Hindus blame European Union for allowing continuous maltreatment of Roma in France

Nevada (US), Aug 19 (ANI): Hindus have blamed European Union (EU) and its various institutions for allowing French President Nicolas Sarkozy to continue with his reported maltreatment of Roma (Gypsy) communities, which smelled of xenophobia, racism, and intolerance.

According to reports, after dismantling 51 Roma settlements and making families homeless, France is starting Roma deportations from Thursday. Sarkozy has announced to dismantle 300 Roma camps.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was really shocking to witness EU practically looking the other way when France and various other European countries were expelling the helpless Roma. It was simply inhuman, and what was even more depressing that it was happening in full view of EU and its high sounding institutions. Sadly, even the religious elite of Europe was reportedly silent on this unjust crackdown of voiceless Roma.

Was unleashing repression on downtrodden Roma, instead of social inclusion and rehabilitation, the goal of high-profile "Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015", Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, asked. Politicians of Europe should not be allowed to criminalize the entire ethnic groups just to boost their public ratings, he added.

Rajan Zed urged Sarkozy to show some maturity as tearing down Roma settlements and deporting them would neither solve the problems of France and nor help integrate Roma. How much impact few thousand Roma could have on crime in the over 62 million population of France, he asked.

Besides France, there were also reports of Roma deportations (or plans to deport) from Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, United Kingdom, etc.; despite their being Europeans. It was even more disgusting to know that tens of thousands of European Roma were still reportedly stateless, thus denying them even basic human rights, Zed argued. (ANI)