The threat to bulldoze Dale Farm, the biggest Travellers settlement in the UK, is expected to be the subject of a protest next weekend (1-3 July) by leaders of Europe's ten million Roma meeting in Serbia.

Delegates from 32 countries attending the Roma Parliament in Belgrade will discuss a resolution condemning the decision of Basildon district council to destroy some 130 homes at Crays Hill, following its rejection of new planning applications.

Indian representative Mr Veerendra Rishi, from south London, is to ask the parliament to write to Prime Minister Tony Blair calling on him to intervene to prevent the destruction of Dale Farm.

Mr Rishi, who is flying to Belgrade on Friday, as a representative of the London-based Trans-European Roma Federation, says the bulldozing of so many homes is an outrage. He likened it to the current wholesale flattening of dwelling by the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

"Mugabe has been widely condemned for his action," commented Mr Rishi. "Yet Mr Blair is doing nothing to stop an exactly similar mass eviction taking place on his doorstep."

He is planning to arrange a screening for delegates of video films showing the brutal operations that have been carried out by Constant & Co., the private bailiff company which claims to be "the Gypsy eviction specialist". Basildon council has set aside three million euro to pay Constant for the levelling of Dale Farm.