In 2008 and 2009 a series of nine attacks were committed against people of Roma origin; six people were murdered and five were seriously injured. The attack in Tatárszentgyörgy took place on 23 February 2009, when a house in a Roma district was attacked with Molotov cocktails. Róbert Csorba and his five-year-old son Robika were shot as they fled their home.

A delegation from the State Secretariat for Social Inclusion laid a wreath at the grave of the two victims, one day prior to the anniversary of the murders.

We commemorate the anniversary of the Tatárszentgyörgy murders every year. We shall not forget the victims and we express our firm resolve to stamp out hate crime in Hungary, whoever the victim may be. Lest anyone claim that one human life is more valuable than another, we consider such words to be a justification for hatred, and declare those killed in Tatárszentgyörgy and other settlements to be the victims of such hatred. Those victims were our equals, and they deserve the same justice as all of us.

Every human life is equally important, and the taking of any life is a crime – whether Roma as in Tatárszentgyörgy or Nagycsécs, or non-Roma as in Olaszliszka. The standard should be the same. Victims of hate must be defended, regardless of their age, their past, their ethnicity or nationality. The guilty must be punished under the law.

On 21 August 2009 four men were arrested in connection with the series of attacks, and on 25 March 2011 criminal proceedings were launched. The trial is still ongoing. The shock and public concern resulting from these atrocities is a measure of their unprecedented and exceptional nature in Hungary; all democratic forces in Hungary unequivocally condemned the crimes."

Source: kormany.hu

Photo: Káli-Horváth Kálmán