Mława riot
| Mława riot | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of the Mława town centre
Location of fatal hit-and-run accident involving a Roma driver | |
| Damages | Homes of the Romani citizens of Mława |
The Mława riot, or Mława incident,[1] or Mława pogrom,[2] was a series of violent devastations and looting incidents on 26–27 June 1991 when a group of youth estimated at 200 individuals, including young females, invaded the homes of Roma residents of the Polish town of Mława causing them to flee.[1] Not a single Roma person was injured in the riot,[1] but the material losses were substantial affecting up to 40% of residences.[1] Many perpetrators were arrested on-site; a number of them sentenced to jail after a trial.[1] The violence was described as motivated by racism and jealousy.[3][4] The incident that triggered the riot was the killing of a Polish pedestrian struck along with his companion in a hit-and-run by a Romani male driver.[1]
Background
The immediate cause of the riot was a hit-and-run accident just before midnight on 23 June 1991 on the pedestrian crossing at Piłsudskiego and Zuzanny Morawskiej streets.[1] A speeding luxury car driven by seventeen-year-old Roman Packowski of Romani ethnicity hit and seriously injured two young pedestrians, killing one of them.[1] The driver fled the scene and hid from the police.[1] He was later convinced by the Roma elders to turn himself in.[1] Soon after the accident the local radio station informed that the driver had fled the scene. This claim was in fact true;[5] however, the driver fled after people who witnessed the accident already identified his vehicle.[6] For the next two days the driver and his car were hidden among the local Roma community.[1][5]
The accident victim who died from his injuries was then 21-year-old, Jaroslaw Pinczewski. The mayor of Mława, Adam Chmielinski informed that he died at the scene.[1] Other victim, 17-year old Katarzyna Zakrzewska, suffered permanent physical incapacitation.[7]
Riot
Two days later, some sixty Mława youths targeted and destroyed the house of a local Roma leader. The assailants quickly grew in number and began burning other Roma homes. Estimates put the number of participants in the violence from one hundred to two hundred.[8] Some Roma found protection at the local police station. Others hid at the homes of their Polish friends.[1] A total of 17 Roma houses were seriously damaged and further 4 houses and 9 apartments were vandalized, but no members of the Roma community were hurt. The crowd apparently targeted wealthier Roma and their estates.[citation needed] The crows shouted slogans such as "Poland for the Poles".[9] The police brought in additional forces and imposed a curfew.[10]
Afterwards, 21 persons were brought to court, and 17 were sentenced for up to 30 months in prison. [1]
Reaction
A former political dissident Adam Michnik writing in Gazeta Wyborcza castigated the police and political authorities for their alleged inaction. The paper also demanded 'official action against ethnic hatred'. As a result, a number of political parties and academic institutions belatedly condemned the pogrom.[11]
The eruption of ethnic violence at Mława in 1991 has been described as 'the renewal of anti-Gypsy racism in Poland' and is linked to a significant rise in Polish Roma asylum applications in the United Kingdom[12] and Sweden.[13]
However the fact the rioters selectively attacked only the wealthy Roma houses (called "belveders") supports the opinion that the riot was triggered by economic rather than nationalistic factors.[5]
The President of the Roma Society of Poland, Roman Kwiatkowski informed that the relations between the local Roma and their Polish neighbours twenty years after the fact are good.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Krzysztof Napierski (30 June 2011). "Mławski incydent dał nam doświadczenie na przyszłość" [The Mlawa incident gave us experience for the future] (reprint). Wywiad z Romanem Kwiatkowskim (Prezesem Stowarzyszenia Romów w Polsce) w "Głosie Mławy" (Interview with Roman Kwiatkowski, President of the Roma Society of Poland) for the "Voice of Mlawa" magazine. Stowarzyszenie Romow w Polsce (Roma Society of Poland, homepage). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ Emigh, Rebecca Jean; Szelényi, Iván (2001). Poverty, ethnicity, and gender in Eastern Europe during the market transition. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-0-275-96881-6. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
- ^ "Poles Vent Their Economic Rage on Gypsies". The New York Times. July 25, 1991. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
- ^ "Hooligans and the Neighbors' Cow". New York Times. July 29, 1991. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
- ^ a b c Anna Giza-Poleszczuk i Jan Poleszczuk, "Cyganie i Polacy w Mławie konflikt etniczny czy społeczny?" prepared for CBOS, Warszawa, December 1992, pages 24 to 29
- ^ Beata Klimkiewicz (7 December 1999), The pogrom in Mława, Poland: no media influence on justice. ERRC.org
- ^ Cahn, Claude (2002). Claude Cahn (ed.). Roma rights: race, justice, and strategies for equality. Sourcebook on contemporary controversies. IDEA. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-9702130-6-8. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
- ^ EU Accession Monitoring Program (2001). Monitoring the EU accession process: minority protection : country reports. Monitoring the EU accession process. Vol. 1. Budapest: Central European University Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-1-891385-19-3. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
- ^ "Poles Vent Their Economic Rage on Gypsies". New York Times. No. July 25, 1991.
- ^ Klimkiewicz, Beata (7 July 2004). "When the media make a difference: Comparing two European race crimes". European Roma Rights Centre. pp. The pogrom in Mlawa, Poland: no media influence on justice. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
- ^ Cahn (2002) p.120
- ^ Acton, Thomas Alan (1997). Gypsy politics and Traveller identity. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-900458-75-0. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
- ^ Drobizheva, L. M. (1996). Ethnic conflict in the post-Soviet world: case studies and analysis. Armenian Research Center collection. M.E. Sharpe. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-56324-740-8. Retrieved 2011-01-27.