More From Alder's Ledge

December 8, 2011

"Please Dont Kill Me"

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"I'll Never Be Tutsi Again!"
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Liars. The murders had machetes drawn and drenched in blood when they came to the church in Kibuye, Rwanda. Inside sat two families connected by two sisters. This day, these butchers, and their taunting lies would change the image of Rwanda for those who survived.
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Each sister was married to Tutsi men. Each sister was Hutu. By the roughly drawn "laws" of the murderous mobs the sisters' children were Tutsi. Thus the battle lines were drawn.
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The mob ordered any Hutu out of the church. Tutsi had to stay.
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The first sister decided that day that she would die a Tutsi... die with her husband. The mob was willing to kill her without a second thought.
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The second sister pleaded to be allowed to take her 11 children out of the church with her. After some time the mob said she could... under one condition.
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They ordered her to leave the building. Just outside the doorway she called her children to supposed safety. Wait their she had been promised the opportunity to leave.
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Her 11 children walked toward the exit. Afraid, the children walked toward the mob who stood between them and their mom. This is when all Hell broke loose.
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In a blood lust filled rage the mob began hacking away at the 11 children. In a matter of moments 7 of the children were mangled and laying dead in the church doorway. Two had escaped.
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A three year old boy now stood crying in the midst of his dead brothers and sisters. As the mob encircled the boy he screamed for mercy.
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"Please don't kill me," the young boy shouted. "I'll never be Tutsi again!"
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The child's mother could do nothing for her boy. The mob had become a snarling pack of hyenas. Their prey was barely old enough to run let alone fight back. The war against the Tutsi had now become absolute Hell.
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Unmoved by the three year old child's tears and blood curdling pleas... the Hutu mob attacked.
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Genocide doesn't allow it's perpetrators to see these scenes with rational eyes... it mask their hearts. This three year old boy was the enemy for the genocidal Hutu. He wad old enough to know he was Tutsi. And that was all that mattered to his savage assailants.
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For the two siblings who lived the image of their brother pleading for mercy would never cease to replay itself over and over again in their minds. For you, it should never cease to replay itself over and over again in your soul.
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Genocide has not gone away. It continues to claim lives in countries all around the world. Currently it continues to kill in countries right next-door to Rwanda.
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As long as we remain silent it will never stop... it will never relent. It knows no boundaries and respects no borders. National sovereignty does not concern those who practice genocide. Religion cannot reign it in. Morality is blurred by it's many forms.
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Only the actions of brave men and women can stop it. Only the will to fight for the rights of all people can stem it's bloody flow. Only the courage to scream, even when it seems nobody I'd listening, will bring an end to genocide.
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Scream for those who have no voice. Repost this and other post on Alder's Ledge. Share us on FaceBook and Twitter. Follow us on Twitter, @alders_ledge. All of these are easy ways to become a screamer.
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December 7, 2011

Silent Suffering

Rape And Genocide


As the Armenian genocide began the horrors it would unleash became almost instantly clear to one part of the Armenian population... it's women.

Turkish soldiers were well known for many things amongst the Armenians. Self-control was not one of them. Instead the Turks took everything they wanted without a moment of hesitation. This included the innocence of young Armenian girls.

Rape became a hallmark of deportation in the process The Young Turks called "Turkification". If a child became unable to walk after repeated rapes... the Turks killed them. If a woman tried to resist she would be bludgeoned and then gang raped... then killed.

Yet despite the use of rape as a weapon not all it's victims died. Many were kept alive to serve as sex slaves in Turkish homes. Government officials, officers, and street vendors all approached the caravans of deportees to purchase "desirables". Young girls and boys were purchased from the soldiers all along the death marches.

Some of these slaves would be sent to work on farms. Others were sent to Turkish homes as servants. Many were sent to Turkish villages to be used as forced wives or made to participate in orgies.

For those made to become wives or concubines, rape was a daily threat. "Unrelated girls and boys in the household—regardless of religious or ethnic origin—were sexually available to senior males." Any adult male could use them for his deviant desires.

In all of this a common form of brandishing ownership developed amongst the Turkish masters. Slaves were to be tattooed upon their face and hands. It was a way to demoralize the slave and to show the rest of society that they were "unclean".

Thanks to the League Of Nations (the predecessor to the UN) we have documented cases of this practice. The survivors' families can access the pictures and documents of their grandparents who made it out of captivity. All due to a safe house the League operated in Aleppo, Syria. These images and surveys are housed in Geneva.

For Suzanne Khardalian these documents helped her understand the suffering and deep scars left by the "devilish marks" on her grandmother's hands and face. You can hear her story by watching her film "Grandma's Tattoos".





To read more about this subject please follow the link below.



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November 22, 2011

Never Again Often Comes Too Late...

... If Never At All.
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In Rwanda we as a world community watched as the words "Never Again" fell away. The Hutu militias swept the country with amazingly deadly speed. Rapes, mutilations, and murders earmarked their movement. The machete became their symbol.
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All the while the UN stood helplessly by as the Canadian commander called for help... or if nothing else, permission to engage. The world that April failed to uphold those seemingly hollow words. Never Again.
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Bosnia became a melting pot of ethnic radicals as Europe took a step back. For the first time since World War Two the world watched as death camps were built on European soil. The Serbs were set to destroy their enemies... on ethnic and religious grounds.
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Civilians were targeted while the few combatants Bosnia could field were kept alive as an excuse for Serbian aggression. Muslims in Bosnia were then shipped of to camps or killed outright wherever they could be found. Artillery, grenades, and the infamous AK47 became the Serbian hallmarks.
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We remained silent. Our world leaders left the innocent victims to the wolves. Once again we failed to uphold those two words. Never Again.
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As the Arab Spring amped up we watched as Bahrain began to pit Sunni against Shiites. The stage was set for genocide once again. We got a few news stories about it. Some world leaders may have mumbled something or another about it. But once again we failed to address the issue... we failed to proclaim and stand behind those words "Never Again".
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In Libya the politics of the West out weighed our commitment to preventing and stoping genocide. Instead we seemed to look the other way as arab Libyans began to slaughter their black countrymen. And once again we used the excuse of civil war to mask the ethnic cleansing Libyans engaged in. Worst yet, our support may have contributed to their success in killing on ethnic grounds. We not only failed to stop genocide but also may have supported it.
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Time will tell just how often we have failed in this commitment. We will see in the years to come just how many lives need be lost before we actually act upon those words. Until then we must hold our governments and ourselves responsible for our shortcomings.
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Never Again

November 8, 2011

George Soros and the Roma

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Finances verse Discrimination
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The Hungarian born financier has begun to refocus his efforts on his country's largest minority. In an interview with the EUobserver Soros addressed the issue of integration. This is a subject that the EU had demanded it's member countries to focus on and achieve by January 2012.
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“The problem of the Roma is deteriorating with the economic situation. And the majority of the public is releasing its anger and frustration at its own economic situation by attacking the Roma,” he told EUobserver.
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Soros went on to warn the EU about the growth of the far-right. He focused on Jobbik, the neo-Nazi Hungarian party. He also said that at least seven member nations are failing to meet the obligations set in place back in April by the EU Parliament.
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“The other side of the economic crisis is this growth in the far right. Now Europe is in a process of disintegration which is self-reinforcing, just as the process of integration was self-reinforcing,” he warned.
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“When Europe was in the positive mode, its leadership was in the forefront of pushing further EU integration,” he continued.
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“Now they are just trying to preserve the status quo, which actually is unsustainable and many people who recognise that is unsustainable or intolerable are pushed into an anti-European position.”
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“We are now in a situation where we are pushed to greater economic integration out of necessity of preserving the euro and that creates a very bad political dynamic where people are very close to each other and fight with each other and there is a lot to fight about.
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“When people are forced to live together out of necessity and not desire, it leads to a very unhappy marriage,” he said “ You need to re-invent the process of economic of European integration."
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Soros's ideas are a step in the right direction. However if past behavior is to be any indicator than the EU will most likely fail to meet it's obligations. Jobbik will continue to grow as more banks fail in Europe. And life for the Roma will continue to grow worse in Europe.
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Source Documents, note not all sources listed.
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EUobserver
http://euobserver.com/851/114218
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Romani Man Attacked By Czech Police

