Burial denial to Roma baby in France: Universal Society of Hinduism demands apology from French President Hollande
Nevada, USA: The Universal Society of Hinduism has demanded official apology from French President Francois Hollande over refusal of burial space to a few months old Roma (Gypsy) infant by Mayor of Champlan, in Paris region.
Society also urged His Holiness Pope Francis and religious leaders of France to raise their voice against Roma apartheid as religion told us to help the helpless. Their silence on this issue was very puzzling and ungodly, Zed noted.
The President of Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed emphasized in a statement issued in Nevada (USA) that everybody had a fundamental right of a decent burial but Champlan Mayor denied burial space to a child because dead baby was a Roma. He said this act of Mayor was a blatant case of racism and was simply inhuman. He said such inhuman act of a French Mayor must not be acceptable in the 21st century Europe.
Zed pointed out that France and Europe should be ashamed of this act of xenophobia and continued apartheid conditions faced by Roma people. “European Union (EU) needed to come out of glass houses in Brussels, show some responsibility and save the about 15-million Roma people of Europe from continued abuse. How long the EU would keep on looking the other way while the Roma continued to face maltreatment day after day”, said Zed.
Society urged that dismantling of Roma camps without providing adequate accommodation and forced evictions of Roma people from France should immediately end and France should make honest efforts for social inclusion and rehabilitation of voiceless Roma communities, who had been around in Europe since ninth century CE.
It may be mentioned that Roma community encounter social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, etc.
