Czechs Greens want govt to discuss extremists' actions
Czech Education Minister Ondrej Liska (Green Party, SZ) wants the government to discuss the rightist extremists’ action in Litvinov, north Bohemia, last Saturday, he says in a statement his party sent to CTK today.
Some 300 to 400 extremists attended an unauthorised rally in Litvinov during which nationalists wanted to enter the Janov housing estate inhabited by Romanies, but the police succeeded in preventing a clash.
Four people, including three policemen, were injured in the action, however.
The extremists have said on their web page that they will return to Janov and that there will be more of them.
"Attacking and offending fellow citizens over the colour of their complexion is a manifestation of primitivism that modern society must neither tolerate nor overlook," Liska wrote.
Romany civic associations from the Romani Alliance movement have called on the government to quickly deal with the situation in Litvinov.
They criticise the police for not having dissolved the unauthorised rally and for not having rendered the dangerous extremists harmless.
The association even called on the Romanies not to rely on the allegedly failing state apparatus and to prepare themselves for defence against extremists’ attacks.
Human Rights and Minorities Minister Dzamila Stehlikova (SZ) said the Romanies’ fears are exaggerated.
"Security forces of the state, the police as well as the town are ready to protect the (Janov) inhabitants," Stehlikova, who personally visited Litvinov Romanies to calm them down, told CTK on Thursday.
Romani Alliance has addressed an appeal to Stehlikova, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (senior government Civic Democrats, ODS) and some other ministers.
"Unless the current government takes adequate measures to prevent the inter-ethnic threat, we demand that it resign, not only because of its inability, but also because of its inclination towards extreme right policy that is not compatible with democratic society," they said in their statement.
