Wiesbaden / Germany (RNN Correspondent) 19.05.1998

The Central Committee of the German Sinti and Roma has warned of a discrimination" of their language. It would be a scandal", an arbitrary act" and an international disgrace", if Romanes would not be included in the European Charta for Minority Languages " like the languages Frisian, Sorbian, Danish and Low German, said the chairman, Romani Rose, on Friday. He emphasizes that this is the more obscure, as Romanes is the language of one of the ethnic groups that have been affected worst by the holocaust. Due to the statements of Rose, the language of the German Sinti and Roma is not being taken into account in the ratification law. Germany had signed the European Charta for Minority Languages" in 1992, and since then the Central Committee has demanded the con sideration of Romanes in the Charta.