"World's Best Police"
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On Saturday, October 29th, a Romani man in the embattled Northern Bohemia reports to have been strangled and further attacked by Czech Police. The officers were in fact two members of the SPJ Praha, the Czech Special Forces Unit - Prague Patrol. And their actions, racially motivated, are not being investigated or punished.
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Mr Ladislav Bíllý, a Czech Roma man, claims that around 4pm the first officer surprised him on his own property. In a matter of moments the second officer darted in and grabbed Ladislav by the throat. The officer proceeded to slam Mr Ladislav into the wall with his hand firmly gripping Ladislav's windpipe.
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'Shut up and be polite' the aggressive officer shouted in Ladislav's face as he began berating the Roma man. The officer, who was trespassing, demanded Ladislav's identity papers. All the while the first officer stood by and did nothing to stop the attack.
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After a short time Ladislav convinced the aggressive officer to let him go and that his identity papers were in his car. Suddenly the second officer became even more irate. It appeared to the Roma man that having to walk a few meters to his car had made the officer even more aggressive.
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Once at the car, a Volkswagen Golf, the aggressive cop yelled at Ladislav very loudly, "Don't piss me off anymore you black swine."
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When the Roma's papers were produced the officers demanded the car's papers. Once the car's documents were produced the officers called for reinforcements. Now there were six officers. All six special unit officers proceeded to trash the car as they "searched" it without a search warrant or permission.
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Finally Mr Ladislav had had enough. He demanded the officers get off his private property. The aggressive officers had a shouting match before leaving. The entire time they were there they had covered their service numbers... masking their identity.
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The "Blue Line" in Czech police forces is rarely crossed. This means no cops rat out other cops. Thus their criminal behavior goes unpunished.
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As for the Romani people in the Šluknov hills the police are just as dangerous as are their "ethnic white" neighbors. The SPJ units are even more dangerous. They are able to get away with murder and never are punished.
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Source Document, note that not all sources are listed.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2935
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October 26, 2011

Beauty and the Beast


Hollywood and Ramzan Kadyrov
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Just recently Hilary Swank attended a birthday bash for a tyrant. She flew halfway around the world to perform her services to the dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. Don't know who this guy is? Well there is a good chance that Miss Swank doesn't really know either. But that didn't stop her from offering her support to a brutal savage that tortures, murders, and kidnaps his own countrymen.
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After the "little war" Putin launched back in 1999, a war that was used by Putin to gain the Russian Presidency, Ramzan's father was put into power in Chechnya. This move was calculated by Putin, a dictator in his own right, to put down the separatist movement in Chechnya. However the move failed when the Chechen rebels killed Ramzan's father with a bomb attack in 2004. Thus Putin allowed Ramzan Kadyrov to gain power with the backing of Moscow.
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The son of the first beast made the name of the Chechen capitol city his personal motto... Grozny translates to "terrible". He has used brutal police force to chase out or kill off his political opposition. Any publicly spoken dissent for Kadyrov leads to being abducted or having your door busted down in the middle of the night. Women who dare to venture out without the "proper Islamic clothing" are taken away and often raped by Kadyrov's men. Other women are simply beaten and if lucky, killed.
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Kadyrov's abuses have led countless human rights organizations to condemn the tyrant. Ironically Putin claims that Kadyrov is the only man standing between the Islamic terrorist and "peace" in the Northern Caucasus. And yet it is Putin who wants to hold the next Olympic games, after 2012, in an area of the Caucasus where Russia committed a genocide they still deny. But we are asked to remember that Kadyrov is the bad guy here... not Putin.
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And thus we get a Hollywood star, mind numbingly stupid one at that, going half way around the world to celebrate Putin's puppet. It wasn't till returning home that Swank decided she might have done something wrong. It wasn't till the American media started to point out just how bad Kadyrov and his regime is that Hilary Swank decided to weasel her way out of the situation.
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That is why, and that is the only reason why, Hilary Swank is now saying that she will donate all proceeds to charity. But does any charity really want blood money? Sadly probably so. Mainly because the charities Swank knows about don't really care who they hurt as long as they feel good when they lay their heads down at night.
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So I must ask in closing just how do we reach a point in American history where we have American citizens flying around the world to pat killers on the back? We have gotten to this particular case due to the fact that celebrities in Hollywood view Russian dictators as liberators. Their love affair with the old Soviets has blinded them to the atrocities committed by Moscow. And thus we have Hilary Swank going over to Chechnya to lavish praise upon a cold blooded killer due to his association with Putin and Moscow. It is the politics of the liberals in Hollywood that allows them to be blind to the human rights violations their politics endorse.
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Source Documents, Note that not all documents used are listed below.
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The Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/swank-will-donate-money-from-grozny-bash-to-charity/445546.html
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The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2048798/Hilary-Swank-apologises-attending-Chechen-president-Ramzan-Kadyrovs-birthday.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-russia-chechnya-putin-idUSTRE79C2E020111013
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MSNBC Today
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44857630/ns/today-entertainment/
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CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/12/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main20119106.shtml
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October 25, 2011

Racial Tensions Still Rising


Romani Still Targeted By "Ethnic Majority"
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As local police struggle to push back the hordes of racially charged "ethnic Bulgarians" and "White Czechs" the special police units are pulling out. The petrol bombs may have stopped flying for the time being but the racist crowds have not stopped massing. And it is this fact that has many Roma in Northern Bohemia worried.
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In the Czech Republic local "ethnically Czech" peoples have resorted to finding new ways to drive the Roma out of Bohemia. Some have pooled their money together to purchase the homes of Roma without the consent of the Roma themselves. Others have begun trying to push legislation to make public bans on Roma living in their select villages. All in all, the sounds echoing out of Bohemia are starting to sound more and more like the Nazi era.
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In Bulgaria the white population has still refused to stop their assault on Roma. Burning and torching of Roma homes continues as police fight to keep the assailants at bay. When out in public the Bulgarian Roma now have to fear random style attacks by neo-Nazi inspired youth. These same attacks have been used for years in Russia to target Islamic immigrants from former USSR held territories. It is a tactic used by the Russian neo-Nazi movement.
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The only good news coming out of the region is that some action is being taken to combat the rise of ethnic violence. In the Czech Republic today 14 Czechs face charges for assaulting Roma for racial reasons. This sort of action is finally starting to become the normal reaction in the Czech Republic instead of the old reaction of doing nothing.
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In Bulgaria however the news is still sour at best. Journalist who show any sympathy for the Roma or even fairness in their reporting are called "Jews". The use of the old scapegoat as an insult shows just how far Bulgaria has fallen. They are now bathing in the Nazi doctrine. And there isn't any sign of hope for their revival any time soon.
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Source Documents, please note not all documents used are shown below.
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The Prauge Post
http://www.praguepost.com/news/10461-police-pull-back-in-north-bohemia.html
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2908
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2909
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Prauge Daily Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/10/25/fourteen-czechs-face-racism-charges-assaulting-roma
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The Guardian (blog)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/oct/24/bulgaria-press-freedom?newsfeed=true
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Novinite.com
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132646

October 13, 2011

Genocide and the Olympics


The Czar's Genocide


As Russia marched into the Caucasus it couldn't help but get its hands covered in blood. Every ethnic group that Russia came across it found new reasons to kill, subjugate, or deport. For the Circassians this new ruler would be one to which they could not bow. So they, like many others, were deported.

