By István Heil
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE The Family
Rudolf Kolompár, the he ad of what was to be come the Krasznai family, was born on February 23,1927 in Pécs (he died in Strasbourg in September 2001, at the age of74).
His life companion, Friderika Kolompár, nicknamed Frima, was born on April 8, 1933 in Sárhida (Zala county).
They brought up eight children, two from their earlier marriages and six of their own.
The father, Elemér Kolompár, was bom from Rudolf's first marriage on May 15, 1950, György from the mother's on December 8, 1952.
The family lived in Bükkösd, Baranya county, from keeping livestock and dealing in horses. Their first children were bom in that village, in chronological order: József, orPubi, (September 8, 1954), János (August 13, 1956), and the twins Gyula and Ibolya (March 23, 1959; Ibolya died in Canada while receiving medical treatrnent; and was buried in Hamilton). Their other twins, Sándor and András (June 14, 1962) were bom after they had left Bükkösd.
In 1960 the Kolornpárs moved to the village of Csór in Fejér county, where they lived on a gypsy estate attach ed to the periphery of the village. Rudolf Kolompár worked in a mine, at an aluminium furnace and in a power plant in neighbouring Várpalota. In the 1960s he requested the Ministry of the Interior to ch ange his family's name to Krasznai.
His aim was to prevent to his children from suffering discrimination at school.
After training to be a mason and a lorry-driver, József Krasznai, the eldest of the Krasznai siblings worked in Budapest for a few years (his daughter from his first marriage is called Henrietta Krasznai, orBaba), then, on a mortgage from the National Savings Bank, he built a family house in Csór and took on a job as lorry-driver with the Alba Volán transport
company in Székesfehérvár. He and his second wife, Gizella Jónás, had a son, József Krasznai, or Csaba, and a daughter, Timea Krasznai, or Karol.
From the Gypsy Estate in Csór to the Village of Zámoly
In 1985, Friderika Kolompár left the gypsy estate of Csór and moved to the part of Zárnoly, a village a few kilometres from Csór, which is called Belmajor, buying herself an old peasant house from the money she got for her house in Csór. Her decision to move was motivated by a family contlict: her husband had met his former life companion, and Friderika reacted by breaking off her relationship with him and moving away. Family pe ace was soon restored, mainly as a result of their children's requests: Frima resumed her rela-tionship with her husband and they settled down together in the house in Zárnoly. At that time, there were two Roma families (the Lakatos' and the Gómans), consisting partly of distant relatives of the Krasznai family, living in the houses in Belmajor which were origi-nalIy built for servants before the war.
In the late 1980s four of Friderika Kolompár's adult children moved to Zárnoly, too:
Gyula and his life companion, Ágnes Horváth, or Mari, squatted part of a house there.
Ibolya, Gyula's twin sister (Mrs László Balogh) moved in with Gyula. Having no child of her own, Ibolya was looking after Gyula's children, Elemér, Krisztián and Szilvia. Like József before him, János built a house on mortgage from the National Savings Bank in Csór. He still lives and works there as a skilled solderer at the Inota Aluminium Fumace in Várpalota despite the fact that the members ofhis family have been repeatedly attacked physically in re cent times. Sándor and András also moved to Zárnoly, Sándor lived in a fiat which he was allowed to use as a favour, and András was a tenant. Living in the servants' houses, László G., or Drizár, and his wife, Ilona Lakatos', or Giza's family were their neighbours at that time.
Aceording to later fact-finding investigations and documents kept by the village authority, there were two families which lived in tlats they actually owned. Property relations con-cerning the other houses are not clear enough. Some of the houses belonged to the local agricultural co-operative but were not used by it, others were the property of the local Savings Fund. Ali were in a poor condition.
The Zámoly Roma men worked as 'hands' (cleaners, refuse collectors) with various firms run by the Székesfehérvár municipal maintenance authority, in the oil refinery in Százha-lombatta and as navvies with various employers.
