Carlene Wilson
Mario Bango is 21 years old. Since March 2001 he has been locked up in a Slovak prison. Mario is a Roma, one of a substantial ethnic minority spread across Eastern Europe. His crime? When he was 18, Bango defended his younger brother Edo from attack by a neo-Nazi.
The neo-Nazi attacked from behind, and Bango fought back. The neo-Nazi died from injuries sustained during the incident.
Despite the fact that the young men were attacked first, Bango has been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment in November — a theft of his youth. More than 20 Roma have been killed in similar attacks in the last 15 years and hundreds more have been injured and intimidated. Attacks by racist thugs are a fact of life for so many Roma that most are forced to carry weapons for self-defence.
Not long before the attack that has ended with Mario's imprisonment, Edo had been hospitalised by a neo-Nazi and Mario himself had been injured. It's no surprise that this time he fought back.
But the racism that led to these attacks has to be put into the context of the situation for Roma in Slovakia as a whole.
Roma, derogatorily known as gypsies, have lived in Eastern Europe since about 1300. They have a distinct language, Romanes, and cultural heritage. They have always been a substantial oppressed minority. One and a half million Roma died in the Nazi death camps. They were persecuted in the Stalinist states, denied the right to use their language and to be seen as a separate ethnic group.
Today, the Roma remain the poorest section of the population in the countries in which they live. In Slovakia, the official unemployment figures among Roma are 80%. But in many towns and villages, the real figure is closer to 100%. People live in crowded shanty towns on the outskirts of the larger centres, often with no electricity and no heating.
The effects are dramatic. According to a World Bank study, the number of people living below the official poverty line is four or five times higher among the Roma than in the rest of the country. In Slovakia, life expectancy for Roma men is 55, for women it is 59. This means that they die, on average, 12 and 15 years earlier than the majority of the Slovak people. Between 30-45% of all the unemployed in Slovakia are Roma. According to the same study, Roma form 8.8% of the people, but 31.6% of those who live below the poverty line.
In school, Romanes is not used and, therefore, the educational development of most Roma children is restricted. To this one must add the open hostility from reactionary teachers and even many of the other children. It is no surprise that their progress in the school system lags behind their "white" classmates. Many Roma still have to go to so-called "special schools" — schools for children with learning difficulties. In the Czech Republic, there are around 3% Roma in the whole population, but they constitute 70-75% of all children in special schools.
Slovakia has just joined the European Union. This move has been accompanied by a big racist campaign in countries like Britain, scaremongering about the possibility of further Roma immigration. While this propaganda campaign is a worry, the racism in Slovakia is the most immediate danger for Roma.
Mario Bango's case highlights some of this racism. Nationalist politicians, the press, and the growing fascist movement in Slovakia have targeted the Roma people with deadly results. Racist talk breeds racist attack. Now Mario's case has been turned into a racist cause celebre against the Roma, with a media campaign condemning the "gypsy" Mario and sympathising with the deceased "patriotic and honourable citizen" — in the Slovak parliament there was even a minute of silence for the dead Nazi! In these sort of conditions it was never going to be easy for Mario to get a fair trial in Slovakia. The results, in a case where it was clearly self-defence, speak for themselves. Mario explains the situation: "Three years ago my brother was attacked by the notorious skinhead Branislav Slamka. When I tried to help my brother, a struggle began. The neo-Nazi fell on the ground and got a serious head injury. I immediately called the police and an ambulance. Then I was arrested on the spot. Several weeks later Slamka died from a medical error: The doctors had overlooked a blood clot in his brain. I was kept in prison until the trial began." Mario has not received anything like justice from the Slovakian state. In fact his case has been used in the media to whip up further racism against Roma. There are clear grounds for appeal because of the political nature of the case.
In a recent interview with the League for the Fifth International, Mario explained: "The judgement is clearly politically motivated. The judge made no secret of his prejudice against me. It was characteristic of the whole trial that the relatives of Slamka were represented by Robert Fico, chairman of the racist and right-populist party Smer. The sentence — 12 years imprisonment — is absurd. I defended my brother against an attack." There is an international campaign to build solidarity for Mario and to work for his freedom. So far it has helped to boost his morale and has also made a real difference to his life in jail. Mario says: "It is not exactly easy [being in prison]. In the beginning, prison guards who sympathise with the neo-Nazis threatened to make my life a living hell. That changed as a result of pressure from the international solidarity campaign. Since then I have been left alone. The worst part is that I can only see visitors for less than one hour per month and only receive one package every three months." With the avenues for appeal within Slovakia exhausted, the international solidarity campaign for Mario is having to look to legal possibilities in Europe. This is a long and costly process but a pressing need — not just to free one individual but to raise the constant struggle against racism and oppression that is the daily lot for most Roma.
[Carlene Wilson is a member of Workers Power and the Socialist Alliance national executive.]
How to help
Pass motions of protest and support in your union and use media contacts to spread the word about Mario Bango.
Send protest emails to the Justice department of the Slovak government.
Slovak authorites:
Slovak president Rudolph Schuster
Kancelaria prezidenta SR
Stefanikova 14
814 38 Bratislava
phone: 00421-7-5441 6624
email: <tlacove@justice.gov.sk>
Ministry of Justice
Ministerstvo spravodlivosti SR
Zupne namestie 13
813 11 Bratislava
phone: 00421-7-5935 3497
fax: 00421-7-5443 0467
email: tlacove@justice.gov.sk
The Government
Urad vlady SR
Namestie Slobody 1
813 70 Bratislava
phone: 00421-7-5729 5111
fax: 00421-7-5249 7595
Write to Mario
Mario Bango,
nar. 8. 6. 1982
stavna vy kon v„zby
priecinok 1077
°ä³ó´Ç°ù±¹²¹³Ù²õ°ìÌý5
812 29 Bratislava
Slovensko/Slovakia
Visit the campaign website for more information and for downloads of stickers, postcards and other campaigning materials — .
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 19, 2004.
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