More From Alder's Ledge

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

May 17, 2011

Roma Still Being Attacked - Amnesty International


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Still Separate and Unequal


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"Three years after the European Court for Human Rights judgment which confirmed that the separate, substandard education of Roma people should be prohibited, the government has still not succeeded in bringing an end to discrimination in the country's education system," Amnesty reported in its annual report of human rights violations in the Czech Republic.
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In March of 2010 the Czech government initiated its National Action Plan of Inclusive Education. This is intended to prohibit the segregation of children based upon their "condition or disability". It does not however address the fact that Czech Republic schools still can and will segregate children based upon their ethnic origins. A fact that has led to the placement of Romani children into classes designed for the mentally handicapped.
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The National Action Plan of Inclusive Education also fails to place a time for which the schools must be integrated. It does not give a set date for the classes to be altered in their current designs. And no incentive for integration has been given except the loosely based idea that the government has mandated it.
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Amnesty also reported that the Czech Republic allows and in some cases promotes the "open hostility" that Roma face in Czech society. They did recognize that the Czech government had brought a handful of people to justice years after they had reportedly attacked Romani peoples. Unlike Amnesty however I do not nor have not agreed with the sentences handed down to the few assailants charged in these attacks.
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Until the racist past of the Czech Republic taught in the public schools, to all students, they can not assume it will ever end. This is a problem that Amnesty seems to overlook. This is an issue that the Czech government does not want to address. It is simply easier to maintain the status quot... it is simply easier to believe that their is nothing wrong with the current racist attitude of Czech society.
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If the same situation happened here in America we would be in arms to stop it. However when the European governments permit the segregation and demonetization of a given race we here in United States seem to be the ever ready and willing accomplices. Where is the outcry to force and end to this treatment of the Roma in Europe? Where is your courage to speak America?
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Source Documents
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2445
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The Prague Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/05/13/ai-czech-roma-discriminated-against-education
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Politics.Hu
http://www.politics.hu/20110513/amnesty-international-report-underscores-climate-of-fear-facing-hungarian-roma
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May 11, 2011

Genocide In The Heartland

... Native Indiana.