Around the Social Transformation of 1989-90
At the time of the social transformation in 1989-90, many of the Zárnoly Roma lost their permanent jobs and from then on had to live from odd jobs. With the exception of Ibolya Krasznai, who now had a serious heart problem, the women did their traditional jobs of running the household and looking after the children. Rudolf Krasznai had be en put on disability pension. Much of the income of the families carne from a variety of alIow-ances such as the child bene fit, the regularly arriving education support, unemployment
benefits and the income substitute. The brothers and sisters shared their living space with those of their kin who were left without a fiat or house of their own, and after some time there were several Roma families living in Zámoly, including the grandchildren who now had families of their own.
At the suggestion of Zámoly teachers, the children of these Roma families who were at, or about to enter, primary school were often sent before expert committees in Székes-fehérvár to decide about the necessity of transferring them to the Arany János Primary School in Székesfehérvár, which is a special school for 'slightly mentally disabled pupils'.
About every fourth child in the family was declared 'slightly mentally disabled'. (Today, these children are studying at Freneh schools in Strasbourg under average conditions, some-times with good results.)
THE STORY UNWINDS The First Conflicts in Zámoly
During the night of October 30-31, 1997, Zámoly was hit by strong wind and rain, which caused the roof of one of the semi-detached servant's houses to slip. On inspection, the village local authority also found that some of the bearing walls had also been dam-aged. After inspecting the entire line of semi-detached houses, the mayor' s office found .the buildings dangerous and unfit for human dwelling. At the mayor's orders, the families of the Krasznai siblings (Gyula, Ibolya, Sándor and András) and the Góman family were put up in the theatre of the local community centre. Later on the parents, Rudolf Krasznai and Friderika Kolompár were also moved into the community centre, who reckoned that the village would see to the restoration of their damaged home.
The exact extent of the damage done to the buildings can no longer be ascertained. At the order of the mayor, without giving notice to the relevant construction authorities, and without informing the owners and users, their houses were demolished. No written expert opinion on the condition of the buildings was given. The notary's decree for the demoli-tion, dated November 13, 1997 and setting a deadline of December 1 for the execution, lacks an appeal clause, which is a breach of the law aceording to the ombudsman. The houses were quickly bulldozed during the week following November 2. The buildings bull-dozed included Rudolf Krasznai and Friderika Kolompár's house, which was also situated in the Belmajori but was separate from and stood some distance away from the former servants' houses and had not suffered any significant damage. The persons proceeding as agents of the local authority and the first instance construction authority acknowledged,
IThere isonly one Roma family living in Beirnajor, Zárnoly today, József Lakatos, Szibbaj, and his wife, Piroska Lakatos, or Muki 'sfamily. They had bought their house from a local inhabitant, but were ab le to pay part of the price only, sothe house was sold at auction. There being no other prospective buyer, the house went back tothe original owner at halfthe auction price. Of the 13 children the couple had brought up(they had lost one as an infant) Melinda Lakatos, András Góman's life companion now living in Strasbourg wi th her three children. As she carne back to visit on ce in January 2001, only her husband was given political asylum, soshe has no work perrnit in France, either. In late November 2001, this familyaiso asked for asylum in Strasbourg.
Their application is being processed.
during the inspection conducted by the ombudsman, the fact that no official records had been made either of the inspection of premises or of its findings, and that there was no written expert opinion on, or record of the conditions which the inspectors had supposedly perceived.
The Roma who had been moved into the community centre could not pay the gas and electricity bills, so the local authority switched off the gas supplies of the building in April 1998 and electricity from April-30 to May 14, 1998. Water supply was also suspended but it was soon resumed by the National Health Office to remove the hazard of an epidemic.
In the period between October 31 1997 and July 13, 1999, i.e. the time during which they were living crammed together in the theatre room of the community centre - the Roma families were physically assaulted several times. Mrs László Balogh, i.e. Ibolya Krasznai, president of the Zárnoly Gypsy Minority Self-Government, telis us that atrocities were especially common on winter nights when there was a disco dancing event in the vil-lage. Young people arriving at the disco from neighbouring villages, e.g. Csákvár, Gánt, Lovasberény, occasionally Székesfehérvár, Alcsútdoboz and Felcsút, would smash in the windows of the community centre with stones and harass the Roma there in other ways.
