Czech human rights minister prevents problematic rally

Problems of co-existence of the majority and minority societies should be solved at a round table, not in the street, Czech Human Rights and Ethnic Minorities Minister Michael Kocab (Greens) told journalists on a planned anti-Romany rally today.

Kocab had held talks with organisers of the planned anti-Romany demonstration in Kolin. It was eventually cancelled.

Organisers today passed an appeal to Kocab in which they summed up their demands to the effect that the problems of coexistence with "unadapted citizens" should be resolved in a more efficient way.

"We’ve called off the demonstration as it was designed to make the government start solving our demands," one of the organisers, political sciences student Pavel Vanicek said.

"At present, there is no reason to stage such events," Vanicek said, adding that the government had been asked to change the social system so that it were profitable to accept even worse paid jobs. Besides, it should only be profitable to have a maximum of four children.

The protesters demand that the police have more powers and that racism were not only assessed as a sign of the behaviour of a majority toward minorities, Vanicek said.

Kocab has promised to pass the students’ demands to the Labour and Social Affairs Minister, the Interior Minister and Education Minister.

The students set January 1, 2010 as the deadline for legislative changes.

"All of us have the same interest. It is not only a matter of fulfilling some demands. This requires an in-depth analysis," Kocab said.

Kolin may become an example of a quiet solution to this type of problems, he added.

The demonstration had been prompted by an incident in which a group of Romanies assaulted and beat up a students, aged 17, in Kolin earlier this year.

The youth was hospitalised with injured head and ribs.

The police have caught the assailants. The protest was called by friends of the beaten boy under the slogan "Stop to black racism and affirmative action for Romanies."

Local authorities were afraid that the rally might turn violent.