Civil society members of Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs demand investigation of police brutality in Nový Bydžov

The civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs demand an investigation of the justification for the disproportionate police intervention during which mounted officers charged a peaceful demonstration against the DSSS and beat the demonstrators with truncheons in Nový Bydžov on 12 March 2011. The members are outraged by the course of the DSSS demonstration there. They have sent an open letter to Czech Interior Minister Radek John, which news server Romea.cz publishes in full below.

Esteemed Minister,

The civil society section of the Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs, as a section of an advisory and initiatory body of the Government of the Czech Republic, is outraged by the course of the announced DSSS demonstration on 12 March 2011 in Nový Bydžov.

We demand an investigation of the justification for the police intervention – which in our view was disproportionate – when mounted police officers charged peacefully standing demonstrators who were against the DSSS action and beat them with truncheons. During the intervention the police officers also used firecrackers and disproportionate physical force.

We demand that on the basis of these facts and the eyewitness testimony of those present, an evaluation be undertaken as to whether the powers of public officials have been abused. Promoters of the extreme-right DSSS continued to visibly promote symbols of the banned Workers’ Party and to publicly express their radical attitude in favor of suppressing human rights and freedoms.

We would be interested to know whether there was an expert on neo-Nazism and right-wing extremism present on the scene to intervene and propose dispersing the DSSS gathering and march.

We are also demanding a first-rate, honest investigation of the incident during which several neo-Nazis attacked a Roma man who was subsequently hospitalized for bruises and concussion.

On 11 March 2011 you told the media that “the police are capable of perfectly ensuring security in this country”. However, it would seem that security is only provided for a select group of the population, even though security is a basic public good. We demand you fulfill your claim. It is an impossible situation when Roma people have to leave their homes and hide their small children and family members who are in ill health in order to be safe.

The neo-Nazis and their promoters are open opponents of the state order of this society, but the state takes a lax attitude toward their activities. The police do not hesitate to use the pretext that the law is being broken to brutally intervene against those opposing the neo-Nazis, but the neo-Nazis themselves are able to violate the law and march through our towns with impunity.

As citizens of a democratic country, we cannot and we must not support this state of affairs.

Thank you for your personal intervention in this matter and for preventing such situations in future.