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What are you doing, Lunik IX? What are you children, closed in the cage of your ethnicity, dreaming about? Pariahs of society. Where are you from? they ask you. If you want to be spat at, just sayIm from Lunik IX. People from Lunik IX are allegedly those who damage the good reputation of Slovakia. But where is the truth? Which of us has the right to throw stones? Freedom means telling people what they dont want to hear (G. Orwell). Are we ready to listen...?

If you say to anybody in Slovakia that you are going to Lunik IX, everybody can locate it exactly; everybody can tell you how people live there, though only few of the speakers have ever been there. I cant erase one story from my memory. During an official visit, the crew from an unnamed TV station were preparing a story and the reporter, wearing a shiny white costume, shouted at the people in the windows of the blocks of flats in Hrebendova Street: Could you throw something out of the window? You are going to be on the telly... A minute later a real disaster started and her colleague, the cameraman, recorded everything. And in the evening we could watch on the TV news detailed pictures of the trash thrown out of the windows on the one hand, and smiling faces in the windows on the other. Well, this is the way of life in Lunik IX. So, we know everything... But Lunik IX didnt appear just like that. It is no miracle. It is the result of how the Roma issue has been solved....

The birth of a ghetto

At the end of 1973, the first meeting of the Commission of the Government of the Slovak Socialist Republic (SSR) for Issues of Citizens of Gypsy Origin took place. It had been established under the chair of the Minister for Social Affairs and Labour, Dezider Krocsany. The venue was Kosice. The reason for this meeting was how to sort out the problems of citizens of Gypsy origin. The statistics of that time indicated that the district of Kosice-Town was the district with the highest concentration of Roma in all of Czechoslovakia. The then commission deputy Imrich Farkas said in an interview for the Kosice evening newspaper (Vecer, 3. 12. 1973) that the situation in Kosice required a specific solution. The lack of shacks in this location prevented, in his opinion, paradoxically the scatter of the Roma populaiton among the majority, so the commission decided to solve the housing problem of the citizens of Gypsy origin in special forms, meaning outside the framework of normal plan of housing construction. On the basis of a suggestion submitted by the Town Council in Kosice, the officials started to play with the idea of building a housing estate of blocks of flats near the Myslava area. It will be especially for young families who will go to new housing estates because they are much more adaptable and without a burden of centuries lasting traditions..., I. Farkas said trying to convince the public.

The Town Council in Kosice approved the project for individual flat construction at MyslavaHousing Estate ABC, with total cost of Kcs107 million in June 1974. The plan was to build 365 flats in family houses, including all the necessary infrastructure. Although the name of the housing estate (ABC) was interpreted as the abbreviation of the Slovak terms Armada (army), Bezpecnost (security, here meaning the police), and Cigani (Gypsies), the press at that time wrote that it would be a new, purely Gypsy housing estate between Myslava and Lunik VII... (Vecer evening paper, 9. 10. 1974). Looking at it now, the plan to build a housing estate with little two-room houses of second and third category is really interesting (Vecer, 15. 10. 1974). According to press articles of that time, the housing estate should have a kindergarten for 120 children, an elementary school with 16 classes for 400 pupils, a shopping and social centre, a cinema with 200 seats and a medical centre. The information about the planned construction of this ghetto was repeatedly confirmed by the deputy of the mentioned government commission, I. Farkas, who said for the Vecer evening newspaper that, it has been considered to build a separate Kosice housing estate for 200 300 Gypsy families (Vecer, 11. 2. 1975). Similar information can be found in the media repeatedly: In line with the concept approved by the Town Council, all shacks and unsuitable housing should be destroyed by 1980. There is a new plan to build a housing estate for Gypsy citizens called ABC in Myslava, and this will be the solution to the housing problem (Vecer, 13. 5. 1975).

It is possible to observe the gradual change in media presentation when writing about the flats: first, a housing estate with family houses was mentioned, later the media reported about planned blocks of flats. In four-floor houses, 408 families will find their homes... (Vecer, 27. 6. 1975).

