The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights strongly condemns the case of writing offensive graffiti with swastikas and inscriptions "Gyupci", written with black spray on houses of the Roma population on Debarska street in Bitola. This is another case of a hate crime, with a message calling for violence against the Roma ethnic community.

-Starting from the aspiration to build coexistence, tolerance and mutual respect regardless of national, ethnic, religious or any other affiliation, we demand that the competent institutions, above all the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office, thoroughly investigate the case, find the perpetrators, who should be held accountable for this crime, the HC said.

The Helsinki Committee expects the Ministry of the Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office to properly qualify this act as a hate crime. For our part, we will file a criminal complaint and in the future we will follow all the activities that are undertaken in connection with the case.

Otherwise, in the past years, the Helsinki Committee has warned on several occasions about the presence of hate speech towards the Roma community in the Municipality of Bitola and the need to take concrete steps to increase citizens' awareness of inter-ethnic, inter-religious and inter-cultural tolerance and coexistence.

- The appropriate reaction from the institutions in such moments is extremely important, because the failure to provide effective protection to the victims of hate speech and acts can result in discouraging the victims from seeking protection, and encouraging the perpetrators to repeat the crime. Racial profiling of the Roma remains the key factor that prevents equal access to goods and services and reinforces their marginalized status in society. Precisely because of all this, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights believes that real improvements are possible only through a significant change in the attitude of the state authorities towards this community, the Helsinki Committee emphasizes.