Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 2 Project The Erased People of Slovenia – A Challenge for the Young Nation-State Head of the Project Neža Kogovšek Project Partners Peace Institute (coordinator) Amnesty International Slovenia Unione forense per la tutella dei diritti dell'uomo PIC - Legal Information Center of NGOs THE SCARS OF THE ERASURE A Contribution to the Critical Understanding of the Erasure of People from the Register of Permanent Residents of the Republic of Slovenia Authors Neža Kogovšek, Jelka Zorn, Sara Pistotnik, Uršula Lipovec Čebron, Veronika Bajt, Brankica Petković, Lana Zdravković Editors Neža Kogovšek, Brankica Petković Reviewers Prof. Dr. Dragan Petrovec, Doc. Dr. Peter Klepec Kršić Translation Olga Vuković Language Consultant Michelle Gadpaille Design KITCH Cover Page KITCH Layout Matej Hrček, Biro Stara Ljubljana, d.o.o. Printing Stane Peklaj, s.p. 500 copies, 1st edition © 2010, Peace Institute Publisher and Copyright Holder Peace Institute, Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana The publication of this book has been made possible by Open Society Foundations CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 342.71(497.4)(082) 572.028(082) The SCARS of the erasure : a contribution to the critical understanding of the erasure of people from the register of permanent residents of the Republic of Slovenia / Neža Kogovšek ... [et al.] ; [editors Neža Kogovšek, Brankica Petković ; translation Olga Vuković]. - 1st ed. - Ljubljana : Peace Institute, 2010 ISBN 978-961-6455-61-9 1. Kogovšek, Neža 2. Kogovšek, Neža 253309184 Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 3 NEŽA KOGOVŠEK JELKA ZORN THE SCARS OF SARA PISTOTNIK URŠULA LIPOVEC ČEBRON THE VERONIKA BAJT ERASURE BRANKICA PETKOVIĆ A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITICAL LANA ZDRAVKOVIĆ UNDERSTANDING OF THE ERASURE OF PEOPLE FROM THE REGISTER OF PERMANENT RESIDENTS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 4 Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 5 The Erased People Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Erosion of Stereotypes and the Irreversible Road to Redressing Injustice Neža Kogovšek 9 Registered as Workers, Erased as non-Slovenes: The Transition Period from the Perspective of the Erased People Jelka Zorn 19 An erased person’s story You cannot fight the system alone 47 The Erasure as a Testing Ground for European Migration Policies, or Pardon Me, but Your Regulations Have Erased My Status Sara Pistotnik 53 An erased person’s story As if I were climbing Mount Everest 79 The Erasure as a Violation of Legally Protected Human Rights Neža Kogovšek 83 An erased person’s story I was lucky 145 Erased Rights, Invisible Diseases: An Analysis of the Health Consequences of the Erasure Uršula Lipovec Čebron 151 An erased person’s story I missed Slovenia, I was born there 191 More Than Administratively Created “Foreigners”: The Erased People and a Reflection of the Nationalist Construction of the Other in the Symbolic Idea about “Us” Veronika Bajt 195 An erased person’s story Citizenship for one kilo of potatoes 219 The Erased Language Brankica Petković 223 An erased person’s story It was the Bosnians who were erased, but damage was suffered by Slovenian children as well 251 The Struggle Against the Denial of Citizenship as a Paradigm of Emancipatory Politics Lana Zdravković 257 Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 6 Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 7 We dedicate this book to Aleksandar Todorović for his invaluable contribution to the struggle for the rights of the erased people. Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 8 Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 9 9 THE ERASED PEOPLE YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW. EROSION OF STEREOTYPES AND THE IRREVERSIBLE ROAD TO REDRESSING INJUSTICE If seventeen years after the unlawful administrative erasure1 of 25,6712 people from the register of permanent residents of the Republic of Slovenia we examine their political, legal and social situation today, we can observe positive changes. The public and political attitude towards “immigrants” has indeed re- mained negative, while the nationalism we witnessed in the National Assembly during the years after Slovenia gained independence (Zorn 2007) is today more concealed. And yet, what gives hope is the fact that one part of the political elite has begun to use the discourse of human rights and refer to the state ruled by law when speaking about the erasure. This differs greatly from the discourses that prevailed in the past, when responsibility for the erasure was imputed to the erased people and when stereotypes and prejudices were spread to reinforce exclusion and to avoid the implementation of the Constitutional Court ruling.3 Among the examples of this change in discourse let us mention three speeches: 1 The erasure from the register of permanent residents implemented by the administrative bodies of the Republic of Slovenia was not based in law, as was established by the Constitutional Court. It mainly (but not only) affected people born