Czech far right radicals unlikely to return to Litvinov this year

Czech far-right radicals who undertook several marches aimed against Romanies in Litvinov in October and November where they clashed with the police have reportedly agreed not to return to Litvinov’s Janov housing estate populated mainly by Romanies till the end of this year.

According to the website of the neo-Nazi National Resistance (NO) movement, they want to wait for the results of the Litvinov town hall’s effort to settle the long-lasting disputes between Romanies and other residents.

The website that informs about the agreement that was achieved at "a meeting of activists of autonomous groups," as of New Year, far-right radicals will focus their activity on other similar localities in the Czech Republic.

The statement published on the NO website is a reaction to the town authorities’ steps taken in the past days.

On Monday, the Litvinov town hall promised at a discussion with citizens that it would take resolute steps against the people who are behind the problem at the Janov housing estate.

The town hall is preparing visits to the families whose anti-social behaviour makes life of their neighbours unpleasant. These families are even threatened with being moved from their flats.

"All the signals indicate that our resistance made sense," the extremists say on the NO web page.

The far-right Workers’ Party (DS) announced at the end of November that it would not stage any demonstrations and public rallies in Litvinov until January 15. The party said it wanted to give the town hall and the government time to resolve the situation at the Janov housing estate.

However, a few days ago, an appeal for people to support a public protest on December 20 appeared on the website protest.info that informed about meetings in Litvinov.

According to the information, the new protest event is to aim against "insolence, indecency and unadaptability" of Romanies. The place and the precise date are to be released later.

It is not clear who operates the website. According to some experts, far-right radicals are among its operators and a reference to the website has also appeared on the NO web pages.

The NO criticises the Litvinov-based Jewish Liberal Union (ZLU) on its website, pointing out that is has booked spaces and streets of Litvinov for its events up to May 2009. The NO says the ZLU prevents people from Litvinov from performing their right to assembly.

"Jews thus cannot be surprised at the growing anti-Semitism," the statement says.

Some 600 to 700 far-right extremists took part in the lates march towards Janov on November 17, that developed into sharp clashes between hundreds of extremists and police.

Many local residents who do not hide their aversion towards Romanies joined the march.

According to some witnesses, up to 1500 people took part in the march. Sixteen people were injured in the clashes between the participants and police.

The Czech civilian counter-intelligence service BIS recently published a statement saying that supporters of far-right extremists in the Czech Republic intend to use social problems to make themselves more visible and are starting to unite over the topic of "socially unadaptable citizens."

According to BIS, it is most probable that incidents similar to those at the Janov housing estate will continue in the future.