Pushing the Circassian population south, the Czar made certain the bold Muslims would never return to the Russian Empire again. And for hundreds of years this decision proved to work out for the Russians. So much so that the Russians didn't seem to think twice about asking to hold the 2014 Olympics in the exact region they had exiled the Circassians to.

The Circassian diaspora claims that around 1.5 million of their ancestors died in the region of Sochi. Russia claims that the number is around 300,000 or so. But both sides do agree that there was a sizable number of Circassians killed in Sochi through starvation, exposure to the elements, and outright slaughter by Russian forces.

Of course Russia claims the acts were an acceptable extension of war with a violent rebellious ethnic group. They claim that the Circassians brought about the deportations by simply not accepting the harsh rule of Russian Czars. And that the actions were in no way "genocide".

The Circassians however, and Alder's Ledge, know that the actions taken by Russia constitute genocide. There was an obvious attempt made by Russia to destroy, in part or in whole, a distinct ethnic group. Worse yet, the attempt was not a sudden decision made in the fog of war. Russia had already planned on what ethnic groups could be cleared out or killed off to make room for ethic Russian settlers and Germans brought in from the Prussian wilderness. This was the same idea Hitler had for making "living space".

Most Circassians are only asking that Russia admit to acts of genocide in the Caucasus. Others however want an independent state in the Caucasus for the Circassians to live free in their traditional homeland. While an even more extreme element would like to team up with rebels in Chechnya to help form an Islamic state in the Caucasus.

Alder's Ledge sides with the majority of Circassians who simply want an apology and for Russia to accept the fact that it committed genocide against the Circassians. And until this happens there should be no Olympic games in Russia. Let alone holding the games in Sochi where the Circassians were slaughtered for Russian gains.

(Of the nearly 8 million Circassians world wide barely half a million live within Russia)




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Source Documents
(note not all sources are listed below)

Caucasus Regional News (Blog)
http://dailygeonews.blogspot.com/2010/11/to-recognize-sochi-as-symbol-of.html

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-russia-caucasus-olympics-idUSTRE79C2ST20111013

Flower Power?


Roma Showing Civility While Facing Ethnic Violence


"We are here to prove that stirring ethnic hatred makes no sense; let other people tell what should and should not be displayed in society," Mariana Vankova from the Bulgarian National Network for Children.

Despite being faced with violence the Roma of Sofia, Bulgaria are showing up for a "Roma Pride" parade. The event was planned long before the ethnic violence broke the peace in Bulgaria. But now it is being used to show that the "ethnics" and the Roma can exist side-by-side in peace.

At nearly every intersection in the capitol city, Sofia, young Roma children were seen handing out flowers and smiling at passersby. Their goal was simple. Heap kindness upon thine enemies' head.

It is to early to tell if the parade or the flowers helped in any way. It is clear however that at least some "ethnic" Bulgarians found repentance in the act of solidarity shown by the Roma. Large numbers of Bulgarians showed up to participate and show their hope for peace.

It is true however that many on both sides of the fight have refused to join in and drop their ethnic hatred. Protest organized around the said racial motives are still present in Bulgaria. However now the police are arresting many of those who cross the line from talk to violence. And the attacks on innocent Roma are finally being addressed by the politicians and police alike.


Elsewhere in Europe the Roma Pride demonstrations occurred without as much scrutiny. On Saturday, October Second, hundreds of Roma took to the streets in Paris to display the colorful Roma culture and to show how the French government has recently attacked it. In Romania's capitol of Bucharest around three hundred Roma turned out for celebrations of the Roma culture. And according to Agence-France Presse even more Roma Pride events occurred in Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Turkey.

"Many Roma are afraid or ashamed to openly recognize their ethnicity because they are concerned about discrimination," Marian Mandache of the Romani Criss organization told Agence-France Presse. The demonstrators in Bucharest wore t-shirts that said "I am Romani" in the Romani language.

So all this leaves me to ask why fight back with flowers and not guns? It is hard to imagine a life where a simple display of your music, language, and dance is considered historic... historic in a place you have called home for generations upon generations. How do they continue to smile?



Galina Trefil.
 

"When violence is directed against us, without exception, we are blamed for it. Why? We did not “assimilate.” My grandfather once taught at Karelova University in Prague. Most anyone would have considered that assimilated enough, but he was still a Rom and, thusly, he was shot at with a machine gun and saw his children butchered. His life was destroyed. Roma families all have slaughter stories from the war though. To be Romani, one expects and has to find a way to accept hatred from birth. So, from that perspective, that Neo-Nazis would march and cry for our murder yet again is a frontal assault; not a surprise at all.

Where my own family has felt intense betrayal is that so many were destroyed by the original Nazis that, collectively, many Holocaust-survivor families today say, “Things changed. They got better. And we can take comfort in that.” I and others in my family proudly display the photographs of the Romani-American soldiers of World War II—men who volunteered for the army, eager to be part of that change; eager to bring justice and freedom to their brethren and other ethnic groups besides across the ocean. Risking their lives, these men returned to America with medals, proving not just their valor in battle, but their commitment to the idea of genocide being wiped out.

In 1959, my father made a gesture of standing up to a government that does not protect its citizens, but instead forces them to suffer. He swam a river and risked his life in order, just for a moment, to stand in his father’s homeland with pride. Even if it was only a gesture, sometimes gesture are necessary.

My father, a retired psychiatrist and surgeon, still loves the Czech Republic. This is an all-encompassing and devoted love that will not, no matter how many vicious mobs arise, ever change. No matter how many police refuse to arrest citizens bent on murder, he will never blame the Czech people as a whole, but rather the government which is failing to protect its non-Czech citizens. He considers those who Czechs who did not stand up to and or prosecute the mob as shameful to their own race and sympathizes with the many decent, ethical Czechs who are shamed by the escalating violence that they did not take part in.
"

Take what you will from her story. An explanation? I don't know for sure. It seems impossible to explain the resolve of the Roma people. It is hard to understand from this American mind how they still want to be part of a place and people who continue to hate them. And how they assimilate only to be rejected.

As for the flowers and smiles... we here at Alder's Ledge applaud the Roma who took part in the Roma Pride activities throughout Europe. And we will continue to cover your attempts to live in peace by writing about them here on Alder's Ledge. G-d bless you all.





