted study claims that out of the number of those seeking jobs 91 per cent are unqualified and some of them are involved in small crime. Involvement of the Romanies in crime is higher than the average. In an investigation of Helsinki Watch results of which were carried by opposition weekly Start, during the Kosovo crisis about 500 citizens of Macedonia took part in the conflicts on the side of paramilitary units from Serbia, most of which were Romanies Economic motives were the only cause of such engagement. "Whole Romany families beg, cleaning of rubbish containers is an important profession", a local newspaper wrote recently not without despair. Representatives of Romany associations stress that the Council of Europe has elaborated programs for improvement of the status of this ethnic group, but the government has not shown interest to get this money. President of Suto Orizari municipality Nedzet Mustafa announces that he will personally establish a fund for improvement of the status of Romanies in order to collect money for creation of conditions for education of children. The Romanies have never been in a conflict with the Macedonians. They have never been subject to organised or forcible assimilation. This does not mean that there is no prejudice.

In the research Multiethnic Tensions in Macedonia conducted a few years ago, secondary school students stated the following impressions about their Romany compatriots: that they are lazy - 10.9 per cent, that they are liers - 15.91 per cent, uneducated - 14.52 per cent, poor - 17.57 per cent. About themselves in 85 per cent of the cases the Romanies say that they are in a worse economic position than others, and 50 per cent said that they felt discriminated. About 35 per cent felt as the citizens of "the second order". Some Romanies declare themselves as the Albanians or the Turks believing that in this way they will improve their social status. The European Centre for the Rights of the Romanies published that in 1998 7.5 thousand of the Romanies in Macedonia had no citizenship. Unofficially it is possible to hear that there are many more such persons "with no status" as the police treats them. The law is rigid, it is stressed, and administration expenses too high for the citizens from the lowest social stratum to pay.

The Romanies as the ethnic group are not rebellious and that is why they are left aside. Weekly Puls observed at the time of presidential elections that the Romanies were a significant portion of the electorate but only for as long as a candidate they offer their support to wins the elections; they are then immediately forgotten. Puls claimed that parties of the Romanies were trying to solve problems of their people in their own way, most frequently relying on the parties in power. That is what happened to the party for full emancipation of the Romanies, and the current deputy in the assembly, Amdi Bajram, is led by the same principle. Instead of working directly in the interest of his people, Bajram has just created internal party problems for himself in the League of the Romanies he is the head of.High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations claims that there are about 15 thousand Romany refugees from Kosovo in Macedonia. About three thousand of them are in four refugee camps, the others live with their relatives or friends all over the country. This is an additional circumstance that further deteriorates the position of the Macedonian Romany population. In UNHCR they cannot say for certain whether after March this year, the deadline set by the government, Romany refugees will continue their stay in Macedonia, be evacuated to a third country or sent back to Kosovo. At this moment none of these possibilities seems probable.

Government representatives do not conceal anger because the international community has failed to fulfill promises given at the time when the crisis with Albanian refugees was at its climax. It is believed in Skopje that from its humble budget Macedonian government bore the greatest burden of their accommodation and care for them. On the other hand, hardly anybody believes that there are conditions in Kosovo for return of refugees. The international community has taken quite a firm stand when departure of refugees to third countries is concerned, so that just a small number of Romanies has left Macedonia, in fact only those who had relatives in one of the Western countries. There are no publicly stated indications whether pressure will be exerted on the government from the international community to prolong the deadline for return of the Romanies to Kosovo. Police officials had been announcing that disrespect of the deadline would not be tolerated. A meek suggestion of UNHCR to resolve the problem by offering asylum to the remaining refugees wasbluntly turned down. However, the fact that deputies in Macedonian parliament demanded from the government to help Romany refugees raises some hope. Perhaps after 31 March they will continue to do so under pressure of the public.

AIM Skopje

ZELJKO BAJIC