Livorno
Case
During
the night of 10 August 2007, four Roma children died in a fire which
destroyed their hut in a Roma camp in
Livorno
,
Italy
.
On
August, 12, the investigator in charge of the case, Antonio Giaconi,
stated that there are two possible causes for this incident: “it
was an aggression against this camp perpetrated by unknown persons, a
version which shocks us, or a tragic accident, caused by the
unsupervised lighting of a fire.”
On the
same day, the main news channel in
Romania
, Realitatea TV, reported on
the incident using the title “Four Romanian
children die in a fire in a camp in
Livorno
”. The report openly blames the Roma
parents for the death of their children, through negligence.
Romanian
society promotes a strong dichotomy between ethnic Romanians and Roma
with Romanian citizenship, the latter being viewed as “foreigners”
and “enjoying” an extremely strong societal rejection.
Realitatea TV and other Romanian news channels did not mention the
possibility that this was an act of aggression, despite the fact that
the investigation is ongoing. Instead they focused on the fact that Roma
parents let the Romanian children die.
They also
overlooked the declaration of the parents, who said that the fire
could have been a criminal act against the Roma, and the declaration
of witnesses saw two unknown individuals – a man and a woman –
leaving the place quickly, immediately after the fire started.
On
Monday, 13 August, Romantica,
the sister channel of Realitatea
TV, organized a prime-time TV debate focused on the case in
Livorno
. A psychologist was invited to examine how is it possible that Roma
parents would let their children die. Some of the invited panelists
suggested that Roma are genetically different than Romanians and that
Romania
should forbid Roma to travel outside the country as they are a shame
for
Romania
.
On the same day, Italian officials confirmed that the investigation was
still underway, although the parents were taken into custody.
On
Wednesday, 15 August, the website of Realitatea
TV stated that a judge was looking at the case
and a sentence is expected soon.
On
Saturday, 18 August, an unknown extremist group in
Italy
sent a letter claiming its involvement in the death of the four
children,
and threatened the Roma community in
Italy
.
No
apology has been issued by the Romanian media for their quick
conclusions. In a declaration for Realitatea
TV, Romanian foreign minister A. Cioroianu downplayed the letter
from the extremist group and implied that in order to avoid such
threats, the Roma should behave better. Cioroianu repeated many times
that the letter has not been confirmed by the Italian authorities and
the ministry will only react if there is confirmation. Cioroianu has
been accused of xenophobic and anti-Roma views in the past.
The main
message in the letter from the extremist group in
Italy
is that Roma should leave
Italy
.
In 1995,
a pipe bomb killed four Roma in
Oberwart
,
Austria
. It was planted under a sign reading “Roma zuruck nach Indien” (
Roma go back to
India
).