Threatening Phone Calls: Head And Shoulders

Roma Community Dept: Jozsef tells me about the evening he tried to protect Timea and the baby from four black-clad, bat-wielding thugs who had followed him home from Mohacsi s offices. They piled out of a jeep, shouting that they would kill us. They hit me over the head and shoulders. I was on the ground. They grabbed Timea by the hair. They were yelling at her that she was dead. I threw myself over the baby, according to The Star. Jozsef, Timea and Mohacsi are all Roma. Roma in Hungary, Jozsef says, learn to live with a certain amount of abuse. There is open talk of gypsy criminals. One of the parties now in parliament talked of dealing with gypsy crime as part of its election platform. The paramilitary G rda stage marches near Roma areas of the country and, while the government has banned the formal G rda, its members and followers continue to march and jozsef and Timea live in a sparsely furnished apartment in Toronto s Thorncliffe Park. The central feature of their living room is a pink toy house with white balconies and a few tiny people, none of whom seem to interest the shy 3-year-old who is flicking through a book while watching children s television. Jozsef used to work for Viktoria Mohacsi , former Hungarian member of the European Union Parliament. Timea worked in the human rights sector. They had a reasonably comfortable life in Budapest. Yet in September 2009 the small family left their home as refugees. They felt they had to escape. None of this was totally unexpected, Jozsef continues. There had been a lot of threatening phone calls but the ferocity of the attack and my sense of helplessness stunned me. He knew Mohacsi needed constant protection as the recipient of the 2009 Women of Courage Award in recognition of her extraordinary contributions in defence of human and civil rights of the Roma community all over Europe. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.