Nevada (US), Nov 30 (ANI): Well-known British singer Lisa Stansfield says: "The recent expulsion of the Roma from swathes of Europe has echoes of Nazism".
Writing a first person article in Tribune Magazine (London) posted on its website dated November 28, Stansfield, who is currently making a documentary of her year with Britain's travelling community, talks about "often-ignored 200,000 gypsies or Roma who currently live in Britain".
"These people really know how to live. While they try not to hurt anyone, they are constantly persecuted...Since arriving from India...these people have continued to fight for the simple and basic right to be themselves...There is a misunderstanding and great disrespect for these people, who come from a far older tradition and enjoy a greater depth of culture than many of us," Stansfield points out.
Stansfield adds that during the Second World War, largely undocumented, between 250,000 and 500,000 gypsies were murdered. Some of the Roma children, who were identical or fraternal twins, were not sent to the gas chambers but preserved for experimentation. Many of the twins were literally sewn together, eventually dying of septicaemia. The Romany people do not feature on any historical tour of the Auschwitz death camp. There is no recognition of the Roma exterminated by the Nazis.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, has applauded Stansfield for her courage and support of the Roma (Gypsy) community of Europe, who numbered around 15-million and whose traces went back to 9th century CE.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that apparent "witch-hunt" against Roma community and Europe's slide towards racism and xenophobia, as it appeared from Roma maltreatment in various European countries, was unacceptable and should be stopped. (ANI)
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