Czech Army's own survey shows officers are racist, Defense Minister suspects a set-up

According to internal materials produced by the General Staff of the Czech Army, aggression, racism, sharp disagreement of generals and soldiers with the Czech Republic’s foreign policy and military position, and xenophobia are the main security risks now extant among the Army’s officers and soldiers. Army psychologists based those findings on a survey of 816 employees of the General Staff.  

TV Prima has seen the document and reported on it on Tuesday 22 September. Some of the basic findings of the study are:

– For employees of the General Staff the third most frequently mentioned country posing a threat to the Czech Republic is our NATO ally the United States of America, while 71 % of those surveyed consider refugees to pose the greatest danger to the Czech Republic.

– Romani people are completely unacceptable to 75 % of the employees of the General Staff, followed by Afghans, Muslims in general, and Albanians.

– The most shocking finding is that while 75 % of respondents believe the religion of Islam constitutes a threat to the country, every eighth employee of the General Staff would welcome the introduction of capital punishment to be administered by stoning, and also believes that punishments such as cutting off someone’s hand, the honor killing of family members, and whipping should be made legal.

TV Prima reports that the study closes with this summary:  "Thirteen per cent of the employees of the General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic advocate aggressive opinions incompatible with the values on which Western society is based and have no problem accepting behavior that is foreign to the European continent. Currently at least every eighth employee of the General Staff poses a security risk. Unequivocal support for the security policy of the Czech Republic does not exist."  

Stropnický is disgusted

Yesterday TV Prima reported the response of Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický to the findings. "I am disgusted by this because, as I said, the matter that is now making the rounds of the public is a total failure, and that’s not because we would like to cover it up, but because it is simply an internal survey," the minister says in the reportage.  

The Defense Minister also expressed doubts about the study, depending on which responses given by the General Staff don’t seem right to him. Moreover, he said he found it suspicious that this material, which indicates that soldiers dislike refugees, has been leaked to the public precisely at the time of the refugee crisis.