The Centre for Development of Civil Society sent an open letter to Svetozar Čiplić, Serbian minister of human and minority rights, protesting the fact that the Roma settlement in Novi Beograd was fenced off last week, at the time when Serbia transfers the presidency of the Roma Inclusion Decade 2005-2015 to Slovakia.

CDCS says that the wire fence prevents the access of trucks that transport old cardboard and paper, which Roma from Novi Beograd collect and sell to earn a living.

“The efforts the Ministry invests to secure assistance in food for the Roma give us hope that you will not allow for the Serbian presidency of the Roma Inclusion Decade to end on such a shameful note", says the open letter.

CDCS adds there was an evident plan to remove the Roma and their settlements from the view of the participants and visitors of the Belgrade University Games 2009, commenting that such type of urban make-up is illegal, threatening already low living standards for the great majority of Roma in Novi Beograd and is a ridicule of the aims and goals of the Roma Decade.

“We appeal to you, as the head of the competent body, to intervene with the Secretariat of Social Welfare both directly and through the Commission for relocation of sub-standard settlements, and to revoke the inhuman measures before the meeting of the International Management Board of the Roma Decade. Otherwise, we will all be ashamed in our ambivalence", says CDCS.

The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights announced that Serbia will transfer the presidency of the Roma Decade on June 25-26, at a meeting of the International Board, which will be chared by Luan Koka, head of the Office for Implementation of National Strategy for the Roma.