Bucharest Hosts Protest Against Discrimination

Participants in the march gathered Saturday morning in Constitutiei Square, from where they left around 11.00 AM local time, towards Alba-Iulia Square, and returned on the same route, to the starting point. Throughout the march, participants walked on the sidewalk, accompanied by gendarmerie.

Participants in the march carried banners reading "Before they are all free, we are all prisoners," flags with messages for the promotion of tolerance and shouted slogans against racism and discrimination. Most participants in the march had their faces covered with scarves, and protestors included people who proclaimed themselves anarchists, while they were wearing flags with anarchist insignia.

Protestors included Mircea Toma, president of the Agency for Press Monitoring, and Delia Grigore, Romani Criss representative.

Organizers said that through this action they wished to draw attention on the discrimination to which Romanians are subject after the recent events in Italy and on the political conduct triggered by the events, which increased the tension, reaching "general blaming."

"We have gathered here today to support solidarity in diversity. We are concerned by the political and media speech used after the situation in Italy. The political speech, when inflammatory, from foreign affairs minister Adrian Cioroianu to president Traian Basescu, brings tension. Nothing is solved through general blaming," Delia Grigore told MEDIAFAX.

The march was organized by an informal network of groups, with the support of the associations Romani Criss, Aqvarius, the Center for Media Art and Social Action, the UNITED for Intercultural Action network, Indymedia Romania, the group H.ARTA, Ladyfest Romania and the Peace Culture Association.

The organizers, who claim are not politically affiliated, said they chose this day to protest against all forms of discrimination because November 9 was the Day of fighting against fascism and anti-Semitism.

Lieutenant colonel Catalin Fainaru, with the Bucharest Gendarmerie, said at the end of the march that there were no incidents, and the group of protestors was accompanied by gendarmerie until it reached subway station Izvor, where each member left individually.