Around the Balkans in 20 Days (Part 4/5)

15 years after hosting Europe's ugliest civil war since the Holocaust, VICE takes a road trip across the remnants of Old Yugoslavia.

Watch more VICE documentaries here: http://bit.ly/VICE-Documentaries

Gypsies draw the short end of the stick wherever they live in Europe, and in Kosovo that stick is already kind of short and shitty to begin with. In the late 90s, while the Serbs and Albanians were bitching to the international community about how ethnically cleansed they were being from the region, BOTH sides were trying to drive the local Gypsy population out of town. Usually through such time-honored pressure tactics as burning down their houses and murdering the older members of their families. As the war flared and the anti-Gypsy atrocities escalated, the UN stepped in and took the only acceptable course of action: Build a refugee shelter for the Gypsies on an old dumping ground for industrial waste, then leave them there until all their children have lead poisoning.

In this stop on our trip we met with Paul Polansky, an American activist for gypsy rights who was brought to Kosovo by the UN to oversee their refugee camps, but who turned against them when he realized their negligence was basically doing the Serbs' and Albanians' job for them. Their genocide job, we mean.

Watch the rest here!
Part 1/5: http://bit.ly/Balkans-1
Part 2/5: http://bit.ly/Balkans-2
Part 3/5: http://bit.ly/Balkans-3
Part 4/5: http://bit.ly/Balkans-4
Part 5/5: http://bit.ly/Balkans-5

Follow Thomas on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Babyballs69
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• Category

  News & Politics

[Жан Карвальо]

They have no place to go due to ethnic cleansing.

[rudy032190]

They can leave if they don't like it in Kosovo. It's not like they aren't used to moving around... they're gypsies.

[Disasterjunkie4ever]

they are just waiting for them to dye

[Disasterjunkie4ever]

this is fucking horrible.

No one in this planet deserve to live.

Your telling me that the US can collect all the roma people of the world and let them come to the US to live in Colorado, very gladly of the land, free from oppression and poisonous lands.

This is fucking sick.

[Disasterjunkie4ever]

People in Europe are so racist,

when is not Jews is Gypseys, or Black, Indians, Hispanics, Asians,

You can hide under that EU carpet but we all know that even after more than half a century the fires of Nazism still run hot in their veins.

Maybe it would have been best that the Soviet Union conquered all of Europe.

[lcbreezyl]

Sad that the lead limits brain development as if the gypsies didn't have a hard enough time getting work and advancing before with all the other problems.

Makes you wonder if they did put them there on purpose

Seemed like everyone they interview had a huge families; makes the stereotype of many kids seem true.

Dude blames the UN for bringing drugs and prostitutes as if their ppl are morally above it. And they brought aids prob cuz the troops are brown. UN troops come the poor members nations so

[TheShaban92]

the gypsy guy was not telling the truth they burned our houses during the war so fuck them

[IronWolfVI]

You know there's a reason why the Balkans want the gypsies gone.

We,Romanians had a chance to get rid of them but when we tried the French and the Brits told us its inhuman now they pay them to leave their country ....

[dings215]

there's a reason that gypsies are universally disliked.

[thesameasyours asisaid]

really? My hatred of the conditions these kids face makes me an animal? The parents decision, after years of witnessing their lives, to have infants raised in such conditions is admirable? Only on this fucking ball of dirt would someone get a medal for child abuse and someone who is hurt by seeing BABIES hurt is a racist right? Sorry, I was told to fix my problems before pushing them on someone else. Wow what mental capabilities you have there. You're right, they should have more kids.

[MzBUZZKILINGTON]

And that's why they are in that situation their attitude, because of people like you. They said already they can't go outside the camps because of people like you. Basically you're saying shut up and die. They shouldn't be murdered per se, more like they should die off. That is still genocide.  Where do you live anyways?

[MzBUZZKILINGTON]

People are only tolerant enough to accept themselves.