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ERGO distances itself from wall demolition in Slovakia

Brussels, 19.9.2014 23:07, (ROMEA) Yesterday the European Roma Grassroots Organization Network issued a press release regarding the partial demolition of a segregating wall in Slovakia in which the Brussels-based group distanced itself from the incident. On the night of 9 to 10 September, the wall in the town of Košice was partially demolished by a small group of activists at the same time that an event was being held in the community as part of ERGO's “Wall Free Europe” campaign, which was launched in April and is centered around the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November.  full story

Czech town's EU-funded project won't run in Romani neighborhood

Most, 19.9.2014 20:20, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reports that the Most town hall has joined a local antigypsyist campaign underway there with a move that has rendered recent construction work unnecessary and increased tensions in a neighborhood where authorities had pledged to improve interpersonal relationships and living conditions. An EU-funded project to eliminate social exclusion is now supporting it, at least in this one case.  full story

Czech local elections see attempts to buy votes

Bílina/Český Těšín, 19.9.2014 19:35, (ROMEA) The Mf DNES daily in the Czech Republic reports that some politicians are doing their best to buy votes in the upcoming municipal elections. The paper's first report today was about the town of Český Těšín.  full story

Czech Greens: School Act amendment supports segregation, returns us to the past

Prague, 19.9.2014 18:51, (ROMEA) Czech legislators are scheduled to discuss the Government's amendment to the Schoot Act, the aim of which is to make it possible to enroll pupils who would be capable of completing mainstream primary school without assistance and pupils from different cultural or social environments into the "practical schools". The Green Party (Strana zelených - SZ) calls the amendment's approach an unacceptable return to the past.  full story

Czech court acquits German neo-Nazi over 2011 speech

Brno, 19.9.2014 18:14, (ROMEA) Yesterday the Municipal Court in Brno acquitted German neo-Nazi Robin Siener of defamation, which the state prosecutor charged him with committing in 2011 at a 1 May demonstration by the Workers' Youth in Brno. At the right-wing extremist meeting, Siener spoke about "multicultural terrorism" and a cheap workforce flooding Europe, among other matters.  full story

Czech detectives investigate arson against police vehicle, "anarchists" took credit

Ústí nad Labem, 19.9.2014 17:29, (ROMEA) The Czech Republic's Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu - ÚOOZ) has taken over from detectives in Ústí nad Labem the investigation of an attack on a police vehicle committed at the end of August. Several confidential police sources have confirmed the transfer and believe the arson attack could be related to left-wing extremism.  full story

Polish MEP fined for racist remark

Strasbourg, 18.9.2014 23:42, (ROMEA) Janusz Korwin-Mikke, an ultra-right legislator at the European Parliament from Poland, has been fined EUR 3 040 for making a racist statement during a plenary discussion. The MEP from the Congress of the New Right (KNP) party called unemployed young Europeans the "niggers of Europe" during a discussion at the EP this July on youth unemployment.  full story

Slovakia: International conference on the Romani issue

Bratislava, Slovakia, 18.9.2014 19:49, (ROMEA) Roughly 130 experts from several continents have come to Bratislava to discuss the Romani issue. Those invited include guests from Argentina, Brazil and the USA.  full story

Czech Republic: New Holocaust memorial in Brno

Brno, 18.9.2014 19:19, (ROMEA) A cube of black granite down which water streams now decorates a square in Brno. It is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, referencing the racial persecution of Jewish and Romani people by the Nazi Third Reich during WWII.  full story

Renata Berkyová on wall demolition in Slovakia: What principles do we honor?

Prague, 18.9.2014 17:54, (ROMEA) Several days ago a report came out about the demolition of a wall at the Luník VIII housing estate in Košice, Slovakia and a visit paid by activists to the residents of Ostrovany there. The media reports that this was the work of activists from abroad, including the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Gov't tender for anti-hate campaign partially cancelled - no takers

Prague, 18.9.2014 0:58, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has had to cancel part of its tender for contractors for a campaign against hate violence and racism. Interest in performing some campaign activities was shown by either just one applicant or by no one.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani local candidate looks to EU funds for social exclusion

Brno, 17.9.2014 21:55, (ROMEA) News server Romea.cz has prepared a series of brief interviews with Romani candidates in the upcoming local elections. This interview is with Rastislav Lučanský, who ran for the European Parliament as a Romani Democratic Party candidate and who is now running as an independent in the city of Brno, on the Moravian Party ticket.  full story

Czech NGO releases publication on hate marches

Brno, 17.9.2014 21:03, (ROMEA) The NESEHNUTÍ NGO has issued a new publication dedicated to the phenomenon of hate marches focusing on the role of the extreme right and the media in these events. What actually happened behind the scenes of the largest anti-Romani marches in the Czech Republic during 2013?  full story

Germany: Muslims announce Day of Action against Hatred and Terrorism

Berlin, 17.9.2014 19:15, (ROMEA) An organizaton of German Muslims has announced a demonstration against hatred this Friday. The Day of Action is meant to draw attention to displays of hostility not just against Muslims, but also against Christians and Jews, Muslim representatives say.  full story

Council of Europe: Anti-minority rhetoric common among Slovak political class

Bratislava, Slovakia, 17.9.2014 18:35, (ROMEA) The Council of Europe (CoE) has recommended Slovakia intensify its efforts to integrate Romani people and that it toughen up its prosecutions of crimes that are ethnically, racially or religiously motivated. The recommendations are based on the most recent evaluation report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the CoE.  full story

videoSlovakia: Activists demolish part of segregation wall, ignoring local Romani opinion

Košice, 16.9.2014 22:37, (ROMEA) Last week pro-Romani activists demolished part of a wall in the Slovak town of Košice that separates a Romani enclave from the rest of the neighborhood; by 12 September the wall had been repaired. Both the European Union and the Mayor of Košice say the wall has been illegally erected by the local municipality without building permits.  full story

Czech Republic: Longterm Romani residents complain about Romani newcomers

Jirkov, 16.9.2014 21:44, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the town hall of Jirkov (Chomutov district) is addressing a problem with newcomers living in commercially rented apartments. The new tenants are often Romani and are being complained about by other Romani people who have lived in the town for decades.  full story

Czech town discusses "inadaptable" residents and planned repression

Jablonec nad Nisou, 16.9.2014 21:13, (ROMEA) "Public meeting with citizens about safety in the town, coexistence with inadaptables and welfare for housing" was the name of an event that took place on the evening of Tuesday, 2 September in the Grand Hall of Jablonec's Eurocenter, attended by roughly 300 people. Those invited included local residents, politicians, representatives of the municipal and state police, representatives of the Regional Hygiene Stations and the Building Works Authority.  full story

Interview with Romani psychologist Andrea Tibenská

Hradec Králové, 16.9.2014 19:06, (ROMEA) ANDREA TIBENSKÁ is from the town of Prievidza in Western Slovakia. She works as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.  full story

Germany indicts 93-year-old Auschwitz guard

Berlin, 16.9.2014 16:30, (ROMEA) The Associated Press reported yesterday that prosecutors in Germany have indicted 93-year-old Oskar Gröning for participating in as many as 300 000 murders in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. Gröning worked as an SS member there and decided to speak out against Holocaust denial several years ago.  full story