A/52/471 English Page 11 Special Rapporteur has learnt of other recent acts of violence and atrocities against Roma from documentation provided by the European Roma Rights Centre. The journal put out by the Centre, Roma Rights, reports the following cases.3 23. In Ukraine, following a resurgence of police brutality against Roma, a Rom was arrested on 4 December 1996 while collecting dead batteries. He was beaten at the police station in Uzhhorod and on his release said that he had been deprived of food for two days. In the same region, on 1 January 1997, police officers invaded the homes of two Roma families on the pretext that they were looking for a thief. Reliable reports indicate that the police officers struck the adult members of the two families and forced two children aged 16 and 10 to stand and recite "Gypsies are bastards, the best place for them is in the graveyard". 24. In Greece, police officers swooped on the Roma camp at Ano Liosia in Attica at 6 a.m. on 27 October 1996, on the pretext of arresting a 21-year-old Rom suspected of stealing cannabis. In the suspect's absence, the police officers took his mother and sister hostage. Verbal exchanges took place as a result of the rage felt by the camp's population and stones were thrown at the police. The police reacted with a second incursion. That same day, the Minister of the Interior said that the police had been doing their job and that people should not believe what gypsies said. 25. In Bulgaria on 2 and 3 February 1997, the newspapers reported the deaths of three Roma children from starvation in the town of Stara Zagora. On 4 February, following an increase in the price of bread, 2,000 Roma demonstrated in the centre of the town of Pazardzhik in protest against "the discriminatory policies of the central Government and the local authorities". E. Discriminatory application of the death penalty in the United States of America 26. In a recent report on the death penalty in the United States,4 Amnesty International says that: "Racial discrimination in the use of the death penalty continues to be a major concern. For example, 16 of the prisoners executed in 1996 were from ethnic minorities (35.55 per cent), approximately double the percentage in the general population. Also, the vast majority of those executed had been convicted of the murder of a white victim, even though ethnic minorities are murder victims in almost equal numbers as whites." 27. In the same report, Amnesty International mentions cases highlighting the serious consequences of this discriminatory practice by the judiciary, such as miscarriages of justice, which may result in innocent people being put to death. Among these cases are several involving Blacks. In July 1996, four Blacks were cleared of murder 18 years after being convicted. One of them, Dennis Williams, said at a press conference that racism had been to blame for the miscarriage of justice against them. Williams said that the police had picked up the first four Black men they could, without caring whether they were innocent or guilty. /...