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Czech govt might resume debate on pig farm next year - minister

22 October 2012
2 minute read

The Czech government might resume the debate on the controversial pig farm in south Bohemia that stands on the site of a former wartime internment camp for Romanies and that many want to be removed, early again next year, Minister Dzamila Stehlikova (Greens) told has CTK.

Stehlikova, minister in charge of human rights and minorities, said the government will decide on the draft alternative solutions a work group she has established will submit by the end of the year.

Certain Romany organisations have demanded that the pig farm in Lety, south Bohemia, be removed, and the EU has made the same appeal on the Czech Republic twice.

The government of Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) last year said the state would not have money to buy the farm from its owner, though no definitive price has ever been set.

According to previous speculations, the price could climb up to a billion crowns. Experts have called the sum excessive.

"We’re still on the crossroads. This is an unpleasant situation, we cannot say unambiguously what will happen. Not that we would be avoiding dealing with the issue but we are seeking an optimal solution to satisfy all parties involved. Above all, the surviving relatives [of the Romany victims] have to agree with the solution," said Stehlikova.

The work group comprises representatives of the South Bohemia region, local authorities, ministries, the Committee for the Compensation of the Romany Holocaust Victims, and of south Bohemian Romanies.

The alternatives discussed include a change in the farm’s business activities. Another possibility is to establish a fund to which domestic and international organisations would contribute and that would finance the possible removal of the pig farm.

The pig farm’s owner is AGPI company, whose managers say they are ready to move the farm elsewhere in exchange for "appropriate compensation."

The Committee for the Compensation of the Romany Holocaust Victims insists on the removal of the farm. It has called on the government to secure a new site for the farm by a certain deadline. According to it, the cabinet should turn to international institutions asking them for a subsidy and to start negotiate with AGPI about the price.

South Bohemia, on its part, wants to build a memorial to Holocaust victims elsewhere. South Bohemian Governor Jan Zahradnik says that local Romanies have consented to the plan.

The Committee, however, objects that the plan has been supported by the Romanies who settled down in the Czech Lands after World War Two, not the victims’ relatives.

The camp in Lety was opened in August 1940, originally as a camp for those who could not prove how they earned their living. In 1942 it was transformed into an internment camp for Romanies. More than a thousand of Romanies were interned there until May 1943, 327 of whom died there and over 500 were transported to the Oswiecim concentration camp.

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