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Source Documents (note that not all sources are listed below)

noinvite.com
Sofia News Agency
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132582

Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2866

Infoshop News
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20111001151904175

October 7, 2011

Bulgarian Right Wing Rearing Its Ugly Head


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Roma Targeted Once Again.
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In much of the European Union it doesn't take much to spark an anti-Roma campaign. A civil feud can easily become a national debate. And in Bulgaria that means the neo-Nazis rise to power once again.
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Their goal is simple. Keep the hate flowing. Keep the people fixated upon the target. And keep the message loud and constant.
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Now that the jackboots have hit the pavement their isn't much stopping the Bulgarians from outright attacking Roma citizens. Their blood is boiling and the fascist are readily stoking the flames. The death of one "ethnic" Bulgarian could prove merit enough for countless Roma deaths.
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"The hate speech that has been fuelling the anti-Roma protests in Bulgaria is of great concern," Rupert Colville, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). "We call on Bulgarian authorities at the highest political level to publicly restate this principle of individual criminal responsibility."
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And yet the Bulgarian authorities are doing nothing. Instead they simply stand back and wait. Wait for the "ethnic" Bulgarians to take matters into their own hands. Then once the blood has been spilled and the good citizens of Bulgaria have had their fun... then Bulgarian authorities will have a reason to expel the countries Roma population.
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After all, France did it. Why wouldn't Bulgaria?
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They have already taken their aggression to a level not seen in France. The racist protesters have the backing of a national political party, Ataka. A common uniform is showing up amongst the hate filled "ethnics". All their missing is a short fat Austrian with a funny mustache.
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So where is the EU or the UN? Doing what they do best in this sort of situation. Waiting till the storm blows over and then apologizing afterward. They did it with the Czechs recently. They did it with the French for years now. So why should we trust them with a clearly Nazi style protest as this one?
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And if you watched both videos you can see that the "ethnics" can't even keep their stories straight. First it was a "Roma clan" in a "Roma van". Next it is a "Roma national leader" in a "Roma bus". The only fact they do have here is that a Bulgarian citizen ran over another Bulgarian citizen.
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In any case we here at Alder's Ledge will continue to follow this story and update you all as events occur.
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Source Documents. (Note that not all are listed below.)
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The Sofia Echoe
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/05/1168911_un-human-rights-commission-speaks-out-against-targeting-of-roma-in-bulgaria
&
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/07/1170776_extremists-in-bulgaria-trying-to-exploit-ethnic-tensions-after-katounitsa
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/anti-roma-demonstrations-spread-across-bulgaria.html
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BBC World News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15093839
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September 21, 2011

Hungary and the Neo-Nazis

Jobbik, the legal arm of Nazism in Hungary.
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Jobbik should had been banned much like the neo-Nazi organization just banned in Germany today. Instead Jobbik continues to flourish as it spreads its messege of hate across Hungary and abroad. Instead Jobbik remains free to enlist more and more "stormtroopers" into its Nazi army. Instead it continues to attack and harrass a portion of Hungary's population that the government refuses to protect.
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Spread the word about Jobbik and help fight the spread of fascist groups like these. In doing this you help make it more and more difficult for groups like Jobbik to gain power by working under the radar. And in doing this you help put pressure on Hungary to stop supporting Jobbik and its Nazi scum.
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September 20, 2011

"She's Buried Chest Deep"


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"Allah... has come up with such a fair rule, even the Devil couldn't be so cruel."
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Iran, the name alone makes me sick. A place where even Satan might not show his head for fear of Islamic retribution. A people taught to fear a religion, a faith, a tormented ideal. A country sealed off from hope.
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The rulers of this religious theocracy crush the fairer sex while exalting the depravity of the males beastly lust. A glimpse of hair, a centimeter of exposed flesh, a twinkle of the eye and a woman can be literally crushed. And yet the youth of Iran have showed the will to fight back.
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In the end of President Bush's rule the "green movement" began. Obama has refused to support it. His presidency has watched on as the symbol of this movement died... bleeding out in the street... staring into the camera as if to scream out for help.
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And yet we could not look away. For the first time the world was damned to watch. Damned to see how these religious zealots treat their women. To see how Neda died simply for being born the wrong sex... for stepping out of the role Islam has cast for its women.
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If you have seen her eyes you know her pain. If you have watched as life left her there, dieing before your eyes, than you must bear witness. Turning away is kin to being the bastard that fired the shot. Remaining silent is kin to being the monster that stole from her the life you live... free.
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Every year the Iran government issues the command to kill an unknown number of women. Many die without the world knowing their names. Many simply slip away into the darkness of Iran's Islamic law. Their faces are stolen from them with the pounding of stone. Their blood spilt by the fascist bullet. Their lives extinguished so that those remaining might never have to face the gallows.
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The goal of Iran is simple. To keep its women enslaved to the rule of Sharia law. A code Iran gave birth to. A law that was written through the militants' interpretation of radicalized Islam. A law that rapes, maims, and slaughters those who can not submit to it.
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Scream for these extinguished flames. Scream for Neda. Scream till your throat bleeds and your voice can bear it no more.
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September 15, 2011

Educational Discrimination Against Romani Children Part of Czech Unrest


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Czech Television station ČT24 has posted an article to its website reporting on the connection between the current unrest in Šluknov district and discrimination against Romani people in the schools. Such discrimination has been linked for decades in the Czech Republic to the provision of special education.
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The unrest in Šluknov region is rooted in the ongoing discrimination being practiced against Romani children at elementary schools there. For decades, the state has permitted intellectually healthy Romani children to be educated at schools for the intellectually disabled. After the practice was criticized, the state renamed the schools concerned, changing "special" ("zvláštní") schools into "practical" ("praktické") ones. Irremediable harm has been done to these children, because without a normal education, Romani people have no chance on the labor market. Among Romani residents of the residential hotel in Varnsdorf which police officers have been protecting from attack by non-Romani locals recently, only half of the local children currently attend mainstream schools.
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A full 27 % of Romani children without intellectual disabilities are still attending the renamed "special" schools throughout the country. "Special schools are intended for the intellectually disabled. Tell me: Is it possible for such a high percentage of any population to be intellectually disabled?" asks Iveta Němečková, a special needs educator.
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There are 400 ghettos total in the Czech Republic where an estimated 30 000 children live. Just like their parents when they were of pre-school age, many of these children have small vocabularies in Czech, may not yet know the words for colors or shapes (or may not distinguish colors), and may not yet grasp certain concepts. However, they are not intellectually backward, just socially deprived. They therefore have even more of a need for a normal education. "That's how they become familiar with the majority society, how they establish relationships with other children and start perceiving social norms and values in a natural way," said Klára Fischerová, a special needs educator working at the Lyčkovo náměstí Elementary School in Karlín.
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In 2007, the Czech Republic lost a case at the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, which found in favor of Romani citizens who complained they had been unjustifiably educated in special schools. The practice is continuing and has been criticized by the Czech School Inspectorate and the ombudsman.
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Segregated education has a sad tradition of devastating impacts among the Roma. Those living in the ghettos today are often graduates of the days when special education was developed in full in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s. "A disproportionate percentage of the Romani population were educated in special schools, as many as 70 % of Romani children at the height of the practice," Němečková pointed out.
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According to a World Bank study published last year, eight out of 10 Romani people currently of economically productive age have only ever completed an elementary education. If their children don't get a chance for a better education, they will end up on welfare. The situation is a vicious circle.
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"It's not true that information has not been available about this, but for some reason there has never been interest at the highest levels, such as the Czech Education Ministry, or even in regional government. If we don't address this now, it will catch up to us in time," said Ivan Gabal, a sociologist and author of several pieces of research into the unequal position of Romani children.
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The state already knows how to address the situation. One elementary school in Prague's Karlín neighborhood could serve as a model, where rich and successful people are neighbors with families living in existential deprivation and everyone sends their children to the same schools.
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"The children are satisfied, that's important. We are the clients of these children and their parents, so we want to guarantee education for all," school director Jan Korda said. The Romani population of the school is 10 %, or two or three pupils in each class. Class 6.B also includes a girl of Vietnamese origin and a hearing-disabled boy. They live on the same street and attend the same class.
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"We're all children and we should be friends, not be separated," said Anežka Novotná from class 6.B. Whether the situation will change in Šluknov district remains an open question.
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Romea.cz Article
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2813

Is Europe Dieing?


