Tereza Heková

videoCzech Republic: Pigs finally leave Romani genocide site

17.3.2018 8:28 On Thursday, 14 March 2018, at 8:18 AM a truck drove away with the last 150 pigs from the farm in Lety that is located on the site of the WWII-era concentration camp for Roma at Lety. The AGPI firm, which owns the pig farm, transported the 330 animals left that day away from the grounds.  full story

Czech Labor Minister praises container housing in Romani ghetto

17.3.2018 6:46 Czech Radio reports that outgoing Czech Labor Minister Jaroslava Němcová of the ANO movement likes the container type of housing in the Poschla locality of the town of Vsetín into which former Mayor Jiří Čunek removed Romani residents from the town center in 2006. The minister said the dislocation of the Romani residents had been the correct "solution".  full story

Czech Justice Minister: State has no solution for social exclusion, Romani children not on an equal footing with others

13.3.2018 6:18 Speaking in an interview for ROMEA TV, Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán (ANO) said the state has not yet managed to introduce even a hint of a solution for addressing the problems that arise in socially excluded localities. "This is a big problem for the people living in such localities, but it is also a problem for those living nearby," he said.  full story

Slovakia: Romani family rejected by neighbors before they even move in

22.2.2018 7:40 News server noviny.sk reports that the Štrkáč family recently bought a new home in the village of Oščadnici near Žilina, but their future neighbors disagree with their moving in, allegedly because they are Romani. Everything began on the day after the family bought the house and began reconstructing it.  full story

Czech historian reminds public that cruel abuse was perpetrated at concentration camp for Roma in Moravia

20.2.2018 6:44 Michal Schuster, an historian with the Terezín Initiative Institute in Prague, has described the operations of the former concentration camp at Hodonín u Kunštátu in Moravia in an interview for the Brno edition of news server iDNES.cz. Given the recent remarks made by Czech politicians Tomio Okamura and Miroslav Rozner casting doubt on the camps, Schuster said he believes the public is not able to draw accurate comparisons when it comes to Holocaust victims who are Romani.

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March against Roma Holocaust denial and for removing vice-chair of Czech lower house THIS THURSDAY IN BRNO

13.2.2018 20:11 On Thursday, 15 February there will be a march against denial of the Romani Holocaust and in favor of honoring the memories of its victims. "It is absolutely unacceptable to us that representatives of the SPD party of Tomio Okamura are denying the Holocaust of the Roma. Their statements are not just brutally harsh toward the victims and their families, but are also inappropriate behavior by the representatives of the state," the organizers of the march have posted to social networks.  full story

Czech Culture Minister: Buyout of pig farm was important, human dignity cannot be measured in money

19.1.2018 7:31 News server Novinky.cz published an interview on 17 January with Czech Culture Minister Ilja Šmíd in which he said he agrees with the amount of money paid to buy out the pig farm in Lety u Písku that stands on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people because this was an important step and human dignity cannot be measured in monetary terms. "The last Government made that decision and I am convinced it was absolutely correct as far as the amount paid to buy the farm," the minister said.

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Czech pro-Kremlin disinformation Facebook page sparks wave of racist, vulgar comments about non-white infant

13.1.2018 11:04 News server Aktuálně.cz reports that police in Třinec, Czech Republic are investigating racist comments made online against a male infant whose parents have Czech-Vietnamese and Kurdish roots. The commentaries were posted to the xenophobic Facebook page WeAreHereAtHome, which has renamed itself Zprávy.cz and purports to publish serious news reporting.  full story

Czech Green Party co-chair wants Interior Ministry to dissolve the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" Movement

3.1.2018 10:55 News server Info.cz reported last week that Ondřej Mirovský, co-chair of the Czech Republic's Green Party, has said he wants to ask the Interior Ministry to dissolve Tomio Okamura's "Freedom and Direct Democracy" Movement (SPD). Mirovský made the decision after Okamura invited extremist politicians from all over Europe to Prague.
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Czech Republic: Romani children's grades improve after joining floorball teams

3.1.2018 10:23 Last week the Czech daily Mostecký deník reported that Romani children attending a primary school that serves the Chánov housing estate have begun to dedicate themselves to the sport of floorball. They play after school twice a week.  full story

Greek court sentences woman who kicked Romani girl on the street to three months in prison

