| SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE In a letter to Didier Paillard, Mayor of Paris suburb of St. Denis, Dr. Shimon Samuels, Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, noted, “A shantytown, Hanul, in yourcity St-Denis, that has been home to over 150 Roma Gypsies for the last ten years, is to be demolished and the residents forcibly removed. With so many Parisians on vacation, thedeportation is expected to go by with muted public and media reaction.” The letter continued, “As Mayor for the last two years and a City Counsellor in preceding years, you are well aware of the miserable conditions in Hanul,” ... and, “as aCommunist Party leader in a city known for its anti-Nazi resistance under Vichy, you are surely aware of the deportation of Roma to the death camps, even from France.” The Centre urged the Mayor “to condemn, and use your authority to call off a neo-fascist-style ethnic cleansing brewing in your city and provide police protection to the Romatargetted.” “Join our campaign to ‘kick out racism’ before the end of the World Cup Final this week,” concluded Samuels. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. Itis an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino). For further information contact Shimon Samuels on 0033(0)609770158 |
Wiesenthal Centre to European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner: "EU Engagement in the Durban Process only Endorses States Whose Policies Evoke Racism
December 8, 2008
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE 66 rue Laugier - 75017 Paris Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401 e-mail: csweurope@gmail.com