The idea to shoot A People Uncounted — about the often overlooked deaths of 2 million Roma by the Nazis — came two years ago after their encounter with renowned Romani jazz musician, Robi Botos.

On Wednesday, the film will be shown at a private invitation-only screening in Toronto to raise money for theRoma Community Centre in the city, home to thousands of Roma who fled rising neo-Nazism in Eastern Europe and sought refuge here. It is anticipated to be premiered in Toronto next year.

The production team of the movie, edited by Kurt Engfehr (producer of Fahrenheit 911 and Bowling for Columbine), also includes Aaron Yeger, Marc Swenker and Stephen Whitehead.

The Star caught up with Rasky, the film’s executive producer:

Q: What inspired you to pursue this film? Why the title?

A: Unlike the Jews, the Romani have few resources to address the extensive racism they continue to face. Lenny and I feel a responsibility as Jews not to forget when others are targeted.

The whole team was honoured to help bring their plight to public awareness. The term “Uncounted” works on many levels. Foremost is the fact that the Roma have always lived on the margins of society since leaving India a thousand years ago.

Q: How have Roma been both romanticized and vilified at the same time? What have you learned about the Roma?

A: The stereotypes of the Roma as Bohemian artistic wanderers on one hand and as indolent thieves on the other, are alive and well today. Historian Gerhard Baumgartner says it best in our film — “it’s all bullshit I’m afraid.”

The most shocking thing was learning that many Roma have little knowledge of their own history. Believe it or not, after WWII, the small percentage of Roma that survived, mostly the young, were left to languish in the concentration camps as, unlike the Jews, they had virtually no resources. Add to this the historical racism that predated the war and you had a recipe for disaster.

Q: What do you want the audience to take away from the film?

A: It was important to place their story within the broader context of systemic racism not exclusive to any one group. The names and the faces of the scapegoats change, but the genocide continues to this day. We hope the audience can see that the root cause of these horrors is the worshipping of our own groups at the expense of seeing our common humanity.

Q: What kind of future lies ahead of the Roma?

A: Whenever economies take a significant downturn, this is historically when racism rears its ugly head. That is what’s happening today as the Roma and others are once again being scapegoated for society’s ills.

As our film points out repeatedly, persecution happens at the local level. We must all not be complacent, but act locally before the roots take hold and start to grow.

• Legal Observers Needed
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• 5^th of November Meeting
• Clem and Pearle Address Dale Farm Supporters
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Dale Farm Travellers lose eviction battle in high court

Judge rules Basildon council has right to clear land and says residents took too long to challenge decision to take direct action

12/10/2011 – Residents of the Dale Farm Travellers’ site in Essex lost their long-running legal battle against Basildon council when the high court ruled that their eviction from the plot could go ahead.

But the Travellers, who have been locked in a dispute over the former scrapyard with Basildon council for more than a decade, immediately said they would appeal. If they are granted permission to appeal, the planned eviction may be delayed.

Residents had asked the judge to stop the eviction under the European convention of human rights, in three judicial reviews; the court dismissed their applications, and said the council’s decision of 17 May to evict was lawful.

After 10 years of legal battles the judge said it was “astonishing” that residents had delayed making their legal bid to almost the day of eviction.

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ruled that the Travellers delayed too long in challenging Basildon’s decision to take direct action against them, and said the council’s actions were not disproportionate.

“The conclusion has been reached time and again that this is just the wrong site for Travellers,” he said.

Lawyers for the Travellers argued that the council had failed to offer suitable alternative accommodation and to consider those vulnerable residents and children whose education would be disrupted by the eviction. But the judge said the planning system had always included a fair consideration of personal circumstances and that the residents must now leave voluntarily. If distress and upset were caused by forcible eviction “it would be because of decisions made by the residents not to comply”, he said.

The Dale Farm inhabitants were breaking criminal law each day they stayed on site; their removal was needed to stop “the criminal law and planning system being brought into serious disrepute,” he added.

The eviction would cause “considerable distress and disruption” but must go ahead “In my judgment the time has manifestly come for steps to enforce the law to be taken.”

Candy Sheridan, vice-chair of the Gypsy Council, said: “We are disappointed. We are not surprised, but the fight goes on. We will be seeking permission to appeal.”

The council will not restart the eviction before Monday, giving the Travellers a small window of opportunity to launch their appeal. The court of appeal previously ruled against the Travellers on a human rights application in 2009. Dale Farm residents obtained an emergency injunction on 19 September after a different high court judge decided that there were grounds to believe the council might “go further” in clearing the site than its eviction notices allowed.

Three further judicial reviews were lodged after a high court judge ruled on 3 October that the council could remove caravans from 49 of 54 plots and most of the concrete pitches, but that walls, fences and gates could not be removed, despite the council’s repeated assertions that the site had to be cleared.