The name Lunik IX turned up in the press for the first time in December 1975. With irony we could say that it was the Christmas present from the Town Council, which decided on December 22, 1975, on the new name for the housing estate.

At that time (1973-74) 12,819 Roma lived in Kosice according to the statistical data, of which 4,581 were of productive age. But only 2,544 persons had a permanent job. The data says that 1,480 pupils from Gypsy families attended the elementary schools in the school year 1972/73 but only 227 of them completed elementary education. As many as 75 % of Gypsy children left elementary schools from the seventh or even lower forms and up to 30 % of Roma women who gave the birth to their first child were 15 or younger.

The statistics concerning the shacks: Tahanovce24 shacks, 210 persons, Myslava9 shacks, 78 persons, Saca12 shacks, 110 persons. (Source: On some problems with Gypsy population, Vecer, Year 6, No. 200, 9. 10. 1974, p. 3) In 1976, in the very centre of Kosice, there were 6 shacks while another 45 shacks were at the town borders. 339 flats inhabited by Roma had no bathroom and 200 households had no water connection. (Source: Will they be a problem forever? Vecer, Year 9, No. 251, 21.12.1977, p. 3)

So keres, Lunik IX?

One of the principles of the Communist policy towards the Roma was the principle of scattering them, and the Communist regime applied this relatively successfully. However, the application was a violent one and without any supporting social programmes... And thats exactly where we always fail. We cant move someone by force and without any explanation to a Lunik IX and then be surprised that this person destroyed a flushing toilet. Why do we expect a person who comes from a primitive environment to be prepared for Lunik IX? Michal Vasecka put this question in relation to looking for solutions of the Roma issue (Domino forum weekly, No. 33, 16. 8. 2001). He pointed out one thing which in most cases is forgotten by the public in relation to the Roma: the preparedness of some group to be integrated into society. When a large part of the Roma from a Gypsy camp was moved in the 1980s, nobody asked them anything. Nobody explained to them anything. People who lived freely were suddenly placed into crowded rooms of flats and pushed onto floors which they were afraid of. They couldnt sleep because they thought the houses would break down over their heads... A story is told about an old Roma whose only possession was a horse. The Roma allegedly tried to put the horse into the lift to move it to an upper floor where the old man was given a flat...

Social engineers who made decisions from their desks without the slightest knowledge about the community placed groups of Roma into flats located next to each other not knowing that these particular groups could never meet each other in the streets without a fight. The engineers parted families and made enemies into neighbours. What else could be the end of this, if not the Lunik IX as we know it now?

First, Roma came to completely equipped and furnished flats from a settlement at the old brickworks. Wardrobes, beds, cupboards, even the lino from the floors were donated by working people to their compatriots of Gypsy origin. The Gypsies didnt go voluntarily. One day they were loaded onto trucks and moved to new blocks of flats. Immediately after, their shacks were pulled down by bulldozers. The very next day things from the new flats were requested goods in the pub U patkana in the neighbouring housing estate Lunik VIII. Today, many Kosice citizens have their weekend houses furnished from these Roma surplus items. When military pilots found out that they had to move with their families to other flats in the same housing estate, they did everything necessary to get flats in more pleasant parts of town. Those who stayed, the Roma excepted, were only the happy tenants of company or cooperative flats who had no other choice. Unlike the Roma, they adapted. They didnt leave their flats after it got dark, they installed security locks in their entrance doors, and they didnt allow their children to play outside, Pravda newspaper summarizes (31. 12. 2001). Another interesting fact was mentioned in the newspaper: the project should have been signed by the then chair of the town council Jan Veles. This man resisted the pressure and didnt want to sign, but in the end he had no other way out than to get ill and end up in the hospital. A man who was willing to bring this sacrifice for the [Communist] party was finally found. The responsibility was taken by Veless deputy. Not one of his contemporaries can remember his name, but according to the CV of the Slovak president, the first deputy of the Kosice Town Council at that time was Rudolf Schuster... Pravda claims.

