GYPSIES: A World Apart.

Five million Roma--or Gypsies--face prejudice and economic hardship in Central and Eastern Europe.

They are known as wanderers, travelers, people without a home. Their songs and dances are loved throughout the world, yet they themselves are feared and despised. Who are the Roma, or Gypsies, and where did they come from?

About a thousand years ago, large groups of Roma left India for the Middle East. They were organized into clans, based mostly on where they had lived and what crafts they specialized in. Traditionally, Roma worked as musicians and dancers, basket weavers and metalsmiths, fortunetellers and horse traders.

In the 14th century, Roma began to arrive in Europe. At first, they were treated as exotic outsiders. But soon their fortune-telling was attacked by the Catholic Church as a form of witchcraft, their rootlessness deemed antisocial. As a result, many Roma were either killed or taken as slaves.

Birth of the "Gypsies"

Believing that these people had originally come from Egypt, Europeans at first called the nomads Egyptians, and then, simply, "Gypsies."

Because Gypsies were shut out of most professions, they developed a fear and mistrust of non-Gypsies, whom they call gadje. Many Gypsies resorted to begging and stealing to survive. They were then stereotyped as petty criminals and thieves.

Some English words are based on those negative stereotypes. To "gyp" is to cheat. A gypsy moth is a parasite. A gypsy cab doesn't have a proper license.

Today, most descendants of the original nomads still call themselves Gypsies. But they go by different names in different parts of the world. In Central and Eastern Europe, they are known as Roma: in France they are called Gitanes; and in Spain, Gitanos.

Although only 5 percent of Gypsies are nomads, the myth of the romantic wanderer persists. But Gypsies are far from free. Often, says one historian, they "are kept on the move by [discriminatory] legislation."

Most Eastern European Roma live in poor areas. This is largely the result of Communist rule from the late 1940s to 1989, when government officials pressured the Roma to stay in one place.

Many Roma live in overcrowded camps on the fringes of large cities, where rats run rampant and one toilet is shared by more than a hundred people. But some reside in wealthy neighborhoods, their homes decorated lavishly.

Throughout Europe, the Roma make up only a tiny percentage of the population. In Central and Eastern Europe especially, their lack of power and political representation forces them to live on the margins of society.

If education is the way out of poverty for most minorities, then the Roma are doubly doomed. Even today, their children are denied equal access to a good education.

The story of Roman Bandy has a sadly familiar ring for many of the estimated 5 million Roma in Central and Eastern Europe.

Roman lives in Ostrava, a mid-sized city in the eastern Czech Republic. He is one of only a handful of Roma at his elementary school, and the only one in his class. If his teachers had had their way, Roman's fate would be much different.

"On the first day, the teacher suggested that I be transferred to a remedial [special] school," Roman told JS. "The school made the same recommendation about my brother." Roman says that school officials wanted him and his brother to undergo "psychological testing," which his brother eventually "failed."

But, says Roman, his mother "made it very clear to the school that even if [her sons] failed the psychological test, or were forced to repeat the same grade five times, she would still refuse to transfer them to a remedial special school."

Ondrej Gina, a Roma activist, says that the negative schooling experiences of most Roma children stay with them through life. "It's the most sensitive time for any child," says Gina, "a time when any latent [hidden] talent children have should be nurtured. For Roma kids, they constantly hear 'You dirty Gypsy,' and it leaves them with little self-confidence."

Widespread Discrimination

The Czech government admits that about 75 percent of the country's Roma children attend schools designed for mentally disabled students. Often children are placed in such schools because they speak Romany, or some variation of the Gypsy language, rather than the native tongue of the country where they live. More than half of all special-school students are Roma.

Critics argue that the policy amounts to racial segregation. They also point out that once students are placed in such schools, there is no getting out.

Last year, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) filed a suit in the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of 18 Roma children, "This is the beginning of a long journey," said Jim Goldston of the ERRC. "But we should remember that it took more than 30 years of similar cases in the United States before desegregation in schools was struck down."

Collapse of Communism

Educational segregation is just one of many problems facing the Roma. They also encounter discrimination in employment and social services. In Slovakia, Roma live in shanty towns in unimaginable filth, with no running water or electricity. In Hungary, Roma are targets of what Human Rights Watch calls "rampant" police abuse.

In the Czech Republic, violent "skinheads" are attacking Roma. (Most skinheads come from the former Yugoslavia, where Gypsies are also hated.) And in Romania, many Roma have been driven out of their homes.

Since the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe in 1989, the plight of the Roma has worsened in many ways. The jobs they once held, mostly on collective farms and in state factories, have vanished in a shrinking economy. In some areas, Roma unemployment is nearly 100 percent.

"Ten years after the Iron Curtain fell, Europe is at risk of being divided by new walls," warns Walter Kemp, the author of a report on Europe's Roma. "Front and center among those persons being left outside Europe's new security and prosperity are the Roma."

Encouraging Steps

Still, Gypsies and their rich culture have survived despite terrible odds. And now, steps are being taken to give them more control over their lives.

Last fall, Western European officials gave former Communist countries in Eastern Europe an ultimatum: If you want to be accepted into the European Union, you must correct the "widespread discrimination in social and economic life" that Roma face.

A radio station in Hungary now airs Gypsy news and music exclusively. In the Czech Republic, officials may do away with the "psychological tests" that Roma schoolchildren are forced to take. And this summer, the problems of the Roma will be discussed at a UN conference on racism.

For now, music remains, in the words of one U.S. journalist, "the only voice," that Roma have "to raise against discrimination."