It was an image that shocked the world: two young gypsy children lie dead on an Italian beach while, feet away, a carefree couple enjoy a leisurely picnic.
On the morning of 17 July 2008, Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic, along with their cousins Manuela and Diana, had made the regular journey from the dismal camp that was their home to one of Naples' most popular beaches. The girls planned to sell trinkets - small wooden turtles carved by Nigerian immigrants - to daytrippers....
more »It was an image that shocked the world: two young gypsy children lie dead on an Italian beach while, feet away, a carefree couple enjoy a leisurely picnic.
On the morning of 17 July 2008, Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic, along with their cousins Manuela and Diana, had made the regular journey from the dismal camp that was their home to one of Naples' most popular beaches. The girls planned to sell trinkets - small wooden turtles carved by Nigerian immigrants - to daytrippers. At Torregaveta, after a long hot day with no sales, the sisters dared each other to jump from rocks into the sea. 11 year old Violetta went first and disappeared, swept beneath the waves. Cristina, the eldest at 13, jumped in to save her. Both drowned, clinging on to each other.
The girls were recovered from the sea by a passer-by and later declared dead by a lifeguard who called for help as Manuela and Diana wept, banging their tiny fists on the corpses. Two beach towels were used to cover the dead Roma girls. And then something extraordinary occurred.Summer beach life resumed around the bodies for three hours until an ambulance finally showed up. In the most striking image of all, a couple nonchalantly ate a picnic while looking on at the scene. The indifference, picked up by newspapers and TV stations, was seen by the country's liberal elite to be the final straw. The most senior Catholic in Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, was one of the first to point out the coarsening of human sentiment which the behaviour in Torregaveta represented: "Cristina and Violetta," he told the Italian media, "had faced nothing but prejudice in life and indifference in death; an unforgivable truth."
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