Segregation as norm

And so the biggest Roma ghetto in Europe was built. The first tenants began to move into the flats in February 1981. At that time, the army and the police refused to take other flats at a housing estate of that type. So the flats not occupied by Roma were offered to the VSZ Steelworks and the SBD Cooperative Kosice II. Contemporaries remember that from the very beginning there were expressions of segregation. Two independent kindergartens were established, one for Roma, the other for white children, and in 1983 an elementary school for Roma children only was opened. At that time (1983) there were 60 % non-Roma and 40 % Roma inhabitants in Lunik IX. The shopping centre was finished as late as 1986. Between 1989 and 1995 a medical centre and a pharmacy were established. Up until 1989, the employment rate at the housing estate was 99 %. During the whole time the segregation of the Roma population lasted. Roma live in separate blocks in the state-owned ones, white tenants live in separate onesthe cooperative-owned ones. There is an elementary school for Roma children only. White children have a bus reserved which takes them to schools in Myslava and at the Lunik VIII housing estate. (3. 4. 9. 4. 1992, p. 3)

Moving in

At the meetings of March 28 and April 5, 1995, the Town Council in Kosice approved resolution No. 55, or the so-called Conception of housing for non-payers, homeless and unadaptable citizens. The resolution also decided that the cooperative members from Lunik IX would be moved outside the housing estate. Although the document doesnt mention the Roma directly, the cooperative flats were inhabited by non-Roma at that time, so logically the resolution was about moving non-Roma out. Under the resolution is the signature of the then mayor of Kosice, Mr. Rudolf Schuster.

The citizens of Lunik IX criticised this decision and in cooperation with the Legal Protection Office The Foundation of the Good Fairy Kesaj, deputies of the Lunik IX council and others filed criminal charges against the former mayor of Kosice. They also filed criminal charges against the Lunik IX mayor Alexander Weber because he didnt allow them, as inhabitants of the effected part of town, to decide on important matters, such as establishing a housing estate for unadaptable citizens, without a public discussion and a referendum. We filed criminal charges against the persons mentioned above because they are suspected of having committed crimes according to the Section 196, par. 1 and 2, Section 198, par. 1a), Section 198 a par. 1., Section 199 par. 1., Section 259 par. 1a, Section 260, par. 1, and further, for violating the regulations of the International Agreement on Removing all Forms of Racial Discrimination from 1965, which was signed also by the Slovak Republic, says the charge. The charge claims, that the countries which signed the agreement cannot, for instance, separate schools, medical and other facilities on the grounds of racial principle and separate housing neighbourhoods for members of a particular minority. (The criminal charge was rejected, also by the Institutional Court due to some procedural mistakes.) The first non-Roma families moved to the Tahanovce housing estate in 1996. Altogether 114 flats were vacated and were afterwards invaded by non-payers, i. e., people who didnt pay rents for their flats (mainly Roma from all over the town). The number of social benefit cases was rising. Already in 1996 the number reached about 50 %.Today it is almost 95 %.

While this resolution was brought to life, the social situation at Lunik IX gradually got worse. An extraordinary meeting of the Lunik IX council on February 15, 1999, required the revokation of resolution No. 55, but the Kosice Town Council did not react, and the moving out continued.

Due to the moving out, the number of inhabitants of Lunik IX doubled within a short time. This fast increase was caused by the fact that families with many members, especially small children, moved in. The capacity of the elementary school, which was 300 children, was highly exceeded at that time. In the school year 1999/2000, the school was attended by 650 children who were forced to attend in two shifts. Bad hygienic conditions at Lunik IX were one reason for a hepatitis epidemic: 63 people got ill in November and December 1999. Although the Ministry of Health reacted to this situation by imposing a quarantine and the prohibition of public meetings, children of critical age were not given an effective vaccination, the argument being that the Ministry of Health would then not have any funding for the vaccination of children.

