The following is a (non-exhaustive) list of 39 attacks against Roma and/or their property in Hungary between January 2008 and June 2009.
The attacks
• took a combined total of eight lives
• left dozens people with injuries, ten of which were life-threatening
22 January 2008, Szigetvár (Baranya county)
On 22 January 2008 five young people (aged 19-24) under the influence of alcohol boarded a train from Barcs to Pécs. Because they did not have tickets, the conductor ordered them to leave the train in Szigetvár. They got off, covered their faces and attacked a Romani woman and her daughter who were crossing a park on their way home. The assailants beat and kicked the mother while her daughter managed to get away and call for help.
When the attackers were captured by the police, they admitted that they assaulted the woman and child specifically because of their ethnicity but later withdrew their statements, instead claiming that alcohol caused them to act aggressively. On 27 November 2008 the Pécs City Court jailed four of the young men for an "attempt to assault" a Roma woman and her daughter (garazdasag). Although the youths had been charged with assault on an ethnic minority, the judge ruled that there was reasonable doubt on whether the assault was racially motivated.
Investigation status: In April 2009, the second-instance court – lead by Judge Bela Wirth - ruled that a racial motivation was proven because the attackers wore masks and had racist symbols on their clothes and as tattoos. The perpetrators received prison sentences ranging form 1 year to 2 years 6 months (two of them being suspended).
22 February 2008, Putnok (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county)
The house of a Roma family in Putnok was vandalised and threatening statements were painted on the walls. The family was not at home during the incident.
Investigation status: no suspects identified1 March 2008, Tiszaroff (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok)
The house of the Roma minority self-government representative of Kunmadaras was set on fire. Racial epithets had been painted on the walls prior to the arson.
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 March 2008, Tapolca (Veszprém county)
Two 17-year-olds severely beat and kicked a Roma man on the street, although there hadn’t been any previous argument. The 32-year-old Roma man slipped into a coma and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Investigation status: suspects identified27 March 2008, Szihalom (Heves county)
On 27 March 2008, unknown perpetrators vandalized an uninhabited house owned by a Roma family.
Investigation status: no suspects identified13 April 2008, Fadd (Tolna county)
Molotov cocktails were thrown at a house of a Roma family (Balogh) who were about to move in. The fire destroyed all their belongings. The family had to look for a new house. The new vendor allegedly was verbally threatened by a member of the local self-government and forced to withdraw the purchase transaction. However, she ignored the threat and sold her house to the family. On 18 April, this house was also set on fire with Molotov bombs. The local self-government, the Hungarian Guard and the Nationalist Motor Bikers organized a demonstration on 21st June in the village against the "gypsy-criminality”.
Investigation status: no suspects identified3 June 2008, Pátka (Fejér county)
Three members of the volunteer police guard threw six Molotov bombs on three houses of Romani families in the village of Pátka. The police closed the investigation and recommended an indictment for attempted murder. On 13 June the Hungarian Guard marched in the village to protect the non-Roma residents. The special police forces were in the village to control the tension between Roma and non-Roma. The mayor and the majority of the village signed a petition in support of "innocent special constables". The mayor prepared a “code on the norms of peaceful co-existence for the Roma of the village”.
Update: The indictment is against the three perpetrators, members of a local volunteer police guard organisation, who are charged with multiple counts of attempted murder with extraordinary brutality.
http://www.nol.hu/kritika/20090630-ciganyvadaszat____-_interju_az_orszagos_fokapitannyalInvestigation status: no suspect identified
8 June 2008, Nyíregyháza (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
On 8 June 2008, commemorations and a demonstration were held in Nyíregyháza on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of the Trianon Peace Pact concluding the First World War. Racist, anti-Roma, xenophobic speeches were made by the speakers. A Romani activist who wanted to record the event was attacked by the members of the Hungarian Guard and his video camera was destroyed. Roma were told to go back to India, as they are unwelcome in the country.
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 June 2008, Fényeslitke (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
A 14-year-old Romani boy was stabbed to death by a local 40-year-old person following a verbal argument in front of a pub. The boy’s brother was seriously injured. The perpetrator shouted that he would kill all the Roma in the village.
Investigation status: The indictment against the perpetrator contains multiple counts of attempted murder. Szilágyi László, the county police-headquarters spokesperson said: “No evidence that the man’s action was based on ethnic reasons turned up.”
