Romani activists demand Czech PM discipline those responsible for police failure in Rumburk

According to unverified information issued by the Czech Press Agency, there is relative calm in Šluknov district today, but the tension has not been relieved. No demonstrations or protests have been announced, but police remain on alert, according to Petra Trypesová, spokesperson for the Děčín Police. Last night several dozen extremists met in Rumburk and threatened to thrown petrol bombs, but no such incidents occurred. The Czech Press Agency reports that police riot units were allegedly on alert, and police officers are said to have followed and monitored various small groups of people.

Romani members of the Forum CZ association and Roma Aven Jekhetane, a Facebook group against racism, are outraged by the exacerbated situation in North Bohemia and have written an open letter to Czech PM Petr Nečas. News server Romea.cz publishes their letter in full below:

Esteemed Mr Prime Minister,

We are turning to you and the government you lead with serious concerns and outrage over the exacerbated situation which is currently playing itself out in the Šluknov foothills in North Bohemia. Citizens of Nový Bor, Rumburk and Varnsdorf are radicalizing with the support of the media and radical extremists using mobile telephones and social networking sites. As a result citizens who are members of the Romani national minority are suffering dangerous threats to their health and property and serious restrictions to their personal liberty.

We Roma are completely aware of the seriousness of the felonies committed recently in the above-mentioned towns and we condemn those crimes. We remind you that these were crimes committed by individuals who are now being prosecuted according to the legal order currently in force and that under no circumstances should the principle of collective guilt be applied, as is happening today through the media and on town squares. That sort of undesirable “advertising” and generalizing statements harms and threatens all Romani people living in the Czech Republic.

In this context we must remind you and the Government of the Czech Republic not only of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, through which the Czech Republic has committed itself to upholding human rights, but also of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in particular, Article 4. Allow is to also remind you of the preamble to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which is part of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, and Article 24 of the Constitution.

Mr Prime Minister,

You are certainly aware of the fact that you bear primary responsibility for the state in which the Romani national minority currently finds itself, not only because you are Prime Minister, but also because by law you are chair of the Czech Government Council for National Minorities. What steps have you personally taken to see that the Government intensively concerns itself with the issue of anti-Gypsyism, racism, segregation, or social exclusion so that the situation would not get so far out of hand as to result in attacks on Romani people? What conditions have you, in your position as Prime Minister, created so that Romani people in the Czech Republic won’t be living on the periphery of society, won’t be excluded from it, won’t be forced to live in conditions comparable to regions where people suffer from a lack of food and civil wars are waged? What are you doing so Romani people won’t have to flee their homes because of fear, poverty, and racial attacks?

In Rumburk, 1 500 people gathered on the square to protest crime. However, after the opening speeches, a mob of people marched through the town for an hour and a half without police intervening at all, through neighborhoods where they did their best to attack local Romani people, even though their march had not been announced to authorities and police had legal reasons to immediately disperse it and ensure public order. In the end, the mob attacked a building where Romani people live, destroying the fence around it, threatening local citizens who are members of the Romani national minority and obstructing their liberty.

During Saturday night and Sunday morning, people assisted and supported by the Czech Police stood in front of Romani homes and threatened to throw the Molotov cocktails they had with them, directly endangering the lives of Romani people in Rumburk. None of the people making those threats were ever charged with so much as a misdemeanor. Police restricted the movements of correspondents and journalists working for news server Romea.cz and prevented them from properly documenting these events.

In this context, we remind you of the unjustified police intervention earlier this year against a religious gathering in Krupka (Teplice district), when police dispersed a peaceful gathering even though the crowd included children, clergy, senior citizens and women. Recently in Most, with the assistance of the Czech Police, followers and promoters of the Ku Klux Klan, calling themselves the “Order of the Cogwheel” (Řáda ozubeného kola) freely marched through the streets and among buildings where Romani people live. Even though the marchers’ faces were covered, police found no reason to disperse their assembly. Police intervention would have been entirely justified in Rumburk.

Through these shows of force, the Government and governmental actors are inciting citizens to racial intolerance. Some politicians are making speeches that exponentially magnify [non-Romani] people’s feeling that the only solution to various cases of felonies committed by Romani people – which the media are intentionally highlighting – is genocide, perhaps using the army to commit it. (Editor’s Note: See the remarks made by Czech Senator Doubrava).

For the reasons outlined above, we demand you immediately discipline those responsible both at the Interior Ministry and at the Police Presidium. If you yourself are unable to ensure the security of all citizens irrespective of their nationality, you should tender your resignation to the Czech President.

We hereby inform you that we will be filing a detailed report on this entire incident to international institutions monitoring human rights and freedoms.

Respectfully yours,

Miroslav Kováč

on behalf of the Forum CZ association and Roma Aven Jekhetane, a Facebook group against racism