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Rise of Fascism in Russia.
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In 2009 it was predicted that over half the worlds known population of Neo-Nazis lived in Russia. To me this is almost to much to believe. After all, it was Adolf Hitler who had used a "scorched Earth" policy while invading the "Mother Land". So how is it that the World War Two stormtroopers are now reappearing in Russia?
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The idea goes that as the collapse of the Soviet Union came about the rise of immigration began. People from the Caucuses and other former colonies of the Soviets began to rush into the falling empire's homeland. These people simply were seeking a better life than what the Soviets had made for them in the old Soviet block puppet states.
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Now days the immigration to Russia is still climbing. With a booming economy, the old communist state is suddenly an attractive destination for the East and its impoverished countries. This has helped bring about the resentment that has fueled the "apocalyptic" view of the skinhead movement in Russia.
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Ideas that focus on the "birth rate" and the replacement of ethnic majorities have lent to the racist motivations that now have a footing in Europe. The Czech Republic has demonized its old communist rulers while leaning back toward Adolf's style of thinking. Romania too has lent itself to the racist ideologies of Hitler's Europe. Russia however... well Russian racist are reforming the agendas of Nazism to fit their nations unique needs.
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Random street fighting, vicious attacks on minorities, terrorist style executions, and racist backed boot camps. These are all the trademarks of Russian Nazism. This is how half of the Nazis in the world today behave.
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It is clear that the movement is still growing. The economy in Russia may be hitting rough patches yet the immigration to Russia is still continuing. And the Nazi movement in Russia is still sucking in the poor and weary in a dim society. All we have left is to see where the movement ends.
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Will Russia be the new Germany?
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Source Document
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Current TV: From Russia With Hate

September 9, 2011

Once The Roma Start Using Twitter...


Article by Romea.cz
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The electronic media - television in particular - have unfortunately played a large role in the hysteria created around the problems with coexistence between the "majority society" and the Romani community in the Šluknov foothills. The populism of various politicians has also played a big role.
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Various television stations have been and are reporting on the situation in Rumburk or Varnsdorf in a one-sided, populist manner - and sometimes directly in an apocalyptic style. Government politicians, under pressure from the unrelenting problems in their own coalition, have sensed the opportunity to flex their "muscles". It's not that there are not serious problems in the Šluknov foothills, but it cannot be a total coincidence that these problems have moved to the center of the country's attention at the very moment the governing coalition is introducing many anti-social measures through its reforms.
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The tactic of "divide and conquer", or inciting society against itself, is a tried-and-true political tool. In other countries where governments have gone down the path of unpopular measures, it has worked for them to incite the poor - or the lower middle class who are being rendered poor by the reforms - against those who are the very poorest, often those afflicted by total social exclusion.
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The rhetoric used in such cases is rather simple: During hard times, we must all make sacrifices, and unfortunately our world is being ruined by a layer of parasites and "moochers" who in addition are terrorizing our fellow citizens with their violence - citizens who may be poor, but who are honest, hard-working, and who pay their rent. Then, when the resentful "nation" takes to the streets demanding harsh measures and security, the television cameras movingly follow the socially "adaptable" dads, moms, teenagers and children as they take out their justified anger against the "inadaptables", demanding decisive measures. If the police weren't stopping them, the "adaptables" would be only too glad to beat those Roma up.
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We cannot make light of a certain justified degree of desperation currently being felt by locals in some towns over rising crime. However, a deeper analysis is missing from this flood of emotionally extreme television reports.
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For example, the information is not being delivered to the public that the Czech government, for more than 20 years since communism fell, has not managed to propose social policy or other measures to prevent the creation of the Romani ghettos into which politicians and town counselors are moving Romani people who once lived in town centers. These evictions are often a cynical display of corruption and gold-digging, with "the market" cutting its teeth on the potentially lucrative buildings in which the Romani tenants are residing.
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Various human rights organizations and think tanks have long warned that the Czech Republic is stirring up an enormous problem for itself by creating these ghettos, of which there are already several hundred, just as it is by segregating Romani children in the schools and adopting ineffective social policies. This is compounded by the fact that the freedom of "the market" to pick and choose who will be in the work force has never been considered an effective anti-discrimination policy for states to adopt in societies riddled with anti-minority prejudice.
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The people who have been evicted into the ghettos have nothing left to lose, because the ghetto is, for most of them, the "terminus". There are no (legal) jobs near the ghettos, and drugs, gambling and loan-shaking are the norm there. Children from an early age are learning how to survive in environments where they have never seen anyone hold a regular job.
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The superficial reporting by the media, and the populist outcries of politicians in response to the problems now arising in the vicinity of these ghettos, are food for racist stereotypes, according to which "only repression against them will work", because - "What's the point of discussing it?" - this problem is, so to speak, "genetic". When I recently published an opinion piece on how the invisible hand of the market is contributing to the creation of ghettos while the state passively ignores the problem, I received many responses to it in that vein.
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It's not surprising that various neo-Nazi fighting units who want to settle accounts with the "inadaptables" by using force - or at least squeeze some political capital out of it - have started feeding off of these desperate citizens' marches with lightning speed. Unfortunately, the government has come quite close to operating on the "skinhead" level itself. An otherwise indecisive Prime Minister, evidently inspired by the British government's recent response to unrest in British towns, has theatrically sent police reinforcements to maintain order in the Šluknov foothills.
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There is nothing wrong with modestly ensuring order where it is being repeatedly violated, but the publicized, forceful speeches about the police reinforcements remaining there as long as necessary - and that if necessary people from the Police Presidium will roll up their sleeves as well - are completely beside the point, because they are not addressing the essence of the problem. When the Prime Minister then says the new method for disbursing welfare payments will contribute to solving this problem because people will have to earn their welfare by performing public service, it is clear that even worse times lie ahead for us.
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In the final analysis, the actual failure of social policy must always compensated for by repression. Of course, more prisons, police officers, and special forces do not, in the end, cost as much as an active social policy - but they also don't solve the problem. They just push it under the surface. Moreover, if we "Řápkovize" the Romani problem through programs of harassment and repression, it is completely certain that it will lead to the radicalization of the people in the ghettos with nothing left to lose.
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Here it must be ironically added that the police and the "majority society" in general are in great luck that the Roma have not yet learned to use "Facebook" and "Twitter". When the Prime Minister made the sweeping gesture of deciding to deploy riot police in the battle with the "inadaptables" in a ghetto in just a single town, I could not help but rather mischievously imagine what the government would do if Romani activists suddenly used social networking sites to call for unrest in the hundreds of ghettos the Czech Republic has allowed to develop. I guess the Prime Minister's colleagues at the Office of the Government would have to help out in addition to the bureaucrats from the Police Presidium.
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The same applies to the Czech skinheads. The hard core of neo-Nazis is said to have hundreds of members and several thousand fellow-travelers. There are an estimated 300,000 - 500,000 Romani people in the country. What if they start organizing like the right-wing radicals? The catastrophic social policy of the Czech state has not yet managed to move all of the Roma into the ghettos, but the tens of thousands of people who have ended up there are just a bomb waiting to explode.
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Please Note That This Post Is Not The Original Content Of Alder's Ledge.
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Source.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2793

August 29, 2011

Scream For Us...

