Romanies want Czech President to help improve their situation

Activists from the Czech Romany association Dzeno today called in an open letter on President Vaclav Klaus to push for an improvement in the situation of Romanies, on the occasion of International Roma Day observed on April 8.

The activists say the situation of Romanies in the European Union is not satisfactory.

Dzeno proposed previously that Romanies do not mark their international day this year with singing and dancing, but staging protests.

"We refuse to he called a ‘social problem’ across the EU and in the societies in which we live," the letter signed by Dzeno chairman Ivan Vesely said.

The activists write that they are Czech and European citizens and that they have equal rights and freedoms like the others, including the right to their own culture and language.

Dzeno writes that the decision-making of European institutions is undemocratic and that it does not allow Romanies to take part in the preparation of policies that concern them.

They write that responsible institutions against racism do not proceed consistently and thus enable racial violence to be tolerated.

The Romanies are the strongest minority in the European Union. In the Czech Republic about 11,700 people claimed Romany nationality in the 2001 census, bub real number is estimated at about 250,000.

According to an analysis, about one third of them live in ghettos in which the adults are usually jobless and their families depend on social benefits. Children usually end up in special schools that closes their path to higher education.

Dzeno writes that Romanies are discriminated against at work and in other spheres.

The activists call on Klaus to use his "personality and authority" to push through human rights.

"It is praiseworthy that Czech foreign policy is interested in human rights violation in China, Cuba and America. Yet, we believe that the authority of the Czech Republic in pushing through human rights abroad would increase if the country solved cases like involuntary sterilisation of women and segregation in housing and education, and if it found a decent solution to the issue of Romany Holocaust victims," Dzeno writes.

It alludes to the pig farm that was built on the site of a former World War Two internment camp for Romanies at Lety, south Bohemia.