Speaking outside the court, Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, who struggled to be heard over residents’ chants of “we will not be moved”, said the council had acted lawfully at all times.

“Having engaged with the legal system [the Travellers] must now abide by the law. I would like to reflect on what the judge said – that the criminal law applies equally to all, Travellers and others alike. They have reached the end of the road,” he said.

The council would pursue its legal costs, he added.

At the Dale Farm site Jake Fulton, a member of Dale Farm Solidarity, a group of activists supporting the residents’ opposition to eviction, said the Travellers were prepared to resist.

“People are already flooding back, Travellers and supporters. We’re expecting a big swell over the next couple of days,” Fulton said. “At the end of the day we will be here for them, and we’ll have to rely on the physical defences now that the legal ones have failed us.”

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/12/dale-farm-travel...

12/10/2011 – Ahmed Dogan, leader of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) has carried out pre-election agitation in Turkish in the Roma district of the southern Bulgarian town of Kardzhali despite the legal ban on such activities and the fine of BGN 2000 provided for such cases.

No less than 3000 residents of the Roma neighborhood gathered to show their passionate support for DPS candidate for Kardzhali Mayor Hasan Azis, who will be running for a third term in office.

Tensions heated up when the DPS leader took the floor, addressing the audience last, as usual.

The Roma population in Kardzhali’s Borovetz district got particularly excited when DPS MP Remzi Osman said that, whatever the law, he would “speak the language of the borough”.

The next to speak after Osman was candidate for municipal councillor and journalist Myuzeki .

Addressing the audience in Turkish, he insisted that the ban on minorities speaking their mother tongue during election time contradicted the Constitution and claimed that “the law is unconstitutional either”.

“After Katunitsa, Bulgaria is no longer the same. The time has come to take power away from those in power, ruling party GERB and nationalist party Ataka. It is time to oust the overpowered government which has been oppressing in order to make way for a new democratic government”, said DPS Deputy Chair Lyutvi Mestan, commenting on the death of a Bulgarian youth killed in Katunitsa by an alleged associate of Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, and the nationwide repercussions of the incident.

Before taking the floor, Ahmed Dogan was given the neighborhood’s symbol of tolerance, a hand painted glass vase.

“I always come to see you during elections, you are so cool and energetic. You are the ones who decide Karzdhali’s mayoral elections, which is why I am here”, Dogan declared, urging the Roma population to participate actively in the October 23 vote so as to guarantee DPS’ victory at the first round.

DPS candidate for Kardzhali Mayor Hasan Azis took the security guards by surprise, brushing them aside to join supporters that had climbed onto a street wall.

Hasan Azis then joined a group of people singing a popular Turkish song.

Minutes later, the crowd carried him on its shoulders to the bus servicing DPS’s nationwide election tour.

Link: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132881

The decision by Justice Duncan Ouseley clears the way for bailiffs to begin clearing the contested Dale Farm site, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of London.

Ouseley said that the Travelers had waited too long to challenge the eviction.

“The conclusion has been reached time and again that this is just the wrong site for travelers,” Ouseley told the court, adding that it is up to residents to leave voluntarily. “If the removal becomes forcible it would be because of decisions made by the residents not to comply.”

The eviction battle has dragged on for years and provoked concern from the United Nations.

The local authority says it’s a simple planning issue — the 86 families lack permission to pitch homes on the land. The Travelers, a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma people, call it ethnic cleansing — the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of mistrust between nomads and British society.

There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic minority by the government.

Traveler evictions are relatively common across Britain — but few are as large, or as high-profile, as that at Dale Farm. Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave has come to the community’s support, and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities “to find a peaceful and appropriate solution” to the crisis.

The conflict over the settlement has raged since 2001, when Travelers bought and settled on a former scrapyard next to a legal Travelers’ site. The local authority waged a long legal battle to remove them.

Tony Ball, leader of the local authority Basildon Council, welcomed the court’s decision and urged Travelers to comply with the judge’s ruling and leave Dale Farm in a peaceful manner.

“The residents of the illegal settlement at Dale Farm have now had their day in court,” he said. “Having engaged with the legal system they must now abide by the law.”

Ball said it was too soon to say when exactly the site clearance will begin, explaining that it will depend on how quickly necessary resources can be moved into place to ensure a safe process.

Protesters chained themselves to the gates of the settlement in images broadcast worldwide as the eviction battle reached a head last month when bailiffs prepared to enter the site and enforce the eviction order.

The Travelers won a last minute reprieve when the High Court issued a temporary injunction against forced removals of structures from the site.

After Wednesday’s ruling Basildon Council, the local authority, said it would not begin evictions before Monday.

Candy Sheridan of the Gypsy Council said the travelers would seek permission to appeal, though it was unclear whether it would be granted.

Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-high-cou...