21 July 2008, Galgagyörk (Pest county)
Shortly after midnight ten to 15 shots were fired at three Roma houses in Galgagyörk, a village near Budapest. No one was injured. Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of one million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this and another three cases and a reward of 10 million HUF in three other cases. http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
investigation status: no suspects identified8 August 2008, Piricse (Szabolcs-Szatmár county)
Molotov cocktails were thrown at two Roma houses. One woman was shot in the leg when she stepped out of the house.
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of one million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this and another three cases and a reward of 10 million HUF in three other cases. http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
Investigation status: no suspects identified19 August 2008, Székesfehérvár (Fejér county)
On 19 August in Székesfehérvár, a group of teens threw several stones at a Roma home, seriously injuring a 12- year-old Roma girl. The perpetrators, self-declared "skinheads", were captured by police.
Investigation status: According to Bencze József in an interview with Népszabadság, the perpetrators have been identified.http://www.nol.hu/kritika/20090630-ciganyvadaszat____-_interju_az_orszagos_fokapitannyal
5 September 2008, Nyíradony-Tamásipuszta (Hajdú-Bihar county)
On the night of 5 September 2008 unknown perpetrators shot at a Roma home. No one was injured.
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of one million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this and another three cases and a reward of 10 million HUF in three other cases. (link below) http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
Investigation status: no suspects identified17 September 2008, Siófok (Somogy county)
At dawn on 17 September a hand grenade was thrown into the yard of a Romani house. The house was damaged, but no one was injured.
Investigation status: no suspects identified29 September 2008, Tarnabod (Heves county)
On 29 September, Molotov cocktails were thrown and shots were fired at four Romani homes in Tarnabod. No one was injured. Three local people were interrogated as suspects.
Investigation status: According to Bencze József in an interview with Népszabadság, three suspects have been held in pre-trial detention for several months.
http://www.nol.hu/kritika/20090630-ciganyvadaszat____-_interju_az_orszagos_fokapitannyal15 October 2008, Kőszárhegy (Fejér county)
On 15 October 2008, unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail onto a Roma family house.
Investigation status: no suspects identified
30 October 2008, Kaposvár (Somogyi county)
On 30 October 2008 in Kaposvár the office of the Napkerék Egyesület – an association dealing with Roma education – was vandalized. The police found a bullet casing inside of the building.
Investigation status: no suspects identified3 November 2008, Nagycsécs (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplé county)
Two Roma people (a man of 43 and a woman of 40) were shot dead following a firebomb attack on two houses in the village of Nagycsécs. The perpetrators shot the members of the Roma family after they were awakened by the sound of the fire-bomb and tried to escape from the house. The bomb thrown at the other Romani house did not explode.
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of 10 million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this case and another two cases (Tatárszentgyörgy, Tiszalök), and a reward of one million HUF in four other cases, because clear similarities were detected among these cases. http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
Investigation status: no suspects identified4 November 2008, Debrecen (Hajdú Bihar county)
On 4 November 2008, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Romani house in Debrecen. No one was injured.
Investigation status: no suspects identified
18 November 2008, Pécs (Baranya county)
On the night of 18 November a hand grenade was thrown at the house of a Romani family in Pécs. Two adults were killed instantly. Two children (aged 3 and 5) were taken to hospital in a state of shock and with minor injuries. The police eliminated a racist motive after investigating the crime scene. They assume a revenge motive or possible mafia conflict. Kovács István from the local Roma selfgovernment of Mohács noted many similarities between this murder and recent incidents in Hungary. He speculated that this was a racist attack.
Investigation status: no suspects identified20 November 2008, Pusztadobos (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
In the morning of 20 November, unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail at a Romani house. There were four adults and eight children in the house, but because the bomb exploded outside, no one was injured. The tenants found a printed cartoon attached to the fence that stated, “You are going to die!” The family had moved to Pusztadobos one year earlier from Nyírmada, where they were also attacked (the windows of their house were broken). Based on recent media information the investigation is closed because police could not confirm the Roma family’s story.
Investigation status: no suspects identified25 November 2008, Sajóhídvég (Borsod-Abajúj-Zemplén county)
Unidentified individuals intended to attack the Roma settlement in Sajóhídvég, Borsod-Abajúj-Zemplén county, but the Roma patrol service informed the police in time and the unwanted visitors fled. Somebody wrote on a lamp post „You will die”, the head of the local Gypsy Self-Government informed the press that the Roma were scared.
