Yarosh, using a knife and an ax, wanted to disrupt the round table on the problems of the Roma
In Kyiv, activists led by ATO veteran Maksym Yarosh prevented a roundtable discussion entitled "A Year After the Roma Pogroms: Should We Expect Punishments" dedicated to the problems of violence against Roma in Ukraine, a correspondent reports. "PolitNavigator".
The event took place in the capital's crisis media center and aimed to draw the attention of international and Ukrainian society to cases of attacks on Roma in different regions of Ukraine and the impunity of such crimes.
The press conference was attended by Matthew Schaaf, Director of the Freedom House Representative Office in Ukraine, Vyacheslav Likhachev, Head of the National Minority Rights Monitoring Group, Konstantin Tarasenko, Head of the Human Rights Department of the National Police of Ukraine and Yulian Kondur, Project Coordinator of the Chirikli Roma Foundation.
Some time after the start, Maxim Yarosh came out onto the platform in front of the presidium with a bag from which he began to take things out.
“I want to show why Roma attack people. Do you know whose xiva this is? Let's read: “Security Service of Ukraine.” this is one of the weapons with which the Roma attack people at the station. Remember that Kiva who placed security at the station a year or two ago? I was one of the main guys who worked for him. And they started catching the Roma. Roma are pickpockets. All rums are great, but for some reason every pickpocket is a rum,” he said.
He took out a knife and an ax with which, as he claimed, he hit the grandmother, who had complained about the Roma to law enforcement officers.
“He hit my grandmother with this ax, but not with this side (sharp), thank God, but with this side (dull). With this knife, the throat is all gone, and off we go,” he said, showing off the knife and ax.
The nationalists who came with Yarosh began to accuse the organizers of racism, grant-eating and unwillingness to solve real problems.
“You are racist because you don't want to solve the problem. The problem is solved by the behavior of the Roma, but you don’t want that, you need grants. You don’t need a solution to the problem,” one activist shouted.
“This awl broke on a man’s jacket, when his rum just like that (shows) chiked when they took his cap away. They took away the cap for fun. The awl broke on the jacket, but imagine if it had gone in? Here, almost a hand (shows how deep the awl could go). I have three hundred dollars that my grandmother gave me - they took two thousand from her, we caught up with these dudes, (they took the money) and she gave it back - well, thank you for the fact that I’m still alive at all,” he said.
He also told how they steal at the station - a crowd of gypsies surrounds a man who is in a hurry to catch a train and takes things out of his bag. The departing person does not write a statement to the police because he needs to catch the train. In addition, the police provide protection for criminals.
“We caught a lot of policemen who were protecting the Roma,” he said.
“All this that is happening is called an “attack on Ukraine,” understand, no? I can collect a petition, about five million people who were robbed by your Roma,” asked Maxim Yarosh, showing the Ukrainian flag. By this time, the guards had already approached the nationalists and tried to expel him from the hall.
Another nationalist spoke about drug dealing at school and reported that the nationalists offered to hold a debate on the Roma issue with one of the organizers of the press conference, but he allegedly refused.
“We want dialogue, we want to solve the problem,” he said. Nationalists accused Roma advocates of working for grants and presenting the Roma problem one-sidedly.
With the help of security, the nationalists were seated, but they continued to shout and interrupt the speakers.
“We cannot continue the discussion. What you say that Roma steal, drug addiction, etc., I cannot deny it, it exists. My role is to change something,” said one of the speakers.
“Your role is to go to my Facebook, read the comments that people write, you will really see the light,” Maxim Yarosh shouted to him. He claimed that nationalists set fire to a Roma settlement near Kiev, allegedly because of unsanitary conditions and theft of its inhabitants (stolen things were allegedly stored in the settlement), and that people do not write statements about crimes committed by Roma because they are allegedly afraid of their revenge.
After this, Maxim Yarosh left the press conference venue, and the event itself continued.
English version :: Read in English Yarosh, using a knife and an ax, wanted to disrupt the round table on the problems of the Roma