One more thin gypsy thief

July 12, 2007 4:35 AM

The debate over Kosovo's Independence is stalled. This could be an extremely dangerous turn of events. Neither side is willing to give any ground. If Kosovo does return to violence, there is one group that might suffer more than most: the oft-abused Roma. Having spent years in contaminated refugee camps, accused of all manner of crimes, and moved after a year of UN foot dragging, many fear they will be once more marginalized.
posted by cal71 (11 comments total)

It's all the fault of Iran and "AQ in Iraq" and further reason the US must continue the "surge" and why September is too early to evaluate the success of our troops. If Clinton hadn't gotten the U.S. involved in Kosovo to divert public attention from his adultery and lying none of this would be happening.
posted by three blind mice at 5:21 AM on July 12, 2007

Kosovo (Kosmet) will never gain independence, it should be given back to Serbia.
posted by parmanparman at 7:35 AM on July 12, 2007

Once more marginalized? When did it end? Everyone with whom I've discussed the Roma (Europeans) was full of the old stereotyped ideas. Didn't matter what generation they were or how educated. I've never seen such consistent racism in my life.
posted by Goofyy at 7:50 AM on July 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Who is the Martin Luther King, Jr of the Roma?
posted by parmanparman at 7:58 AM on July 12, 2007

Is there no longer any room for "patience" on the world political stage?

I don't know how apt a comparison this is, but the after the sh!t hit the fan in Cyprus in the 70's, UN forces set up camp to keep the sides apart. TIt's far from an ideal situation, resolution attempts continue to this day, but they're not killing each other anymore, and the majority of Cypriots have a life again...

Could this not work here as well (including for the Roma)?
posted by Artful Codger at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2007

Good series of articles on UN fuckups and corruption in Kosovo can be found here.

While Serbia/Russia don't seem to get along too well with the rest of the world when it comes to Kosovo they can probably all agree on a bunch of Gypsies not being important. Good post.
posted by uandt at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2007

Artful Codger: You pretty much described Bosnia right now.

Tangentially related, but still very much worth seeing: Pretty Dyana. (An intimate look at Gypsy refugees in a Belgrade suburb who make their living transforming Citroen's classic 2cv and Dyana cars into Mad Max-like recycling vehicles)
posted by Ljubljana at 8:23 AM on July 12, 2007

Great title, by the way. Maybe cortex could write "Famous Blue Background."
posted by nasreddin at 8:45 AM on July 12, 2007

On the treatment of Roma, the documentary--- Death of a Nation, about Russia by Marcel Theroux was revealing.
posted by acro at 9:57 AM on July 12, 2007

“Didn't matter what generation they were or how educated. I've never seen such consistent racism in my life.”

There's been two contentious threads here on MeFi that I recall that demonstrated this. There's a whole lot of people who are unapologetically bigoted when it comes to the Roma.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:31 AM on July 12, 2007

Obviously we must bomb Belgrade.

Should that fail we must then bomb the Chinese embassy.

Accidentally.
posted by tkchrist at 12:59 PM on July 12, 2007