Investigation status: no suspects identified28 November 2008, Kiskunlacháza (Pest county)
On 28 November, over 3,000 people joined a candlelight march in Kiskunlacháza to protest against violence after the murder of a 14-year-old local girl a week before. The town's mayor József Répás addressed the gathering, lamenting the decline in public safety in the settlement. Although the murderer or murderers have not been identified, Répás allegedly said: "Kiskunlacháza has had enough of Roma violence!" He also said that police were often branded "racist" if they tried to act. Participants in the march were not all locals. Some came from nearby Ráckeve, others came from more distant towns. A 200-300-person contingent from the Hungarian Guard attended, as did some members of a motorcycle group known as the Goy Motorcyclists. There was a heavy police presence and searches of some of the marchers yielded knives and daggers. Népszabadság reported increased tension in Kiskunlacháza between the local Roma and non-Roma population (Népszabadság, 15 May). Following a recent incident involving
the attack of a 12-year-old girl by 8 Roma youngsters, 5 adults attacked two Roma children. The children stated that they were riding bicycles in the street when a Jeep passed by. The people jumped out of the car and pushed them off their bikes. One of the attackers also threatened them.
Update: The Pest county police headquarters arrested P. József, a 25-year old, non-Roma man from Kiskunlacháza, on 25 June 2009 who confessed the crime. He lived within 250 metres from the crime-scene and was discovered through matching DNS samples.
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 December 2008, Alsózsolca (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county)
On 15 December a 19-year old Romani man went to chop wood in his yard when he was shot two times. His injuries were life-threatening. His partner suffered minor injuries.
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of one million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this and three other cases and a reward of 10 million HUF in three additional cases. http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 January 2009, Ófehértó (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
An 11-year-old Romani boy was abused by a civil guard. The guard was called by the classmate of the Romani boy who had a childish argument with the Romani boy. As a result of the physical assault made by the civil guard, the boy sustained light bodily injuries.
23 February 2009,Tatárszentgyörgy (Pest county)
The house of a Roma family in Tatárszentgyörgy was set on fire by Molotov cocktails. Then the perpetrator(s) shot and killed two family members, a father (27) and son (5), as they fled the burning home. Two other children were wounded, and the mother escaped without injury. The on-duty police officer and a forensic expert at the crime scene both failed to recognise the victims’ gunshot wounds. The police also classified the attack and murders as result of a domestic fire. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány instructed the affected ministries to conduct an internal inquiry.
Police have already closed their own inquiry and launched disciplinary proceedings against two sub-commanders. Pest county police chief Sándor Ármós said that if the on-site inspection had been carried out in accordance with standard procedure, the murders of the 27-year-old Roma man and his five-year-old son would have emerged, despite the mistaken medical opinion. Petőfi Attila, manager of the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI), noted clear similarities between this attack and several cases since summer 2008, which also involved Molotov cocktails, shotguns, and targeted houses on the outskirts of the settlement. He discussed serial murders but did not
confirm a racist motive, and kept open the possibility of personal revenge. A reward of ten million Forints has been offered for information leading to an arrest. For a detailed report on this case please follow: http://www.errc.org/db/03/DA/m000003DA.pdf
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of 10 million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this case and another two cases (Tiszalök, Nagycsécs), and a reward of one million HUF in four other cases, because clear similarities among these cases were detected.
http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.htmlInvestigation status: no suspects identified
4 March 2009, Zalaegerszeg (Zala county)
On the night of 4 March, around 2 am, the house of a 7- member Romani family was attacked. The family woke up to stones being thrown through the window. Some stones landed right next to sleeping children. No one was injured. This was the last inhabited house of a predominantly Roma settlement.
Investigation status: no suspects identified5 March, 2009, Gic (Veszprém county)
A Molotov fire-bomb was thrown at an uninhabited building in the village of Gic, Veszprém county. The bomb caused a fire in the house, but luckily nobody was injured, and the damage was not significant either. The police stated that the attack was not associated with other attacks targeting Roma.
Investigation status: no suspects identified6 March 2009, Bocfölde (Zala county)
Early in the morning of 6 March a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the house of a Romani family in Bocfölde, in Zala-county. The explosive was thrown through the glass-window of a door and landed on the floor. One man staying in the room threw the bomb back out of the window before a fire started. No one was injured.
