Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Protest against pig farm on Roma Holocaust site blocks highway

Lety u Písku, 17.5.2014 20:08, (ROMEA) For five days, activists have been blockading access to the pig farm at Lety by Písek. They object to the fact that the farm is standing on the site of a former forced labor camp for Romani people.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: The Czech media have neither the desire nor the time for the truth

Prague, 17.5.2014 0:09, (ROMEA) Jarmila Balážová has been working as the press spokesperson for the Czech Human Rights Minister since March. Prior to that she was a correspondent for Czech Radio 6 who moderated the programs "Focus on Human Rights" (Zaostřeno na lidská práva), "Studio STOP", "Dissuasion" (Rozmluvy), "Focus on Youth" (Zaostřeno na mladé) and "Science Talk" (Hovory o vědě).  full story

Analysis: Czech parties defaming Roma during EP campaign

Prague, 16.5.2014 21:52, (ROMEA) The Parliament of the European Union definitely has a lot to look forward to from the Czech Republic this year. Famous antigypsyists and con artists who believe we have forgotten about their past crimes are planning to get to Brussels by playing the anti-Roma card.  full story

Czech Republic: 16th annual Khamoro Festival of Roma culture returns to Prague

Prague, 15.5.2014 21:19, (ROMEA) Khamoro, the Czech Republic's most important Romani festival, will be bringing sunshine to Prague once more at the end of May. The Czech capital will host the festival from 25 May - 31 May for the 16th year in a row.  full story

Czech Republic: 84 % say coexistence between Roma and others is "bad"

Prague, 15.5.2014 20:15, (ROMEA) The Center for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM) reports that coexistence between Romani people and others living in the Czech Republic is perceived by the vast majority of the public as problematic. In a recent survey, 45 % said coexistence with Roma is "bad", while 39 % described it as "very bad".  full story

Czech inter-ministerial group to help regions with social tensions

Ústí nad Labem, 15.5.2014 19:25, (ROMEA) An inter-ministerial group comprised of representatives of several ministries, municipalities and regional authorities will be convened to solve the problems of regions experiencing social tensions. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) announced the group yesterday to journalists at the conclusion of his visit to the Ústí Region.  full story

Czech town, home to Romani arson victims, bans neo-Nazi march there

Budišov, 15.5.2014 18:50, (ROMEA) The town of Budišov nad Budišovkou has banned a march by neo-Nazis planned for 7 June. Petr Born, chair of the ultra-right DSSS in Nový Jičín (who is, paradoxically, an owner of Romani-occupied residential hotels in Ostrava) and Pavel Matějný, a member of the "Czech Lions" association and convener of many past anti-Romani neo-Nazi demonstrations, want to hold the march in response to the recent death of a youth there.  full story

Czech court says magazine can't use nickname for politician

Prague, 15.5.2014 17:18, (ROMEA) Reflex.cz reports that a court has ruled that neither the hard copy version nor the website of Reflex magazine may call Czech MP Tomio Okamura, the head of the Úsvit ("Dawn of Direct Democracy") party, by the nickname "Pitomio" [a pun on the word "pitomec", which means "knucklehead"]. The magazine has apologized to Okamura online for distorting his name, but only for doing so in an article published after the verdict was handed down.  full story

Czech film director tells EdMin the country's children's institutions are "hell"

Paris/Prague, 14.5.2014 20:53, (ROMEA) This past March the Czech media reported on an incident that occurred at the Králíky juvenile reformatory in Ústí nad Orlicí. Allegedly a 14-year-old boy stabbed a staff member in the neck with a screwdriver and then, together with a 15-year-old inmate, kicked around another staffer who came to his aid.  full story

Czech activist donates his Third Resistance compensation to Roma

Prague, 14.5.2014 17:14, (ROMEA) Stanislav Penc has refused to attend an award ceremony honoring those who participated in the Third Resistance, where he would have received an award from Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický. Penc said he believes advocates of the communist regime remain in high office today and the perpetrators of injustice from that time have not yet been punished.  full story

