Hundreds of neo-Nazis may meet in Czech town

Hundreds of right-wing extremists may take part in the march scheduled for April 18 in Usti nad Labem, Miroslav Broz, from the People in Need humanitarian organisation that is a member of the movement "We Don’t Want Neo-Nazis in Usti," said today.

Broz said a similar event has not taken place in the country for several years.

He said invitations to join the march organised by the autonomous Nationalists were posted on German neo-Nazi websites.

Regional police spokeswoman Jarmila Hrubesova told CTK that if large numbers of radicals arrive, a sufficient number of police will monitor the event.

If German extremists were to arrive, German police may help their Czech colleagues, Hrubesova said.

In February, some 10,000 far-right extremists, including Czechs, took part in a similar march in Dresden, Germany. The march ended in clashes with anarchists and the police.

It takes a 40-minute drive to get from Dresden to Usti.

Broz said the movement will not try to prevent the march that has been officially authorised.

He said they want the neo-Nazis to march through empty streets in order to discourage them from organising any further events in Usti in the future.

The only officially announced event organised against the march is a concert where also the rock group of Michael Kocab, human rights and minorities minister, will play on April 15.

However, Broz said there will be a massive campaign against the march.

On Thursday, the Usti town hall banned two newly announced far-right marches and it will try to file a complaint against the April 18 march.

Vladimir Kaiser from Usti said Sudeten Germans who come from Usti also condemned the march.

The Autonomous Nationalists group plans to march through the town’s centre with burning torches on April 18, two days ahead of the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth, allegedly to commemorate the victims of a 1945 U.S. air raid.

Over 500 people were killed and 165 houses demolished when the U.S. Air Force raided the town on April 17 and 19, 1945, in order to destroy the railway network.