Czech Romany activists call for protective guards to be established
immediately now that a Romany family has been brutally attacked in Vitkov, north
Moravia, Romea association says on its website.
The activists say the extremist movement's rise in the Czech Republic, also due
to politicians and the state's lenience, results in attacks bearing symptoms of
terrorism.
The guards should cooperate with the police and with local authorities in
protecting Romany families, writes Romea, some members of which are part of the
government council for the Romany minority affairs.
The activists call on politicians, the Interior Ministry and the Czech public to
stand up against intensifying neo-Nazism and extremism.
"Romanies are the target today, but it could be the turn of anyone of you
tomorrow," they write.
The guards should not be set to provoke violence but to protect their families'
members, the appeal says, calling on Romanies to shun open clashes with
extremists and not to succumb to the latter's provocations that are obvious in
recent months.
Apart from Romea representatives, the appeal, called Enough! (Dost!), has been
signed by representatives of Dzeno, another Romany organisation, including the
government council deputy chairman Ivan Vesely and the council member Cyril
Koky, and members of other Romany groups.
A two-year-old girl, who suffered burns in the fire of a family house in Vitkov
on Sunday, probably caused by a Molotov cocktail attack, is hospitalised in a
critical state.
Indignant over the brutal attack, Romanies are preparing a public fund raising
and a protest meeting in support of the afflicted family.
"The things the country has witnessed in the past year and a half are an
extraordinary situation," Vesely told CTK.
"The government should ask the commander in chief of the armed forces, which is
President Vaclav Klaus, to send the military to protect Romany localities,"
Vesely said.
He said protective or monitoring guards actually have been operating.
All next marches and demonstrations the far-right Workers' Party or the
Autonomous Nationalist movement would stage and announce beforehand will be
accompanied by a team consisting of Romanies. "It will narrowly cooperate with
the police and with the mayor [of the town concerned]. It will somehow organise
it in a way to prevent conflicts between Romanies and the demonstrators," Vesely
said.
The Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, too, said it minds the way the state
approaches the neo-Nazis.
The uncertainty of the responsible institutions and the incapability of using
legislative tools to prevent neo-Nazi activities, which include arson and
attempts to kill, must stop," Jewish Communities' Federation chairman Jiri
Danicek says in a press released sent to CTK.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said after the government meeting today
that the state wants to apply both repression and prevention in fighting
extremism.
The new strategy in this respect should be adopted at the outgoing cabinet's
last meeting due in a fortnight.
Another house inhabited by a Romany family flared up in Prosec, east Bohemia,
this night. The house was empty when the fire broke out. The police say that
either negligence or arson might have been behind the fire. No racial motive has
been detected in this case for now.
vybrali.sme.sk
