Covering events from January - December 2004

There were reports that police ill-treated Roma and inadequately protected them from racist violence. One man died in suspicious circumstances. People with mental disabilities in psychiatric hospitals continued to be placed in cage beds, an inhuman and degrading method of restraint.

Roma

In February protests by members of the Roma minority in Eastern Slovakia, which were reportedly sparked off by changes in the social welfare policy, escalated in some instances into rioting and looting. In some cases police officers resorted to excessive use of force, verbal racist abuse and other deliberate acts of ill-treatment. Many of those arrested were not allowed to contact their family, a lawyer or anyone else, and were denied access to a doctor of their choice. Three women held in pre-trial detention reportedly had their hair cut off against their wishes.

  • On 24 February police reportedly intimidated and harassed members of the Romani community in Trebišov. According to the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and the Center for Roma Rights in Slovakia (CRRS), around 250 police officers went to the town in the early hours purportedly to arrest people suspected of theft, destruction of property and assaulting police in disturbances that had taken place in Trebišov the previous evening. In the next few hours, according to reports, police officers indiscriminately entered Romani homes without presenting search warrants and beat men, women and children with truncheons, prodded them with electric batons, and kicked and otherwise physically assaulted them irrespective of their age or health. Some of the officers reportedly addressed racist insults to the victims. At least 26 people were taken into custody, where they were said to have been beaten and subjected to degrading treatment.

The body of Radoslav Puky was found on 7 March in the Ondava river close to the Romani settlement. He had last been seen fleeing police officers on the day of the police action in Trebišov. An autopsy report reportedly established that he had died as a result of violence, not drowning. The results of an investigation had not been made public by the end of the year.

There were reports that Roma were not effectively protected from racist violence. Some incidents were said to have been organized by local authorities who engaged private security guards to beat and intimidate Romani families in order to force them to move to another community.

  • In July, Štefan and Olga Šarkozi, whose house in Záhorská Ves village had been burned down by a racist mob in December 2003, were reportedly ordered to leave their land and the village immediately by the local mayor, according to the League of Human Rights Advocates, a local human rights organization. The mayor later returned with four security guards who had baseball bats and assaulted Štefan Šarkozi, members of his family and Marián Rehák. In the evening, the Šarkozis took refuge under a bridge. The mayor reportedly arrived in the night with security guards and again assaulted the family. Štefan Šarkozi sustained a broken arm, his daughter Oľga suffered injuries to her legs, his son Jozef injuries to his face and chest, and his youngest daughter Adriana was thrown into the river. The incidents were reported to the Malacky District Police Department and the Ministry of the Interior in Bratislava, which reportedly initiated an investigation. In September, following the Šarkozis' refusal to sell their land, the police and private security guards demolished a shack built by the family and damaged or destroyed their belongings.

Reports on racism

A report published in January by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) expressed concern about racially motivated violence, including police ill-treatment, and said that the Roma minority "remains severely disadvantaged in most areas of life, particularly in the fields of housing, employment and education."

A report published in August by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about racially motivated crimes and incidents, and about police ill-treatment of Roma and other minority groups.

Use of cage beds in psychiatric hospitals

In January the National Council (parliament) amended the Social Aid Act in order to prohibit the use of physical and non-physical means of restraint in social services facilities for people with mental disabilities. The prohibition did not apply to hospitals and other establishments under the control of the Ministry of Health. A Ministry of Health official reportedly stated that the Ministry had no plans to deal with cage beds. A television programme filmed in September by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a psychiatric hospital in Sokolovce showed eight patients held in cage beds. One of them had been restrained in this manner for about five weeks and the staff were unable to explain why the patient had sores and bruises.

The authorities failed to introduce the much-needed comprehensive reform of the mental health care system, which would include the setting up of community-based alternatives to residential care in psychiatric and social care institutions.

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