'Wake-up call' for Hungary as Neo-Nazis jailed for attacks that killed six Roma - including four-year-old boy
Amnesty International supports verdicts in a nation
where far-right political parties are thriving
Four
Hungarian neo-Nazis have been jailed for a string of attacks that left six Roma
dead and exposed the depths of racism faced by the minority group in eastern
Europe.
During a 13-month
reign of terror in 2008-9, the gang set fire to homes, hurled Molotov cocktails
and staged other attacks in eight villages across the north-east. One of the
victims – Robert Csorba Jr – was just four years old when he was shot dead
alongside his father as they tried to flee their burning home, which had been
set on fire by the men. Their last victim, a young woman, was shot as she
slept.
Activists and victims’ relatives accuse police of being slow to
investigate the killings or acknowledge a racial motive. Amnesty International
called the verdicts a “wake-up call” in a nation where far-right political
parties are thriving and the Roma still struggle for equality and justice.
Sentencing Arpad Kiss, Istvan Kiss and Zsolt Peto to life in
prison and Istvan Csontos to 13 years, Judge Laszlo Miszori said the vigilante
group was trying to stir ultra-nationalist sentiment through what they claimed
was retribution for crimes committed by Roma. “To carry out their plans first
they bought arms, then began to ‘reinstall order’, meaning armed attacks in
places where Roma had committed crimes against Hungarians,” Judge Miszori said.
The four men pleaded not guilty but admitted involvement in the
attacks, which left six people dead and dozens of Roma injured. The crimes and
allegations of police inaction shocked the nation, and protesters gathered
outside the Budapest courtroom with T-shirts bearing photographs of the
victims.
But there are fears that little has changed since the funeral of
Robert and his father brought calls for action. Robert’s grandmother, Erzsebet
Csorba, told Reuters the situation for the Roma remained as desperate as ever.
“We can’t seem to get out of this racism, this poverty,” she
said.
Roma make up 7 per cent of Hungary’s population of 10 million,
but they suffer disproportionately high rates of unemployment, poverty,
illiteracy and child mortality. The minority group faces similar discrimination
and exclusion elsewhere in the continent, with a recent European Union report
showing that Roma life expectancy is on average 10 years lower than that of
other Europeans.
Jezerca Tigani, Amnesty’s deputy director for Europe and Central
Asia, said in a statement that the police were still failing to protect the
Roma and hate crimes had not stopped.
“This horrific case should have been a wake-up call about the
continuous, often violent discrimination faced by the Roma community, but the
perpetrators of such acts are still not being brought to justice,” she said.
Ms Tigani also voiced concern about the rise of vigilante groups
linked to the far-right Jobbik party, now Hungary’s third-biggest politcal
group. Two of the men jailed had at one time been linked to Jobbik before
forming a splinter vigilante group, and there are fears that racist rhetoric
may worsen ahead of elections next year.
The current government has been accused of failing to quash
anti-Semitic and anti-Roma sentiment in the country as it tries to bolster its
support. The World Jewish Congress held its annual meeting in Budapest this
year to highlight concerns about the resurgence of the far-right. Hungary was
one of the Axis powers allied with Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
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