Sobotka: Czech Cabinet will not pay for demolition of pig farm in Lety

The center-left government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, ČSSD) will not probably fund the demolition of the pig farm in Lety, situated on the site of a forced labor camp for Romanies during World War II, Sobotka said today.

Over 1,300 Romanies were interned in Lety during the German Nazi occupation, 327 of whom perished in the camp and over 500 were sent to the extermination camp in Auschwitz where most of them died. A memorial to the Romany Holocaust was set up at the former burial ground of the Lety concentration camp for Romanies. However, it is situated near a pig farm that is at the site now. Romanies and human rights activists have protested against it for years. Relatives of the Romany Holocaust victims along with the U.N. Human Rights Committee have demanded that the pig farm be abolished.

At the commemorative act for Romany Holocaust victims today, Sobotka said the tens of million crowns that would be needed to close the pig farm and to build a new one should be spent on different purposes such as education of Romany children and improvement in life conditions in socially excluded localities, primarily inhabited by Romanies. The ceremony was attended by about 100 people.
„I do not have any good feeling from the discussion only being reduced to the question of the pig farm standing nearby,“ Sobotka said. „I think that we should speak about more important things, such as a latent racism that is still present in Czech society, time and time again surfacing,“ Sobotka said. He said the question of the pig farm was very complicated as this was a holding owned by the AGPI Pisek company. The solution would demand large investments, Sobotka said. „I would prefer the money to flow to the education of Romany children, to be devoted on the improvement of social conditions in socially excluded localities because there is not enough money,“ he added. „I can understand the outrage of the people who have come here. This is not a simple affair. So far, none of the governments have been able to come to terms with the problem,“ Sobotka said.

„I do not want to start any confrontation. Sobotka seems to feel deep in his heart that the pig farm should not be here,“ Romany organiser of the commemorative act Cenek Ruzicka said. Almost all of Ruzicka’s family died in the Holocaust. Ruzicka showed a pond near the camp to Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) where Romany women were forced to wash naked, while the warders sexually abused them.

Source: Prague Post
Date: 10.05.2014