The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia believes that the Ivancna Gorica municipality acted unlawfully in the case of the Strojans, a Roma family who had to leave their home there almost a year ago, Ombudsman dr. Zdenka Cebasek-Travnik told the press in Ljubljana on Wednesday, 3. 10.

Speaking to the press after a recent visit to the municipality, Cebasek-Travnik said that in terms of legislation, the state was responsible for the situation that arose when the Strojans had to leave the village of Ambrus at the end of October 2006 following a dispute with the locals.

She pointed to the complications at a meeting with Ivancna Gorica Mayor Jernej Lampret, when the ombudsman tried to acquire two documents, one saying that the Strojans needed to move from the plot in Ambrus and the other saying that they are not allowed to settle in the municipality. The office still expects the mayor to send the documents.

During the visit the representatives of the ombudsman's office also established that in the case of the Strojans, the police had carried out certain measures selectively.

Still, the measures were not discriminative. According to Cebasek-Travnik, the Strojans were not stopped by the police because of their ethnic origin, as it was presented to the public, but with the intention to prevent conflicts.

Several members of the Strojan family returned to Ambrus in mid-September and Cebasek Travnik said that the delegation had seen some 50 to 60 policemen during the visit to the village. The Strojans are not complaining about their presence, but are bothered by the fact that their freedom of movement is limited.

The representatives of the office paid special attention to how the Strojans' children were doing, and Cebasek Travnik said that despite the condition that majority would find unusual the children seemed happy. She is however concerned about the fact that they do not attend school and said that temporarily education at their home would be provided.

The locals from Ambrus meanwhile told the ombudsman that the state had failed in this case, as it had performed reverse discrimination by not punishing the Roma for offences that other locals were punished for. The locals were also offended by one-sided reports in the media and the police's attitude, the ombudsman said.

Cebasek Travnik said that a dialogue was a possible way to sollve the case and advised that educated Roma, who could apply the Roma way of thinking to standard practices, be included in the process. The ombudsman believes that a solution will be found, she however does not know whether it will suit both sides.

Following the tensions last year which escalated when a person living with the family, though not a Roma himself, seriously injured a villager, the family was first temporarily moved to a disused army barracks in the western town of Postojna.

The government started to look for a location for the Strojans' new home, but met with fierce opposition from the locals everywhere. They were finally housed in a vacant Defence Ministry building in Roje, on the outskirts of Ljubljana.