Scream So That They Might Have A Voice.
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If these images can not get you to scream than nothing will. If these pictures can not stir your heart than there is no further hope for mankind. Scream for those who have perished. Scream for those who have no voice. Scream for those who are about to die... genocide does not go away. It is still alive and well today.
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Stepping Stones


To Hell.
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As tensions in the Northern part of the Czech Republic continues to build the violence continues to spark. Just recently we reported on how the Roma (a small segment of the Roma population that is) were beginning to push back. A few violent attempts as gaining the high ground have led to violence in return. And now it is the ethnic Czechs turn at dishing out more violence of its own.
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Recently four Czech men severely beat a Rom with baseball bats in an apparent retaliatory attack for the Romani youth who had attacked four Czechs. An eye for an eye is clearly the rule of Northern Bohemia these days. And the battle field is ripe with those willing to dish out its brutal law.
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Police have shown that they are either unwilling or incapable of stopping the violence. Riot police have been used only after the violence has begun. Parades by the neo-Nazis have been allowed to occur even when violent hate speech had preceded these displays of force. Mobs readily allowed to form while the authorities stood uninterested on the sidelines.
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In the town of Rumburk, Czech Republic, 1,500 ethnic Czechs took to the streets to "protest" the Roma population. Their bigoted message was amplified by the Czech Social Democrat Party who sponsored their "right" to such a hate filled cause. These fascist leaning citizens quickly turned from an organized rally to a flash mob of sorts.
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Seventeen minutes after the rally had begun a local citizen took the microphone and called upon his fellow mob members to take to the streets with pickaxes and pitchforks. The politicians claim this is when they called the "rally" off. But the actions they had set into motion would not stop just because the politicians wanted them to. This was now an officially sanctioned mob. This was an army raised by the Czech Social Democrat Party.
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Not waiting to gather the weapons of they had been called to use, the army of thugs and Nazis stormed the "Rumburk Triangle". This was a name given to a pair of apartment buildings occupied mainly by Roma families. It was there that the violence began. It was there that the far-right of the Czech Republic launched stones, rocks, and tree limbs into the homes of Roma families.
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The petrol bombs that the Czech Nazi movement had promised did not arrive, thankfully. However the screaming and beating on the doors lasted some time before the Czechs left. Their voice had been made known. Their threats had been heard. And now it was time for them to move on to their next target.
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Moving on to a single level home, occupied by one Roma family, the ethnic Czechs began to attack the home in any way they could. The first of the mob to reach the home began the attack by breaking out windows. For the rest of the attack the mob continued to threaten to "burn the Gypsies alive". Once again, thankfully the Nazi made petrol bombs never materialized.
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This is when the Czech police say that they began to "monitor" the attacks from a helicopter overhead. They also claim that the only reason the police did not stop the mob was because the presence of young children. In our opinion this excuse is an excellent reason to stop the attacks.
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Waiting for the mob at the next target, riot police stood aside as the attackers targeted another apartment building. It was there that the mob broke down a fence to get at the Roma families. And it was by this time that the mob showed real intent to cause actual harm. The rabid mode of the mob was in full swing.
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Breaking in windows, a few mob members began to show interest in getting in and personally attacking the Roma within. Finally the riot police began to step in. But the damage was done. The homes had been vandalized. The rule of law had shown its weakness... its lean toward the right.
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We know that if history is not learned from it than we are damned to repeat it. We know that the Czech Republic has shown in the past that it is willing to allow hate crimes to occur against Romani citizens. We have seen houses burned out and Roma shot in the back as they fled the attacks. These mobs are just another step toward the end goal of the Nazi movement... extermination.
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Will we be seeing this in the coming weeks? Another form of genocide... the pogroms of old Russia? Is the Czech Republic's ethnic tension just a stepping stone toward another pharrajimos (devouring)?
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Time will tell. But until we know for sure we can only scream so that the world might listen. We must call for an end to this that doesn't involve the deaths of even a few Roma, let alone hundreds, thousands, or millions.
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Source Documents, Note that not all sources are listed.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2744
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2761
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2734
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2755
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2762
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2745
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August 23, 2011

Fighting Back


(Picture above is of a Romani girl who fled to Canada, the scars on her chest were put there during a racial attack she suffered in the Czech Republic)
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Tensions Rising in Czech Republic
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The old phrase "out of sight, out of mind" seems to be proving itself wrong once again in the Czech Republic. As the government encourages the forcible moving of Roma families from all over the country to the Sluknov foothills area. This move is just the start of a new wave of ghettoizing the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. A system of social exclusion that is now spawning the need for state intervention through violent reactions to a system the government created.
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But before I get at the reason for the violence let me first explain the attacks a little further.
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Tensions appear to have begun growing as the waves of new Roma families began to appear in the Sluknov area. Racial tensions then continued to grow as the "majority population" began to organize anti-Roma events in protest of the continued arrival of Roma (who didn't want to be in the Slukov area anyhow). And yet nothing was really going too awfully wrong till about a week ago.
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That is when the racial tensions flared up (literally) when Molotovs began to fly. Attacks on Roma families began to be reported as the far-right continued to organize. Families that had been removed from areas of the Czech Republic where they had been victimized were now being attacked in Northern Bohemia.
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However it wasn't till a couple days ago that the Roma began to fight back. That was when a racial attack surpassed all others in its shear brutality. A delivery van driver was reported to have rapidly accelerated as he drove over a five year old Roma boy. The majority population however seems to have united behind the delivery driver as they continue to blame the dead boy for the racial attack that ended his life.
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This is what led to the attacks on the "majority" by the minority population. Roma have finally stomached enough violence to be ready to unleash some of their own. And thus you end up with attacks like the one a day ago when twenty Roma attacked four "majority population" men.
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The attack was brutal in nature and ended up with one of the victims in the hospital with broken bones. The Romani had attacked the four men outside and then broken in their door to attack the four men in their home. They had even used clubs of some sort in the attack on the "majority".
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So how does this sort of issue arise so quickly?
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Well first of all it has been an issue that has been bubbling to the surface for some time now. It began way back in 1989 when the economy in the Czech Republic sort of crashed. Roma who had worked just like everyone else in the economy were the first to be given the pink slips. As a result they were forced out of the productive society and into the world of welfare.
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For two generations now the Roma have been doing anything they can to get back on their feet. This would have been easier had the Czech government not taken the actions it did earlier this year. Now we are witnessing how that second generation, a generation that no longer remembers what it is to work for a living, reacts to being forced into a ghetto lifestyle.
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Earlier this year the Czech government took actions it claims are to reduce the debt of government by cutting its expenditures. It is choosing to do this by cutting the Romani people out of the welfare state it created three decades ago. It is not however choosing to find ways to put these people back to work. It is not attempting to find ways to grow its taxable population by decreasing its welfare population through honest labor.
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Like the rioters in London these Romani are people who know a life that the state has provided for them. Every attempt to break free from this sort of indentured servitude proves unsuccessful for most Roma. Even a college education proves useless when the "majority population" seems unshakable in their resolve to exclude the Roma. They are after all the first to loose their jobs and the last to be hired back into the work force.
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Thus we have a situation that seems tailor made for the Czech government. A situation where only the strong arm of the law can solve the issue at hand. And that always makes people like me a little worried.
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In both the past and present the Czech government has shown an over willingness to ghettoize the Roma. The Czech government seems to have a love affair with forcing the Roma out of secular society. And this recent out break of racial violence (violence that the Czech government should had seen coming with the current rise of far-right rhetoric) forces a situation which only the law can handle.
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We will have to wait to see what happens but in my humble opinion this problem has no happy ending. Violence begets violence. And the result of this violent outbreak can only serve to fuel the flames of the fascist movement in Eastern Europe.
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Source Documents (Note that not all sources used are listed)
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Prague Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/08/22/romani-group-reportedly-attacks-four-men-north-bohemia
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2725
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2714
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2711
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2727
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2706
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CBC News Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2009/06/25/roma-czech-asylum062509.html

