News

videoKhamoro 2013, Friday: Concert of traditional Roma music

Prague, 30.5.2013 11:10, (ROMEA) Each day of the World Roma Festival Khamoro offers rich program, from which concerts of traditional Roma music are the most popular. On Friday, 31st May, you could go to the Roxy Club to enjoy a Spanish flamenco star Macarena Ramirez, a popular Hungarian band Olah Gipsy Beats and Gypsy folk group Taborshow from Russia. An illustration of their music you could find here.  full story

Czech Republic: 500 at anti-Roma demo, police keep neo-Nazis from attacking

Duchcov, 30.5.2013 2:51, (ROMEA) In the Czech town of Duchcov (Teplice district) about 500 people demonstrated in response to an attack perpetrated by a group of Romani people against a young non-Romani married couple in mid-May. Police have already charged five assailants with grievous bodily harm in the case.  full story

Czech mayor refuses to speak with relatives of Romani man murdered in his town

Teplice, 29.5.2013 17:54, (ROMEA) On Tuesday 28 May 2013, the friends and relatives of a Romani man killed on a square in Teplice recently during the grand opening of the spa season gathered in front of the town hall to remember the victim. The man's relatives consider his murder to have been a racist attack and are bothered by the fact that the victim has been described in the Czech media as a thief. Initial media reports on the incident said a stallkeeper attacked the 49-year-old man over the theft of two bratwurst.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazis convening today's demonstration in Duchcov

Duchcov, 29.5.2013 17:48, (ROMEA) A demonstration has been convened today in the Czech town of Duchcov in response to an incident in which a group of Romani people attacking a married couple there. The Antifa.cz website reports that the demonstration has been convened by neo-Nazi Jindřich "Pinďa" Svoboda, who has told the media that he is not interested in violent clashes.  full story

Marcel Grünza: Gadje, what are you so proud of?

Liberec, 28.5.2013 22:37, (ROMEA) I have just read a blog posting here entitled "Have you ever seen a gypsy in a library?" I am disgusted by these outbursts by would-be Czechs about Romani people. Some of them consider us all lazy, uneducated parasites who don't work, who don't know how to read and write, and who scrounge off of society.  full story

Czech Republic: Anti-Roma demonstrations tomorrow in Duchcov over assault

Duchcov/Prague, 28.5.2013 16:37, (ROMEA) The case of a brutal assault on a couple from Duchcov by Romani perpetrators is developing helter-skelter, with several new facts coming to light. It seems that two other Romani people, a man and a woman, did their best when arriving on the scene to get the Roma assailants to stop their violence.  full story

Czech Republic: Media downplay last weekend's racist murder

Teplice, 28.5.2013 0:28, (ROMEA) Some Czech media outlets are once again distorting their reporting of a case from north Bohemia, this time from the town of Teplice, where a Romani man has fallen victim to murder. According to TV Nova and the tabloid Blesk, the man, who was almost 50 at the time of his death, was murdered because of an argument over a bratwurst he is alleged to have stolen. No other media outlets have reported that the victim was Romani. According to the testimony of one of the victim's relatives, however, the entire matter had nothing to do with the alleged theft of anything. The murdered Romani man, 49-year-old Ivan Jarka, nicknamed Mikoro, was standing up for some young Romani guys who had done nothing to anyone and were being attacked by racists. The murderer allegedly stabbed him 21 times with a knife for defending them.  full story

Czech survey: Romani people have worst coexistence, employment since 1997

Prague, 27.5.2013 4:58, (ROMEA) Relations between Romani people and the other inhabitants of the Czech Republic are evaluated as poor by 87 % of the population, while 9 % believe they are good, according to a survey by the Center for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM). Compared to last year's survey, the evaluation of coexistence has deteriorated to the lowest levels since such surveys began to be conducted in 1997. The CVVM survey contacted 1 000 people over the age of 15 with questions about coexistence with Roma from 8 - 15 April 2013.  full story

Patrik Banga: Judge, the arrow got him in the head by accident...

Prague, 24.5.2013 7:08, (ROMEA) So: Our Czech William Tell is on trial. He didn't hit the apple but the head, and surprise! The man he shot, died. A legend then sprang up about a hero protecting his property from a horde of gypsies who were robbing his house. The prosecutor, however, sees it differently, and her qualification of what happened approximates murder.  full story

Andrzej Mirga: We should be cautious about making empty claims

Czech Republic, 23.5.2013 6:44, (Romano vod'i) First Romani university student in Poland  full story

Czech Republic: Owner offers Přednádraží properties to town of Ostrava

Ostrava, 23.5.2013 5:45, (ROMEA) Yesterday the owner of the ill-fated properties on Přednádraží Street in Ostrava, Oldřich Roztočil, sent an open letter to Mayor Petr Kajnar (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) offering to sell his real estate in the locality to the town and asking for a meeting. The mayor says he is not opposed to meeting with the landlord.  full story

Czech Republic: Sentencing in the street brawl that sparked 2011 unrest

Děčín, 22.5.2013 6:58, (ROMEA) Yesterday a court in Děčín handed down suspended sentences against four youths involved in the August 2011 street brawl in Rumburk that launched unrest in the Šluknov foothills. Three juveniles received sentences of between seven and eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months.  full story

Czech Republic: Platform for Social Housing says society needs homes

Ostrava, 21.5.2013 23:22, (ROMEA) The creation of a Platform for Social Housing was announced today on Přednádraží Street in Ostrava. The Platform brings together experts, nonprofit organizations and the public with the aim of defining social housing and introducing it in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Crossbow shooter claims death was accidental

Ostrava, 21.5.2013 6:52, (ROMEA) Jaromír Šebesta, the 39-year-old man who shot a crossbow at a person he believed was a burglar in the village of Chotěbuz (Karvina district) in April 2012, went on trial yesterday before the Regional Court in Ostrava. He is charged with bodily harm resulting in death.  full story

Czech Republic: Compensation for illegally sterilized women in negotiation

Prague, 20.5.2013 12:38, (ROMEA) Last week the Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner participated in a round table to review the options for compensating women who have been illegally sterilized. The meeting was convened by the Czech Helsinki Committee and chaired by its past president, Anna Šabatová.  full story

Germans, Turks use trial of neo-Nazi Zschäpe to get their messages across

Germany, 20.5.2013 7:04, (ROMEA) Czech Radio reports that the first two days of the trial of neo-Nazi Beate Zschäpe, which started last week, have been accompanied by displays of emotion. Various people have been using the event to get their own messages across to the public.  full story

Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner: The term “inadaptable” deprives Roma of their humanity

Lety u Písku, 19.5.2013 12:00, (ROMEA) Dear survivors, dear ladies and gentlemen,  full story

Czech Republic: Romani woman files charges against neighbor for slander

Ústí nad Labem, 18.5.2013 9:35, (ROMEA) The regional daily Ústecký deník has used the term “war” in its reporting about an incident last weekend in the Krásné Březno neighborhood of Ústí nad Labem. Police are now investigating.  full story

Greece: Neo-Nazi MP ejected from parliament amid shouts of “Heil Hitler”

Athens, Greece, 18.5.2013 8:40, (ROMEA) Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that a great sensation was caused in Greece this past week when an MP from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group was ejected from a session of parliament amid shouts of the Nazi greeting “Heil Hitler”. The session chair ejected the Golden Dawn legislator after he insulted the leader of the left-wing SYRIZA coalition, Alexis Tsipras.  full story

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