How teenagers almost started a racial war in Nový Bydžov

When I first heard about the problems the Roma were having in the town of Nový Bydžov, everything was clear to me. I thought it was a case like the town of Nový Bor – that the Roma had brought it on themselves. I let my position be known when we were discussing the option of filming a brief reportage directly from “the scene of the crime”. I didn’t want to go there.

However, as time has passed, I changed my mind. Several factors played a role: The mayor of the town, happily writing his racist pamphlets; the visit there by Czech Interior Minister John; and the reportedly high solution rate for crimes committed there. The town and its situation became so interesting that I grabbed my camera, video camera and tripod and within two hours colleague Ivan Kratochvíl and I were on the road.

Once we got there, I started looked for the “Gypsies lounging around”. I crisscrossed the town but couldn’t see anyone at all, much less anyone lounging on benches. We determined it was too cold to find Roma people outside and went to the most obvious place, the closest dive. While paying our bill, we asked the waitress where we might find the “Gypsies”, because so far we had only seen one mother pushing a pram and we weren’t sure if she qualified.

The waitress was helpful and named all of the ghettos in town for us, and we headed in the direction she advised. However, we were unable to see any ghettos, even though we looked everywhere.

Finally we saw two young women chatting in front of a building. Their ethnic origin was clear, so I stopped and asked whom we could speak to there. Not long afterward, a male representative of the family came out and gave me directions to the home of the Mital family. We set off for the other side of town, where after trying the wrong house we finally found Mr Mital. He took us to his father, who took us to the home of another family, where finally someone was willing to say how it had come about that the entire country knows them now.

“The mayor is a racist and is turning this into a civil war. He has smeared us such that he is cutting us off from this society.”

We were finally sitting at a table together with long-term Roma residents of the town, and they were telling us about the situation. They see it differently than it has been reported. A group of teenagers hangs out in the park in the center of town and makes a racket, and all the Roma are said to be guilty. A rape really was committed, but the rumor in town is that the perpetrator and victim had been going out together for some time. The perpetrator is also rumored to not be 100 % ethnic Roma. However, everyone agreed that if he really did commit the crime, he should receive the highest possible sentence.

“How am I supposed to sign a petition against Roma when I am a Gypsy myself?“

Everyone described other situations which long-term Roma residents have had to get used to wherever they develop. At their jobs, their co-workers ask them to sign anti-Roma petitions, and security guards start monitoring them both inside stores and in front of them. Relations with non-Roma, which were originally correct and unproblematic, are now tense. We listen to specific stories of encounters at schools, in the shops, and on the football pitch. All have one common denominator: Mayor Louda’s statements.

“The mayor has incited not just the whole town against us, but the whole country.”

The sense of injury comes through with every word. The collective blame Mayor Louda assigned to the Roma in his town is unacceptable to them. Czech PM Nečas and many others have expressed the same sentiment.

“Keep welfare from going down the slot machines? We would welcome that!“

The conversation turns to slot machines and welfare. The Roma with whom we are speaking are unanimous. There is really a lot of slot machine playing in town and they welcome the town’s efforts to stop it. “At least they will have some money left over for food,” one of our respondents concludes in praise of the town.

“We will never achieve anything by going to war with one another.”

Next we learn of various attempts to resolve the situation. The Roma elite of the town are meeting with the local town councilors about setting up a position of assistant to the Municipal Police, which a Roma candidate would fill. One of the candidates for this position is sitting at the table with us and seems to have the right build for the job. Vice-Mayor Bohumil Orel later confirms this and the rest of the information for us.

We’ve run into the candidate while he was waiting for people from a private security agency, and he has mistaken us for them. They arrive a little later, guys the size of the Golem exiting a small red car in black uniforms with tonfas in their hands. After a brief consultation they set out into the field. They will be performing surveillance of the town for the next 12 hours. I could not understand why the town chose to hire the Prague-based Zenit agency instead of beefing up the municipal police.

It’s hard to form your own opinion. I didn’t see any “Gypsies” lounging around, and in my conversations with people I basically saw the same thing I see on the news. The majority population makes one claim, the Roma population another. However, everyone agrees on one thing: Those who cause the greatest amount of problems hang out in the local park. That’s a matter for the police. A media war will solve nothing.