Czech Republic

Amnesty International and ERRC call on Czech Government to protect Romani people

Budapest/Prague, 2.8.2013 23:07, (ROMEA) Human rights organizations Amnesty International (AI) and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) have called on the Czech Republic to protect Romani people from terror and violence. The organizations published their joint declaration in response to the planned anti-Romani demonstrations that await the Czech Republic in the coming days.  full story

Czech town of Vítkov readies for neo-Nazi assembly and events opposing it

Vítkov, 2.8.2013 22:22, (ROMEA) Municipal leaders and police in the 6 000-strong town of Vítkov (Opava district) are preparing for three assemblies scheduled to take place there on Saturday, 3 August. According to online sources, the police, and the Vítkov town hall, neo-Nazis are planning to march in the town, the Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí - SRP), which defends the interests of the socially vulnerable, is planning a street meeting there, and the "Let's Block the Marches!" (Blokujeme!) platform has planned an assembly that has been announced by activists from the Konexe organization.  full story

Czech Republic: Protect Roma at risk of violence ahead of far-right demonstration

Budapest/Prague, 2.8.2013 17:50, (ROMEA) Czech authorities must protect Roma communities from violence and intimidation, Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) said ahead of planned anti-Roma demonstrations across the country.  full story

Czech PM Rusnok honors Romani genocide victims at Lety, says he needs to review UN recommendations about pig farm

Lety u Písku, 2.8.2013 1:49, (ROMEA) Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok and several ministers of his cabinet have paid their respects to the Romani victims of the Holocaust at Lety by Písek. On 1 August 1942, exactly 71 years ago, a concentration camp for Romani people was established there.  full story

Czech Govt working group led by Human Rights Commissioner introduces proposals for addressing social unrest

Prague, 2.8.2013 0:45, (ROMEA) A Czech Government working group to address social unrest was convened by the Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner on 1 August. Due to the seriousness of the situation the meeting was attended by Czech PM Jiří Rusnok and Interior Minister Martin Pecina.  full story

Czech Labor Office calls spam e-mail about Romani people "lies and nonsense"

Prague, 1.8.2013 23:10, (ROMEA) Yet another dishonest e-mail is spreading online in which alleged author Jiří Máška describes how Romani people are reportedly "getting rich" by drawing welfare. The hoax e-mail has also been sent more than once to the e-mail address of news server Romea.cz.  full story

Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner to meet with PM, Interior Minister about social unrest

Prague, 31.7.2013 23:04, (ROMEA) On Thursday, 1 August at 13:00 there will be a meeting of a working group to address the social unrest in the country at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková has called the meeting on the basis of information she has received from the field through the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

Czech intelligence service: Ordinary citizens' anti-Romani sentiments more dangerous than right-wing extremists

Prague, 30.7.2013 20:09, (ROMEA) The Czech Republic's Security Information Service (Bezpečnostní informační služba - BIS) has released its quarterly report on developments in the extremist scene on its website. The report says anti-Romani sentiment among a segment of the public could pose a greater problem for state security than small groups of right-wing extremists do.  full story

Czech Republic: Let's Block the Marches (Blokujeme!) platform wants to stop anti-Romani marches

Prague, 30.7.2013 15:33, (ROMEA) Individuals and organizations are demanding that the Government of the Czech Republic, municipal representatives, and other politicians commit themselves to stopping the anti-Romani marches now being regularly organized by neo-Nazis throughout the entire country. Signatories to the declaration are also turning to civil society to stop the marches as well.  full story

Czech Republic: Residents of Plzeň complaining about members of the Romani minority

Plzeň, 30.7.2013 2:58, (ROMEA) In Plzeň complaints regarding coexistence are being registered about some members of the Romani minority. The Czech News Agency says the complaints concern the courtyard inside Plachého and Korandova streets, which is the town's only socially excluded locality.  full story

Central Bohemian Vice-Governor congratulates mother of the Czech Republic's first-ever quintuplets with a check

Prague, 30.7.2013 1:30, (ROMEA) The website of the Central Bohemian Regional Authority reported on 26 July 2013 that the mother of the first quintuplets ever born in the Czech Republic, Alexandra Kiňová, has been visited by Zdeněk Syblík, the Central Bohemian Regional Vice-Governor in charge of social affairs, in order to congratulate her on her unprecedented good fortune. Siblings Alex, Deniel, Martin, Michael and Terezka were born on 2 June 2013 at the Institute for Mothers and Children in Prague-Podolí.  full story

