Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 93 called for the deinstitutionalization process to be accelerated, and for the development of community based services. authorities and, in spite of improvements in this area, in the conduct of certain members of the police. On 28 June, following a visit to the Neuropsychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery Centre in Bolintinul din Vale, the CRJ reported that conditions were virtually unchanged since its previous visit in 2003. Almost all the 107 residents were reportedly poorly dressed or undressed, there were no rehabilitation activities, and patients were lacking sufficient food. Living conditions were inadequate with no privacy for the patients and extremely poor hygiene, resulting in the alleged spread of parasites and infections among inmates. On 19 May, President Traian Băsescu reportedly called a journalist a “dirty gypsy”, but apologized later for causing the journalist “an undeserved moral damage.” Several national and international Roma NGOs (including Romani-CRISS and the Strasbourg-based European Roma and Travellers Forum) wrote to the president accusing him of “racist, discriminatory and offensive behaviour”, and the National Council Against Discrimination called for the president to explain himself.. The Romani community UNICEF in its report Breaking the cycle of exclusion. Roma children in South-East Europe issued in March, reported that in Romania less than half of poor households have running water at home, but around 70 per cent of Roma households are without a water supply. Roma have also low rates of health insurance (estimated at only one third), the most common reason reportedly being the cost of the scheme. School segregation of Romani children continued to be a subject of concern as those schools have poorer facilities and employ unqualified teachers. On 23 May, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the conclusions on the Romania´s implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The Committee expressed continuing concerns about the implementation of measures adopted towards minorities, Roma in particular, who continue to confront serious difficulties and manifestations of discrimination in different fields, including employment, housing, health and education. The Committee of Ministers also mentioned in its conclusions the reported public manifestations of hostility and intolerance by the media, certain members of public Amnesty International LGBT rights march attacked On 9 June around 500 activists marched through the capital, Bucharest, to demonstrate against discrimination and to call for the legislation of same-sex marriages, on the occasion of Gayfest 2007 organized by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Romanian riot police detained dozens of counterdemonstrators as hundreds of them tried to violently break up the march. Police fired tear gas to hold the counter-demonstrators at bay after some threw stones and attempted to break through protective cordons staffed by 700 officers. This was the second year that the parade had been allowed by the authorities, after previous attempts. RUSSIAN FEDERATION Clampdown of freedom of expression and assembly The authorities continued to clamp down on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Human rights defenders and independent civil society also came under continued pressure. The implementation of the new law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) led to NGOs facing a disproportionate burden of administrative AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007