The extremist National Guard does not violate any law and there is no reason
to intervene against it, Veronika Vlkova, mayor of Karlovy Vary, west Bohemia
(senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) and the local police have agreed, the daily
Lidove noviny writes today.
The National Guard (NG), a paramilitary branch of the Czech extremist National
Party (NS), starts patrolling outside an elementary school in Karlovy Vary today
in an effort to prevent a "Romany children's gang" from attacking local children
and robbing them.
The municipal police have so far been unable to cope with the problem. Vlkova
admits that under the current law, it is practically impossible to prosecute
young robbers and attackers.
"It is very complicated because most of these attacks are conducted by the
children who cannot be prosecuted," Vlkova said.
She said a change in the law would help.
"We hope that the minimum age of criminal liability of child offenders will be
lowered and it would then be possible to prosecute these children," Vlkova says.
The Chamber of Deputies will discuss the lowering of the minimal age of criminal
liability of children from the current 15 to 14 in the near future but it is not
clear whether the deputies will change the law.
Vlkova says the National Guard does not violate any law by its activities.
She points out that the National Party is not outlawed and says that "visiting
houses and offering various material" by guard members is not punishable.
However, Dzamila Stehlikova, minister in charge of human rights and minorities
(junior government Green Party, SZ) is concerned about the approach to the
problem adopted by the Karlovy Vary police and its Town Hall.
"It is inadmissible for extremists from a political party preaching racial
hatred to become involved in solving the situation. The police and the town
authorities should quickly restore the peace," Stehlikova said on the iDnes.cz
Internet server.
NG activists pointed out previously that a number of cases had happened near the
elementary school in which a children's gang robbed schoolchildren. They said
the police were supposed to patrol the area, but this has not happened.
"We have no other choice but to patrol the area by ourselves," Martin Novotny,
from the NG, told the paper.
However, not all Karlovy Vary residents are delighted by the guard's activities.
"I think this is exaggerated. It simply gives the Romany children a reason to
provoke squabbles with other children elsewhere," resident Angelika Levova says.
"It is good that someone monitors the situation outside the school, but the
school itself or the police should resolve the situation and certainly not the
National Guard," her friend Roman Psaidl says.
Romany themselves should think over the problem, he adds.
"Not all of them are bad and we have to co-exist with them," Psaidl says.
However, Novotny says the guard members want to substitute for the police who
are doing nothing.
NG members also want to organise a free self-defence course for local children.
The establishment of the National Guard was criticised in the past by Interior
Minister Ivan Langer (ODS) and head of the Chamber of Deputies security
committee Frantisek Bublan (Social Democrats, CSSD).
