South Bohemian Romanies critical of adjournment of Lety memorial

South Bohemian Romanies criticised the adjournment of the planned works in Lety where a Nazi Romany concentration camp used to be during World War Two, Matej Sarkoezi told CTK today.

The adjournment is part of a draft solution to the arrangement of Romany Holocaust commemorative places that a working group of Minorities and Human Rights Minister Dzamila Stehlikova will discuss on Monday.

The draft earmarks concrete sums for this and next year only for the complex in Hodonin u Kunstatu, south Moravia, where a Romany internment camp was during the war.

Three south Bohemian Romanies, members of the group, have decided to boycott the Monday meeting and they demand an explanation of the procedure.

Sarkoezi said the group agreed at its meeting in April that a parking lot for three buses and ten cars and a public convenience will be built at Lety close to the commemorative site and that the road will be repaired in both directions.

"We are not interested in a Stalin-type memorial, we only wanted the site to be arranged in a dignified way so that people may get there easily and stay there for a while," Sarkoezi said.

The costs were put at 20 to 25 million crowns. It was also agreed that unemployed Romanies would do the necessary works in Lety.

The draft solution says the situation in Lety cannot be solved immediately because further fate of the pig farm standing at the site is not clear.

The committee for Romany Holocaust victims compensation insists on the removal of the farm while South Bohemian Romanies do not demand it.

The European Parliament has twice called on the Czech Republic to remove the pig farm. The government should deal with teh issue again at the beginning of next year.

About 25 million crowns are to be spent on the establishment of an Education and Documentary Centre of the Romany Holocaust in Hodonin u Kunstatu this year and another 153 million next year.

The future of the Lety site is to be tackled by a newly established foundation fund that would gather money for a comprehensive solution to the commemorative sites, particularly the definitive removal of the pig farm.

The state would annually contribute three million crowns to the fund until 2025. South Bohemian Romaneis, however, say this is hard to guarantee.

Regional councillor Jiri Netik is also critical of the plan.

"This proposal has sidelined Lety, while Kunstat u Hodonina has all of a sudden emerged," he said.

According to historical sources, 1308 Romanies passed through the Lety concentration camp for Romanies, 327 of whom died there and more than 500 prisoners ended up in Oswiecim (Auschwitz).