The Caucasian Knot (in Russian):
Answering the correspondent’s questions about the interethnic conflict in Ilovlya, Stefania Kulaeva, expert of Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial , focused the journalist’s attention on a quote from an article by the Caucasian Knot, where a local resident says: “The situation of Roma is the same as the situation of any other peoples here”.
“Conflicts happen – and it seems that in this conflict everything could have been quite simple, since there was, apparently, a property dispute (the head of the district said something about the “boundary”), which could and should have been resolved peacefully, at least with the help of the police (if it came to that before the fight), but without involving anyone except the directly conflicting neighbors. But the one who considered himself the victim made his conflict public, apparently emphasizing the nationality of the aggressive neighbors, according to him,” the expert said.
Stefania Kulaeva cited as an example the conflict in Chemodanovka, Penza region, which, according to her, began in the same way as in Ilovlya.
“Everything turned out very badly there (in Chemodanovka) – a private accusation suddenly becomes a collective one, there were people’s gatherings with racist speeches, threats of pogroms, fights, harassment. Something similar could have happened in the Volgograd region, some kind of nationalist mobilization began there in the summer. Here, the Ilovlya administration clearly tried to act more carefully, emphasizing that it was not about the nationality. At the same time, attempts were made to take a systematic approach, issues of community integration were raised, and dialogue on various issues was established,” Stefania said.
Kulayeva noted the position of officials in the field of school education, whose insistent demands to representatives of the Roma community to organize the education of children in secondary school should be welcomed. “It seems, however, a typical mistake of such gatherings to try to get the community to submit to a single leader, as these officials say, “authority.” The law cannot be applied collectively – everyone is responsible for him/herself, not for the “people”, the community etc. If a family does not deliver a child to school, then measures should be taken to the parents of this child, the legal representatives, and not to “authorities (community leaders)”. If there are many such families, we will have to send social workers to each family, apply fines if they continue to fail to fulfill parental obligations,” the expert said.
According to Kulaeva, the problem of offenses (like drunk driving, aggressive behavior, etc.) cannot be solved at the level of communication between officials and “community leaders”. Violators should be held accountable (by proving guilt), “and not the entire community.” The officials, according to Kulayeva, “are trying to get them to name the leader (“let there be two, three”), and want to deal with him.”
“I have repeatedly tried to object to representatives of local authorities in such situations. If someone Ivanov does not pay for the electricity on some street where ordinary locals live, will you turn off the entire street or just his house? And if he does not take the child to school, should the “leader” of the street be called for responsibility? And if he got into a fight, is the street committee responsible or Ivanov? For some reason, they understand about the street with Ivanov, but not about the Roma community,” the expert noted.
As for early marriages, the best way out, according to Stefania, is to achieve a full secondary education, since, according to her, “there is an obvious connection — where children from traditional communities study in high school, marriages are not so early there.”
“The authorities are obliged to demand from Roma parents that their children receive a school minimum – in the Russian Federation this is a full secondary school. Early marriage is an unacceptable harmful traditional practice, no “customs” should be above the rights of children,” Stefania Kulaeva believes.
The expert explained that children do not study not only because of their parents. From the first glance, the calls to teach children in Ilovlya sound good, but has everything been done in schools in order these children can actually study after the fourth grade? – she asked the district authorities a question.
“In my experience, Roma families often want to teach children, but obstacles are created to this. Children in primary schools are very poorly taught, placed in separate “Gypsy” classes where educational standards are not met. When going to secondary school, children from Roma settlements are not prepared to study on an equal basis with others, they can’t overcome difficulties and gaps, which is demotivating – and sometimes they just don’t get into the fifth grade,” Stefania said. She gave as well positive examples. Thus, in Penza, in one of the schools, the management made efforts to ensure that children could study in higher classes. Roma children studied there up to the 9th-11th grade, “although their parents were illiterate.”
“In places like this example in Penza, the problem of early marriages was far from as acute as in those villages where children were not taken to secondary school. As for conflicts, of course, the best option is when domestic conflicts are resolved without expanding them, without accusing whole “peoples” or “communities”. It is clear that the story of the boundary between two neighbours is not a reason to raise the issue of eviction of people on a national basis. If a domestic conflict gives someone (often local nationalists) the opportunity to spread discord, this should be prevented, and innocent people should be protected. Unfortunately, such a reaction of the authorities is not very common, but it happens,” Stefania Kulaeva said in conclusion.