Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Roma ghettos have CCTV systems but no playgrounds

Lety u Písku, 17.5.2013 19:45, (ROMEA) Dear survivors, my dear Roma, activist friends, ladies and gentlemen,  full story

Czech organizers cancel wrestling match featuring Hitler-tattooed neo-Nazi in response to protests

Prague, 17.5.2013 18:31, (ROMEA) Organizers have cancelled a match featuring the Hungarian neo-Nazi Attila Petrovszki that was supposed to be part of a martial arts tournament Friday, 17 May at the Sparta Arena in Prague. During the course of Thursday, 16 May, more and more people protested his participation, with the City of Prague, Czech Television, and the Pražská energetika (PRE) electric company all distancing themselves from the tournament.  full story

Růžička: Xenophobia against Romani children rising among Czech students

Lety u Písku, 15.5.2013 11:12, (ROMEA) Your Eminence, Dear Guests,  full story

Czech court initiates distraint against Přednádraží landlord, auction may result

Ostrava, 15.5.2013 7:04, (ROMEA) A court has initiated distraint against Domy Přednádraží, s.r.o., the firm that owns properties in the ghetto on Přednádraží Street in Ostrava. The decision was made at the request of Ostrava Waterworks and Sewerage (Ostravské vodárny a kanalizace - OVAK), which is owed several hundreds of thousands of crowns by the firm.  full story

Czech Republic: Preparatory committee for new Romani Democratic Party meets

Prague, 14.5.2013 6:59, (ROMEA) The Mediafax agency reports that Romani people in the Czech Republic are preparing to establish a new political party, the Romani Democratic Party (Romská demokratická strana – RDS). Miroslav Tancoš, the head of the party’s preparatory committee, said the group met in Prague on 11 May 2013 and intends to register with the Czech Interior Ministry this week.  full story

Cardinal Duka leads prayers for Romani victims of Lety

Lety u Písku, 13.5.2013 23:15, (ROMEA) Cardinal Dominik Duka and approximately 100 other people commemorated the Romani victims of Nazism today at Lety by Písek. US Ambassador Norman Eisen, Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí) chair Štefan Tišer, Miroslav Kováč of the FORUM association, Green Party (Strana Zelených) chair Ondřej Liška, Czech Pirate Party (Česká pirátská strana) chair Ivan Bartoš, and activists Imrich Horvát of Ostrava, Ivanka Mariposa Čonková and Ondřej Slačálek of Prague, Míra Brož of Ústí nad Labem, and Emil Voráč of the Khamoro association in Chodov all paid their respects to the memory of the Romani people who perished during the Second World War in the concentration camp at Lety.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry: Extremists have won over new patrons online

Prague, 12.5.2013 16:27, (ROMEA) A Czech Interior Ministry report about extremism in the country last year will be reviewed by the Government this coming Wednesday. According to the report, Czech extremists shifted their activities more to the internet in 2012.  full story

Romani students from Czech Republic excelling at British school

Leicester, 10.5.2013 17:19, (ROMEA) News server Aktuálně.cz has run a photo-essay on Babington Community College in the English town of Leicester. At first glance it seems no different from other English schools, but it is actually a very specific facility. More than half of its pupils (54 %) are children whose mother tongue is not English. They are the children of the local immigrants who comprise a significant proportion of the town’s population.  full story

Victims of the breakup of Czechoslovakia have one year left to resolve their situations

Ústí nad Labem, 10.5.2013 2:38, (ROMEA) On Tuesday, 7 May 2013, a round table was convened in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem by the Counseling Center for Citizenship/Civic and Human Rights (Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva) on the issue of new draft legislation about citizenship. The round table was attended by 20 experts from local authorities, NGOs, and Czech Police.  full story

Commission: EU funds should support Romani social inclusion from 2014 on

Brussels, Belgium, 7.5.2013 17:17, (ROMEA) The European Commission has announced that the Member States should ensure that their plans for investment from the EU funds during the next seven-year period (2014-2020) also count on the social inclusion of the Romani population. Romani nonprofit organizations and experts on this issue should therefore participate in designing this next period of funding.  full story

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