Czech town requests bailiffs evict Romani tenants

Just this morning, human rights activist Kumar Vishwanathan was calling today’s meeting at the Ostrava town hall to address who owns the broken sewer lines in the locality on Přednádraží street a “key negotiation”. No one is taking responsibility for the lines and sewage is filling up the cellars of apartment buildings there. The tenants are refusing to leave. Shortly after noon today, those who attended the meeting said a temporary solution had been found, but after 15:00 a spokesperson for the town hall announced that the town has requested bailiffs evict the tenants.

Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková also attended the meeting at the town hall. The temporary solution agreed to was that plastic wastewater collectors could be installed in the cellars of the buildings on Přednádraží street, which would have to be periodically removed and emptied. The website of Czech Radio reports that another option is to use the existing wastewater collectors under the street while blocking off the pipes coming from the nearby industrial campus and the train station.

“Finally the authorities, who often have different opinions, have met together. We agreed the sewer line will be disconnected and wastewater collectors installed. The Romani tenants have promised to help,” Vishwanathan said.

Activists, tenants, and town officials said the repairs could be performed in a few days, but landlord Oldřich Roztočil would have to agree. Officials did not permit him to attend this morning’s meeting. “They told me I couldn’t attend the meeting because I hadn’t been invited, but they didn’t say why they weren’t inviting me,” Roztočil told news server iDNES.cz.

Roztočil reiterated that he had proposed installing wastewater collectors some time ago but had been unsuccessful. “As long as there is the possibility that the tenants will be evicted there is no point in investing into wastewater collectors,” Roztočil said, adding that the town would have to make a binding promise to repair the broken sewer lines in future. Roztočil told radio station Radiožurnál that he does not yet know what the town will decide.

Shortly after 15:00, Jana Pondělíčková, spokesperson for the Municipal Department of Moravská Ostrava and Přívoz, said the town had requested the court to order bailiffs to evict the residents of Přednádraží street. She said that morning’s agreement would not be implemented any time soon. “Our Building Works Authority made that decision because the owner of this dangerous property has not ensured that all of the Romani families moved out,” Pondělíčková said.

By taking this step, the town hall has disappointed those who envisioned water service to Přednádraží street would be restored. Roztočil said this afternoon that he would not be paying the water company as long as it is unclear whether people are staying in the buildings or what the circumstances for their eventual return to them might be. “At this moment turning the water back on is not the order of the day, we will negotiate further. If I knew people were not going to be evicted, that I could conclude leases with them so they could apply for welfare and pay their rent, I would give it a shot,” the entrepreneur said.

Roztočil has a copy of a document from a particular municipal office confirming the sewer lines are the property of the town. A different office and the chief magistrate say the town does not own the lines.

Prior to today’s meeting, the tenants had assured everyone that they are willing to repair the sewer lines themselves even though they are not the owners. “If they would have set it up for us, we are capable of digging it all up and then refilling it. We want to live here. We have lived here almost 35 years and we want to stay here, so everyone would have pitched in,” local resident Robert Kuman told Radiožurnál.

Speculation is increasing that the economic interests of the “Ostrava godfathers” are behind the eviction of the Romani tenants. “They want to rid Přívoz of Romani people and that is why they keep blaming me, even though I have been doing my best, for two years, to get the town to build up the sewer line here. I even started renovating the buildings, but the sewage ran into the cellars and ground-floor apartments, so I stopped the work,” Roztočil told news server Novinky.cz. He believes the business activity of a particular town councilor for the Municipal Department of Moravská Ostrava and Přívoz, Lukáš Semerák (Hnutí Ostravak – Ostrava Movement) is behind this. Semerák expressed interest in the buildings some time ago. “I refused to sell them to him so he is trying to get them another way, and he definitely is not the only one,” the landlord believes.

The situation in the locality, which has been unresolved for several years, escalated on 29 July, when the water was cut off to all of the tenants, those who were paid up and those in arrears. One week later more than 50 Romani families were delivered instructions to vacate the premises one morning. The buildings in which they live have been condemned by the Building Works Authority. Locals were given only 24 hours to voluntarily leave Přednádraží street. The 22 families who have been properly paying their rent and utilities bills have remained in their homes despite various threats.