Dokument #1186759
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Please find electronically attached to this
Response an undated Hungarian Ministry of Interior report on the
skinhead movement in Hungary, relations between police and the
Romani minority, programmes designed to recruit Romani police
officers and information on the investigation of police officers
for alleged misconduct towards Roma. The report was written by the
section of the Ministry of Interior responsible for the supervision
of the nation's police force. This report was provided to the
Research Directorate in March 1998 by the Press and Cultural
Affairs Consul at the Embassy of Hungary in Ottawa.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Attachment
Hungarian Ministry of Interior, Commission for the Protection of Public Order, Budapest. Electronic Attachment
Hungarian Ministry of Interior,
Commission for the Protection of Public Order, Budapest.
Nd. Material Compiled by the Commission for the Protection of
Public Order, the Organisational Unit of the Ministry of the
Interior that Controls and Supervises the Work of the Police.
Report provided to the Research Directorate by the Hungarian
Embassy in Ottawa. Translated by the Multilingual Translation
Directorate of the Department of Public Works and Government
Services Canada.
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5682218
Hungarian
Material compiled by the Commission for
the Protection of Public Order, the organizational unit of the
Ministry of the Interior that controls and supervises the work of
the police
1. In Hungary - according to police
information - there exists only one group worthy of mention that
operates on the ideological basis of racial discrimination. (I
emphasize police information because - pursuant to the National
Security Act - the investigation of crimes against the state, and
therefore the assembling of data concerning extremist groups, falls
within the scope of the National Security Office.)
In Hungary the skinhead movement emerged
at the beginning of the 1980's. At that time - on the Western
European model - music groups formed, the text of whose songs ran
to xenophobia and attacks against minorities. The ideology of the
skinheads clustering around these music groups was characterized by
the following:
- the expulsion of foreigners from the
country because they take employment opportunities and educational
opportunities away from citizens of the nation [sic].
- the segregation of the Gypsy
population because the majority of Gypsies are criminals and take
unfair advantage of the significant social assistance allocated to
them.
- opposition to the Jews because they
occupy high management positions and, constituting a powerful
community, they do not give "pure Hungarians" the opportunity to
obtain positions.
The skinheads are divided into groups of
20 to 30 persons. These [groups] are partly dissociated from one
another on an ideological basis. Most of them have embraced only
the second of the three elements mentioned above.
According to our information, their
membership nationwide is less than 4,000. The so-called "hard-core"
membership is less than 1,000.
A decisive majority of them belong to
the 15 to 25 age group.
They committed their first acts of
violence in 1988. The groups originated primarily in Budapest, but
bases were formed also in Szeged, Debrecen and Eger.
In 1990, in Eger and Miskolc, the
skinheads had altercations with the Gypsies. The movement reached
its apex in 1991 and 1992. (In 1991, for example, in Budapest,
criminal proceedings were instituted against 50 persons for crimes
of a racial nature.)
Since the beginning of the 1990's, they
have congregated around the National Welfare Alliance
(Népjóléti Szövetség), which
functions as a political party. The party has no chance of winning
a seat in [the Hungarian] Parliament.
In the last two years, infringements of
legal rights [involving] skinheads have been essentially thrust
into the background. This is attributable partly to the resolute
actions of the authorities and partly to the fact that crimes
motivated by racial discrimination are - because of amendments to
the Criminal Code - resulting in more severe penalties.
2. a)Beginning in 1995, the police
established relations - from the national level to the local police
district level - with the elected (self-governing) organizations of
the Romany minority and with other advocacy and legal-aid
organizations.
The police chiefs and the Gypsy leaders
hold discussions at least once every year concerning the
development of relations and concerning issues to be solved. The
police organs designated organizational units or persons
responsible for maintaining ongoing relations. The forms of
cooperation and its principal results are as follows:
- Representatives from the National
Police Headquarters and the National Gypsy Minority Self-governing
Body and also from the legal-aid organizations formed an
operational analysis group whose task is to explore possibilities
for improving the legality of criminal proceedings and to make
recommendations for their implementation.
At the initiative of the Gypsy
organizations, the director of the National Police Headquarters in
1996 prohibited the use in police communications of expressions -
referring to ethnicity, nationality, ethnic origin or citizenship -
that violate standards but were previously not prohibited.
- The minority protection program
initiated by the police in Nograd County can be mentioned as an
outstanding example of regional cooperation. Its objective is the
development of a relationship free from prejudice, in the interest
of cooperation, the prevention of conflicts and the joint solution
of problems.
- The Ministry of the Interior has
commissioned sociological assessments and scientific studies for
the purpose of determining whether prejudice exists and if it does,
what feeds it, and what measures must be taken in the interest of
making police activity free from prejudice.
- The most important lesson learned is
that police officers must be trained in how to treat minorities,
that the instruction with respect to human rights and minority
rights necessary for this must be intensified, and that materials
and a methodology for instruction in the history, culture,
lifestyle and customs of the Gypsies must be developed with the
participation of Romany intellectuals.