Does history repeat?

Maybe it was fate but it was Rudolf Schuster again who was responsible for sorting out the Roma issue in Kosice in the second half of the nineties. The complete restoration of the town centre of Kosice served his political ambitions. The known resolution No. 55 helped to clean the town centre from the Roma.

Five points of the conception can be summarized as an effort to move the non-Roma out of the housing estate, to adapt the flats in such a way to crowd as many people in there as possible and to push the scum from the entire town there, Pravda newspaper writes (31. 12. 2001). And although it is not possible to attack the resolution itself, because many responsible people at that time were very well aware of the watchful international organisations that would interfere immediately, a little mistake happened, in spite of this. In 1997, as a part of the development programme for the support of housing, construction work began at Lunik with the aim of building flats that were publicly called social flats for non-payers but according to the official documents (Roma Rights 2/2000, ERRC Budapest) these were to be small low-standard flats for Roma. One could say: When you make a mistake, youll tell the truth... The former mayor of Lunik IX, Mr. Weber, left the housing estate definitely when he allegedly lost influence on what was happening. Just to round out the story: he moved to a house in the town centre that became free after the Roma non-payers were moved out to Lunik IX (Pravda, 31. 12. 2001).

Today it is very difficult to prove with evidence what really happened at Lunik IX. When the Roma local administration was appointed in 1998, it seemed for a while that things would move in the right direction. The newly elected mayor Jozef Sana, called Pepo, the town hall director Tibor Loran, and later those who came after themLadislav Sana and Anton Kolenohad a plenty of new ideas.

First of all, it was found that the Lunik IX housing estate was the only part of Kosice that didnt participate in the HSA (EconomicAdministrative Agglomeration) development programme. It was found that Lunik IX town hall employees had since 1990 been paid a special bonus to their salaries for mentally stressful working conditions; that demographic materials were not processed properly; that the elementary school was in a disastrous shape; and that the police station was closed down despite the high crime rate (information submitted at the press conference of Tibor Loran, Kosice, 20. 10. 1999).

The Kosice Town Council decided on September 5, 1996, that small, so-called social flats would be built at Lunik IX. For this purpose the amount of Sk10 million was assigned from the town budget (just for comparison: for the restoration of Hrnciarska Street Sk30 million were made available and for the reconstruction of town parks Sk10 million). Although the budget for the construction of the social flats rose gradually to Sk22 million, it is not quite clear why the number of 15 15 units planned originally grew to the present 41 41, although the size of the construction site remained the same.

Almost regularly the public is informed that the tenants at Lunik IX have debts on rentals and public media use amounting to almost Sk75 million. According to Jozef Sana and Tibor Loran, who tried to find a way to move this biggest of stones that was an obstacle in the relation towards the town administration, this problem started when the former mayor Weber signed, on the behalf of the Lunik IX Town Office, an agreement about the administration of flats between the Flat Company of the Town of Kosice (BPMK) and the Town Hall. According to this contract, the BPMK issued invoices for missing payments to the Lunik IX Town Office and not to individual tenants. The debts were then later claimed by the Lunik IX Town Office. This is one reason why the former mayor Pepo required control over the flat administration and carried out a proper inventory. In his letter to Deputy Prime Minister Pal Csaky from July 12, 1999, he asked for help to accelerate the transfer of ownership of land and flats which were in the ownership of the town. He pointed to the fact that the town hadnt invested any money into the maintenance of its property since 1981 and that the emergency state of the flats and other spaces was ignored. By doing this the town deliberately devalued and neglected the property.

The former Lunik IX town office management also pointed at a strange method of invoicing the debts. The debts in May 1999 were, according to published information, Sk15 million, but as of October 1999, the debts were, according to the information from the BPMK, already Sk22,703,189. Within four months the debts increased by Sk7 million, T. Loran found (press conference, 20. 10. 1999).

