No subsidy for Czech Romanies prepared-minister,press

Minister without Portfolio Dzamila Stehlikova (Green Party) has abandoned her plan to ask a government for a 1.5-million-crown subsidy to repair houses in which dozens of Romany families live, she said in the daily Lidove noviny today.

Originally, Stehlikova proposed that the government provide the subsidy to cover the costs of repairs of the dilapidated houses in the Jeseniky and Prostejov area, north Moravia, where the authorities of Vsetin, north Moravia, resettled Romany families last year.

Stehlikova says in Lidove noviny today that instead of asking the government for the money she intends to announce a public collection to help the Romany families.

She also says that there is no conflict between her and Deputy Prime Minister and Local Development Minister Jiri Cunek who was Vsetin mayor when the town hall decided to evict the Romanies from the centre of Vsetin and move them to other areas.

Stehlikova announced after a meeting of the Government Council for Romany Affairs on Monday that the council had recommended asking the government for the subsidy.

“On Tuesday I started talks with the finance minister and realised that the houses in question are private property and not the property of the municipalities. It is therefore impossible to provide a subsidy for their repair. We have agreed that a public collection will be the best solution,” Stehlikova told Lidove noviny.

The money will not go to all the families that were resettled, she said.

“The council asked me to discuss financial support for two Romany families who live in unhabitable houses,” she told the paper.

A dispute between her and Cunek could arise over her words that were lifted out of context of her statement by the media, she said.

“We have clarified everything with Mr Cunek. There is no conflict between us,” she said.

Her comparison of the resettlement of the Vsetin Romanies with the deportation of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia in 1945 was also lifted out of context, she said.

“I merely said at the Green Party congress that the resettlement could provoke certain associations or reminiscences in people. We have also clarified this matter with Mr Cunek,” she said.

Vsetin moved Romanies from the town last October. Most of the families ended up in houses on the verge of Vsetin, but large Romany families were moved to dilapidated houses in the Jeseniky and Prostejov areas.

The houses were transferred to their ownership and they will repay them in the next 20 years.