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Contrary to many far fetched ideas of where the state's name came from, Indiana is derived from Latin for "place of the Indian". Its capitol city, Indianapolis is derived from Latin and Greek for "city of the Indian". And yet both those names are perverted by the fact that no such peoples fully exist or participate in the current state of Indiana.
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Before the Europeans arrived their were a handful of differing tribes that all spoke similar languages and lived in similar ways. They were called Algonquian-speaking peoples by the Europeans that later arrived. One of these peoples was the great tribe of warriors known as the Miami people (or the Mihtohseeniaki).
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The Miami gave Indiana many of its current place names and river names. The Tippecanoe River, the Wabash River, Anderson, Muncie, and Mississinawa are all Miami names. Either derived from later chiefs or ancient names of the tribal traditions, these all seem common place to modern Hoosiers.
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And yet the Miami are one of the tribes that are more so forgotten than any other in the United States. Their name is applied to a city in nearly every state. A county in nearly every state. And yet their legacy was almost wiped out by the American government and the state of Indiana.
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The tale of their departure from the governing and running of Indiana happened while the state was still a territory. At first it was the Iroquois who began the push against the Miami. Then the Delaware. And finally the British and American governments. Yet for each adversary they faced their is a tale that persist of the Miami's fighting prowess... their warrior spirit.
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Before white people ever came to the Wabash Valley the Miami were busy building and constructing a system of society that would not die till the State of Indiana was formed. It was a society in which the man was the life force for his family, the hunter and supplier of meat. A society in which the woman was a nurturer for her family, the grower of grain and fostered of the young minds. This was a society that only differed in a few select ways from those that would replace it.
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The major difference the Miami had from the white culture that invaded was that it did not take war as lightly as the white Europeans. This was their home and they would defend it with every last drop of blood they had. This was their way of life and they would kill any person who threatened to take it away.
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Iroquois warned British about the "people down stream", a name for the Miami at the time, when they acquired the land from the French. This is how strongly the Miami defended themselves. That their native foes would lend their hand to the fight against them... ally with the very enemy that would later help destroy the Iroquois tribes.
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When the French first came to Kekionga, what would later be called Fort Wayne, they didn't seem to realize what horrific events they were putting in motion. So without forethought they French began to colonize the Indian Territory (a tract of land west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River) by building wilderness forts. These very forts would be used later on by the English and American forces to destroy the native peoples. But for the French these forts were simply meant to defend their trade routes in the area... trade that was always lopsided in the Frenchman's favor.
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After the French and Indian War the last real French stronghold in America was handed over the British. And history would record that the this new European power was even less favorable to the Miami than the prior. For it was the British who began to employ what would come to be known as the Factory System. A system of starvation meant to deteriorate and decay native culture.
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The Factory System was a simple method of trade that forever indebted the native peoples to the white trade post supported first by the British and then by the American governments. In exchange for fur, meat, and local foods the Europeans would give the Natives firearms, gun powder, and cheaply made household supplies. Over a given time the number of fur pelts and pounds of meat required for one rifle would go up and never come down. This drove up the cost of the European goods while depressing the given currency of the native peoples. Thus creating a economic climate the Miami and their local allied could not understand.
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To take the Factory System to the next level the white traders would introduce alcohol while at the same time of introducing the native peoples to the concept of debt. This allowed the Miami to purchase goods without the exchange of food or fur. In return they would later be called upon to give up land to make up for the debt they did not know they had racked up.
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By the time the American Revolution came about the Miami had already begun to loose land to British traders. This caused a portion of the Miami bands to support the American rebels while the other bands (still "winning" in the trade with the British) to support their old trade partners. The custom of the Miami to support those who help you now divided the tribe.
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This divide would be quickly healed however when the newly created American Government began to look west. Suddenly the Miami found themselves once again at the hands of a white invader. This time however the Factory System would not be the only method of removing the Miami from their lands.
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As the 18Th century came a close and the 19Th century dawned the Miami found themselves ever increasingly desperate. They were loosing patches of land to a system of trade they did not fully understand. Their hunting grounds were now becoming barren and food was increasingly hard to find. Alcohol was causing the fabric of their tribal society to unravel as more and more warriors fell to its temptations. The end of the world was seemingly right around the corner.
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At the end of the American Revolution the Miami had tried to remain neutral in the tug-of-war that continued between the British the American governments. This seemed to cause many in Washington to question just why the Miami, a known warrior tribe, did not join the fight. And thus the American Army began its campaign to destroy the center of Miami culture... Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Indiana).
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For years the American Army made one attack after another against the Miami capitol. Each time the Americans threw more and more soldiers at the Miami at Kekionga. And every time the Americans where thrown back into Ohio. Finally the Americans massed in Ohio and then marched the largest force it could assemble to destroy the struggling Miami forces in Kekionga. This battle would be known as the St. Clair's Defeat. And it would be the largest defeat the Americans would suffer at the hands of a Native American force.
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(Chief Little Turtle)
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Also known as The Battle Of A Thousand Slain (or The Battle of the Wabash 1791), this Miami led force would kill all but 48 of the 1,000 American soldiers who attacked that day (this battle was five times as deadly as Custer's Last Stand and The Battle of Little Big Horn). Chief Little Turtle of the Miami would have his image engraved in Washington as a result of this victory for the Miami. Yet his people would now become the "scourge" of the American politicians back east.
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The Americans would not be outdone however. In retreat and ready to fall back over the Appalachian Mountains, the American forces attempted to regroup in Ohio. This attempt would prove to be an overall success since they could not be pushed out of region. This led Chief Blue Jacket, of the Shawnee, to make a final push against the Americans near modern day Toledo Ohio.
