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Open letter from Čeněk Růžička: We oppose towns and villages banning residency

22 October 2012
3 minute read

Writing in his role as a representative of the surviving relatives of the victims of Nazism, Čeněk Růžička, chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holokaustu) calls on the Czech government to halt the sanctions and measures being discussed and proposed that are attempting to enforce “the anti-Roma phobia from which mayors and other politicians are suffering.” He warns that sanctions in the form of banning residency on the territory of towns and villages would return the situation of Roma people in the Czech Republic to the year 1927 and, together with other measures, could lead to intensifying the poor position of Roma and socially deprived people and to the further radicalization of Czech society.

News server Romea.cz publishes Mr Růžička’s open letter in full below:

Mr Petr Nečas

Prime Minister of the Government of the Czech Republic

Esteemed Mr Premier,

Please allow me to turn to you with the following urgent request: We do not not want our lives to be influenced by politicians suffering from anti-Roma phobia.

We, the surviving relatives of the Roma victims of Nazism, equipped with the experiences of our parents and of our other Roma relatives who were concentration camp prisoners – experiences which evidently testify not only to Nazism and the relationship of the Protectorate towards it, but also to events during the First Republic – are following very attentively and with concern the development of the deterioration in relations between a large number of inhabitants and leading politicians in the Czech Republic and the Roma people.

We want to particularly draw your attention to the fact that the introduction of sanctions in the form of banning residency on the territory of a town or village, which the mayors and other politicians suffering from anti-Roma phobia want to see enforced, has already been experienced by our ancestors in 1927, when implementing regulations were adopted for Law No. 117. At that time, the citizens represented by their mayors and legislators got a humiliating law adopted which prevented entry into selected towns and villages to my parents and 40 000 other Roma people.

We urgently request, therefore, that you stop any discussion of proposals to introduce these sanctions and anti-social measures.

Heartless reductions to social welfare benefits, combined with rising rents, rising costs for almost everything one needs to live, and the introduction of sanctions banning residency would provoke tragic changes in the lives of impoverished Roma people and others who are socially deprived. Czech society would also radicalize against Roma people even more. The final result of that would fundamentally cost much more in the long term, both as a greater burden on the state budget and in terms of damage to the reputation of our country in the European Union.

On behalf of the surviving relatives of the victims of Nazism,

Čeněk Růžička,

Chair, Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic, (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu v ČR)

CC:

Ministers of the Government of the Czech Republic

Deputies and Senators of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

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