Czech Republic

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

Czech Republic: Splinter DSSS faction plans 13 more anti-Romani events by year's end

Prague, 24.7.2013 20:48, (ROMEA) All of the right-wing extremists in the Czech Republic are currently feeling the need for publicity because of the upcoming elections next year (some of which may take place later this year). Now we can expect more violent election-related events than ever before because the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) has split into two groups.  full story

Czech MP wants to introduce concept of "high-risk families and individuals"

Prague, 23.7.2013 22:27, (ROMEA) Czech MP Otto Chaloupka (Věcí veřejných - Public Affairs), who is known for his hateful statements about Romani people, has published proposed amendments to several laws regulating civil coexistence on his website. Without giving any evidence for his assertions, he claims the welfare system is being abused and must be tightened up.  full story

Commentary: The structure of hatred

Prague, 22.7.2013 23:08, (ROMEA) A society dominated by relationships of competition, one where the argument that "the ends justify the means" is considered valid, creates lightning rods out of phenomena it doesn't know how to deal with or doesn't want to handle. In this society, those phenomena are homeless people and especially Romani people. Here, if you give these people a kick, you can easily justify your actions as moral.  full story

Czech Republic: Non-Romani people visit Romani neighborhood en masse, police keep the peace

České Budějovice, 22.7.2013 3:39, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that during the early evening of Saturday, 20 July, roughly 200 people gathered on the streets of the Máj housing estate in the town of České Budějovice, which has been the site of anti-Romani demonstrations during previous weeks. Citizens of both Czech and Romani nationality, under the supervision of police, verbally exchanged opinions.  full story

Czech Republic: 100 right-wing extremists march through Svitavy

Svitavy, 20.7.2013 18:49, (ROMEA) Novinky.cz reports that this afternoon a march by right-wing extremists that has become an annual tradition was experienced once more by the town of Svitavy. About 100 people gathered in front of the local train station and marched through the town to protest the imprisonment of a local skinhead, Vlastimil Pechanec, who was convicted of the 2001 murder of a Romani man, Ota Absolon, in a local discotheque and sentenced to 17 years in prison.  full story

DSSS files criminal charges over Czech-Romani flag exhibit

Prague, 19.7.2013 21:06, (ROMEA) The ultra-right Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) is filing criminal charges against the organizers of an exhibition featuring designs for a new state flag, the so-called "Czech-Romani flag". According to the DSSS, the organizers have violated the law on the use of the state symbols of the Czech Republic.  full story

Prague establishes special group to remove homeless people from mass transit

Prague, 18.7.2013 17:40, (ROMEA) Mayor of Prague Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09) has told journalists that the city has decided to eject homeless people from public transportation and has set up a special team to solve the problem comprised of representatives of municipal police, nonprofit organizations and the transit authority. "They have been jointly tasked with improving the situation in mass transit environments, including their cleanliness," Hudeček said.  full story

Czech Republic: Fake bombs found in Romani ghetto, locals are afraid

Liberec, 18.7.2013 17:12, (ROMEA) Two small packages resembling bombs have been found in the Romani ghetto of Machnín in the town of Liberec. While the packages did not contain any explosives, local residents say they are still significantly afraid of right-wing extremists.  full story

Fedor Gál: Just one spark and we have a pogrom - Roma are the first to be attacked

Prague, 17.7.2013 21:23, (ROMEA) During the recent anti-Roma demonstrations at the Máj housing estate in České Budějovice, many of those in attendance have also protested being labeled "racists" or "radicals". Sociologist Fedor Gál explains what racism is and isn't and what we should ask Romani people about. "When someone brings up the anti-Romani topic because he wants to keep his position of power, then that person is himself a criminal, a deviant," Gál said in an interview for the Czech daily Mf DNES.  full story

Czech Republic: Police downplaying arson against building with Romani residents in České Budějovice last weekend

České Budějovice, 17.7.2013 21:12, (ROMEA) On Sunday, 14 July, a drunken man did his best to set an apartment building in České Budějovice on fire where several Romani families live. Fortunately he did not succeed.  full story

Czech Republic: DSSS extremists preparing to demonstrate in Varnsdorf again

Varnsdorf, 17.7.2013 16:30, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reports that promoters of the Workers Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), led by party chair Tomáš Vandas, are heading to the town of Varnsdorf once more this fall. They will be doing so almost exactly two years to the day after neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists repeatedly fomented violence on the streets there.  full story

videoArtist exhibits designs for new Czech-Roma flag

Prague, 16.7.2013 23:52, (ROMEA) The latest exhibition at the Artwall Gallery in Prague presents seven designs for a new Czech-Roma flag created by Slovak artist Tomáš Rafa. The project, entitled "Selection Procedure for Czech-Roma Flag" ("Výběrové řízení na česko-romskou vlajku") critically responds to the current situation in which Romani people are not considered Czechs by the majority society and find themselves in forced isolation.  full story

Miroslav Kováč: Let's abolish all welfare for everyone!

Prague, 16.7.2013 21:54, (ROMEA) Recently I have observed online, on the street, at anti-Romani demonstrations, and even from the lips of politicians that many in the Czech Republic believe Romani people here enjoy an above-average standard of living because of thos country's generous social welfare system. I am Roma and I happen to live in the real world, traveling to various so-called excluded localities (I even used to live in one myself). As a citizen who knows the law and is familiar with this issue, I have decided to share my knowledge with those in the majority population who are ignorant of the facts, especially with those who, perhaps because of laziness (at best) have succumbed to all the quasi-fascist hoaxes, myths and populism on this issue, those who term themselves the "decent people" but scoff at the laws, as well as those politicians who make it directly possible for the corrupt to increase their personal bank accounts abroad by adopting various "measures" through which our asset-stripped "state coffers" are supposed to be "filled".  full story

International journalists shocked by Czech MP's comments about finance minister

Prague, 16.7.2013 15:55, (ROMEA) International journalists living in Prague are either shocked by the remarks made last Sunday by Czech MP Michal Babák (Public Affairs - VV) about Jews and the state coffers or consider them to be a sign of dilettantism. Rob Cameron, BBC correspondent in Prague, and Hans-Jörg Schmidt, correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt in Prague, said that if something similar were to happen in Western Europe, the politician would have to either resign or at least leave the party. Gustavo Monge, the correspondent for the Spanish wire service EFE, called Babák's comments cheap, populist, and rude.  full story

Czech Republic: Anti-Roma demo in Duchcov allegedly followed by Roma assault on extremists, police brutality

Duchcov/Prague, 15.7.2013 17:32, (ROMEA) News server Policejní deník (Police Daily) reports that on the evening of Saturday, 13 July, police officers received a call to their emergency line that two men had been assaulted in a pub in Duchcov (Teplice district). Patrols of both municipal and state police went to the scene.  full story