Demonstration against French deportation of Roma

14:00 today in Pionir Park: approximately 100 demonstrators are gathiering in this announced rally against deportation of Romas, or Gypsies, from France. They are joined behind banners like “Stop the deportations”, “Europe for all” and the two contradictory banners “Antifascism is no solution” and “Antifascism=Solidarity”. Leaders and spokepersons are giving interviews while the demonstrators are waiting to get ahead. There is 3 flags in the parade: The International Peace Flag, The International Flag of the Roma People and The Serbian Flag. The treatment of the last worried me a bit. It looked very worn out, and the reason might be that it has been dragged along the ground. It was even stepped on – not by purpose, but still quite respectless.

The route stretched from Pionir Park, Skupstina where an appeal was held, Terazije, Knez Mihailova and turned the last corner on the left down to the French embassy. It all passed peaceful, at least the part I witnessed. They later continued to The European Delegation in Novi Beograd.

I was afraid some hooligans might have attacked the demonstrators. There isn’t many who are in particular fond of the Roma, here as many other places, but a strong police-guard might have prevented possible attacks. It was organized with 3 policemen in full combat were patrolling in front, with 10-15 officers on the sides of the demonstrators and an equally number of fully equipped policemen at the rear. 3 tall young men were approaching the demonstrators, but didn’t escape the hawkeyed cordon-leader. They were probably just curious what the fuzz was about, but they were eyed by the police and I guess they knew instantly that they were under auspices.

This protection of the demonstrators might be an expression of a political will to protect civil rights, or just a way to employ police-officers. It depends on your take.

In front of the French embassy they shouted slogans and tried to convince the French with their own moral of “Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité” and others like “Stop deportation” and “Say no to racism”. The demonstration was in support and tangent with the manifestations in France today, where more than 10 000 Romas has been expelled the last year. But – is this against laws and agreements within the EU? Quote BBC:

“Under EU rules, the state can expel people who have been in the country for at least three months without a job or are a social burden. They can also be expelled within three months of their arrival if they are deemed to be a threat to public security.”

So despite the terrible conditions many Romas are living under; this manifestation might be in vain. More about this later.,..