Around 200 people commemorated Romany victims of the Holocaust at the site
of the former Lety concentration camp in southern Bohemia on Sunday.
Speaking at the memorial service, member of the government board for
minorities, Štefan Tišer said political parties should not try to win
support using xenophobia present in parts of the Czech society. The
participants criticized the government for having failed to remove a large
pig farm from the site of the camp. Some 5,000 Czech Romanies were
transported into concentration camps during WWII; 90 percent of were
killed.
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A number of Czech cities purposely misuse residential subsidies, according
to an analysis of last year’s austerity packages on ghetto areas. The
report, which was compiled for the Ministry of Labour, states that some
municipal authorities give the donations to families in need to pay the
communities own, high-rent accommodation. It also says that some government
cuts and reforms have evidently greatly contributed to a slump for entire
groups of residents, while others have not affected ghetto inhabitants at
all.
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An adolescent boy who was brutally beaten by three men, allegedly Roma, in
Břeclav in April was selling marijuana, which might be the reason for the
attack, according to the news website iDnes.cz. The site says that the boy
has changed his testimony in this respect, originally saying that the three
men had asked him for a cigarette. As he did not have any, they beat him up
so brutally that he lost his kidney.
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The Czech Helsinki Committee says that in the past decade anti-Roma
sentiment in the country has risen by 15 percent. Petr Uhl a member of the
committee said that according to various polls and studies anti-Roma
sentiment among Czechs had risen from 60 to 75 percent in the last decade.
He said the negative attitude towards the Roma minority was a contributing
factor to the steady decline in the living standard of Romanies and was
straining relations between the majority population and the Roma. Mr.
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Some two thousand ultra-right activists marched through the town of
Břeclav on Sunday afternoon in a show of support for a 15-year-old youth
who was brutally attacked by three allegedly Roma youths. Participants in
the march, organized by the youth branch of the National Workers Party for
Social Justice, chanted slogans against Romanies whom they accuse of
terrorising the local inhabitants and the Břeclav town hall which they say
is incapable to securing law and order.
There were stormy scenes outside the town hall when demonstrators met face
to face with the mayor and demanded to know what he was doing to improve
security. The mayor promised a better camera system and more street
patrols.
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Police are gearing up for a march of ultra-right supporters in the town of
Břeclav on Sunday, where the youth branch of the National Workers Party
for Social Justice aids to demonstrate its solidarity with a 15-year-old
youth who was brutally attacked by three allegedly Roma youths. The victim
had to have one of his kidneys removed after the attack suffered liver
damage as well. He remains in serious condition.
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The city hall of Břeclav has given a march organized by the far-right
Workers’ Youth the green light. The march is set to take place Sunday and
organizers say it is a gesture of support for the 15-year-old victim of a
brutal attack in the city. Three Roma men are suspected of having beaten up
the teenage boy after he refused to give them cigarettes.
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Far-right extremists from the Workers Party for Social Justice held a
march through the predominantly Roma-inhabited neighborhood of Chanov in
the suburbs of Most in Northern Bohemia on Saturday. Some 60 to 70 people
joined the march; much fewer than had previously been expected. Some one
hundred anti-right-wing protesters also gathered in the impoverished
Chanov
area but pledged that their demonstration would be a non-violent one.
Police were monitoring the situation closely; there were no clashes
between
both groups.
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