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Roma teenager in coma after being attacked by residents of French estate Roma teenager in coma after being attacked by residents of French estate
(about 3 hours later)
A Roma teenager is in a coma in hospital after being attacked by angry residents of a French housing estate who accused him of breaking into an apartment.A Roma teenager is in a coma in hospital after being attacked by angry residents of a French housing estate who accused him of breaking into an apartment.
The 16-year-old was found badly beaten in a supermarket trolley where he had been left near the nationale 1 motorway in the Seine-Saint-Denis area late on Friday. The 16-year-old was found badly beaten in a supermarket trolley where he had been left near the nationale 1 motorway in the Seine-Saint-Denis area near Paris late on Friday.
Anti-racism organisations say there is a disturbing increase in violence against Roma and called on the authorities to condemn the attacks. The youth, named only as Darius, suffered multiple head injuries and has been placed in an artificial coma by doctors.
The European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement (Egam) president, Benjamin Abtan, said: "There are racist insults and attacks against the Roma that are being used with increasing frequency. We are waiting for a radical change in the way this is being addressed and an extremely clear condemnation of the violence." Police say he was dragged out of his unofficial camp by a dozen locals, who accused him of breaking into a nearby flat earlier on Friday. The group took the youngster to a cellar and beat him.
The French president, François Hollande, called the attack "unspeakable and unjustifiable". In a statement he said: "All efforts should be made to find the perpetrators of this attack." "A group of several people went to find him in the camp and took him by force," a police officer told Le Monde.
According to police, the latest victim was dragged out of his unofficial camp by a dozen locals, who accused him of breaking into a nearby flat earlier on Friday. The group took the youngster to a cellar and beat him. "A group of several people went to find him in the camp and took him by force," a police officer told Le Monde. The teenager's mother alerted the police, who found him severely injured and unconscious shortly before midnight. The victim was taken to hospital where his condition is said to be critical.
The teenager's mother alerted the police, who found him severely injured and unconscious shortly before midnight. The victim was taken to hospital where his condition is said to be critical. He had reportedly been put in a medically induced coma because he was in so much pain. Police say while the teenager was known to them and had been linked with a number of thefts, break-ins and for driving without a licence, he had not been convicted of any crime.
Police said the youth was known to them, while the local mayor, Michel Fourcade, said the victim had been arrested several times in the previous fortnight after a number of cars in the area were broken into. They have interviewed a number of witnesses and are examining CCTV images. The youth was reportedly pushed into a Renault Clio around 5.30pm on Friday by a group of armed men.
SOS Racism said the attack on the boy was caused by an "alarming" change in attitudes towards Roma, which it added was "the clear result of the disgusting tensions into which our citizens have been plunged". A police source suggested there were four kidnappers, but a Romanian garage owner situated opposite the Roma camp said his wife had warned him a group of a dozen hooded youngsters were causing trouble, according to Le Monde. A few hours later, Darius's mother received a call made from her son's mobile telephone allegedly demanding a €15,000 ransom for the youth's safe return.
In February, the case against a 40-year-old man accused of throwing a mixture of bleach and cleaning fluid at Roma living near the Place de la République in central Paris was dismissed by a French judge for lack of evidence. The French president, François Hollande, said the attack was "unspeakable and unjustifiable … and against all the principles on which our Republic is founded."
In May 2013 several Gypsy families were attacked at a campsite in the north of France, and in October 2012 locals drove a group Roma out of an improvised encampment and burned everything that remained. The locals had warned police they would be taking action against the 35 Roma. Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, also strongly condemned the attack. "I remind people that it is exclusively up to [public] security forces to ensure public order. The police have been mobilised to rapidly shed light on this affair, arrest the culprits and bring them to court."
Last year the EU warned France it could face sanctions over the treatment of its Roma community after the then interior minister, Manuel Valls, now prime minister, suggested the majority should be deported and that France was "not here to welcome these populations". The prime minister, Manuel Valls, said it was an "unacceptable act" .
Geneviève Garrigos, president of Amnesty International France, said: "Political men and women must not minimise nor excuse this kind of intolerable act, but heavily condemn it."
Anti-racism organisations say there is a disturbing increase in violence against Roma. SOS Racism said the attack was caused by an alarming change in attitudes towards Roma, which it added was "the clear result of the disgusting tensions into which our citizens have been plunged".
In February the case against a 40-year-old man accused of throwing a mixture of bleach and cleaning fluid at Roma living near the Place de la République in central Paris was dismissed by a judge for lack of evidence.
In May 2013 several Gypsy families were attacked at a campsite in the north of France, and in October 2012 locals drove a group of Roma out of an improvised encampment and burned everything that remained. Local people had warned police they would be taking action against the 35 Roma.
Last year the EU warned France it could face sanctions over the treatment of its Roma community Valls, who was then interior minister, suggested the majority should be deported and that France was "not here to welcome these populations".
The European commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said that Roma, like all EU citizens, had "the freedom to circulate freely in all member states of the EU and to live in a country other than their country of origin".The European commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said that Roma, like all EU citizens, had "the freedom to circulate freely in all member states of the EU and to live in a country other than their country of origin".
The European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement (Egam) president, Benjamin Abtan, said: "There are racist insults and attacks against the Roma that are being used with increasing frequency. We are waiting for a radical change in the way this is being addressed and an extremely clear condemnation of the violence."