The day long celebration at Apalina begins in the school courtyard with speeches, the singing of the Roma National anthem Djelem Djelem, followed by a barefoot Roma dance performance, concluding with a skit portraying a confrontation between young Romani men being settled with a dance competition: the fastest dancer possessing the more complicated moves and greatest stamina exits the showdown with his head up and the girl under his arm.
Roma day has a special significance for the 4,000 Gypsies living along the two parallel roads at Apalina that bears the reputation as a den of thieves. �Whatever goes missing in town, I can guarantee you can find it at Apalina,� comments Maria, a downtown barmaid.
�When I go on my jobs, my boss reminds me not to tell them that I am from Apalina, say you�re from somewhere else, or else they wont have any work for me,� says Dani Racz who like many at the Roma of Apalina works the traditional trade of laying paving stones which he had learned from his father who learned from his father before him.
In Sept 2006 this simmering discontent coming off both sides exploded during a police raid into the community that left 22 people shot, some numerous times like Denis Biga who claims being fired on while shielding his infant nephew and pregnant daughter; seventeen rubber bullets were surgically extracted from his backside including another seven that could not be removed.
Though the police claim they used only rubber bullets, the Roma of Apalina say it wasn�t a rubber bullet that tore through the body of 56 year old Susana Ciocan. �I believe there was at least one real bullet used because a rubber bullet couldn�t have done such damage�, says Marian Mandache of the Romani Criss Human Right Organization that is handling the case against the police that having been thrown out of the Romanian courts is now being prepared for the European Court of Human Rights.
The police aggression that was first justified by the authorities as an act of self-defense, including one prominent politician who reported to the press that the police �defended themselves in order to avoid being seriously injured or even lynched� would later soften to an acknowledgment of managing �the event inadequately, which led to the taking measures which violated the current legal provisions.�
�In the nine years that I have been monitoring human rights violations very little has changed,� says Robert Vaszi inside the tussled offices of the human rights organization Sanse Egale based in the Transylvanian county Salaj. In 2007 Romani Criss identified 28 cases of school segregation. According to Mr. Vaszi this same segregation directed at the Roma children can be found throughout society in housing and health care. �This year, 2009, my pregnant sister went to the hospital and the nurse said to her, �you go in the Gypsy waiting room��� According to Open Society Research 60% of Roma live segregated from majority. According to Mr. Vaszi the authorities had recently relocated twelve Roma families from Zalau to an industrial area five miles outside the city in what had been a former animal farm. �There is no transportation or school in the area. These children used to go to school, but they no longer do� Their homes are walled in
with a police checkpoint at the entrance. �It�s like Auschwitz,� says Mr. Vaszi. �The police monitor who is going in and out, of course we have access because of our organization but they follow us in and watch over us�. The Gypsies are very afraid of the police.�
According to Open Society Institute research, Roma are five times more likely to live below the poverty line, culminating in the popular adage poor as a gypsy. More than half of the Roma of Romania live segregated from the majority population in communities with substandard housing, and without basic governmental services such as schools, adequate healthcare, electricity, running water and water disposal. Twenty-three percent of Roma are illiterate; Ninety-five percent have failed to complete High school. **