Police again scare residents of Homel region with Romany

Human rights defenders Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka have repeatedly raised the problem of discrimination against Roma in the media, where they are often referred to as potential criminals and citizens are warned against contacts with them.

The local press keeps publishing articles with headlines like "Caution, Roma!". In this regard, human rights activists have appealed to the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Information and to regional ideologues with the requirements to stop discrimination against Roma in the media.

According to the Constitution, our country prohibits discrimination, including on ethnic grounds. Police chiefs and ideologists promised to get the issue solved, to take measures, to hold explanatory work and so on. Nevertheless, publications which incite hatred against the ethnic minority keep appearing in the press.

April 1, the website of the regional newspaper "Avangard" (Buda-Kashaliova) published an article "Roma nationals are under suspicion» (http://www.budakosh.by/2015/04/podozrevayutsya-lica-cyganskoj-nacionalnosti /).

The article states that Roma nationals have committed a number of thefts of property and money in the Homel region since the beginning of the year, as well as similar crimes in the Vitsebsk region. The police warn residents ofthe Buda-Kashaliovadistrict that “in case Roma nationals who look suspicious, (don't live on a certain territory, sell things or practice fortune-telling) appear in a settlement, the law machinery asks citizens to pass this information over the helpline".