It was found for instance, that the Lunik IX town office paid, without any legal reason, exceedingly high monthly amounts for the functioning of a station used for holding drunk people (press conference, 20. 10. 1999).

The biggest media coverage was caused by the then Minister of Justice Jan Carnogursky (2. 10. 1999), who came himself to Lunik IX to help tidy up the garbage. Although the BPMK promised to supply vehicles for this purpose for free, on October 4, 1999, the Lunik IX town office received a fax requiring it to confirm the order for waste disposal for a price of Sk300,000 (press conference, 20. 10. 1999). As the minutes of the meeting related to environmental issues at Lunik IX from November 11 said, during the Jan Carnogursky tidy-up job as much as 120 tons of garbage were removed from the housing estate, i.e., about half of total amount of waste at the site. Another quote from the mentioned minutes proves the overall hygienic situation at Lunik IX: The classes of the special elementary school in Inzinierska Street, 5 classes altogether, are in a very bad shape. The pupils have to sit in mildewed rooms where rain gets in. They have no lavatories and rats are running around in there. The State Hygienic Institute issued a resolution prohibiting use of the building until the problems are solved. The quoted minutes contain the list of non-payers at Lunik IX, and it is possible to find there the following numbers: the number of flats at Lunik IX as of September 30, 1999: 646; the number of non-paying households at the same date: 899!

So phendal, Lunik IX?

Marie Poirot is a nice young lady. Only few would guess that it was she who came from France to Kosice to crack the problems of Lunik IX. She represents here the civic association called Villes en Transition with headquarters in Lyon. We started our activities in Vietnam where we tried to bring back to life a similar community as the one at Lunik IX. We focused on the social integration linked with the housing issue. We help with a complex housing policy, starting with the project and ending with the mortgage, Marie says. In Kosice, they started in Vodarenska Street. Yet in 2000 we carried out a research in Vodarenska Street and also a study of the restoration of flats. The condition of Villes en Transition during its negotiations with the Town Hall people and the Lunik IX representatives was that after the reconstruction it will be Roma again who will move into the flats. This appeared to be the biggest problem because the officials were interested in rebuilding but not in the Roma living in that neighbourhood, Marie stressed.

In the situation when the unconcern of the responsible officials was the basic obstacle in the project implementation, Marie suggested to her colleagues in France that they concentrate on Lunik IX. I was at Lunik IX for the first time in 1998 and I saw how much work was to be done. It seemed to me that if the French-Slovak cooperation turned out to be interesting, we could help this area of town considerably to return to normal life, she explains.

And so in 2001, she started bringing her ideas to life.

The working method by Villes en Transition (VET) was the same as in other projects of a similar type. It began with a large survey to help identify the core of the problem and find ways out. When we began the survey, we werent interested in repeating research performed by other organisations. So we got information at various levels about whether anything similar had been done before. Unfortunately, we were given a very unsatisfactory answer, such as: well, yes, someone did something here... but nobody could provide us with the results, recalls Michal Stasak, Marias Slovak colleague in the association. As he said, the research was originally planned for three months but at the end it took more than half a year. It was all thank to Marias precision. She did the research personally. She personally visited each flat which is in our database, she talked to people, she looked into each kitchen, and tasted each offered meal... Michal laughs. But people got to know me and started trusting me. I am with them every day, we have common problems, we meet each other... I am theirs, Marie explains. It was very important for her because she doesnt live directly at Lunik IX. Its for two reasons: first, it is the VET principle. A person who works on a project must live outside the estate or settlement so as not to lose distance or objectivity. Second, even though my colleagues would grant me an exception in case of Lunik IX for living directly in the community, it was not possible to get a flat. At Lunik IX there are only social flats, and I am no social case according to your laws, and I havent got Slovak citizenship, Marie stresses.

Many people, including some officials, tried to discourage us from the research claiming it was too dangerous, Marie notes and then adds that all the warnings turned out to be pointless. People were kind, communicative. They were really interested why we did this. We had to explain everything everywhere we went, and almost all were very willing to provide us with information, Marie says.

