Gypsy women 'forced into sterilisation'

Roma, or Gypsy, women in Slovakia claim they are being subjected to forced sterilisation, according to a new report to be launched in Brussels this week. Research by human rights organisations has found evidence strongly suggesting that many hundreds of Roma women could have been sterilised against their will.

While sterilisation was used in both the Nazi and Communist eras to curb the Roma population in Europe, there will be deep concern among MPs and MEPs that such practices are continuing in the 21st century, especially in a country that is one of Britain's putative European partners.

EU officials have for some time been reporting that Slovakia respects human rights. But, while expressing concerns about the treatment of up to half a million Roma, monitors seem to have been unaware of the scale of the alleged medical crimes against Roma women. Slovak, Czech and US researchers behind the report believe that some medical staff have taken their own measures to limit Roma population growth, while the authorities turn a blind eye.

In a freezing one-room wooden shack in the Roma settlement of Richnova in eastern Slovakia, I met Renata Horthovathova, a 32-year-old mother who went into her local hospital in April last year to have twins by Caesarean section. After the successful operation, Renata and her husband Josef were ecstatic about their new babies. They already had one child and had always wanted more.

But five days after the operation, as she packed to go home, she was told by a doctor she must sign a form before leaving. "I told him that a woman leaving hospital doesn't need to sign a form," Renata recalls. "But he told me that I must sign because I had been sterilised, and I would not be having any more children. I was shocked. Then I got angry. I asked him how he dare do something like that when I hadn't even asked for it."

She showed me her hospital discharge form, which my translator confirmed contained the medical phrase for sterilisation.

In the same settlement, a 19-year-old mother alleged she too had been sterilised without her consent during a Caesarean operation two years ago. Ingrid Ginova looks little more than a child herself, but her child-bearing life is already over. She says she only learned of the sterilisation five days after it had happened, when complications set in and she was transferred to hospital in Kosice. "A doctor checked me. He told me that my tubes were tied, that I was sterilised and I would have no more children."

Ingrid and Renata were among 230 women who gave testimony to a team of eight lawyers and researchers visiting 40 Roma settlements in Slovakia last summer. The team's co-ordinator, Christina Zampas, of the Centre for Reproductive Rights based in New York, says that 110 of the mothers interviewed said they had been sterilised without consent, or without full consent. "We met women who, while they were on the operating table, were told to sign a consent form," said Ms Zampas. "The testimony we found was disturbingly consistent. It's appalling that this is happening in Europe in 2003."

At Krompachy hospital, where Ingrid and Renata had their Caesareans, the head of the baby unit denied the allegations. Dr Jan Kralik insisted that no women had had their tubes tied against their will since he had become head of obstetrics in 1996. But he said he feared a Roma population explosion. When I raised the cases of the two women, he said: "It probably happened at another place."

The human rights team obtained power of attorney from some of the women to view their medical records. But most hospitals refused access. Ms Zampas said: "The authorities must hand over these records. If they do not ... it's a clear indication they have something to hide. Because of the severity of these human rights violations Slovakia needs to address these issues. If it decides not to, international bodies will."

Human rights groups are now preparing a number of court cases, and warn that if they fail in Slovakia's courts they will take them to the European Court of Human Rights.

When suspicions of forced sterilisation were aireda year ago, the government in Bratislava shrugged them off and demanded firm evidence. Now, with the evidence and with all eyes on entry to the EU, they may have a much bigger problem on their hands.

Julian O'Halloran's report will be on 'The World Tonight', Radio 4, at 10pm on Tuesday