THE LONDON-based Amnesty International (AI), the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest, and the Slovak Roma Rights Centre have filed a motion against the Slovak police to the country's Prosecutor General's Office, the SITA news wire wrote.
The claimants argue that the police used inappropriate methods when coping with last week's Roma unrest in the eastern Slovak towns of Trebišov and Čaklov, breaching not only European human rights regulations but also Slovak law.
According to claims of the local Roma, a video recording proves that the policemen used inappropriate force against the protesters. They say the police beat them and used stun guns against them.
Several Roma groups over the last two weeks have been protesting their reduced social benefit payments. Demonstrations got out of control after a group of 80 Roma looted a supermarket in the eastern town of Levoča on February 18.
The situation calmed down once the police strengthened their position in the area and arrested some looters.
