Karolína Bánomová and Paul St.Clair: Mr Krištof, we demand a public apology

In a recent interview for the Czech daily Lidové noviny (LN), former director of the Czech Government Council for Roma Community Affairs Roman Krištof charged that Karolína Bánomová and Paul St. Clair are “organizing” the departure of Czech Roma to Canada. Ms. Bánomová and Mr. St. Clair are now demanding a public apology. “Mr. Krištof, unless you apologize, you should count on our seeking satisfaction through legal means,” their statement reads. The full text of their press release is as follows:

PRESS RELEASE: KAROLÍNA BÁNOMOVÁ AND PAUL ST.CLAIR

On Sunday, 5 July 2009, an interview was published in LN with the former director of the Czech Government Council for Roma Community Affairs, Roman Krištof, in which he accuses me, Karolína Bánomová, and Mr. Paul St. Clair of organizing the exodus of Roma to Canada.

I do not know how this particular gentleman arrived at this conclusion. However, one thing is certain. He has accused Mr. St. Clair and me without evidence, on the basis of some wild theory of his own. He probably believed he would be able to get away with it. He was mistaken. The times in which we Roma let things like this go are over. Mr. Krištof, unless you apologize, you should count on our seeking satisfaction through legal means.

A study [referred to in the interview – Translator’s Note] has been undertaken “to order”, but Mr. Krištof does not want to reveal who ordered it. Why? I could understand someone wanting to undertake such research secretly so it could not be negatively influenced in any way. However, there is no reason to conceal who contracted it once it is complete. Why are we learning of the existence of this “study” now, just a few days before the visa obligation is expected to be reinstituted by Canada?

Let us call things by their real names. What is true is that the Roma in Canada are some of the harshest critics of the racism, whether committed by governmental institutions or by the majority society in general, currently in operation against the Roma in Bohemia.

The introduction of visas by Canada is really a big problem for the Czech Republic. Leaving aside the international embarrassment, to which people in Bohemia have probably become accustomed by now after the fiasco of the country’s EU presidency, a visa regime would significantly influence imports and exports worth 870 million Canadian dollars annually. Not to mention losses to the tourist industry.

Of course, blame is being sought everywhere but in the Czech Republic. Neither the government nor the majority society wants to admit that the main culprit behind the exodus is their own intolerance and racism. The Roma do not feel safe in Bohemia and it therefore takes very little for them to decide to leave. There is no reason to be surprised. Who would want to live in a country where public opinion polls confirm that 90 % of the population hates you?

However, I would like to return to this allegedly organized exodus. One of the government institutions having a really hard time with the introduction of a visa obligation by Canada is the Czech Embassy in Ottawa, as well as the consular division of the Czech Embassy in Toronto. Several months ago Paul St. Clair received a phone call in which an embassy official pressured him to retract a statement he had made comparing events in the Czech Republic to the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Paul refused. Several days later, the first report on “prospectors in Canada” appeared in LN, mentioning his name.

You can draw your own conclusions.

Paul criticizes conditions in the Czech Republic too loudly and is therefore an inconvenience. I am in the same position after my testimony to the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress in the year 2000, which is still remembered in Bohemia.

I have not ever organized the exodus of any Roma to Canada, and I therefore demand that Mr. Krištof retract his claim and publicly apologize to me. Mr. Krištof, you should be looking for the real prospectors not in Canada, but in Bohemia, among the majority society. After all, the majority society has the greatest interest in having the Roma disappear from Bohemia. That is why you should look for this prospector there, and I will even tell you his real name: RACISM.

Sincerely,

Karolína Bánomová

Paul St.Clair