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The Miami in this case offered their support seemingly out of resentment that their capitol had been attacked repeatedly by the American Army. However, unlike The Battle Of A Thousand Slain, the Miami would not make up nearly as large a number of the fighting force that attacked that day.
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This battle would become known as The Battle of Fallen Timbers. The American commander "Mad" Anthony Wayne would be victorious in defending the American position. However the numbers he would go on to report for the battle statistics were skewed at best.
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By the end of the fighting at The Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) the Native American forces had lost somewhere between 19-44 warriors. The Americans had lost a known 33 soldiers and had suffered a hundred wounded. This victory was only a victory due to the retreat of Blue Jacket's forces. Militarily speaking it was a skirmish more than anything else when of the 1,500 Native Americans the 3,000 Americans had only be able to kill around 19 fleeing warriors.
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It was this defeat however that caused the largest lost of Miami land to date. In 1795 the Treaty of Greenville was signed. And as usual, the American forces present refused to explain to the Miami what it was they were being forced to sign.
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It was at this time that the starvation, the lack of hunting lands, and the ever encroaching American settlements drove the Miami to desperation. Gathering around Prophet's Town Indiana the Miami began to side almost exclusively with the Shawnee warrior known as Tecumseh. The message of the Shawnee "Prophet" was one of redemption... of victory. A message that any oppressed people would rally around.
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Later in the American Genocide the Plains Indians would rally around a similar message. Their "ghosts dance" would be banned and even lead to the massacres that now trademark the American Genocide. For the Miami this message was one that they could not refuse. After all, they were one of the tribes now bordering the American lands. They were one of the tribes now endangered by the expansionist methods of the American government.
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Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison would now go on to use the War of 1812 as an excuse to attack and destroy any Miami villages he could find in the Indiana Territory. The Genocide of the Miami was officially in full swing.
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A common tactic of the militias Harrison employed was to lure warriors of the Miami out of villages only to attack the villages while the women and children were left undefended. This method was used on almost all villages that lay outside the sphere of influence of Kekionga, the still beating heart of Miami society.
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Harrison then made repeated attacks on Kekionga only to find that the Miami would not nor seemingly could not be defeated there. This led the governor to turn back toward the weaker tribes and for a short period of time a brief peace with the Miami.
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It was in this time of peace that many American politicians sought out native tribes in Indiana that happened to be shaky allies of the Miami. Finding a faulty ally in the Delaware, or Lenape, the territorial politicians sought to purchase modern Fort Wayne from a tribe that had no claim to its lands.
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In 1826 the Miami sought to save Kekionga from sell and invasion by signing a treat with the Indiana Territory. This treaty, the Treaty of Mississinawa handed over a vast portion of Miami territory. It also forced the Miami to succeed the idea that they owned the land as a people and forced them to divide the remaining land up to individual Miami men.
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This was a method that the American politicians were just beginning to perfect. It allowed the territorial politicians to attack the Miami as individuals and not as a united force. It also flew in the face of the Miami culture.
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One by one the Miami fell victim to what many Democrats today would call "predatory lending". And one by one the Miami lost their lands to white settlers who then refused to pay an "Indian" for land. Those who fought back were legally hunted down and killed by the Indiana Rangers.
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Starvation and disease now claimed more Miami than ever before. Their strong warrior society was dieing a slow and painful death. The territorial politicians had defeated them through economics where their soldiers could not defeat them in battle. Fort Wayne was lost when the remaining Miami signed the Treaty of the Wabash in 1840.
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The federal government in Washington now began to remove the Miami in mass as a method of disrupting and destroying the Indiana Native American trade. The influence of British forts in the north was now destroyed as well. And the Genocide of the Miami was now entering its final stages.
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Forcing the death marches of Miami to Kansas in 1846, the American government and Indiana government claimed the remaining Miami lands. Those Miami that remained were forced to sign and recite allegiance to the American government. They were also forced to deny any allegiance to the Miami tribe. The land the remaining Miami claimed was allotted to individual male Miami and scattered so as not to form a block of Native American land.
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The traditions of the Miami were lost when they were forced to march to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. Kekionga was renamed and now white owned. Their strong warrior society was now forced to be that of servitude to a white conqueror. The lands to which they were forced did not even remotely resemble the land from which they claimed to have been formed... a land from which they claim to have been born as a people. Corn didn't grow in Kansas just by simply dropping it in a little dirt mound. Fish didn't even look the same in this alien place. Kansas and Oklahoma might as well have been Hell.
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For the Eastern Band of Miami the last stage of Genocide had begun. Denial.
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To this day the Miami that did not leave Indiana are not recognized by the federal government. Despite having been recognized in 1854 by a treaty with the American government, the United States will not recognize the Miami. For if it did they would then have to recognize the atrocious nature of our relationship with the Miami people. We would have to recognize that we did in fact commit genocide against the Miami people. We attempted to destroy in part or in whole the Miami culture, its people, its way of life. And for the most part we did just that.
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Senator Richard Lugar, who will not be in politics much longer, offered a bill that would recognize the Miami back in the late 1990s. It was never accepted. His home state didn't even seem to realize the importance of this bill. His fellow Hoosiers don't remember the Miami despite their capitol city being founded upon a Miami village.
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The war to eradicate the Miami did not end with the removal of the majority of the Miami people. It continues in the history books. It continues with every denial that comes forth through the simple deletion of their history from that of the Indiana State History. It is a war without end as long as the American federal government continues to refuse to recognize the Miami people as a whole and not just focus on those they have subjugated in a foreign land.
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May 10, 2011

