Several hundred members of Roma NGOs, political parties and Roma Minority National Council gathered last Saturday, September 4, at the Park of the Pioneers in Belgrade, joining similar protests against French Government's policies towards the Roma population that were held in Paris, Vienna, Rome and Budapest.

President of Serbia Boris Tadić and Ombudsman Saša Janković visited the village of Jabuka, near Pančevo on August 2, St. Elijah Day, the patron-saint day in Jabuka, where they appealed the citizens for more tolerance after the recent ethnic violence in the village.

Numerous civil associations and nongovernmental organisations from Serbia reacted over the past week with demands to pacify the situation in the village of Jabuka, near Pančevo, where the local Roma community has been exposed to days of intimidation and attacks by the locals seeking revenge for the murder of a young man of non-Roma background.

The first conference of the Association of Young Roma of Serbia (UMRS) concluded that the work with young Roma will be a priority for the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights to ensure that they would become active contributing members of the society and join the work of the national council and political parties.

On Thursday, April 8, the International Day of the Roma was marked all over the world. Once again, we got reminded, as it usually happens, of the appalling social status and poverty of the majority of Roma population in the world and the Balkans, the discrimination they face in education, employment, the society in general.

Denis Kajić, member of owpsee team, writes about the worrying tendency to treat victims of all sorts of abuse and discrimination not with solidarity and understanding, but with further condemnation and ostracism by the public and society, especially if political, religious and social dignitaries and elders are implied in “the given case”.

Two projects for improved quality of living for Roma and other socially vulnerable groups, financed with 8 million Euro from EU pre-accession funds, will start in Serbia, announced Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić yesterday.

Đelić chaired the session of the Council for Improvement of Status of Roma and announced the start of the “Education for All” and “Social Inclusion” projects.