Investigation status: no suspects identified13 March 2009, Kecskemét (Bács-Kiskun county)
Three unidentified men placed a Molotov fire-bomb in the early morning hours under the window of a home that belonged to a Romani family. It was only later in the morning that the family discovered the bottle containing petrol. The bomb did not explode.
Investigation status: no suspects identified19 March 2009, Budapest (capital)
A non-Romani neighbour both verbally and physically abused a Romani woman and her children in Budapest. The neighbour, who become upset because allegedly the Romani woman did not greet him, said: „I will teach you how to behave, stinky Gypsies“. Then he physically abused the woman, broke into their home and terrorised the family until the police arrived.
April, 2009, Jánoshalma (Bács-Kiskun county)
Several Romani families, approximately 38 people, fleeing the harassment of the Magyar Garda, spent several weeks in nearby forests. Then the mayor of Jánoshalma asked them to leave the village and the country. The families have fled to Strasbourg and are currently considering seeking asylum in France.
7 April 2009, Tatárszentgyörgy (Pest county)
On 7 April the house of Lidia Horváth, the vice-president of the local Roma minority self-government, was set on fire. There was no one at home at the time as Horvaáh was on duty in a local Roma community guard set up following a February murder. Horváth told the state news agency MTI that the Roma community in her village was living in a state of constant fear. The investigation has not excluded the possibility of self-interest in the incident, along with possible revenge or racial motivation.
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 April 2009, Old (Baranya county)
On 15 April at about 7 pm, a shot was fired at a house inhabited by Roma located in the Telep area of Old. The bullet went through the window and hit a painting. None of the 5 family members-were in the house at the time.
Investigation status: no suspects identified15 April 2009, Budapest (capital)
Three Roma minors and an 18-year-old Roma man were waiting for the 86 trolley in front of the Keleti Train Station when they were attacked by a group of people in hoods. They were beaten so severly that they slipped into comas by the time the ambulance arrived. The police are investigating the crime as an assault on members of an ethnic community.
Investigation status: no suspects identified22 April 2009, Tiszalök (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
Late in the evening, as he was leaving to work the night shift, 54-year-old father Kóka Jenő was shot to death in front of his house. At the crime scene, a witness saw a black Land Rover belonging to the unknown perpetrator(s), and a tall man stepping out of it. According to the official police website, murder investigations against unknown suspect(s) have begun. They also reported that, after an exhaustive investigation overnight, similarities between this case and earlier attacks towards Roma in Hungary cannot be overlooked.
Update: The National Bureau of Investigation offered a reward of 10 million HUF for information leading to an arrest in this case and another two cases (Tatárszentgyörgy, Nagycsécs), and a reward of one million HUF in four other cases, because clear similarities among these cases were detected. http://www.police.hu/nyitooldal/cikkek/dijkituzes50.html
Investigation status: no suspects identified25 April 2009, Érd (Pest county)
Police shot at a Romani driver when he failed to stop for a check. According to the police, road police wanted to stop the man for a documents check. Instead, the man allegedly swept the policemen away with his vehicle. After a warning shot the police officer shot at the vehicle. The bullet hit the man in his back.
5 May 2009, Táska (Somogy county)
On 5 May unknown perpetrators shot at a house inhabited by a Roma family. There were no personal injuries.
Investigation status: no suspects identified
27 May 2009, Abádszalók (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county)
A man broke into a house at night and attacked the family inside with a razor blade. He entered the house through a window and injured the father by cutting into his neck and chest and harmed the mother by cutting into her legs. The family managed to overtake the perpetrator, who was also armed with a gun. He was then arrested by the police.
Four people were injured in the attack. The two adults, whose child was sleeping in the same bed at the time of the attack but was not injured, were later taken to hospital. (Announcement by Rostás László, the vice-president of OCÖ) The aggressor was known for making harassing statements towards Roma and for connections to the Magyar Garda, whose press-office denounced this attack.
Investigation status: the perpetrator was detained3 Aug 2009 Kisléta (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county)
A gypsy woman Maria Balogh was shot dead and her 13-year-old daughter seriously injured when their house was attacked early Monday in the latest in a series of attacks on Gypsies
(will be continued ???)
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