Category Archives: Tschechien

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus auf politischer Ebene, Fundstücke, Geschichte des Antiziganismus, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus, Tschechien

Demonstration in Prague calls on EU to stop subsidizing pig farm on Romani Holocaust site

Monday, 16 May was the International Day of Romani Resistance, a day to honor the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust and the heroic uprising of Romani people in the Auschwitz concentration camp. On that occasion the Konexe organization held a demonstration in front of the EU House, the headquarters of the representation of the European Commission and European Parliament in the Czech Republic. Representatives of Konexe delivered a message entitled „Europe, Stop Subsidizing the Pig Farm at Lety“ to the EU House. News server Romea.cz broadcast audio and video of the demonstration live online. „We have nothing against the European Union per se, we are criticizing the state of affairs in which the European Structural Funds are subsidizing a specific agricultural enterprise located on places where genocide was perpetrated. In our view, this is absolutely incompatible with European values,“ Miroslav Brož of Konexe told news server Romea.cz prior to the demonstration.

Day of Romani Resistance

The Day of Romani Resistance commemorates the events of 16 May 1944, when Romani and Sinti prisoners in the so-called „Gypsy Camp“ at Auschwitz-Birkenau rose up against their captors. On that day the camp leadership had planned to murder them all, but the Roma rose up and refused to obey the orders of the SS. This event is still absolutely unknown in the Czech Republic. News server Romea.cz published last year a study about the Romani uprising in Auschwitz written by historian Michal Schuster of the Museum of Romani Culture.

The events of 16 May 1944

The murder of everybody in the so-called „Gypsy Camp“ was supposed to be performed during the evening of 16 May 1944, when the sound of the gong announced that everyone in the entire camp was banned from leaving and that it would be closed. A truck drove up before the gates of the camp and 50-60 members of the special SS commando unit jumped out and called on the prisoners to quickly leave the housing blocks. All of the prisoners, however, refused to leave. Reportedly there was total calm in the barracks. The prisoners barricaded the doors and prepared to defend themselves however they could with rocks and work tools. Romani survivor Hugo Höllenreiner (born 1933 in Munich), who was deported to Auschwitz with his family in 1943, recalls the moments of resistance as follows: „Outside about seven or eight men came to the gate. Dad yelled at them. The entire building shook as he shouted: ‚We’re not coming out! You come in here! We’re waiting for you! If you want something, you have to come in and get it!‘ “ The SS commando was startled by this refusal to obey. Their commander decided to postpone the action. The camp closure was temporarily called off. While there was never an open clash between the Romani prisoners and the SS members, the incident played a significant role. It was definitely not the custom in the concentration camps for prisoners to resist a planned and prepared action en masse right before it was to be carried out. There is absolutely no doubt that the armed SS commando unit could have suppressed this act of resistance, but they decided not to go into an open confrontation and preferred to achieve their aims another way. This incident unequivocally had the nature of an uprising and deserves a significant place in the tragic history of the Holocaust of the European Roma. There were approximately 6 500 prisoners in the so-called „Gypsy Camp“ of Birkenau at the time. During the night of 2 August and the early morning hours of 3 August 1944, all of the camp prisoners were murdered in the gas chambers. 2 August is therefore commemorated as the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 17.05.2016

Antiziganismus von Rechts, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Neo-Nazis try to provoke local Roma in Přerov during 1 May protest

An assembly and march by about 30 neo-Nazis from the National Regeneration (Národní obroda – NO) group took place yesterday in Přerov. The leader of the NO, Pavel Matějný, gave a speech very similar to those he has given to previous such assemblies. Matějný’s speech attacked domestic nonprofit organizations such as Konexe and ROMEA, the European Union, NATO, and refugee reception. When the speeches were over, the march left the square and marched past the bus and train station. Riot police guarded the area around the station. A police monitoring vehicle also followed the march the entire time. The neo-Nazis attempted to provoke local Romani residents by marching directly past their homes. Local Romani crime prevention assistants contributed to making sure there were no conflicts. „The guys have been here since 9 AM and have gradually been visiting families to warn them this march will be going past their homes. They have done their best to make sure no conflicts happen,“ Pavel Grim, who works as a mentor for the crime prevention assistants with the Municipal Police there, told news server Denik.cz. „We have previously monitored the activities of this convener and we anticipated a low turnout. Our security measures were set up according to that. The riot officers were just here as backup, the situation outside was monitored by uniformed officers and members of the anti-conflict team,“ Michaela Sedláčková, the Contact Officer for National Minorities at the Regional Police Directorate in Olomouc, told news server Denik.cz.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 02.05.2016

Antiziganismus im Fußball, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Beiträge auf Deutsch, Fundstücke, Italien, Tschechien

Rom: Tschechische Hooligans urinierten auf Bettlerin

Video eines spanischen Touristen, das vor Europa-League-Spiel in Rom aufgenommen wurde, sorgt für Empörung. Tschechische Botschaft verurteilte Tat der Sparta-Prag-Anhänger.

