FOR centuries the Gypsy or Romany people have been persecuted and murdered with impunity. Gypsies were equally murdered in the Nazi Holocaust, but unlike Jews, there was no one to even notice their persecution, much less to even bemoan their sufferings. Now, in France, a highly civilised place which had been the home of Liberty and Equality, the Gypsies are being expelled to Romania and Bulgaria, two backward Eastern European countries which are well known for their persecution and enslavement of these people. They are being deprived of even the little they have and made to suffer even greater poverty and discrimination. The leader of the French government, Mr.Sarkozy himself has been part of the activity of expelling the Gypsies.
For the first time, the European Community and the Vatican (His Holiness the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church) have spoken out against this torment and persecution of the Gypsies. And they have told Mr Sarkozy how wrong he is.
Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean have been completely silent on this issue of the persecution of the Gypsies. In Guyana, in particular, the politicians, especially the PPP and the PNC, keep protesting when Palestinians, Africans or Black Americans are allegedly discriminated against. If these politicians really believe in human rights and in the protection of defenceless minorities, then they must give notice to the Gypsy cause. The PPP party and its General Secretary who have vociferously protested against alleged Palestinian wrongs, must now publicly support the Gypsies and lobby the other CARICOM states to do the same.