Advocates pushed Wednesday for an international fund for the protection of Roma rights, citing frequent racist attacks and discriminatory policies throughout Europe.

Roma are on the agenda Thursday and Friday at a three-week conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Representatives of Roma throughout Europe held a panel discussion the night before to prepare recommendations.

’’ In Bulgaria and Romania we have police violence and community violence -- lynching, burning houses, expelling Roma from the villages, ’’ said Roma activist Nicolae Gheorge. Gheorghe, who heads the Roma Center for Social Intervention Study in Romania, sa id OSCE officials already have been approached about the fund idea and that have reacted favorably. He said there has been discussion of a donors’ conference in 1999.

Members of the panel suggested that more Roma be recruited into police forces, and that media refrain from identifying Roma in crime stories except when ethnicity is relevant, such as in a racially motivated attack. The stereotype common throughout Europe is that Roma, with their traditionally large families, are drain on social services and that they often live off crime. Skinhead violence against Roma has become a problem especially in Slovakia, Czech Rep., Hungary and Serbia, Gheorghe said. The violence in the Czech Rep. has helped spur and exodus of Roma, with some 1,500 leaving that country in August, he said.