3.1.2018 7:12 News server Keep Talking Greece reports that a woman who assaulted a young Romani girl on the streets of Athens four years ago has finally been convicted and sentenced to three months behind bars. The incident happened on 17 September 2013 when the woman saw the seven-year-old sit down on the sidewalk of Dionisiou Aeropagitoy Street, which leads to the Acropolis, and begin playing the accordion.  full story

Czech Republic: Families of children targeted with online hate spend Christmas in the mountains thanks to generous donor

26.12.2017 9:17 Children attending the Plynárenská Primary School in Teplice, Czech Republic are spending Christmas together with their families in the Krkonoše Mountains this year after hotelier Alexandr Bílek offered them a free stay in the resort town of Špindlerův Mlýn. The businessman decided to organize the gift because he disagrees with the racist attacks committed online against the children and their parents, and he wanted to make the situation more pleasant for them.  full story

Czech Republic: International student conference on "European Roma Identity in the 20th Century"

11.12.2017 6:41 From 7-9 December 2017 a student conference entitled "European Roma Identity in the 20th Century" took place in Prague at the Scout Institute. The event was organized by Antikomplex and the Terezín Initiative Institute in collaboration with other partners in a project of the same name.  full story

Czech President will address national convention of xenophobic SPD party

8.12.2017 7:18 Czech President Miloš Zeman will attend the convention of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party tomorrow. He is planning to give a speech there.  full story

Hungary: Romani duo from Slovakia win the "X Factor" music competition

1.12.2017 6:57 The Romani singing duo Claudia and Ricco, who are originally from Slovakia, have won the "X Factor" music competition in Hungary. The magnificent finale to the famous television show was broadcast Saturday.  full story

Czech sociologist: We must face down xenophobia by supporting those who are intimidated

30.11.2017 9:30 Former Czech MP Ivan Gabal, who is also a well-known sociologist, has been interviewed by the Czech online broadcaster DVTV, describing to reporter Martin Veselovský why he decided to initiate the fundraising drive in support of the Romani and other children at a school in Teplice who were recently attacked online - "THEY WANT TO GAS THEM, WE WANT TO SEND THEM TO SCHOOL!" ("ONI JE DO PLYNU. MY JE DO ŠKOL!"). In his view it is important to support children and their parents when they become the targets of xenophobic attacks.  full story

Czech NGOs call on incoming PM not to jettison cabinet post for human rights

29.11.2017 7:01 NGOs in the Czech Republic have written an open letter to Andrej Babiš, who has been entrusted by the Czech President with forming a new Government after last month's lower house elections, calling on him not to close down the post of Human Rights Minister. His ANO movement, which was the favorite in the recent elections, proposed abolishing the position in its electoral program.  full story

Czech sociologist: Racist online calls to gas children are unacceptable

25.11.2017 19:55 According to sociologist Ivan Gabal it is unacceptable for Internet users to call for children to be gassed because they are of a different ethnicity, nationality or race. That is the reason he has initiated the campaign called THEY WANT TO GAS THEM, WE WANT TO SEND THEM TO SCHOOL! (ONI JE DO PLYNU. MY JE DO ŠKOL!) and together with the ROMEA organization and in collaboration with other organizations and public figures is calling for donations in support of the Romani Scholarship Program and in support of the children at the primary school in Teplice that was recently attacked online.  full story

Romani residents of Czech town, evicted during reconstruction, cannot find landlords to rent to them

24.11.2017 14:56 By the end of March 2018 the town of Děčín will have evicted all of the tenants residing in a building that was once a primary school. Despite the fact that the condominium apartment units are municipally-owned, the tenants are being forced to leave without being offered any replacement accommodation.  full story

videoVIDEO: Interview with grandson of the Czechoslovak Romani partisan Josef Serinek

15.8.2017 16:08 A Romani hero of the WWII-era anti-Fascist resistance, the partisan Josef Serinek, was remembered at the end of July by those who attended a tree-planting ceremony in his honor in the Vysočina Region that was held at one of the places where he undertook his resistance work. The event was organized by the Black Partisan (Černý partyzán) initiative led by the former Green Party chair and current director of the Ashoka organization in the Czech Republic, Ondřej Liška, who invited Serinek's grandson Zdeněk to speak.  full story