press release
| publié le 14 November 2005 |
Ali Berisha. A citizen like many others. A Roma. Until 1992, he had led a normal life in Slovenia, having a job and permanent residence, as well as civil and political rights. However, in 1992, he was - like tens of thousands of other persons living in Slovenia - erased from the Register of permanent residents of the Republic of Slovenia. This illegal and unconstitutional deed was carried out in complete secrecy, as neither the Slovene nor the European publics were informed about it.
Over a night, more than 18,000 persons lost legal grounds for their personal existence, work, homes, access to sanitation, and well- earned pensions. Many of them, like Ali Berisha, were deported from the country and thus separated from their loved ones, family members, and other relatives.
Ever since 1992, these persons have been wandering around Slovenia as ghosts, as phantoms, like many individuals around Europe, which was faced with a similar situation in 1930s. They are not recognised by Slovenia; Europe will not hear about them. Ali Berisha, his wife Mahi, and their four children, do not exist.
Ali Berisha and his family are at present placed in the Ljubljana- based Centre for Asylum Seekers -a few years ago still a Slovene citizen enjoying all the pertaining rights, Ali Berisha is now asking for an asylum in the same country!
They have already received a notice about their forced deportation to Munich, due on Friday, 18 November at 5.15 a.m. - against their will. Further, German authorities will in a matter of hours deport him to Kosovo, where as Roma, they will be exposed to threats endangering their lives on daily basis.
By deporting the Berisha family, Slovene authorities will not only deliberately violate human rights; in addition, they will once more act against the ruling of the Slovene Constitutional Court establishing that the «erased» must not be deported from the country. As such, the German authorities will act as accomplices, as they are taking part in the operation of ethnic cleansing that acted as the key element of the erasure.
Slovene authorities, in co-operation with the German ones, are planning to deport this person on Friday; a Roma person, that once had a home, job, and permanent residence in Slovenia, and who still has his brother living in Maribor with a Slovene citizenship.
The prosecution of Ali Berisha and his family is no longer merely a Slovene problem. Such systematic violation of human rights taking place in Slovenia, a member of the European Union, is at the same time a threat to the European democracy as a whole.
Associations and movements, non-governmental organisations, as well as individuals from various parts of Europe, we are determined in our opposition to such illegal and violent treatment of the «erased», and are planning to prevent deportation of Ali Berisha and his family from Slovenia.
We are inviting you to a press conference taking place on Monday, 14 November 2005, at 11 o’clock, in KUD France Prešeren, Karunova 14, Ljubljana.
Participants at the press conference:
– Maurizio Gressi - Committee for Human Rights’ Promotion and Protection (Comitato per la promozione e protezione dei diritti umani), Rome, Italy
– Nataša Posel - Amnesty International, Ljubljana, Slovenia
– Aleksandar Todorović - Civilian Initiative of Erased Activists (Civilna iniciativa izbrisanih aktivistov), Slovenia
– Roberto Pignoni - Karaula MiR
– Sandro Mezzadra - University of Bologna (Universita di Bologna), Italy
– Ali Berisha and his family
– Mirovni Inštitut Slovenija, Društvo Matafir, Galaksija Njetwork,
– Dost je, INRI - Info Reakcija Izbrisanih, Politični laboratorij
