Gypsy policy 'like Nazi's'

A GYPSY leader has compared French president Nicolas Sarkozy to Romania's pro-Nazi wartime leader, Marshal Ion Antonescu, following the expulsion of hundreds of Roma.

Speaking at an annual feast in the Carpathian mountains, Iulian Radulescu said the Roma were being unfairly expelled, after France sent 1,000 back to Romania and Bulgaria.

Mr Sarkozy has linked the Roma to crime.

Mr Radulescu they were paying the price "for the crimes of the few." "It is not right to be expelled if you are a law-abiding citizen," the 71-year-old said.

"Sarkozy is doing what Antonescu did," he added.

Antonescu deported 25,000 gypsies in 1942 to the Soviet area of Trans-Dniester.