The first steps have already been
taken.
- At the Budapest Police Vocational
Secondary School, since the 1996/97 academic year, the level of
tolerance of the candidates toward differentness has been examined
as part of the entrance [screening] procedure.
- At the academy for senior police
officers, a special program of Romany studies has been
instituted.
- The first comprehensive portion of the
instructional materials - for use at the academy and at the
vocational secondary school - related to the handling by police of
minority matters, a collection of texts containing also the views
of civil organizations has been prepared.
- We have established relations also
with internationally known organizations that deal with the
handling by police of minority matters. In 1998, with the
assistance of the American government, the American foundation PER
(Project on Ethnic Relations) will begin the training of police
chiefs and instructors in accordance with the philosophy of
community-centred policing. The Partners Hungary Foundation
participated in the solving of several conflict situations and in
the program to promote cooperation between police chiefs and Gypsy
leaders.
- The police have established various
forms of assistance in the interest of replenishing their ranks
with an ever wider range of young people of Gypsy origin.
In this way, since the 1996/97 academic
year, the National Police Headquarters has announced scholarship
competitions on an experimental basis in four counties for
disadvantaged young people of Gypsy origin to provide assistance in
their secondary-school studies. This means every term a 25,000
[forint] clothing subsidy, coverage of tuition or meal expenses,
reimbursement of the cost of textbooks and a scholarship, in
exchange for which the youth is expected to attend police school
after completion of secondary school.
Likewise, since the 1996/97 academic
year, significant material assistance with a study contract has
been provided to police officers who declare themselves to be of
Gypsy origin for university training in law.
- The Ministry of the Interior and the
National Police Headquarters take great care in the investigation
of infringements of legal rights committed by police officers. In
1996, the Disciplinary Section of the National Police Headquarters,
within the scope of monitoring objectives, examined police conduct
that infringed legal rights in connection with members of the
Romany minority in police organizations where in the greatest
number of cases they lodged reports against police officers.
The monitoring did not encounter any
negative phenomenon that can be considered generalized, and it
could not be established that the police officers reported would
apply illegal methods or means more often in dealing with members
of the Romany minority than they would in dealing with
non-Romanies. Beginning in 1998 - the Office of the Chief Public
Prosecutor using the evaluations of the parliamentary commissioners
and the civil organizations - the examination will be conducted
every year by the Supervisory and Control Branch of the Ministry of
the Interior and the Disciplinary Section of the National Police
Headquarters.
b) It is not possible to speak of police
violence toward the Romany minority in general, because in Hungary
no records are maintained concerning racial origin with respect
either to those who commit the crimes or to the aggrieved parties,
and on the basis of the principle of free choice of identity, only
persons who declare themselves to be Gypsy or of any other
nationality can be legally classified as such.
On the basis of the above as well, we do
not have at our disposal data concerning how many of the crimes
committed by police officers were committed against members of the
Gypsy minority.
According to statistics published by the
Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor concerning the commission of
crimes by the police, it can be established that during the past
five years the number of police officers who committed crimes in
the course of their duties constituted between 195 and 295. In
1997, of the total number of police officers who committed crimes
in the course of their duties, 112 were convicted of breach of
trust, 100 of assault occurring during the exercise of their
official duties, 52 of coercive questioning and 31 for unlawful
detention. The number of known police offenders, except for [those
convicted of] the crime of assault occurring during the exercise of
[their] official duties, has increased in comparison with the data
for 1996.
It is possible to obtain information
concerning infringements of legal rights committed by the police
against members of the Gypsy minority from the proceedings of the
ombudsman for minorities.
- From the establishment of the office
of the parliamentary commissioner for national and ethnic minority
rights - according to data contained in report before Parliament in
1997 - 51 cases out of 432 complaints received from September 1,
1995, until December 31, 1996, involved the police. (Members of the
Gypsy minority accounted on average for 68% of the reports.)
A publication containing observations
made between June 1 and August 20, 1995, by Human Rights
Watch/Helsinki, among the non-government organs that deal with the
protection of human rights, mentions cases in which police officers
behaved toward Romanies in a way that infringed [their] legal
rights. For example, in …Örkény [Hungary],
[in]1993. (The office of the attorney general of the county
discontinued the investigation against the police officers, whereas
proceedings were instituted against eight Romanies, of whom six
were sentenced to prison terms in [a court of] second instance as
well.) The National and Ethnic Minority Legal-aid Office (NEKI)
protested the decision and announced that it would bring the case
before the Supreme Court.)
The so-called White Books published
every year by the National and Ethnic Minority Legal-aid Office
present specific cases and the proceedings related to them. For
example, in the "Benzidine Case" in ƒrsekvadkert [Hungary],
the Investigation Office of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of
Nograd County discontinued the proceedings - instituted because of
coercive questioning and other crimes - because no crime was
committed, and the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the City of
Salgótarján [Hungary] dismissed as unfounded a
complaint lodged by counsel against the decision at first instance.
The National and Ethnic Minority Legal-aid Office referred the case
to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.