Eine Gruppe von Hooligans des tschechischen Fußballclubs Sparta Prag hat in Rom für helle Empörung gesorgt. Im Internet kursierte ein Video einer Gruppe tschechischer Fans, die auf der Brücke vor der Engelsburg eine Roma-Bettlerin umringt und auf sie uriniert, ohne dass Anwesende sie in Schutz nehmen. Das von einem spanischen Touristen aufgenommene Video wurde auf der Webseite der Tageszeitung „El Pais“ veröffentlicht und löste hitzige Reaktionen in Rom aus. Die Bürgermeisterkandidatin Virginia Raggi forderte vorbildhafte Strafen für die Hooligans. „Bettlerei in Rom ist zwar ein Problem, wir stehen hier jedoch vor einer eklatanten Verletzung der Menschenrechte. Eine abscheuliche Tat ist vor den Augen Dutzender Fußgänger und vor einem der schönsten Monumente der Welt begangen worden. Das sind keine Fans, sondern Bestien“, kommentierte Raggi. Der Ex-Vize-Wirtschaftsminister Stefano Fassina forderte die sofortige Identifizierung und Verurteilung der Sparta-Fans. „Sie sollen nie wieder nach Italien einreisen dürfen“, verlangte Fassina. Die tschechische Botschaft in Italien verurteilte den Fall. In einem Schreiben äußerte sie die Hoffnung, dass die italienische Polizei die Verantwortlichen bald identifizieren könne.

Quelle: Kleine Zeitung
Stand: 18.03.2016

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus auf politischer Ebene, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Czech Republic: Racist murderer of Romani man is ultra-right’s candidate in regional elections

Vlastimil Pechanec, who was convicted in 2003 of racially-motivated murder, will run in the Czech Republic’s regional elections this autumn as a candidate for the Worker’s Social Justice Party (Dělnická stranu sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS). Pechanec, who was characterized during his trial by expert witnesses as a recidivist whom it would be hard to reform, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the racist murder of a Romani man, Otto Absolon, in the town of Svitavy, and was then released on parole after serving 12 years of that sentence. Before being sentenced for murder, Pechanec had been convicted of two other crimes, grievous bodily harm and rioting. In 2001 he attacked Mr Absolon with a knife when a group of Romani people entered a discotheque. Pechanec stabbed Mr Absolon twice in the abdomen and the 30-year-old victim died as a result of his wounds. According to the court, Pechanec addressed Mr Absolon with racist abuse before attacking and murdering him for absolutely no reason other than that he was a Rom. Mr Absolon was survived by two young children and his seriously ill common-law wife, who passed away one year later. Despite the evidence that resulted in his conviction, Pechanec insists he did not murder Mr Absolon. In 2014 Pechanec was released on parole and last year the court acceded to his attorney’s request that the biological material on the knife considered to be the murder weapon be re-tested. In December the court announced that no reason had been found to re-open Pechanec’s trial. Pechanec could continue seeking a retrial if a new expert witness assessment were to be submitted to the court, but he cannot afford one. He wants to raise the money through a „benefit concert“ in mid-March. Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) was the first to publish the information about Pechanec’s DSSS candidacy in its insert for the Pardubice Region. The author of that article, Jaroslav Hubený, felt the need to praise Pechanec’s prerequisites for becoming a politician, which he sees as the fact that Pechanec knows how to cheer on his favorite basketball team from the stands. „His relationship to sports illustrates that basketball fans in Svitavy have been able to repeatedly see him – and mainly hear him – at the league’s basketball games, where he has taken up the role of drummer and ‚cheerleader‘ with a megaphone in his hand. One prerequisite for a politician, i.e., that he not be afraid to stand up against a crowd and against his opponents, Pechanec definitely has,“ Hubený wrote in his article. Continue reading Czech Republic: Racist murderer of Romani man is ultra-right’s candidate in regional elections →

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganistische Übergriffe, Fundstücke, Geschichte des Antiziganismus, Polen, Posts in English, Slowakei, Tschechien

Compensation for victims of forced sterilization raised at OSCE event on Roma

Speaking at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 1 October, two Romani civil society members raised the urgent issue of the Czech Government’s decision not to compensate the victims of forced sterilizations, human rights abuses that have taken place over the course of decades in the former Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including into the 21st century. Karolina Mirga of the Ternype network raised the issue as well as the continued presence of an industrial pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma at Lety in the Czech Republic.

