18/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Roma Information Office has called upon President Prodi to sack Mr van der Linden, Head of the European Commission's delegation to Slovakia, for his comments on Romani children, during a recent interview. A press release notes Mr van der Linden's suggestion that in order to resolve the "Roma problem", these children should be separated from their families and brought up in boarding schools, where they would be continuously exposed to "the system of values which is dominant in our society". In order to soften the likely resistance on the part of the parents, financial compensation could be offered, Mr van der Linden apparently proposed, in the hope of a new generation of Roma that "will fit better into the dominant society". The Information Office rejects these proposals, which it feels are against international human rights conventions, especially the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and which seems to show "the idea to eradicate the Romani identity and culture by brain-washing the children". Roma representatives particularly resent the fact that at present, the only consequence of his "racist talk" has been a request not to give any more interviews "on this topic".