The shameful mass internment of gypsies in camps across France between 1940 and 1946 remained a largely forgotten wartime episode until it finally received official recognition three years ago. Later this month, as part of that process, a ceremony will take place in homage to those who were placed in one of the camps, at Moisdon-la-Rivière in north-west France, where some died from the dire conditions. Pierre-Yves Bulteau traces the history of the persecution, and interviews survivors and witnesses of the horrors at the camp for "nomads" at Moisdon-la-Rivière.
A pregnant young Roma mother has been jailed for a year in Nice after being convicted of mistreating her children on the Mediterranean city's streets. Human rights and Roma groups see a worrying link between the woman's arrest and conviction and a campaign by the right-wing mayor Christian Estrosi to clean up the city's streets for the tourist season, and claim the authorities have sought to make an example of her. Louise Fessard reports.
Christian Leclerc, the mayor of Champlan near Paris who provoked a media storm last weekend when he refused to allow a Roma baby to be buried in his town, has form when it comes to antipathy towards the community. Since the controversy Leclerc has sought to portray himself as a victim of the media and political opponents and claims he has been misrepresented. But Mediapart has got hold of a recording of a recent council meeting in which the mayor denigrated the Roma people in his area. He also wrote a letter to local residents in which he fuelled their fears over a suspected case of tuberculosis. Carine Fouteau and Ellen Salvi report.
A 16 year-old Roma boy beaten unconscious by a lynch mob on a sink estate in the Paris suburbs remained in a coma in a Paris hospital on Wednesday, when doctors said he was uncertain to survive the multiple injuries he sustained. Suffering notably from severe fractures to his skull, the teenager was found dumped unconscious in a supermarket trolley beside a main road after the mob of masked individuals kidnapped him from the makeshift camp (pictured) his family and other Roma were living in. Carine Fouteau reports from the run-down housing estate, where she found few people among its multi-ethnic population prepared to openly condemn the horrific events.
A video obtained by Mediapart shows three police officers removing a mattress from members of a Roma family who are living rough on a Paris street. The incident passed off without incident or even raised voices, either from the family or the officers. Indeed, the episode happened so quickly and so calmly that many passers-by walked on with barely a second glance. But as Carine Fouteau reports, with no clear legitimate reason to take the mattress, the officers are perilously close to being guilty of theft. The incident, which took place at a time when the police in a nearby district were being instructed to “evict” Roma people “systematically”, highlights what some call the regular “harassment” endured by such families.
