Slovak News Back to the news
SNS Rejects U.S. State Dept Claims Regarding Treatment of Roma
Sunday 14 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 14 (TASR) - The co-ruling Slovak National Party (SNS) on Sunday repudiated claims by the United States Department of State that Slovakia has difficulty observing human rights vis-a-vis its Roma minority.
The U.S. Department said in its report that Slovakia continues to grapple with racially motivated attacks against the Roma.
"This allegation is completely off-base, as the problem is wholly the opposite. It's enough to consider the most recent incidents in which Roma attacked the most helpless victims, such as when two youths in Kuty (Trnava region) beat a pensioner to death, when one of them should have been in jail at the time," said SNS vice-chair Anna Belousovova.
According to her, it is the Roma who to a large extent perpetrate crimes, steal from and attack decent people whose money goes to their social benefits. SNS, therefore, will press for repeat offenders to be monitored with electronic tags to track their strictly defined movements.
"If the U.S.A. claims that the Roma are discriminated against, it should take in at least 100,000 of them and teach them to work and live as people..." said Belousovova, adding that SNS will seek to have social benefits tied to work done in favour of the state or municipality.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
