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Czech nationalists for vigilante patrols against Romanies

22 October 2012
2 minute read

The National Guard (NG), a paramilitary branch of the Czech National Party (NS), wants to stage patrols outside an elementary school in Karlovy Vary against what it calls Romanies’ repeated attacks on local children, Pavel Sedlacek from the NS told CTK today.

NG members want to discuss the issue with the local Romany community at the weekend, Sedlacek said.

"We want to resolve the cases of attacks on children at the weekend. If this fails, we are ready to set up patrols at the school from Monday till the end of the school year," Sedlacek said.

The solution means speaking with the residents of a local hostel, mostly Romanies, he added.

The NG has once visited the hostel and NG members have spoken with the Romanies.

"If they fail to understand, the conversation evidently will have to be led in a stricter manner and with shorter sentences," Sedlacek said.

A number of cases have happened near the school when a children’s gang robbed the schoolchildren. The police were supposed to patrol the area, but this has not happened, NG activists said.

"Along with the city police, we monitor the area, but no illegal act has been registered since the case that occurred about a month ago," local police spokeswoman Zdenka Papezova told CTK today.

NG members are also organising a free course of self-defence for local children, attended by roughly eight children.

Ladislav Bily, chairman of the Romany Civic Association in Karlovy Vary, has refused to discuss the activities of the NG.

"You only advertise it. I will not comment on it in any way," Bily told CTK.

Intelligence sources have told CTK that the NG wants to attract attention to the NS that won a mere 0.17 percent of votes in the 2006 general elections.

Its establishment has been sharply criticised by Interior Minister Ivan Langer (the Civic Democratic Party, ODS) and head of the Chamber of Deputies security committee Frantisek Bublan (Social Democrats, CSSD).

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