August 19, 2011

Not Allowed To Stay


Banned From Leaving?
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Macedonia appears to be the one and only European country that wants to keep its Roma population. So much so that they have banned their Roma citizens from leaving the country. But not everything is as it seems.
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Marseille, France has recently decided that it would like to force dozens of Roma families out of its city limits and further if allowed. These Roma were recently evicted from homes in the city and are now living on the streets due to Frances failed political leadership. The law in France states that any city over a set population limit is required to make arrangements for its "Gypsy" population or have set camp sites. Marseille is the second largest city in France... it has no camp sites or temporary housing for Roma families. It now has shown that it will also not tolerate them living on the streets... where the Mayor of Marseille had put them.
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So why is Macedonia so willing to keep its Roma population?
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Five families in Serbia were recently evicted from their homes without even a days notice. The Serbian government has been asked several times to stop this practice (partially because the EU doesn't want the evicted families moving West) and yet it continues to attack settled Roma communities. The number of uprooted Roma families is on the rise in Serbia despite the pleas of countless human rights organizations.
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So once again I asked myself why Macedonia of all places is so desperate to keep its Roma?
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It is simple really. Macedonia is a poor and ofter crime riddled nation. Its populace is constantly looking for ways out... and fleeing the country is just the ticket for many. But with the economies of Europe constantly dive bombing these days (Spain and Ireland recently proving that point) the West can't support the Balkan states any longer. And they most certainly aren't willing at all to accept the "excess population" (as Roma are repeatedly referred to) of a poor state like Macedonia.
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Thus Macedonia, holding out hope of becoming a EU welfare state, has placed a travel ban upon all Roma citizens. No excuse will be accepted and no second chances will be given. Macedonia must keep its nose clean if it wants to be accepted into the socialist collaboration that is the EU.
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Meanwhile the EU is taking every opportunity to "export" its population of Roma back out East to areas like the Balkans. Romanian Roma have been hardest hit by France's legalized racism. However those from the Balkans are being "exported" just as well. And those being sent to Macedonia are having their passports confiscated so as to prevent return to the West. Turning Macedonia into one giant ghetto.
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And that brings us to the final point of this post.
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In other areas of the Balkans the idea of Roma Ghettos is in full bloom. Many of the Balkan states have already forced their Romani citizens into select areas segregated from the rest of society. In despicable living conditions, often over crowded and far from common utilities their neighbors enjoy daily, the Balkans Roma population is forced into poverty worse than the rest of society.
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In a growing number of areas the local "civilized" society has gone as far as to erect fences, walls, and concrete barriers to keep the Roma separate or out of view. The result of these actions is the ghetto style that the Nazis used just a couple generations ago. And yet the locals feel it is better to resort to these sorts of openly racist actions than to tolerate their differences with their Roma neighbors.
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But I guess having your neighbors just not wanting to look at you is a tiny bit better than having them throw Molotov cocktails into you home? Possibly? Or is it that "separate but equal" never really works out? And is it that these ghettos are just the first step toward concentration camps?
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Source Documents (Note that not all documents used are shown)
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Public Service Europe
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/715/macedonia-has-no-legal-basis-for-roma-travel-bans
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RFI English
http://www.eglish.rfi.fr/france/20110810-marseille-evict-90-roma
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IBtimes
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197269/20110812/roma-gypsie-serbia-eviction.htm
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2713
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August 18, 2011

The Good Fight


Summer Update
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And we are back. After a little interruption due to a "differing point of view" we have returned to the good fight. So here is what has happened since our last update.
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The United States has entered into the fight against the Romani people. Town ordinances, local laws, and even the state of New Jersey has been levied against the Roma along the east coast. The attempt here is to keep the Roma on the road and to keep them from entering into the community. Here at Alder's Ledge we find this practice deplorable.
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In the media we have watched as Kathy Lee Gifford (on the Today Shows fourth hour) maligned the entire Romani people by characterizing them as child abusers who exploit their children to rob and pillage unsuspecting white trash TV host.
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And in Europe, well that theater has remained the same all summer long. The Eastern Front (Romania, the Balkans, and Hungry) have continued to allow their local "civilized" citizens to attack and harass the Roma. While back West (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland, and many more) the Roma are now being forced back out onto the road. In London the fires were used not just to loot and rob but to mask the attacks on Romani camps (sites the government was legally responsible for). All the while the police were able to ignore the attacks on human life because their local children were out doing the very things the locals claim the Roma are responsible for.
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In Ireland (Northern Ireland to be exact) the Roma have suffered countless attacks in attempts to force the Roma out of the cities. In the country side they are outright savaged as the local "civilized" population is allowed to practice their hedonistic desires and racist prejudice.
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A few days ago in the Czech Republic yet another Molotov Cocktail was thrown into a Romani family's home. And yet the police seem incompetent in finding and arresting the attacker or attackers. However in a twinge of hope the locals have finally started to show that they have had enough. Apparently attacking a family that the locals know to have an infant inside the home is finally overstepping the bounds of "civilized society". It was not overstepping the bounds of Czech society when just a week prior a gang of white supremacist had broken into a Roma home and nearly beaten the father to death. Or when a few days earlier a racially motivated torch attack was carried out in a neighboring town.
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The Czech Republic has also recently decided that it will not allow local citizens to adopt children from abroad. It is however stepping up its attempts to "export" Romani children. This attempt plays into the appearance of preparing to or even carrying out genocidal acts.
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In Austria the rise of far-right extremism has now been recorded to have risen by 31% over 2009. Many of these new attacks have been coming from groups that have decided to target the Roma. And this makes sense for hate groups just starting out since the local police are less likely to enforce the law when it is Romani being attacked.
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Meanwhile in France old Saint Nich (Sarkozy) is loosing his fight with the French Roma population. They continue to run and hide as his hounds continue to nip at their heels. They have been encountering growing hunger and increasing poverty and yet they remain in France. Those who have been deported continue to find their way back into France. And those who were paid 300 dollars to leave are now taking another pay out to leave once again. But old Nich is still pushing his racist agenda as he steers France toward the nationalism that once conquered it by force.
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All this has happened in the month or so that I have been kept from posting. And now we are back. Now we will continue to be "the rust upon your gears, the insect in your ear". We will continue to fight and all you have to do is continue to read.
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Information is power. The power to resist. The power to fight. The power to win.
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Source Documents for this post... (Note that not all sources are listed)
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2683
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2691
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2707
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2686
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2679
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2671
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July 18, 2011