Several children, including babies, had to be taken to hospital because they contracted pneumonia and other pulmonary diseases in the theatre which could not be heated and was therefore cold.
The Zárnoly Roma reported many of these cases to the police but the offenders were never caught.
Prejudices
The anti-Roma atrocities were reinforced by the political declarations, comments and other utterances made by the government and the local authority which tended to foster prejudices against the Hungarian Roma, including those in Zárnoly who often became the topic of media news reports around the time.
Gyula Horn, prime minister of Hungary between 1994 and 1998, called on the Roma on several occasions (e.g. at the congress of the Roma organisation Lungo Drom and at a plenary meeting of the miners' trade union in Balatonfiired) to 'distance themselves from the criminals' and expressed his judgement that work-evaders should not press for (housing) rights. These speeches were made at the time when the 'ghetto affair' of Székesfehérvár was in the focus ofpublic attention. (The local authority, which was dominantly right-wing, wanted to settle out of the town the Roma families who had been previously resettled into
1 Rádió street.) Prime minister Viktor Orbán, in a speech made in 1998, "offered" work and education to the gypsy community, 70-80 percent of which were unemployed and exposed to wide-spread discrimination in workplaces and institutions.
The speech was applauded by the right wing, containing as it did an unrnistakable mes-sage: the gypsies themselves are responsible for their disadvantages, poor education and their status of outcasts from the world of employment.
Resigning Zárnoly mayor János Horváth was interviewed by Tizenhat Óra, a program on Radio Kossuth on November 1998 and byAktuális, a politicai program aired on Hun-garian Television 1. In these interviews he used expressions and made factual claims about the members of the Zárnoly Gypsy Minority Self-Government, i.e. the gypsies of Zárnoly,
which, in the words of the minority ombudsman, a court "may find to constitute a case of libel before the general public which is injurious to interests", and are also defamatory?
The Hysteria Campaign Against the Gypsies
As a result of a general hysteria campaign against the gypsies, people in Zárnoly started colleeting signatures to show their support for the removal of the Roma families from the community centre.
At the initiative of Éva Hegyesi Orsós, president of the govemment office which deals with minority affairs', Dr Jenő Kaltenbach, parliamentary ombudsman ofnational and ethnic minority rights conducted an inquiry into the Zámoly Roma affair between April 30 and August 12, 1998. The state ments and subsequent measures were published in a thirty-page document (registered under 2960/1998). Aceording to the statement of the minority ombudsman
c c ••• while formally complying with its obligations arising under the laws on the renting
of flats and rooms and on their alienation, and taking steps to provide a provisional solution to their housing problem, the local authority of Zámoly did not take the steps which would have been necessary for the creation of final or at least long-term housing facilities, steps which were required of it and which cannot be justified with reference to the lack ofbudgetary resources."
As a result of the unlawful measures taken by the notary several Roma families lost their right to the use of a flat and became so vulnerable that they were threatened by the immediate danger of homelessness.
Aceording to another statement made by the ombudsman, the position of the Roma families in terms of social security was so dramatically eroded by the measure taken by the notary and the local authority that the resulting situation amounts to an indirect viola-tion of their fundamental, constitutional rights to human dignity and to the free choice ofa place of living. Explaining that these breaches of law were an example of indirect ethnic discrimination, the ombudsman forwarded his statements and suggestions to competent authorities as weil asto the Fejér County Attorney-General's Office.
The mayor claimed several times that "there was no plot for sale" in Zámoly and that the Belmajor area of Zámoly was a 'business and industrial area' where the construction of houses for human living is prohibited by the detailed reconstruction plan for the vil-lage. József Krasznai clairned that the inhabitants of the village had been unofficially forbidden from selling building plots or houses to gypsies. During the same period, a local authority meeting, which had been unlawfully declared a elosed session, made decisions on the sale of building plots owned by the authority - to someone who was not agypsy.