Yeniche


...The Other Gypsies.



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Here at Alder's Ledge we focus primarily on the most at risk societies around the world. As for the "Gypsies", we almost always talk about the Roma community in Europe. However today we will be focusing on the Yeniche people and their lives in Western Europe.
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The Yeniche have lived in Europe for as long as anyone can remember. Huddled around the Rhineland area of Germany their population has been targeted for extermination time and time again. Switzerland, up to the 1970's, used a system of separating parents from their children to attempt to destroy the nomadic culture.
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Today it seems that the ever shrinking world, and the deterioration of European culture, is helping to achieve the Swiss goal.
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According to current estimates the Yeniche people population is spread out as follows:
Germany 412,000
France 300,000
Italy 293,000
Netherlands 81,000
Hungary 60,000
Belgium 52,000
Austria 41,000
Belarus 11,000
Luxembourg 2,500
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Note that Switzerland does not have a number to report or remains unwilling to record the Yeniche population currently residing within its borders.
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Historically the Yeniche have claimed to be of Celtic origins. Their is no real proof of this claim nor is their proof that it isn't true. After all, nobody alive today knows what happened to the vast Celtic society or its peoples during its decline. Even our best Historians can't prove this claim to be false.
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Nowadays the Yeniche rightfully claim to be citizens of the nations in which they have lived for centuries. They are mostly Roman Catholic and other forms of Christianity. And, like most Europeans, they speak both the Yeniche language and the languages of those societies around them.
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By no means however can they be called Romani. They are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically unique. Despite the fact that many Yeniche side with the Roma and Sinti when it comes to politics, they don't claim to be part of those two different cultures.
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Most important of all, and the reason I write about them today, the countries in which they live are all ramping up their far-right. These countries are moving to expel or destroy the Yeniche culture. And the reason simply is that the Yeniche culture resembles that of the Roma. And for that reason the Yeniche culture seems foreign to the sedimentary cultures of Western Europe.
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May 3, 2011

The First Genocide Of The 20Th Century

... And the Second Reich.



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By the time the camps were closed and the slavery was ended the Herero had lost three quarters of their population. The Namaqua had lost around half their population. And Germany had stolen the lives and land of Namibia. It had also perfected the use of death camps and the art of modern genocide.
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The model that Germany made in Namibia would be used again and again. Turkey used it on the Armenians, Serbia used it on Bosnia, and Hitler expanded upon it when it killed 6 million Jews.
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Never Forget.

May 2, 2011

Romea.cz - Three Roma Families repeatedly attacked in Slovakia over Easter

Article from Romea.cz
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The village of Gemerská Poloma in the Rožňava district of Slovakia experienced three days of terror against Roma families during the Easter weekend. The families were attacked in their homes by a group of youths whom the victims say were "skinheads". Local activist Stanislav Kučerák reported the incident to the Roma Press Agency (Romská tisková agentura - RPA).
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Kučerák said there are about three youths living in the village who are sympathizers of the neo-Nazi movement and that they called on other men from around the district to come to the village. Approximately 40 - 50 men gathered there and attacked the Roma families directly in their homes, destroying everything they could get their hands on, from dishes to furniture to windows, even tearing doors off their hinges. They also beat some of the Roma residents. Small children witnessed all of the violence committed against their families.
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The Roma who were assaulted sought help from Mr Kučerák. He called the police and insisted that a patrol arrive as quickly as possible because of the threat not only to health and property, but to the lives of the citizens concerned. Mr Kučerák said two police officers arrived on the scene within five minutes.
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"The officers raised their voices to me and asked me questions like, 'Who are you? You seem like a real smart guy...' They were unpleasant to me and did their best to show me that I am nobody. They told the Roma people who had been attacked that they would not guarantee their protection and that the best thing for them to do would be to call a taxi and flee to their relatives. They stayed on the scene for about 20 minutes, taking photos and writing something up. Then they commented that some other body was going to have to handle it anyway and said the Roma families hadn't even had a gate up in front of their homes so that the area in front of the houses was basically free space," explained Kučerák.
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Kučerák went on to say that the mayor of Gemerská Poloma's only comment was that the Roma had not been attacked without cause. He recommended them to lock their doors.
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"The mayor is said to have reached an agreement with the three people responsible from the village. He wanted to prevent, by all available means, this information from reaching the public through the media," Kučerák said.
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Kučerák says the attacks on the Roma families in Gemerská Poloma took place late Friday night and in the early morning hours of Saturday and again late Saturday and in the early morning hours of Sunday during the Easter holiday. He also said a similar attack took place last year in the village. The Roma Press Agency asked the Regional Police in Košice for a statement and will publish it once they receive it.
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Romea.cz - Three Roma families repeatedly attacked in Slovakia over Easter