Czech Republic: Sentences in "machete attack" appealed, longest is 16 years

Liberec, 30.7.2013 0:12, (ROMEA) Today the Regional Court in Liberec sentenced three of the five assailants from the "machete attack" case in Nový Bor (Česká Lípa district) for attempted murder, while the other two were convicted of grievous bodily harm and battery. The sentences ranged from three to 16 years in prison.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani man risks life to save infant threatened at knifepoint

Tábor, 29.7.2013 23:04, (ROMEA) Táborský deník (Tábor Daily) reports that Stanislav Kováč of the IMPULS Tábor civic association recently displayed great courage when he stood up to a drunken man threatening adults and children with a long knife in Husovo Park in the town of Tábor. The drunken man walked up to Irena Dzurková as she was sitting on a bench with her daughter and younger brother and asked her for a cigarette.  full story

Czech Republic: Equal Opportunities Party protests neo-Nazi march at scene of 2009 arson attack

Plzeň, 29.7.2013 18:01, (ROMEA) The Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí - SRP) says it is unacceptable for radical militant extremists to march through localities predominantly inhabited by Romani people. The party has issued the statement in response to a series of anti-Romani assemblies and marches being organized by the Czech Lions, a group connected to the newly-established Democratic Worker's Party (Demokratická strana pracujících - DSP) which seems to be profiling itself as a sort of ultra-right People's Militia (Lidové milice).  full story

videoCzech Republic: About 30 neo-Nazis gather in Prague, antifascists counter-protest

Prague, 27.7.2013 0:01, (ROMEA) Roughly 30 right-wing radicals gathered today after 5 PM at the Černý Most housing estate in Prague. The event was organized by a group called the "Czech Lions" (Čeští lvi), who are a sort of ultra-right People's Militia connected to the new right-wing extremist Democratic Workers' Party (Demokratická strana pracujících - DSP).  full story

Czech Republic: Prague 14 calls on citizens not to interfere with neo-Nazi assembly and march today

České Budějovice/Prague, 26.7.2013 22:58, (ROMEA) A neo-Nazi march is scheduled to take place today in Prague. Organizers did not announce it to City Hall but only to the local municipality of Prague 14, which means the event was not listed in the online database of announced assemblies.  full story

Czech-Roma association calls for Romani people to counter-protest anti-Romani marches

Ústí nad Labem, 26.7.2013 17:54, (ROMEA) On 20 July the Konexe association issued the following call to all Romani people in the Czech Republic out of concern over the violent anti-Romani marches planned to take place throughout the country. News server Romea.cz publishes it here in full translation:  full story

United Nations Human Rights Committee urges Czech Republic to close pig farm at Lety

Geneva, Switzerland, 25.7.2013 18:48, (ROMEA) Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the Czech Republic today to shut down the pig farm that was erected by the communist regime in the 1970s on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková said she supports removing the pig farm but the decision about its fate will be up to the new government.  full story

Czech High Court softens verdict against Romani NGO director for falsifying data

Prague, 25.7.2013 16:25, (ROMEA) Today the High Court in Prague relaxed the original sentence of six years in prison handed down for subsidy fraud and falsifying official documents against Ladislav Bílý, the head of the Roma Civic Association (Romské občanské sdružení - ROS) in Karlovy Vary, shortening it to a three-year suspended sentence with five years' probation. The court upheld the first-instance ban on Bílý running any other nonprofits as well as the suspension of his driver's license.  full story

Czech President Zeman: Neo-Nazi demonstrations must be broken up at the start

Prague, 24.7.2013 22:50, (ROMEA) In an interview for the Czech News Agency today, Czech President Miloš Zeman said there is a need for much more intensive, repressive prosecution of neo-Nazi manifestations. He was responding to, among other things, the recent unrest at the Máj housing estate in the town of České Budějovice which has resulted in anti-Romani assemblies and marches by right-wing radicals, as well as other manifestations by the promoters of neo-Nazism in other parts of the country.  full story