Czech Republic

videoCzech Republic: “Slave of Race” initiative holds “happenings” to launch petition

Ostrava/Prague, 7.5.2013 0:28, (ROMEA) A newly-created initiative called “Slave of Race” (Otrokem rasy) launched its activity today with two happenings, one in front of the Czech Interior Ministry in Prague and another in front of the Ostrava town hall, where people sought signatures on a petition in support of those remaining in the Přednádraží ghetto. Because the situation in Ostrava has drastically deteriorated, the initiative is focusing its activities on that topic.  full story

Czech municipality closing residential hotels, hundreds face homelessness

Ostrava, 6.5.2013 19:32, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Ostrava-Jih municipality has joined Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz in its plans to close its residential hotels even though their residents have nowhere to go. Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz is the municipal department in Ostrava with the highest number of residential hotels. As news server Romea.cz previously reported, the quarter has been doing its best for some time to systematically push impoverished people, Romani and “white”, out of its territory.  full story

Czech municipality claims it offered evictees leases, they say otherwise

Ostrava, 6.5.2013 18:20, (ROMEA) Representatives of the remaining occupants of Ostrava’s Přednádraží ghetto met today with Vice-Mayor Petra Bernfeldová, who told them that the central municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz will not be leasing vacant apartments to most of those recently evicted from the last occupied building there. Some of the evictees are allegedly indebted and therefore do not qualify for a municipally-owned apartment, while others either allegedly rejected previous offers of municipal leases or never applied for them in the first place.  full story

Czech landlord files criminal charges against tenants on Přednádraží street

Ostrava, 4.5.2013 16:18, (ROMEA) Oldřich Roztočil, the owner of the ghetto buildings on Přednádraží Street in Ostrava, has filed criminal charges against the people still living in the last property there. Roztočil now wants them to move out. He originally gave them a deadline of 17:00 on Friday, 3 May.  full story

Czech landlord leases property on Monday, evicts tenants on Friday

Ostrava, 3.5.2013 23:16, (ROMEA) Oldřich Roztočil, the owner of the buildings in the ghetto on Přednádraží Street in Ostrava, has called on those occupying the last remaining building there, number 8, to move out by 17:00 today. Roztočil said that if the people do not leave he is prepared to turn to the police and request their assistance in removing people from the premises.  full story

Emil Ščuka: We lack a unified concept

Prague, 3.5.2013 19:13, (Romano vod'i) Emil Ščuka is one of the most famous Romani politicians in the Czech Republic. He graduated in law and worked as a public prosecutor, but his original dream of a career was something completely different. In 2001 the magazine Reflex quoted him as saying the following.  full story

200 neo-Nazis march on Czech town, police confiscate pepper spray, truncheons

Přerov, 1.5.2013 22:49, (ROMEA) Organizers from the ultra-right Workers’ Youth (Dělnická mládež – DM) association, which is linked to the ultra-right Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) experienced disappointment over their assembly today in the Czech town of Přerov. Instead of the anticipated 700 radicals, only about 200 DSSS promoters showed up, according to the Romea.cz correspondent at the scene.  full story

Czech Republic: Poll shows only 4 % of citizens have good relations with Roma

Prague, 30.4.2013 19:57, (ROMEA) According to a survey conducted by the STEM agency, the results of which were made available to the Czech Press Agency, 69 % of the citizens in the Czech Republic have a negative relationship with Romani people and only 4 % have a “good” or “very good” relationship with them. Compared to last April, the number of people with negative views has slightly declined.  full story

Czech Republic: Arsonists get parole, victims awarded damages

Prague, 30.4.2013 19:04, (ROMEA) Today’s preliminary hearing with the defendants in the 2011 Býchory arson case had a surprise ending: The High Court has overturned the decision of the Regional Court and has placed the four defendants on parole. The court has also awarded compensation for moral damages to the victims.  full story

European Commission Internship for Young Roma University Graduates

Budapest, 30.4.2013 11:30, (ROMEA) The Roma Initiatives Office is offering five, five-month internships with the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, for young Roma university graduates from selected European countries.  full story

Analysis: Czech political parties cleanse municipal district of “Romani garbage”

