Thirty years ago, Czechoslovak President Havel spoke on the right of Romani people to their national self-awareness

Thirty years ago, from 27 July to 29 July 1990, the First World Romani Festival ROMFEST 1990 was held in the city of Brno, in the Líšeň quarter's Mariánské údolí nature preserve, produced by the organization ROMART. Dozens of dance ensembles and music groups assembled for a musical marathon on four stages and different spontaneous performaces as well.
The Václav Havel Facebook page, the official profile of the late president which is exclusively run by the VIZE 97 Foundation, has reminded the public of the speech given on that occasion by Czechoslovakia's last president. News server Romea.cz is publishing this translated excerpt below and a brief excerpt from video footage of the speech as well.
Speech by the President of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, Václav Havel, at the First World Romani Festival, 1990
The system of totalitarianism that domineered our country for the last 40 years also behaved in its own particular way toward Romani people. Behind a facade of lofty speeches were hidden indifference, misunderstanding and contempt, as is evidenced by the different, insensitive administrative measures taken and by the suppression of Romani culture, the Romanes language, and all national specifics of this group.
The communist powers may have created different Government commissions and developed various conceptual documents, but Romani people were just the objects of these different social experiments and had no say in what their own fate should be. They suffered what we all suffered: The existential necessity of the system to make everything uniform, to exert centralized control, and to force upon all citizens the exact same banal way of life.
Romani people - just like anybody else - have a right to their own national self-awareness and to respect for their ethnic identity. They should enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens of our state and they should also enjoy - just like other national or cultural minorities - certain collective rights, and the principles of collective blame or collective liability are not allowed to be applied against them.
The democratic state we are building must be established on the idea of human rights. That is the only way it can take its place in the family of civilized states. Human rights include the right to equality before the law, to a dignified life, and to a national or ethnic identity.
People are not good or bad merely because they belong to this or that race or to this or that nation. Anybody who does not acknowledge this basic truth is a racist.
Many different races, nations, ethnic groups and tribes live in this world. They differ from each other when it comes to history, religion, traditions, social customs, and sometimes they also differ in terms of the way they think, their behavior and temperament.
However, they are all human beings, all are equal before God, and as individuals they bear responsibility for both their good and their bad deeds. They should create one great society whose members mutually respect each other and who also respect their differences.
During my military service, as well as when I was in prison, I got to know many brilliant people - and many who had no character. Many people aided me, and many people turned me in to the authorities.
The dividing line between those two groups had nothing to do with anybody's national origin, and it did not even depend on the level of their education. For me, that experience just strengthened my opposition to all displays of racism.
Brno, 27 July 1990
VIDEO
Don't miss:
- Czech President Havel protested against the wall separating non-Roma from Roma on Matiční Street 20 years ago
- Czech Republic marks five years since the death of President Václav Havel
- Private funeral service for Havel held at crematorium in Strašnice
- Václav Havel leaves Prague Castle for the last time
- State funeral held for Václav Havel
- Karel Holomek: I have known Václav Havel a long time
- Czech state mourns former President Václav Havel
- Thousands bid former Czech President Havel farewell at the Prague Crossroads
- Sabe Soe: Mr Havel, we thank you
- Jan Horváth Döme: "To Václav Havel"
- Gabriela Hrabaňová: Havel is my role model!
- Jarmila Balážová: Havel will always be a symbol of freedom for me!
- Former Czech President Václav Havel has passed away at 75
- Commentary: Czech Television report from Brno on 1 May - Václav Havel looking to brawl?
- Václav Havel: If this were Germany, Klaus would have to resign
- Havel: Čunek’s stance on the Roma is socially and historically more dangerous than a single bribe
Related articles:
- Czech archaeologists find remains of yet another WWII-era concentration camp for Roma
- Czech website on the Holocaust launches database of victims labeled "cikáni" by the Nazis and their accomplices
- The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is deeply saddened by the death of Holocaust survivor and Roma civil rights activist Raymond Gurême
- Civil society members of the Czech Govt Council on Roma Minority Affairs differ on whether Human Rights Commissioner should remain in office
- Czech Republic's Museum of Romani Culture announces competition to design the memorial at the site of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety
- On the 50th anniversary of Czechoslovakia's short-lived Union of Gypsies-Roma, community members recall its hopes
- US Holocaust Museum offers unique opportunity in Prague to relatives of those persecuted on Protectorate territory
- Interview: Patriotism is not the same as hating those who are different
- Petra Gelbart: Auschwitz Museum says recent research finds the Romani prisoners' uprising was not on 16 May 1944
- International Romani Union expresses solidarity and sorrow over the fire at Notre Dame cathedral
- Rom vs. "Gypsy"
- Lety after the Romani genocide, Part Three: The 1990s pave the way to a price tag of half a billion crowns
Tags:
Historické okénko, History, Romfest, Václav HavelHEADLINE NEWS