Marek Szilvasi of ERRC dedicated his entire remarks to the issue of compensating the victims of forced sterilization, noting that the Czech Government’s rejection of the bill means that „hundreds of Romani women are going to remain without compensation for this human rights violation.“ Szilvasi urged both the Czech and Slovak Governments to immediately begin developing proper compensation schemes and the Czech Government especially to reconsider its decision.

Archived video of the session on 1 October 2016 is available here (remarks at 2:30). Today’s closing session is being broadcast live here.

On 30 September participants raised the issue of police brutality toward Roma and Sinti communities throughout the 57-state OSCE region. Speakers emphasized that negative stereotypes about Roma are widespread among law enforcement and lead to discrimination in policing.

„The police play an important role in ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights,“ said Mirjam Karoly, ODIHR Senior Advisor on Roma and Sinti Issues. „Therefore, investment in improving trust and confidence among the police and Roma and Sinti communities is crucial to combating racism and discrimination.“

Repressive police practices and a lack of effective investigation and prosecution of crimes against Roma create deep distrust among Roma and Sinti towards the criminal justice system in general. „Criminal cases against police representatives suspected of violence against Roma remain under investigation for very long periods of time, which blatantly violates the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights, related to the duty of the state authorities to conduct thorough and effective investigation within a reasonable time,“ said Oana Taba of the Romanian NGO Romani Criss.

„Investigations in such cases can be flawed, very often lacking the racial motivation of the perpetrator,“ Taba noted. Participants also discussed recent police operations targeting Roma and Sinti and their communities.

„The inhabitants of the concerned areas, mostly Roma, were intimidated and harassed by the practice of raid-like joint control activities in segregated Roma settlements by local government authorities in co-ordination with local police,“ said Szalayné Sándor, Deputy Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary. „These practices are incompatible with the principle of the rule of law and the requirement of legal certainty.“

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 02.10.2015

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus, Tschechien

AI protests against discrimination of Roma at Czech schools

The Amnesty International (AI) group handed a petition against alleged discrimination against Romanies at Czech schools, signed by over 38,000 people from 94 countries, to Czech Deputy Education Minister Jaroslav Fidrmuc yesterday. The petition campaign started in April with a report on cases of Romanies who were discriminated against within the Czech education system.

This campaign ended outside the seat of the Education Ministry yesterday. AI placed information panels presenting stories of Czech Romany children in the street. The AI report said a disproportionately high number of Romany students attended practical elementary schools for children with moderate intellectual disabilities. It wrote that segregated Romany schools were created and that bullying of Romanies occurred at quality schools. Former education minister Marcel Chladek sharply criticised the AI report. He said it was not based on correct data.

The European Commission has been calling on the Czech Republic for a long time to place Romany children in practical elementary schools only if it is really needed.
AI yesterday criticised the centre-left government of Bohuslav Sobotka. It said the government failed to protect Romany children against discrimination, admit how widespread the discrimination at school was, and produce a good plan for fighting it. „The government should declare that this discrimination exists and start dealing with it as a priority,“ AI Czech branch head Mark Martin. Fidrmuc assured the participants in the AI protest event that they and the ministry had the same goal. He said great improvement can be seen in work with students who need special assistance, Romany or not, in the last few years. Education Minister Katerina Valachova did not attend the protest event because a cabinet meeting was held yesterday.

Source: Prague Daily Monitor
Date: 01.09.2015

Abschiebung und Asyl, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Tschechien

Czech-language Facebook page of non-existent group falsifies photo of banner carried by Romani people

The fake Czech-language Facebook group „Roma against Islam“ (Romové proti Islámu) has published an altered version of a photo taken of a Romani demonstration in September 2013 in front of the Office of the Czech Government. On one the banners, instead of the Romani flag which was actually being held, the photo has been doctored to show a text that attacks refugees. If the administrators of the page do not remove the photo, representatives of the Romani Democratic Party (RDS) plan to file criminal charges. The altered photo was posted on Sunday, 21 June and immediately became very popular, being shared more than 2 600 times and receiving more than 1 500 „likes“ as of noon yesterday.

Instead of the Romani flag and the inscription „Romani Democratic Party of the Czech Republic“ (Romská demokratická strana ČR), those who doctored the photo inserted the following text between the hands of the two Romani people in the photograph: „STOP REFUGEE RECEPTION. Bohemia belongs to us and our white brothers. Smokes back to Africa! Your educated Roma.“ Representatives of the RDS have already objected to the falsified collage. „If the administrators do not remove those photographs, we will file criminal charges. This discredits the RDS and is an abuse of our political party,“ Miroslav Rusenko, political secretary of the RDS Central Committee, told news server Romea.cz.

