News

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

Commentary: Be proud you are Romani

Prague, 3.5.2013 20:13, (Romano vod'i) Some children were playing on the playground. They were probably being too loud because they were really into their game. Some might say they were whooping it up. A neighbor didn’t like it and started yelling at them out the window to be quiet. She threw in some remarks about “gypsies” because the children were Romani. One of the little girls looked up at the lady and said to her: “Lady, why are you shouting at us? When you were still swinging from the trees, we were building Mohenjo Daro!”  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

Greece: Police break up neo-Nazi event “for Greeks only” in Athens

Athens, Greece, 2.5.2013 15:32, (ROMEA) BBC News reports that Greek police intervened against activists with the ultra-right Golden Dawn party in Athens today who were distributing free groceries. The party, which is resolutely anti-immigrant, had announced the giveaway was intended exclusively for Greeks.  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

Human rights protection is under strain in Europe, says Commissioner Muižnieks in his first annual report

Strasbourg, 1.5.2013 12:56, (ROMEA) “The picture of the human rights situation which I have observed during country visits, meetings with authorities and discussions with NGO representatives in 2012 is worrying” said today Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, while presenting his first annual report. “Of particular concern are the persisting patterns of discrimination, racism and homophobia; the treatment of migrants; constraints to freedom of expression; as well as the inefficiency of national judicial systems.”  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

Valeriu Nicolae: Roma Social Inclusion Measures the European Commission Can and Should Take

Bucharest, 30.4.2013 10:15, (ROMEA) I have been accused in the past of always complaining about what the Commission does and never offering “constructive” solutions myself. Factually this is false.I am a strong pro-European. I also reject sugar-coating and I think critical thinking is what can get us out of the mess we are in at this moment.  full story

USA tells Slovakia to clean up its courts, prevent attacks against Romani people

Bratislava, Slovakia, 30.4.2013 0:34, (ROMEA) News server Aktuality.sk reports that the US State Department’s human rights report for 2012 has described the Slovak Republic as a country where judges abuse their power, the judicial system is imbalanced, and discrimination and violent attacks against Romani people are ongoing. According to the report, discrimination against ethnic minorities, the Roma in particular, is common.  full story

Slovak apartheid ends at one school

Prague, 29.4.2013 20:27, (ROMEA) The Slovak daily Sme reports that until recently, a school in the town of Šarišské Michaľany was educating dark-skinned children on its first floor and white-skinned children on the ground floor. The playground was divided into separate sections as well, while the cafeteria offered cooked food for the whites and “dry food” for the others.  full story

videoPro boxer Tyson Fury is proud of his origins

New York City, USA, 29.4.2013 5:26, (ROMEA) Last weekend Tyson Fury achieved an enormous triumph when he became the first professional boxer ever to knock out American boxer Steve Cunningham. "I am proud of what I am, and that's a Traveller,” the heavyweight Fury told The Independent. Last weekend in the USA was his 21st victory in a professional ring.  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