Linn visits Spis region, tours Romany settlements.

(From Czech News Agency)

LETANOVICE, East Slovakia, June 27 (CTK) - World Bank Vice President Johannes Linn toured Romany settlements in the Spis, east Slovakia region on Thursday to see the state that Slovak Romanies are living in before a conference held by the Open Society Fund and the World Bank opens in Budapest on Monday.

The conference in which politicians, financiers, experts and Romany representatives will participate, will discuss how to break the cycle of poverty that Romanies, without the help of their national government, the international community and powerful financial institutions do not have a chance to escape.

This first mention of Romanies in Slovakia dates from 1322 in the Spis region, which is probably home to the largest population of this minority in Slovakia.

Although several centuries have elapsed since 1322, Romany secretary at the Spiska Nova Ves district office Peter Polak says that conditions at a Romany settle in Letanovice are similar to those of the 14th century.

Romanies live in broken-down shacks built illegally out of trees that they continue to cut down in the nearby national park Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise).

The settlement, home to about 750 Romanies, is plagued by almost 100 percent unemployment and people do not have running water or electricity, not to mention other luxuries common in the 21th century. Linn said he saw great differences between the good work of some local and state governments, but also poverty and a lack of interest from the surrounding society in the four villages he visited.