News

Czech Republic: Romani NGO founder appeals fraud conviction

Plzeň, 19.2.2013 19:15, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that Ladislav Bílý, the head of the Romani Civic Association (Romské občanské sdružení) in Karlovy Vary, has been sentenced to six years in prison and must repay almost CZK 10 million [EUR 394 000]. The verdict was handed down by the Regional Court in Plzeň, which found Bílý guilty of subsidy fraud and falsifying documents  full story

Germany: Extremist National Socialists banned in Saxony

Saxony, Germany, 18.2.2013 18:20, (ROMEA) The authorities of the eastern German state of Saxony, which borders the Czech Republic, have banned the ultra-right National Socialists Döbeln association. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that detectives have been performing house searches of the leading members of the organization since this morning. The neo-Nazi group allegedly violated the constitutional order and used Nazi rhetoric and symbols, thereby confirming its affiliation with Nazism.  full story

Czech Republic: Insurance scam in Ostrava affects the deprived

Ostrava, 18.2.2013 17:41, (ROMEA) A recently publicized incident in which patients in the Czech town of Ostrava were fraudulently registered with health insurers has affected socially vulnerable families with many children and Romani people in particular. At the start of the year an unusually large number of socially vulnerable residents living in a former mining colony in the municipal department of Ostrava-Radvanice changed their health insurance companies. Now, however, it turns out that many of them had no idea their insurance registrations had been changed and their signatures were most probably falsified. The police will be investigating the case.  full story

Romania: They dump the Roma to the landfill

Romania, 18.2.2013 13:11, (ROMEA) In December 2012 the ERRC published its report on the Romanian Roma eviction to a rubbish dump. On the 17th December of 2010 the Romanian government evicted 270 people from the Coastei Street in the centre of Cluj-Napoca, even though it is forbidden by the Romanian law to carry out eviction during winter. The families living there just got the notice one day before they were evicted from the homes, in which they were living for 20 years. They were sent to Pata Rât which is located right next to the municipal landfill and dump. It is still operating, despite its official ‘closing’ because it could not comply with the EU waste management obligations.  full story

Attila Lakatos: Romani people must be given work

Budapest, Hungary, 18.2.2013 0:01, (ROMEA) News server Českápozice.cz has published an interview with Attila Lakatos, a Romani leader from the impoverished district of Borsod in northeastern Hungary. News server Romea.cz publishes it in full translation below.  full story

Petition: Urgent Call to stop the decline of Roma Civil Society

EU, 17.2.2013 16:11, (ROMEA) Hereby, we the undersigned, call upon the European Commission, donors and stakeholders involved in the inclusion of Roma to take the necessary measures to ensure that EU policies, funding priorities and projects fulfil the objective of helping Roma become equal European citizens.  full story

Czech Republic: Bus serving Romani area installs cameras

Liberec, 16.2.2013 20:00, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that buses on line number 16, which runs from the Czech town of Liberec to the village of Kryštofova Údolí, will soon be featuring their first security cameras to monitor passengers. The vehicles make regular stops in a place the news server describes as "a large ghetto in Machnín - Hamrštejn. Predominantly Romani families live on the very outskirts of society there."  full story

Czech Republic: Gentrification evicts more poor in Ostrava

Ostrava, 15.2.2013 21:29, (ROMEA) While the main town hall for Ostrava offered a total of four social apartments to needy people earlier this week as part of its newly-launched inclusion program, the Municipal Department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz is doing its best to push impoverished residents out of its center. At the start of January the municipality posted a warning at a residential hotel it runs on Božkova information those living there that they must move out by the end of May.  full story

Commentary: NGO war breaks out in Czech Republic

Prague, 15.2.2013 1:25, (ROMEA) "When People in Need, during the worst moment of this crisis at the residential hotel, when there was a risk that people's children would be taken into state care, released a lie to the media claiming that the residential hotel occupants had rejected 20 apartments, they crushed the faith of the people they were collaborating with, as well as the overall faith of the public in NGOs. At the same time, this organization showed that its media image and the provision of an alibi to its allies at the town hall, from which its grant money flows, is more important to it than are human lives and a good resolution to a crisis situation," reads a recent declaration issued by the Housing for All (Bydlení pro všechny) initiative. The abysmal situation of the Romani people in Ústí nad Labem has drawn attention to the deep antagonisms between those whom we have become used to assigning, in a too-simplified way, into apparently clear categories such as "non-governmental organizations" or "activists".  full story