in other republics of the former Yugoslavia who had Yugoslav citizenship and as a rule also the citizenship of ano - ther republic of the former Yugoslavia, but lived in the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia where they had permanent addresses. When Slovenia became an independent country, on 25 June 1991, the citizens of the former Socialist Re- public of Slovenia automatically became citizens of the new country, the Republic of Slovenia. According to Article 40 of the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, all citizens of other republics of the former SFRY with permanent addresses in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia had the right to apply for Slovenian citizenship within six months from the date of independence. Those who did not obtain citizenship (because they failed to apply for whatever reason, or their application was refused or discarded or the procedure was terminated), lost permanent resident status. They were deprived of permanent resident status arbitrarily; local authorities implemented the measure in accordance with instructions from the Ministry of the Interior, at that time headed by Igor Bavčar and the State Secretary of the Interior, Slavko Debelak. With the loss of status, they also lost all economic and social rights tied to permanent resident status. The detailed description of the circumstances surrounding the erasure is beyond the scope of this book. For more on the erasure itself, see Dedić at al. 2003 and Lipovec Čebron and Zorn 2007. 2 This figure is the result of the internal examination of databases conducted in January 2009 by the Ministry of the Interior. 3 Constitutional Court Ruling No. U-I-284/94 dated 4 February 1999 and Ruling No. U-I-246/02 dated 3 April 2003. Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 10 10 THE SCARS OF THE ERASURE the first by the Minister of the Interior, Katarina Kresal, on 18 November 2008 in the National Assembly before the vote on her appointment, in which she high- lighted the settling of the status of erased people as one of the priorities during her term in office; second, her speech on 1 April 2009 in response to the inter- pellation concerning supplementary decisions issued to the erased people in accordance with the Constitutional Court ruling; and, finally, the speech by Prime Minister Borut Pahor on the same occasion. Public opinion surveys, too, indicate changes in the public attitude towards the erased people. In 2003, fifty percent of respondents gave an affirmative answer to the question: “Is the government obliged to observe the Constitu- tional Court ruling on the erased people?” In 2004, this percentage dropped to 46 percent; in 2006 it rose to 49 percent, further increasing to 55 percent in 2007 and reaching 71 percent in 2009.4 The public opinion survey conducted in December 2008 by Ninamedia5 agency as part of the Peace Institute project showed that nearly 86 percent of respondents thought that the Constitutional Court rulings should be unconditionally respected, while 71 percent thought that they should be respected in the case of the erased people, as well. Given that the opponents of the settling of this issue have repeatedly demanded a referendum concerning the rights of the erased people, one important finding of the Ninamedia survey is that almost 70 percent of respondents thought that it was not possible to decide on human rights by a referendum, and 72 percent of them held that the rights of the erased people could not be decided by a re- ferendum either. Repeated calls for a referendum should therefore be under- stood solely as a political tool exploited to create an impression that society is opposed to settling this issue. During recent years, it was also possible to en- counter the viewpoint, both among the public and in politics, that the erasure did not happen, but the findings of the survey show that this opinion is held by an insignificant minority – less then 3 percent of respondents. Stereotypes about and prejudices against the erased people have been gradually dying away. This conclusion is based, among other things, on the fact that only slightly more than one-third of respondents thought that the erased people were oppo- nents of sovereign Slovenia, while slightly less than 16 percent believed them to be national traitors. However, the more positive attitude on the part of both the political elites and society is not enough to rectify the injustices and eluci- date the circumstances surrounding the erasure, including the responsibility of those who endorsed this measure. The crucial step that should be taken by so- ciety is the establishment of an impartial investigation commission to officially examine the implementation and consequences of the erasure and the possi- bility of bringing to justice those responsible. Almost 76 percent of respondents in the Ninamedia survey support the establishment of such a commission and 4 The findings of the Politbarometer surveys conducted as part of the Slovenian Public Opinion surveys at the Faculty of Social Science are available at http://www.cjm.si/PB_rezultati (26 November 2009).