Nondiscrimination Coalition expects apologies from Plugaru

The Nondiscrimination Coalition says it will sue jurist Anatol Plugaru if he does not publicly apologize to the Roma for the labels he used for them. In a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on March 9, representatives of the Collation said the former Minister of National Security used an expression that was deeply offensive to the Roma. During a news conference on February 24, Anatol Plugaru said the Caretaker President Mihai Ghimpu does with the Constitution as the Romany people with a dirty child – give birth to a new one instead of washing the dirty one. Vera Turcanu, consultant of the Nondiscrimination Coalition, said that nobody has the right to infringe on the dignity of an ethnic group. Another representative of the Coalition, Sergiu Ostaf, who is the head of the Resource Center for Human Rights, said the offensive expressions used by public figures form stereotypes, arouse hatred and cause disagreements. The word “Gypsy” is offensive, said the head of the National Roma Center Nicolae Radita. According to him, the Romanies should not be made scapegoats when upbraiding somebody. Referring to a recently declassified official document in which the former head of state wrote “with money, even Gypsies sing and dance!”, Radita said that “the law enforcement bodies should react to its content, and the media shouldn't distract the attention of the public through this kind of formulations which arouse hatred and animosity in society”.