News

Czech "practical schools" won't close, petition is causing hysteria

Prague, 30.11.2012 23:20, (ROMEA) News server Aktuálně.cz reports that tens of thousands of people have signed a petition against closing the "practical primary schools" that was delivered to representatives of the Czech Education Ministry last Friday. The actual situation is much less dramatic than the sensation stirred up around the alleged closure of the "practical primary schools". Both the Czech Government and the ministry say they are counting on such schools continuing to exist.  full story

Czech ministries, municipal govt pass the buck on Přednádraží street

Ostrava, 30.11.2012 17:20, (ROMEA) The ProAlt Ostrava organization and the SOS Přednádraží collective have issued the following press release, which news server Romea.cz publishes in full translation below:  full story

Czech Radio: Businesses get rich on residential hotels for the poor

Ústí nad Labem, 30.11.2012 1:10, (ROMEA) Czech Radio has reported that the business dealings of those who own the residential hotels that charge disproportionately high fees for single rooms, often featuring showers and toilets located in common hallways and restrictions on who can visit their guests, could easily be called trafficking in poverty. The owners of these businesses rely on the fact that their clients are people who cannot find normal rental housing and that the state will contribute toward paying their bills. For most people living in such places, they are the last resort when fleeing the ghetto.  full story

Slovaks selling land cheap to Romani settlement residents

Slovakia, 30.11.2012 0:26, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Slovaks are contemplating what to do with illegal Romani settlements in their country. One such settlement is in the village of Krásnohorské Podhradie, where part of the land is owned by neo-Nazi Marián Kotleba, who has threatened to demolish all of the small Romani homes currently on his property. Now Erika Gažiková, a member of the Romani community there, made enough extra money gathering berries and mushrooms this summer to purchase the land around her home in the Romani settlement from the village, as have other Romani residents.  full story

Prague 5 dead set on closing integrated school no matter the cost

Prague, 29.11.2012 22:19, (ROMEA) By all indications, the Grafická Primary School in the Smíchov quarter of Prague is well on its way to becoming one of only a few institutions in the country where inclusive education is not only practiced daily, but is accepted and supported by the faculty, parents and pupils themselves. The Prague 5 Municipal Department now wants to close the school.  full story

Czech Republic: Open letter from Romani evacuees in usurious residential hotel

Ústí nad Labem, Předlice, 29.11.2012 16:49, (ROMEA) The situation in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem is becoming unsustainable. The first people have been evacuated from the Předlice quarter there and the same fate probably awaits others. The town itself is mostly to blame for the situation, as it sold buildings in the quarter to private owners, some of who have no interest in maintaining them. As some residents have informed news server Romea.cz, some of the buildings probably belong to banks by now because their owners have defaulted on loans using the buildings as collateral. Structural engineers have found flaws in almost 30 buildings in the Předlice quarter, so more evacuations may lie ahead.  full story

Romani activist seeks seat on Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes

Prague, 29.11.2012 16:32, (ROMEA) Čeněk Růžička, the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu) is one of the candidates for a seat on the board of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů - ÚSTR). The Czech Senate will choose the institute's board members during a session in December. A total of 33 candidates have applied.  full story

Hungary: Jobbik MP wants to compile a list of Jewish politicians

Budapest, Hungary, 29.11.2012 1:46, (ROMEA) An MP with the chauvinist (radical nationalist) political formation called Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) has declared in the Hungarian Parliament that he wants to create a list of Jewish MPs and members of the cabinet. His proposal was condemned by the Hungarian Government. The international Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has also protested against it.  full story

Czech EdMin wants zero non-disabled children in "practical primary schools"

Prague, 29.11.2012 1:28, (ROMEA) The Czech Education Ministry wants to prevent non-disabled, socially disadvantaged children from studying in the "practical primary schools" alongside children with mental disabilities. During the next two years, the ministry is preparing to introduce several measures into practice to prevent such enrollments. Those measures concern pupils' records, the methods used to evaluate "practical primary school" candidates, and the establishment of preparatory classes at such schools. The ministry is responding to a five-year-old judgment from the European Court of Human Rights which found 18 Romani pupils had been unjustifiably enrolled into what were previously called "special schools" in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Parents protest closure of integrated school in Prague

Prague, 29.11.2012 0:23, (ROMEA) The parents of pupils attending the Grafická Primary School are protesting the plan of the Prague 5 municipal government to close it. In an open letter, the parents write that they greatly value that the school's environment produces "trouble-free collaboration between majority-population pupils and Romani pupils there. Our children get along nicely together, which is not at all usual in today's society... In recent years, pupils who were inappropriately enrolled into 'practical primary schools', even though their intellect did not require such enrollment, have managed to relocate here. These pupils, with the kind and meticulous support of their educators, have successfully handled the difficult transition back to the curriculum of a regular primary school." The parents are demanding that Prague 5 review its decision to close the school.  full story

Czech Senator Gajdůšková: Everyone must receive the same opportunity!