Romanian Ghettos


The Call for Roma "Segregation"
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It is hard to imagine any modern state using ghettos as a method of control or in the name of "safety" these days. After the lessons learned in Warsaw it seems unthinkable that any politician in any European country would think this was a good idea. But it is happening once again. And the idea is spreading slowly but surely.
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In February of 2010 The Times on London reported that a Slovak town had begun building a 2.2 meter tall wall that was meant to segregate the two-thirds of the town's population. That wall still is in use today. And the Roma are still being segregated in Bulgaria as this article is being written.
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Just as they were in 2010 the walls are still being constructed. The ghettos are still being assembled. And the Roma are now being forced out of "civilized society".
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Their neighbors claim the isolation is for their own protection. A slogan used before. A message proclaimed by similar socialist societies of the past.
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Today the Romanians join the ranks of the Eastern Europeans willing to use ghettos to isolate the Romani population. In Baia Mare, a city in northwestern Romania, the locals are ready to build a concrete wall that will encircle the Roma area of town. This is an area the Roma were "deported" to and are now being held captive in. And once again the isolated area soon to be walled off is being said to be "for the Romas' protection".
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In past articles I have asked without remorse what would happen if places like Auschwitz were allowed to come back online. Today it seems that the old death camps are not far from the current issues facing the Roma population. Like under the old socialist of the past, the Roma of Romania now face a society that is willing to surrender its own humanity for a vain promise of "safety". And the promise of "safety" once again is not being promised to the Roma themselves.
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The governor of the city claims the deportations of the Roma outside the city limits was a necessary step to rid the city of its' "poverty hotbeds". In a way he was correct. However now the countryside just beyond the city has an issue with forced poverty. It also has an issue with sanitation since the Romani ghetto was built right next to the city's water treatment facility.
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In post World War One Germany the Roma faced similar "concentration" sites. The Nazi regime felt it was somehow fitting to place Roma ghettos near waste sites. This increased the probability of disease or death due to exposure. The Romanian governor has chosen a similar site for similar reasons.
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So the question is this... how much more will the European Union tolerate? How much more human rights violations will they stomach happening right on their door step? And are we seeing the buildup to another genocide on European soil?
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Some Source Documents Not Listed.
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The Sofia Echo
http://sofiaecho.com/2010/02/18/860356_slovak-town-raises-concrete-wall-around-roma-ghetto-report
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SETimes.com
"Roma Community Segregation Still Plaguing Romania"
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June 30, 2011

Days Of Infamy

The Loss Of Our Humanity
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Genocide is a crime that strips us all of something special. It deprives us of our shared sensitivities. Those emotions that make us human. The essence of what makes us special. It will undoubtedly always be with us.
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Today we fight not for ourselves but for the memory of what we lost. Make no mistake about what this blog is. We call upon you to act. We make a call for action and not just your intentions. This blog is to make it impossible for you to deny the fact that deep inside you know what they have stolen from us.
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In the 20th century we perfected the art of killing our own innocents. We destroyed the idea that war occurs on the battle field. It now rages in our homes, hearts, and minds. That is what genocide does to a people. It never goes away.
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Today it lingers at the edge of society looking and waiting for a way in. It is at work in the fields of old Russian empire. In the desserts of the Middle East it is toiling away as the West turns it's head away. The stench of it's familiar breath is spreading. It needs only one thing... for good men to remain silent.
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Armenia, Germany, Russia, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, The Americas, Greece, Turkey, Iran...
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The list seems to never end. Virtually every nation has suffered from it's vile efforts. All peoples have been touched by it. All will now bear witness.
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Let not one person say from now on that they did not know, that they were not made aware. We will scream till our voices fail us, till our throats bleed. We will never cease. We will never give up this fight.
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May 26, 2011

Two Monsters Arrested

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Two Genocide Masterminds.
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Ratko Mladic is finally behind bars on multiple charges of "crimes against humanity". Serbia seems to have finally decided to arrest the monster Mladic for his participation in the Bosnian Genocide. But this is nearly 16 years after the acts of genocide were committed. This is after Ratko has been allowed to roam the Serbian countryside for nearly 16 years a free man.
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Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a Hutu militia leader has been arrested on charges of "crimes against humanity". This savage beast was the "mastermind" of the genocide, or is at least charged to be so. Yet it has taken nearly 17 years to hunt this monster down. However today Bernard Munyagishari is behind bars and ready to be sent off to trial.
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Now we will have to wait to see what the penalty will be for these two savages. As for Alder's Ledge we hope they will both be sentenced to death and put to death in short order. Let them bleed as their victims did and let justice finally be served.
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May 18, 2011

"They are Cockroaches"



On the Fast Track to Hell


In 1994 the tiny, hardly heard of, country of Rwanda slipped into the history books as Hell on Earth. This was the site where a minority of militant attackers launched one of the fastest and most effective genocides of the 20Th century. Now we watch as the warning signs of Rwanda begin to pop up in another tiny, hardly heard of, country.

Bahrain is a country where the national minority runs the government, the Sunnis royal family reigns in Bahrain. Shiites outnumber Sunnis 4 to 1 in this tiny island nation. It wasn't till this year that the minority rule really began to face open opposition to their authority (often oppressive government).

In response the royal family has ordered the imprisonment and deaths of Shiite politicians, teachers, doctors, nurses, and businessmen. Those who have taken to the street to protest this action are now being attacked by government backed militias and the country's own military. Gunfire, teargas, grenades are the common responses to often nonviolent protesters who simply want a government that better represents their common will.

The Sunni population not directly involved in the repression and outright attacks seem to support them simply by remaining silent. Other Sunnis however have come out in favor of the brutal attacks of unarmed protesters. They have even been captured on film cheering the snipers as they pick off protesters one by one.

The Obama White House has said absolutely nothing about this looming genocide. Perhaps the president just doesn't care. After all, was he not the president who decided to wait till Iran had crushed its opposition before muttering some sort of apology? Was it not a Democrat president who waited till the bloody April in Rwanda had ended before he too mumbled some sort of apology?

As bulldozers tear down Shiite holy sites the United States 5Th Naval Fleet enjoys its little base in Bahrain. As people are shot in the streets our politicians enjoy rubbing elbows with butchers. As the youth of a nation are systematically slaughtered our president remains un-harassed by the US... the land of the free.

Our voices should be raised so loud that they might be heard in that tiny country, Bahrain. Our hearts should be with the oppressed peoples of every nation no matter what the race, religion, or creed. Yet when it comes to Bahrain the screamers of our great nation remain silent?

We have watched as Iran shot its youth right through the heart. We stirred for but a moment before falling silent once again. And in that moment of wavering we watched as the youth of Iran were crushed beneath the heels of tyrants.

Make no mistake about it, the Green Revolution of Iran has not been forever silenced. The good fight is still being fought against the beast that still sets upon the throne of Iran. We just aren't allowed to watch this battle... for if we were our government might be forced to act.

So what about Bahrain?

If no action is taken from the outside world, by the United States, Bahrain will slip into the bloody Hell of genocide. Their youth, the protesters, will be systematically slaughtered till their are no more left to fight the oppressors. The leaders of the Shiite community in Bahrain will be butchered... "shot like dogs". Their community will be uprooted "like termites". And the United States will set back in the comfort of its relative safety as the future cause of terrorism is born from our own indifference.

This is genocide. The systematic removal of community leaders, the executions of politicians, the intentional infliction of harm with intent of destroying in part, or in whole, a community. Bahrain is already sinking into genocide. These are just the first signs of what is still to come.

“That [the crackdown on protesters] is completely against the Geneva Convention[s] in any warfare or any protest situation; so to be breaking the Geneva Convention[s]... and to (be) basically committing genocide, I think it's ... an amazing situation that the UN isn't looking further into these things,” London-based documentary filmmaker David Lawley told Press TV on Saturday.





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Source Documents
(note: not all sources are listed)

Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/08/2858559/while-bahrain-demolishes-mosques.html

Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177596.html

LA Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/05/bahrain-new-report-details-alleged-torture-calls-on-obama-to-hep-ahead-of-thursday-speech.html