In January, Romea.cz was the first to report on the existence of this false Facebook group. The authors of its material demagogically attack Islam per se and have falsely claimed to be supported by the Dživipen association and the Terne čhave music group. Both Romani initiatives have distanced themselves from the page. In February 2015, photographs were posted to the page of the non-existent group’s alleged administrator and secretary, a certain „Ján Balko“. It took just a couple of minutes for news server Romea.cz to search online and determine that the photograph was actually of a Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. Many photos of him exist online.

The fraudsters did their best to make it as difficult as possible to identify the man in the photograph, for example, by reproducing it as a mirror image so it could not be found using Google’s instruments for photo searches, but Romea.cz discovered its origins nonetheless. It is evident from the materials posted to the Facebook page of this non-existent group that its purpose has been to attract Romani people to demonstrations by the anti-Islamic group „We Don’t Want Islam in the Czech Republic“ (Islám v ČR nechceme) that were held at the beginning of the year. Those same people are behind another false Facebook page called Educated Roma (Vzdělaní Romové), which insults Romani people with would-be jokes. Facebook has so far ignored requests that these false groups be removed.

Source: Romea.cz
Date: 23.06.2015

Antiziganistische Klischees, Fundstücke, Posts in English, Staatlicher Antiziganismus, Tschechien

Czech town’s chamber of commerce wants to deploy the Army against Roma

The District Chamber of Commerce (Okresní hospodářská komora – OHK) in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem has published an „Open Call to Local Politicians and Citizens“ that reads as follows: „In Ústí nad Labem and other towns we are threatened by a demographic catastrophe that may already be unavoidable. We must have the courage to describe this problem and propose solutions.“ The basis of the „problem“ is then described by the OHK as the „negative immigration [sic] of inadaptable inhabitants or just the socially vulnerable.“ This primarily means Romani people. The OHK refers to analyses that they say „describe the problem well“: An article from news server KrajskéListy.cz and a statement by Slovak Interior Minister Kaliňák alleging that frequent incest in the Romani community is the reason so many Romani children attended „special schools“ in Slovakia. „How can we best help ourselves in this situation?“ the OHK then asks. „Certainly not as we currently are doing, when almost nothing is going on and the problem is being tiptoed around. Political representatives from the ground-level up should establish an association of towns experiencing similar problems and develop pressure on their national representatives to solve them,“ the „Open Call“ says. The OHK believes the options for solving this problem are: Counting the number of Romani people, putting a cap on welfare benefits, and calling up the Army for help. „The Army is able to begin doing this without delay and it would save the towns a lot of money. Guard duty in excluded localities would be the ideal practice exercises for them… It is important that we finally begin to do something. Otherwise the last of us will go extinct in another 15 years and it is all the same whether we are living in the center of town, in Brno, or Skorotice or in South Bohemia,“ their statement concludes. Continue reading Czech town’s chamber of commerce wants to deploy the Army against Roma →

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Antiziganismus von Rechts, Beiträge auf Deutsch, Fundstücke, Geschichte des Antiziganismus, Tschechien

Free Lety – für ein würdiges Gedenken

In Lety, einem Ort in Tschechien, wurden ab 1939 Rom_nija in einem Lager interniert, zur Arbeit gezwungen und teilweise umgebracht. Anstelle einer würdigen Gedenkstätte wurde in den 70ern eine Schweinemastanlage auf dem Gelände des ehemaligen KZ errichtet. coloRadio sprach darüber mit Jakob und Jörg von Free Lety! – Also: Worum geht es bei Free Lety?

Quelle + Audio: Freie Radios
Stand: 05.05.2015

Analyse und Kritik des Antiziganismus, Beiträge auf Deutsch, Gastauror_in, Geschichte des Antiziganismus, Staatlicher Antiziganismus, Tschechien

“…der letzte, der nach Pérák fragte, war die GESTAPO…”

In Tschechien gab es eine atemberaubende Aktion inkl. Doku, durch Anifaschist_innen auf einem ehemaligen KZ Gelände.
Näheres bei den Freunden von Ecoleusti

Weitere Informationen zum KZ Gelände:
Besuch und Gedenken auf dem Gelände des ehemaligen KZ Lety bei Pisek (Tschechien) / FREE LETY / 13.9.2014
Dokumentiert: “Uno fordert von Tschechien, Schweinefarm in Lety zu schließen” (Radio Prag)