40
Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
Amnesty International September 2001
On 5 May 2001, Pál Sztojka, József Lakatos, József
Sárközi, Miklós Rostás, and János Kolompár, all of
whom are residents of Kalocsa, aged between 18 and
23 and of Romani origin, went to collect scrap metal
and plastic waste in the local area. Close to the village
of Fiserbócsa, on the side of the road, Pál Sztojka’s car
got stuck in the sand. An older man driving a tractor
offered his assistance to tow the car onto the road. At
this point a police officer, accompanied by a guard,
drove up and asked the Roma for their identity cards.
Then a third vehicle, a jeep, stopped and its driver,
who was later identified as a farm-guard, began to
shout insults and threats at the Roma. He reportedly
said “Dig gypsies, dig your grave. You will die
today!” This man then drove off, followed by the
police patrol car. The Roma also continued their car
journey in the same direction. As they approached a
bar on the road between Soltvadkert and Jakabszállás,
they discovered that the road was blocked-off by the
farm guard’s, while the police patrol car was parked
some distance away, by the side of the road. Pál
Sztojka reversed the car and turned back while the
farm guard pursued the Romani men. When Pál
Sztojka’s car got stuck in the sand for the second time,
the farm guard reportedly fired several times
(apparently from at shotgun) at the Roma who ran and
hid in the forest.
Later, on the same day, Pál Sztojka, József
Lakatos, József Sárközi, Miklós Rostás, and János
Kolompár tried to report the incident to the police.
They went to the nearest police station in Soltvadkert
where they were referred to the station in Kisk
rös,
the nearest larger town. However, there they were
instructed to file their complaint in Kalocsa, from
where they were sent to the station in Kecskemét.
None of the officers they spoke to at these stations
accepted their complaint or took other appropriate
action to protect them from further racist violence. On
10 May Pál Sztojka once again went to the Soltvadkert
police station, wearing a hidden camera and an audio
recorder provided by RTL-Klub, a commercial
television station. The following exchange between
Pál Sztojka and an unidentified police officer was
subsequently broadcast in an RTL-Klub program:
Pál Sztojka: “I would like to make a complaint.”
Police officer: “What the hell for?”
Pál Sztojka: “There was a shooting.”
Police officer: “And you have not been shot dead?
That is too bad.”
(...)
Pál Sztojka “There was a police officer there too.”
Police officer: “There was a police officer there
and he didn’t shoot you?”
The police officer is then heard threatening to hit
Pál Sztojka on the head. On 14 May, during an on-
camera interview with an RTL-Klub journalists, Antal
Csábi, a Kisk
rösi police official, denied that there
had been any attempt at filing a complaint in this case.
Officer Csábi also stated on camera that the Romani
men had not attempted to file a complaint (feljelentés)
in connection with the incident, but had only been
reporting a shooting incident to the police (bejelentés).
AI has learned that the police officers who
initially refused to take the victims’ complaint are
currently participating in the investigation of the
shooting incident. Some of the Romani victims have
subsequently been harassed by officers who allegedly
intimidated them by threatening to have them
investigated on suspicion of theft. Pál Sztojka’s car,
which was damaged in the shooting, is not currently
in use. However, the Kalocsa county court, which is
conducting the investigation into the shooting, has
asked Pál Sztojka to have the car towed, at his own
expense, for a forensic examination. Pál Sztojka was
told that should he fail to do so the case would be
closed because of lack of evidence. At the same time
Pál Sztojka is not aware that there is any investigation
into the police conduct before and following the
shooting incident, when police officers apparently
failed adequately to protect the victims from racist
verbal abuse and violence.
AI has asked the Hungarian authorities for reports
on investigations into all reported incidents. The
organization also called on the authorities to ensure
that the Romani men from Kalocsa are protected from
further harassment by the police; to provide
information on all measures undertaken to ensure that
the officers suspected of failing to protect the victims
of racist violence in this incident are excluded from
the conduct of the investigation into the reported
shooting; and to take steps to ensure that a thorough
and an impartial investigation into Pál Sztojka’s
complaint is carried out irrespective of the
complainant’s financial inability to participate in this
process by making his car available for a forensic
examination at a designated site.
AI also asked for information about any legal
provisions regulating the status and/or duties of police
officers who have been indicted for offences
committed in the service, as well as for information
concerning the current status on the police force of
Major István Nemesi, and officers László Soltész,
Ferenc Drégelyvári, and György Nagy, who were
convicted for the ill-treatment of László Vidák.
I R E L A N D
The UN Human Rights Committee
In April the UN Human Rights Committee made its
first decision against Ireland in an individual case
brought under the Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Committee found that Ireland had violated the
right to equality before the law of a person, who had
been deprived of a trial by jury and referred to a three-
judge Special Criminal Court, without the Director of
Public Prosecutions giving reasons for the referral.
The Committee was reported to have stated that
Ireland should not try people before the Special
Criminal Court unless it can show reasonable and
objective criteria for the decision. The Committee also
stated that Ireland must provide an “effective remedy”