Gwendolyn Albert: Pigs to stay on Roma Holocaust site, Czech Govt won’t invest in human dignity

Lety u Písku, 14.5.2014 14:35, (ROMEA) The potential significance of Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka attending the traditional commemoration ceremony organized by the surviving relatives of the victims of the WWII-era concentration camp for Romani people at Lety has been completely undercut by the embarrassing remarks he has made on this occasion.  full story

Roma in the Czech Republic need not apply

Prague, 14.5.2014 0:14, (ROMEA) The ban against discrimination is based on a principle fundamental to every democratic state, that of the equality of all people, which is a basic condition for the existence of justice. Even today, in the 21st century, many Romani people in the Czech Republic encounter explicit violations of this principle when seeking employment, access to services, and when looking for housing that is not a residential hotel.  full story

Czech ministers visit excluded localities in Šluknov area

Šluknov (Děčín district), 13.5.2014 23:21, (ROMEA) Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, and Czech Labor Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová (all Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) visited the socially excluded localities in the Šluknov area (Děčín district) yesterday. The ministers were primarily interested in the conditions in which local people live and the problems of municipalities there.  full story

Czech Republic: Activists blockading pig farm at Lety where WWII-era camp for Roma once stood

Lety u Písku, 13.5.2014 19:20, (ROMEA) In Lety by Písek today, activists began a blockade of the pig farm standing on the site of what once was a forced labor camp for Romani people. The surviving relatives of the victims of the Romani Holocaust have long been calling for the pig farm to be removed and its location has also been criticized by the UN.  full story

Czech Government still can't find money to remove pig farm from Romani Holocaust site

Lety u Písku, 10.5.2014 20:05, (ROMEA) Money to get rid of the pig farm standing on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety in the Písek district of the Czech Republic is not likely to be provided by the government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. For years, the surviving relatives of the victims of the Romani Holocaust have been calling in vain for the farm to go, as have the Council of Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, and various NGOs.  full story

Czech politicians, survivors honor memory of victims of Communism

Prague, 10.5.2014 18:47, (ROMEA) Politicians and survivors honored the memory of the victims of the Communist regime at a cemetery in the Motol quarter of Prague today. Those attending called on people not to forget the harms caused by the totalitarian era.  full story

Czech Police raid on Muslim centers said to be in order

Prague, 10.5.2014 17:59, (ROMEA) The raid on Muslim centers in Prague conducted two weeks ago by police officers from the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu - ÚOOZ) is said to have been in order per Czech law. That claim has been made by the Czech Interior Ministry after Czech Police President Tomáš Tuhý familiarized Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec with the conclusions of an internal police investigation of the incident.  full story

Czech Republic: Ultranationalist Úsvit loses lead EP candidate to fraud scandal

Prague, 10.5.2014 17:23, (ROMEA) The attorney Klára Samková is no longer the lead candidate for the Úsvit (Dawn of Direct Democracy) movement in the EP elections in the Czech Republic. A source for the party has confirmed her removal.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Unambiguous attacks against certain groups cannot be ignored

Prague, 9.5.2014 22:57, (ROMEA) On 10 May 2014, Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier and Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka will visit the commemorative site at Lety by Písek dedicated to the victims of the Romani Holocaust during the Second World War. Lety by Písek is a sad reminder of the Romani Holocaust, which was not discussed until the second half of the 1990s even though hundreds of thousands of Romani people perished in the concentration camps of Europe during the Second World War.  full story

Former Czech President, Communist Party leader attend reception at Russian Embassy

Prague, 9.5.2014 22:17, (ROMEA) A commemorative ceremony in Prague's Olšany Cemetery at the memorial to Soviet soldiers who fell during WWII has been attended by Czech politicians today. Czech MP Jan Hamáček, the chair of the lower house, laid a wreath at the graves.  full story