ROMA ROMANIA GYPSY

They are Roma. They are Gypsy. At over 2 million they make up about ten percent of Romania’s population. They are one of Europe’s largest and most oppressed minorities. Under Ceausescu’s communism, Roma carts were confiscated, houses bulldozed and communities forced into ghettos alongside towns and villages. Ceausescu himself simply refused to acknowledge the Gypsies existence. After the revolution of 1989 and Ceausescu’s downfall persecution of the Roma still remained. The Gypsies still found themselves the target of mob violence and although there were a number of Roma killed and many houses burned down police turned a blind eye.