It helped them very much at the beginning of the project that a partner programme was started exactly at that time and the programme representative was a Frenchman, Mr. Michel Digne (see also the interview with M. Digne). Helpful was also the activity of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs which sponsored the money for the research. Our aim was to find out the demographic structure of the population, and also whether the Lunik IX inhabitants have certain skills, so they could participate in restoration of the flats. But we also wanted to find out whether the households paid rent for their flats... Maria added. She said that a mistake was made right from the inception of the housing estate. These flats are not suitable for this population to live in because before they lived in an open space. This must have been clear right at the beginning, but unfortunately, this aspect was not considered at all, Maria said, explaining her view.

During the research Michal and Marie experienced a number of small stories which document the nature of the Lunik IX population. As soon as we explained to them what we did, they asked us most often whether we could find them a job, or arrange a moving out of Lunik IX. We had to show a great deal of empathy because these people feel immediately whether you are treating them fairly or not. It happened, for instance, that we entered the flat of a man whose wife had passed away just a couple of days before. So we had to listen for another two hours about all his problems, just not to lose trust. You know, if we had refused him, his neighbours would have found out immediately, and then perhaps we wouldnt have found people willing to cooperate, Michal comments on the research.

The return of Pepo into the Lunik IX mayors seat made their situation more difficult. Pepo refused to communicate with them and he also threw them out of the office they rented. He claimed that the registry office will be moved in there. Until today the offices are empty, Michal added.

The results of the research that lasted from January 2001 until the end of August 2001 are still being processed but it is already clear that they provide a lot of invaluable information about this community. Marie and Michal believe that contacts with the French partners which are already established will bring the expected results. It wouldnt be good if the process of ghettoisation of the estate didnt stop, Marie says. She said that Lunik IX still isnt a classical ghetto, even though it has all characteristics of one and is developing in this direction. We built them a new school, well move doctors in, a kindergarten is there... in a short time these people will be completely isolated. In order to meet the basic needs they wont have to leave the estate at all... If the government doesnt help prepare legislation that enables various institutions and organisations which want to do something for Lunik IX to act, Lunik IX will turn into a ghetto really soon, Marie warns. The main strength and the best chance of the estate, and also the main reason we still cant talk about a ghetto in case of Lunik IX, is, she said, the fact that communication with the outside world is still on a good level. A classical ghetto is completely closed. Social workers, even those who come from the community, have problems getting information. Because Lunik IX does not fulfil this condition, I think there is still room to rescue it, Maria emphasizes. The biggest problem, she thinks, is that they can hardly find partners for communication at the state and local administration levels. For instance, they werent able to receive the construction documentation about the flats because the officials sent them from one door to the next, and the responsible officials at the Kosice Town Hall dont have any time for them. All pretend to be willing to help but in reality they do nothing. Thats what I call hypocritical racism... Marie finishes. (The research results are stated at the end of the text.)

Conclusion

The new deputy mayor of Kosice Eugen Cuno admitted to the Roma Press Agency that the town doesnt have any ideas that would bring a fast solution of problems at the Lunik IX housing estate. Cuno thinks that the restoration of the present flats and a gradual construction of atypical houses for this community are necessary. He said that the new school at Lunik is a modern educational facility, so it is in the interest of the town to support the maximum school attendance by the local pupils, which would open the doors to further education and employment. The deputy mayor also suggested the idea to employ some Roma at the Kosice Town Hall, in positions which are in the most frequent contact to Roma citizens. He also stressed that he can imagine a Roma in the position of the deputy director of the town administration.

In spite of the above-mentioned, the process of ghettoisation of the housing estate continues: moving the Roma non-payers out of the town, moving the inhabitants from Vodarenska Street in Kosice into temporary mobile dwellings at Lunik IX... It was last year when a Roma family allegedly last left the estate... It is important that today we stand before the ghettoisation is final. It would be good if this story developed differently...

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