WRITTEN QUESTION E-2305/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(31 July 2001)

Subject: Ending of police violence, intimidation and ethnic hatred in the applicant countries before accession to the EU

1. Can the Commission confirm the Amnesty International report of 11 July 2001 that:

(a) on 5 July 2001 at Magnezitovce in the Slovak Republic, Karol Sendrei of the Romani community and his two sons Robert and Peter were arrested following a complaint by one of the sons about ill-treatment suffered at the hands of the son of the mayor and that the three detainees were beaten, as was Karol Sendrei's wife;

(b) the three detainees were then examined by a doctor at the hospital in Revùca, who found that they had not suffered any serious damage to their health, after which they were taken to the police station where they were tied to a radiator and beaten again;

(c) Robert Sendrei had a gun put to his head but was then told it would be a waste of a bullet;

(d) Karol Sendrei died while being ill-treated on 6 July?

2. Does the Commission agree with Amnesty International that events such as those described in paragraph 1, in which the police intimidate and abuse members of the Romani community, occur frequently in Slovakia?

3. Does the Commission share my view that in the Member States of the EU, of human rights should mean that:

(a) everyone is equal before the public authorities and the law;

(b) the police are not authorised to take revenge for a complaint against those holding public office or members of their families;

(c) police investigations must not involve ill-treatment and death threats against detainees;

4. How does the Commission intend to ensure that practices of this kind become a thing of the past in the applicant countries before they are eligible for membership of the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(25 October 2001)

The Commission has received the same information as stated in the Amnesty International report of 11 July 2001. It cannot, however, confirm the concrete course of events as investigations are still ongoing and no official report has yet been released by the Slovak authorities.

The Commission can confirm and notes with great concern that Roma continue to be threatened by violence notably at the hands of skinheads and suffer from lack of sufficient police protection. The death of Karol Sendrei highlights that Roma also appear to be exposed to ill-treatment by the police themselves. While it is very difficult to obtain precise statistics on this issue, it appears that police misconduct against the Roma remains a persistent problem(1).

Should the allegations prove to be true this case would underline in a very tragic way that despite some good policy formulation about how to improve the situation of the Roma minority in Slovakia, there remains a huge gap when it comes to translating these concepts into practice. The ill-treatment of citizens by policemen can in no way be justified and constitutes a serious disrespect and infringement of human rights as they are valid and applicable in the Member States.

The Commission, in the framework of the PHARE programme, has already supported a number of projects in the past, aimed at promoting tolerance amongst the Slovak Roma and non-Roma population, including the police forces. In 1999, for instance, PHARE allocated approximately 0,5 million for activities focusing on the training of local authorities and carrying out a public information campaign in this field. A 1998 and 1999 project with an overall PHARE allocation of 7 million supported, inter alia, training activities for police forces with a particular emphasis on respecting the rule of law. In the light of repeated reports of police misconduct against the Roma, the Commission is considering introducing a new priority in the 2001 Accession Partnership, calling for an effective system for redressing police misconduct. This document is currently under discussion with the Slovak authorities and will be published presumably before the end of this year. Finally, the Commission monitors the developments in this area very closely, amongst others in its Regular Reports, the next edition of which will appear in November 2001.

(1) The latest report of the Control and Inspection Service of the Slovak Ministry of Interior recorded around 4 000 complaints against law enforcement bodies, in general. 522 of these complaints were found to be justified, amongst them 123 cases of physical coercion and 52 cases of unreasonable use of coercive methods. The figures did not indicate whether the victims belonged to a specific ethnic group. In its Concluding Observations of 11 May 2001, the United Nations' Committee against Torture expressed concern about allegations of police participation in attacks on Roma and about allegations that law enforcement officials have ill-treated detainees in police custody, particularly in lock-ups and police cells.