Ostrava/Prague, 28.4.2013 4:06, (ROMEA) The municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz, which is governed by the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) together with the Ostravak (“Natives of Ostrava”) movement, is gradually “purging” this central section of Ostrava of “Romani garbage”. At least, that is how developer and municipal department councilor Lukáš Semerák (Ostravak movement) expressed himself last year when explaining his desire to purchase buildings on Přednádraží Street and his purchase of an apartment building on Palackého Street just a few steps away.  full story

Commentary: Czech Senator Okamura’s view of people in need

Prague, 28.4.2013 1:35, (ROMEA) After November 1989, people in this country had high expectations. For example, they expected that the practices of a police state would come to an end. Unfortunately, those expectations haven’t been met, which is why I am constantly raising that issue.  full story

Czech municipality continues to push impoverished residents out

Ostrava/Prague, 28.4.2013 0:36, (ROMEA) The centrally located municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz in the town of Ostrava is facing even more criticism for its approach toward its socially vulnerable residents. During a recent inspection, the Building Works Authority there has discovered that buildings being used as residential hotels were never permitted for that kind of use. The structures concerned are meant to be used as apartment buildings (where whole apartments, not individual rooms, are meant to be leased) or as office buildings.  full story

Czech court to screen CCTV footage in trial of “machete attack”

Liberec, 27.4.2013 2:44, (ROMEA) CCTV footage was scheduled to be screened today at the Regional Court in Liberec, where the closed trial of a group of five men charged with committing the so-called “machete attack” is taking place. The 2011 attack in the town of Nový Bor injured three people. If convicted of attempted murder, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison or extraordinary sentencing.  full story

Czech court says landlord was not obligated to evacuate Přednádraží properties

Ostrava, 26.4.2013 19:31, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz reports that the Regional Court in Ostrava has ruled that the Building Works Authority of a central Ostrava district was not justified in instructing the owner of the buildings in the ghetto on Přednádraží Street, Oldřich Roztočil, to evacuate them. Roztočil does not have to pay a CZK 30 000 fine levied by the authorities for not evacuating the properties. He is now drawing up new leases for his displaced tenants, who are Romani.  full story

OECD warns Czech Republic of rise in number of socially excluded schools

Prague, 25.4.2013 18:50, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Czech education system is more selective than has previously been suspected. Non-Romani parents are not enrolling their offspring into schools with high numbers of Romani children and are choosing to send them to schools for the wealthy. The OECD is warning the Czech Republic of a rise in the number of “socially excluded” schools.  full story

Czech Republic: North Bohemian members leave DSSS

Ústí nad Labem, 24.4.2013 21:24, (ROMEA) The Ústecký daily in the Czech Republic reports that the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) has fractured. Petr Kotáb, the party leader in the Ústí region has left the DSSS ranks. Most of the DSSS members in North Bohemia have reportedly left as well.  full story

videoCardinal Duka to attend commemoration of Romani victims of Nazism in Lety by Písek

Lety u Písku, 24.4.2013 19:11, (ROMEA) The Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu v ČR – VPORH v ČR) will hold its traditional Commemoration Ceremony for the Romani victims of Nazism on Monday 13 May 2013 at 12:00 PM at the site of the burial ground of the victims of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety by Písek. Cardinal Dominik Duka will participate this year.  full story

videoVideo recording of discussion on social residential hotels in Czech Republic

Prague, 24.4.2013 18:44, (ROMEA) On Monday 15 April 2013 a discussion was held about so-called “social residential hotels” in the Czech Republic. The event in the conference space of HUB PRAHA, called “Garbage dumps for those we don’t want”, discussed whether the state should support such facilities or close them.  full story

Brussels: Romani women critique Czech town’s social inclusion program

Brussels, Belgium, 23.4.2013 17:54, (ROMEA) Jakub Dürr, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union, received a visit in Brussels on 9 April 2013 from Romani women activists and NGO representatives from the Czech Republic. The meeting was attended by Romani activists Elena Gorolová, Iveta Horváthová, Ivanka Mariposa Čonková and Gabriela Hrabaňová. Among other matters, the women criticized the Social Inclusion Program of the municipality of Ostrava, which is slated for EU financial support.  full story