July 07, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1428

BELGRADE (Serbia): Piles of garbage, dirt and mud are everywhere. There is no running water, no electricity. Yet, Mica Tulipovic and his family have no other home. “Rats here are as big as cats!” the 37-year-old man tells a visitor. “This is no life.”

Mica Tulipovic, his wife, Biljana, and their six children, aged 2-13 — are among tens of thousands of Gypsies, or Roma, living in the Belgrade slums, or “the cardboard settlements,” as they are called here.

The Gypsies — one of Europe’s most segregated and neglected ethnic groups — are the sole residents of these makeshift enclaves, perched alongside fancy hotels or first-class residential complexes in the Serbian capital. The Belgraders mostly turn their heads from these settlements, regarding them as “tumours” in the body of their city.

What’s worse, the enclaves are targeted by skinheads and other extremists who often come in the middle of the night to attack the slums’ beleaguered residents.

The Gypsies have occasionally organised their own guards and nightwatch to defend themselves since there has been no systematic response from the state to protect the slums, despite pledges by the police to hunt down the attackers.

The deplorable situation of the Belgrade Gypsies has come into focus recently as Serbia strives to reconnect with mainstream Europe following years of wars and international isolation.

There are no exact figures for the number of Gypsies living in Serbia. The numbers vary from 100,000 to 500,000, as the Gypsies often stay out of the system, failing to register themselves or their children.

As part of pro-Western reform, the Serbian government approved a national strategy in 2005 to integrate its Gypsies into the society and provide for their basic needs, such as health and social services. Earlier this year, a Roma representative was elected in the Serbian parliament, in what is considered a significant step in the community’s efforts at better positions in the society.

Tulipovic says all this means little to those most in need.

“We don’t have money for anything, we pick food from garbage containers, we fight the rats during the night,” he goes on. “This is no life.”

The Belgrade city authorities in the past have tried to move the Gypsies from some of the slums to other residential areas, but have faced strong protest from local residents rejecting the Gypsy company in their neighbourhoods.

The conflict triggered criticism from human rights organisations, amid warnings by the Roma groups that such segregated lives deprived their people of basic rights, such as those to health service or education.—AP