Prague, 28.11.2012 17:16, (ROMEA) I recently convened a round table in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights handing down its judgment in the case of D.H. and others versus the Czech Republic. In November 2007, the court ruled that the "practical primary schools" (previously called the "special schools") in our country were disadvantaging Romani children.  full story

More than 40 future Roma professionals receive academic scholarships

Praha, 28.11.2012 11:09, (ROMEA) At 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 29, Prague’s theater D 21 will host a mid-afternoon gala to recognize Romani university students who won scholarships from the Roma Education Fund (REF) for the academic year 2012/2013. In its thirteenth year, the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP) supports 44 Romani students in the Czech Republic in 2012 and has spent well over two million Euros on scholarships across the region since its establishment.
 full story

Slovakia: Romani people can neither stay nor go

Slovakia, 27.11.2012 16:51, (ROMEA) The Slovak daily Sme reports that a group of Romani people in eastern Slovakia has found themselves in an absurd situation. The Košice town hall evicted them from an illegal settlement and helped them move to the remote village of Rakúsa - where the mayor has now sent them straight back to Košice.  full story

Fundamental Rights Agency: Hate crimes a reality in the EU

Prague, 27.11.2012 16:44, (ROMEA) The EU Fundamental Rights Agency has issued the following press release:  full story

Czech EdMin plan for implementing the D.H. judgment

Prague, 27.11.2012 16:01, (ROMEA) The Czech Education Ministry has issued the following press release, which news server Romea.cz presents here in translation:  full story

Commentary: "Yuck, the gypsies touched that!"

Prague, 27.11.2012 0:31, (ROMEA) "Yuck, the gypsies touched that!“ The cry came from the mother of a two-year-old infant. Startled, he burst into tears. He had taken an interest in something on top of a concrete trashcan on the square of a North Bohemian town. The first instruction to leave the trashcan alone didn't end his fascination - he seemed not to have understood it.  full story

Czech Republic: Anti-Romani tensions escalating in Havířov

Havířov, 26.11.2012 17:46, (ROMEA) The “Hate is No Solution” Initiative (Iniciativa Nenávist není řešení - INNR) has recently begun providing legal representation to the victims of racially-motivated violence through its members, who have years of experience in the field of legal aid. Among other cases, they represented the victims of the arson attack in Vítkov on 18 April 2009. The perpetrators of that racist attack were given 20-year prison sentences and the victims were awarded almost ten million CZK. INNR is the only organization in the Czech Republic that actively seeks out the victims of racist violence, offers them legal aid, and represents them in court during hearings on their compensation.  full story

Sweden: Racist murderer of immigrants gets life in prison

Stockholm, Sweden, 25.11.2012 21:22, (ROMEA) The racist assailant who terrorized the inhabitants of the southern Swedish town of Malmö for two years has been sentenced to life in prison. Peter Mangs (age 40) shot at dark-skinned immigrants and long evaded police despite an intensive manhunt for him. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that he was arrested in 2010 and has now been sentenced on two counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, and three counts of assault. The court also ruled that Mangs must pay the families of his victims compensation in the amount of 1.2 million Swedish crowns.  full story

Greek neo-Nazi party may be linked to planned attack on mosque

Athens, Greece, 24.11.2012 20:37, (ROMEA) The Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports that the Greek neo-Nazis who won seats in Parliament this year are evidently linked to a planned Molotov cocktail attack on a mosque there. Proof of this is the case of a 22-year-old man who was recently arrested in central Greece and told police he had planned to carry out such an attack on the basis of instructions received from the radical Golden Dawn party. The party had earned his "gratitude" mafia-style by finding him work.  full story

Czech teachers say Romani community not interested in school

Ostrava, 24.11.2012 20:16, (ROMEA) The parents of some Romani schoolchildren in Ostrava took to the streets there recently to protest in front of the New Town Hall. Some of the problems bothering them are the fact that Romani children are not offered the same conditions for education as other children, that they are discriminated against and excluded from mainstream schools, and that they are educated in Romani-only classes and schools. Czech news server Deník.cz has now published a report on the negative and positive experiences of those who teach Romani people in the schools. News server Romea.cz presents it here in translation.  full story