The Roma Civic Alliance asks the minister of foreign affairs to request the Italian authorities to publish information about the investigation they conducted on the events from August 2007 in a Roma camp from Livorno, resulting in the death of four Roma children in a fire.
“On September 14th we commemorated one year from the burial of the four Roma children who died on the night of 10th to 11th of August 2007 in a fire that started in a camp from the outskirts of Livorno, Italy. Several days after, the fire was claimed by an extremist Italian group called the “Armed Group for Ethnic Cleansing”, states Iulian Stoina, executive director of the Roma Civic Alliance Romania (ACCR), at the beginning of the letter sent to Lazar Comanescu, minister of foreign affairs, quoted by Mediafax.
The letter indicates that, although the investigations conducted by the Italian police lasted approximately one month, causing the children to be buried on September 14th, the year that passed since the “tragic event” didn’t bring any official answers for the Roma civil society with regard to the results of the investigation led by the Italian authorities.
“Moreover, the activities and the attitude of the Italian authorities so far indicate a higher interest in following and chasing the Roma from the country than for bringing to justice the ones guilty for the killing of the four children. Now, a year after the funerals of the four Roma children, we request that the institution you run asks for and publishes the information about the results and status of the investigation on revealing the people responsible for this incident", reads the letter.
The Roma Civic Alliance from Romania asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “to get actively involved in solving this tragic case”.
On the night from the 10th to the 11th of August 2007, four Roma children died in a fire that started in an improvised camp located under a portion of a highway from the industrial area of Livorno. Their parents were arrested by the Italian authorities for neglect of minors and for not providing assistance in emergency situations, but they claim to be innocent. The authorities try to decide whether the fire was caused by an accident or by a criminal act.
The extremist group GAPE (the Armed Group for Ethnic Cleansing) sent a letter to the Italian publications Il Tirreno and La Nazione, claiming responsibility for the incident on the 11th of August and threatening with similar events in case the Roma don’t leave the Italian territory. (DIVERS – www.divers.ro)