2Aceording to a letter written byminority ombudsman Jenő KaItenbach toIbolya Krasznai, president ofthe Zámoly Gypsy Minority Self-Government on November 28, 1998. The ombudsman also sent Ibolya Krasznai a recorded version oftheprogramme but this isnot available tous sowecan not quote from it
3Office of National and Ethnic Minorities.
The ombudsman's inquiry lead also to the conclusion that Belmajor - a centrally situated area ofZárnoly - was in reality a living area rather than a 'business and industrial zone'.
What József Krasznai (vice president of the Hungarian Roma Parliament, president of the Independent Gypsy Organisation of Fejér County, at the time president of the Székes-fehérvár Gypsy Minority Self-Govemrnent), the eldest of the Krasznai brothers had c1aimed was now confmned: relying on and stirring up the anti-gypsy sentiments among the popula-tion, the local authority of Zámoly tried to get rid of the Roma who had be en left homeless.
Attempted Solutions
Officials at the Ministry of the Interior, the Office of National and Ethnic Minorities and the County Assembly of Fejér County suggested several times that the local authority of Zámoly should apply with to county regional planning council for a grant which would cover the expenses of construction, but the mayor rejected these suggestions saying he was 'being put under pressure'.
"It is a condition ofreceiving a regional planning council grant that the families should be able to cover 20% of the construction expenses", Aladár Horváth, president of the board of trustees of the Roma Civil Rights Foundation wrote in his report on the facts dated July 22, 1998, which he forwarded to Mrs Magda Kósa Kovács, president of the human rights committee of Parliament, adding that the National Gypsy Minority Self-Government was ready to cover the required 20% from the 100 million HUF support provided by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development for purposes ofregional planning and the development ofbackward areas."
This proposal, too, was turned down by the local authority.
"Governmental funds must be secured for the purchase of at least two building plots, which costs 2 million HUF at most - the document quoted from the Roma Civil Rights Foundation continues -for the construction of 3 semi-detached houses with 3 flats each from funds available from the government resources provided for the purpose of reducing social disadvantage [...
l
As far as the 35% beneficiary's contribution required for the use of the support is concerned, 20% should be provided by the National Gypsy Minority Self-Governrnent, and a construction company should be found which is ready to acknowledge unpaid work to be done by the family members as an equivalent to the remaining 15%."On October 30, 1998, negotiations were conducted at the mayor's office with the par-ticipation of MP Edit Herczog (Hungarian Social ist Party), József Takács, the new mayor elected in the autumn of that year, Ibolya Krasznai, president of the Zámoly Gypsy Mi-nority Self-Government, Ildikó Dobóvári, head of the office of the National Gypsy MiMi-nority Self-Government, Aladár Horváth, president of the board of trustees of the Roma Civil Rights Foundation, József Krasznai, vice-president of the Hungarian Roma Parliament and others. Agreement was reached on the following points:
• the county assembly would help the village authority to pay the public works bills;
• the local authority would exchange the building plot in Fenyves street bought with the participation of József Krasznai - the plot on which construction did not start as a result of pressure from the inhabitants and with reference to the village planning schemes - for a plot on which construction could actually be started;
• the National Gypsy Minority Self-Government would ensure the construction ofhouses;
• József Krasznai would help the Roma to find employment;
• Edit Herczog would have the windows of the community centre glazed on her own expenses (amounting to fifty or sixty thousand HUF).
The Anomalies in the Re-housing and in the Construction
József Krasznai, later spokesman for the Hungarian gypsies asking for asylum in Stras-bourg, said in an interview:
"The mayor suggested to the minority office of the Hom govemmenrt that the gov-emment should provide 25 million HUF for the purpose of placing the Roma in various parts of the country outside Zárnoly. This suggestion was made at a time when it was common knowledge that the Roma might be allotted some money for the purpose of building social welfare flats in Zárnoly.
It would also have been an acceptable solution to place the Roma somewhere near Zárnoly, in the vicinity of Székesfehérvár.
It would have carried a bad politicai message, too, if a village had been 'purged' of
It would have carried a bad politicai message, too, if a village had been 'purged' of