Valeriu Nicolae: Why I quit

Bucharest, 14.2.2013 10:11, (ROMEA) The main focus of most of the important donors, governments and intergovernmental organisations when it comes to the Roma inclusion field is to find positive practices and replicate such positive practices.  full story

Germany: Human chain blocks neo-Nazis in Dresden

Dresden, Germany, 14.2.2013 1:17, (ROMEA) On Wednesday, 13 February, not quite 1 000 neo-Nazis converged on Dresden to march through the town on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of its destruction by Allied bombing near the close of the Second World War. More than 10 000 opponents of the ultra-right stood up to their plans, blocking both the abuse of this historic event and the neo-Nazis' planned demonstration.  full story

Commentary: Dilemma of the "decent Gypsy"

Prague, 13.2.2013 17:58, (ROMEA) Consensus-building and efforts at dialogue are part of democracy. On the other hand, we cannot completely smooth over any conflict ongoing in society. Which is better: To soften your formulations when conversing with someone whose opinions contradict yours, or to go into conflict with them?  full story

Czech Republic: Ostrava starts social housing program

Ostrava, 12.2.2013 22:26, (ROMEA) Czech Television reports that the first families enrolled in a social housing program in the town of Ostrava have received keys to their new apartments from the town. As long as they follow the rules and send their children to school, the town will assist them.  full story

Czech activist: Nothing about Roma without them

Ústí nad Labem, 12.2.2013 17:38, (ROMEA) The Ústí edition of the deník.cz news server has published an interview with Miroslav Brož of the Konexe civic association in the Czech Republic in which he discusses residential hotels, Romani people, and the mistakes of the social welfare system (in Czech at http://ustecky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/broz-projekty-pro-romy-selhavaji-20130208.html). News server Romea.cz publishes the interview in full translation below.  full story

Commentary: Czech residential hotels now worse than refugee camps used to be

Prague/Ostrava, 12.2.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) It's Wednesday, 6 February 2013 and we're in Prague at a large roundtable - police officers, psychotherapists, social workers, child welfare department staffers, employees of civic associations in the helping professions. All together we are doing our best to resolve the complex medical, relational and social problem of a single family that resulted in domestic violence recently.  full story

videoRomani rappers: Avoid Czech practical primary schools

Praha, 12.2.2013 0:08, (ROMEA) "Send him to a grade school/so he can be somebody/he may be a Gypsy/but he's not dilino" ("Pošlete ho do základky, aby z něj něco bylo – i když je Cigán, tak není dilino") budding Romani hip-hop artists from Prague's Žižkov neighborhood rap in their new music video "Nebuď dilino!" (“Don't be stupid!"). The four young Romani men have broken through with their group United GipsyCrew online and a single in which they proudly declare their Romani origin.  full story

Klaus family's secret police past fuels graffiti in Prague

Prague, 11.2.2013 17:42, (ROMEA) TV Nova reports that the building of the PORG academic high school in Prague, run by Václav Klaus, Jr, the son of the outgoing Czech President, has been spray-painted with red stars, a swastika, and the initials Š. M. According to the TV Nova report, the vandal was evidently responding to an article published in the Saturday edition of the Czech daily Lidové noviny reporting that Štefan Miština, the father-in-law of President Klaus, was a high official in the secret political police of the Slovak state during WWII and personally participated in the persecution of Jewish people.  full story

In memory of Livia B. Plaks – Roma advocate and a voice for the voiceless

Washington, 11.2.2013 15:19, (ROMEA) Livia Plaks, a woman whose contribution to the Roma cause cannot be overestimated, died suddenly of a heart attack on February 2 at her home in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. She was 65 years old. In her, we have all lost a passionate advocate for equality, minority rights, and Roma.  full story

Fashion designer helps Romani Mentor project in Czech Republic

Prague, 9.2.2013 20:32, (ROMEA) The Prádelna community center on Holečkova street in Prague 5 is hosting a Romani mentor for the second year in a row. The integration project of the same name (Romský mentor) is once again featuring successful fashion designer Pavel Berky.  full story

Commentary: Slovakia's TV Markíza misinforms viewers about "activation jobs"

Detva, Slovensko, 9.2.2013 19:22, (ROMEA) In the Czech Republic they've elected a president. Lawsuits are being planned against the Slovak President. In Syria the murder continues. In Somalia 29 000 children have died of hunger, while another 300 000 are expected to die there soon. The world is spinning in a crazy dance and the economic crisis is conducting the music, but Slovakia lives for its own domestic problems. No one here is much interested in the war in Syria or famine somewhere in Africa.  full story