Recent Romnews postings: Czech Republic
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 21:04:38 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Recent Romnews postings: Czech Republic
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Roma National Congress <[email protected]>
Recent Romnews postings: Czech Republic
CALL FOR A BOYCOTT ON CZECH PRODUCE
In 1976 the Communist regime had a pig farm built on the site of the
former Roma concentration camp in Lety. In May 1999, 23 years later,
the social democratic government in Prague refused to listen to Roma
demands and to the advice of the government's human rights delegate,
Petr Uhl, to close down the farm built on the Lety site. The powers
that be, claimed that their decision was based on financial
expedience.
Despite protests from camp survivors and their children the farm was
sold to the company AGPI for 3 million Czech crowns (approx.$120,000)
in 1995 as part of the privatisation drive; the plant's continuing
production of pork was actively supported.
AGPI is one of the largest producers of pork in the Czech Republic.
Meat from Lety is to be found on menus in some of Prague's best
restaurants as well in various items for export from the Republic.
Lety:
The concentration camp for Roma near the small Czech town of Lety was
in use from August 10th, 1940 in accordance with a government decision
of April 28th, 1939. 80 people were to be housed in a handful of
wooden barracks but the camp was overcrowded from the very beginning.
More than 240 men, women and children were imprisoned in the camp in
August 1940.
Lety was from the beginning purely a Czech institution, it lay under
the responsibility of the Czech interior ministry. The camp commander
was a Czech, Josef Janovsky, all 56 camp guards were Czech. In
accordance with an order from the interior ministry from June 22nd and
July 10th, 1942 all Roma in Bohemia and Moravia were registered by
local police officers and sent to various camps.
Lety was classified as a concentration camp for Roma as of August 1st,
1942 and it was so full by the end of the month that more barracks had
to be built. Over 600 people, mostly women and children an four times
the number the camp was built to hold, were forced into Lety by the
Czechs in 1942.
By the beginning of December 1942 the number of Roma imprisoned in
Lety had grown to more than 1,300. More that 36 children had been born
there. More than 327 people died in Lety as a result of physical abuse
or illness. On December 3rd, 1942 the Czech interior ministry started
closing down the camp: prisoners, again mostly women and children,
were rounded up and placed in transports to Auschwitz. Along with
4,493 other Czech Roma the last prisoners at Lety were sent to their
deaths at Auschwitz on May 4th, 1943.
By the end of WWII Czechoslovakia was one of the few states which had
no Roma living in it because of a successful politics of
extermination. All but a handful of Roma had been murdered during the
Holocaust. According to cautious estimates, 327 Roma lie buried at the
former concentration camp of Lety, men, women and children murdered in
an act of German-Czech collaboration. Unlike Germany, post-war
Czechoslovakian and subsequently Czech governments have felt no need
to shoulder responsibility for this historical burden. Instead most
Czechs think it is perfectly alright that pigs are bred on the graves
of people murdered in a concentration camp.
For Roma, us, this is an unacceptable situation! It is intolerable
that commemoration of Holocaust victims takes second place to the
financial interests of pig farmers!
The Czech Republic is to-day one of the states where Roma face the
worst discrimination and hostility. Discrimination, murder and
deportation are as much a part of life for Roma in the Czech Republic
to-day as are neglect and belittlement of Holocaust victims and
survivors alike.
We therefore appeal to you to help change this insupportable
situation.
- We demand that people in positions of political responsibility,
especially the Czech president Vaclav Havel act to close and remove
the pig farm on the site of the Roma concentration camp at Lety and
- contribute to the creation of a suitable commemorative site at the
camp.
The Czech government maintains that financial difficulties are
stopping it from doing anything about Lety. We hereby call for a
boycott of Czech produce to bring financial pressure to bear on
Prague in light of the Czech government's use of money as an excuse.
Survivors of the concentration camp at Lety appeal to you to join in
and support the boycott.
Jan Vintr, Vaclav Rudzicka, Emil Studeny, Bozena Rudzickova, Ruzena
Terkeriova-Ruzickova,
Roma National Congress, May 1999
Coordination;
ROMA NATIONAL CONGRESS
european central office
Simon von Utrecht Str. 85
D- 20359 Hamburg
Tel: ++49 40 319 42 49
Fax: ++ 49 40 31 04 75
E-mail: [email protected]
www.Romnews.com
Signatories:
RNC-Rudko Kawczynski, RNC- Ondrej Gina, RNC-Asmet Elesovski, RNC-Josef
Cervenak, Czech Republik: Kulturni svaz obcanu romske narodnosti KSORN
- Romske obcanske sdruzeni ROS - Romano kulturno jekhetaniben RKJ -
Rada rokycanskych Romu RRR - Romske sdruzeni TERNE - Romske sdruzeni
JEKHETANE - Vybor pro odskodneni romskeho holocaustu VPORII - Sdruzeni
Romu Ceske republiky SRCR - Fond porozumeni a nadeje FPN - Romske
sdruzeni Karlovy Vary - Romske sdruzeni CHeb - Romske sdruzeni
Bustchrad - Romske sdruzeni Most - Romske sdruzeni Pardubice - Romake
sdruzeni Kladno - SK AMARE ROMA - INFO ROMA KONTAKT- International;
Rom und Cinti Union.e.V. Germany - RomNews Network, Markus Knudsen -
RUG-Aachen, Germany - RNC- Tarnov, Poland - Centrum Kultury Rromow
,Poland - Stowarzyszenie Rromow Nowy Sacz ,Poland - Stowarzyszenie
Rromow Krakow, Poland - Advisory and Information Center of Roma in
Sambor, Ukraine - RNC Coordiantion office New York, USA - Community
Center, Hanusovce nad Toplou, Slovakia - Roma Gemer, Slovakia -
Community Center "ZOR�", Slovakia - Romani Bah, Bulgaria - Romano
Drom, Bulgaria - Roma Community Center "DROM�" Macedonia - Roma
Information Bureau, Lithuania - "Phralipe", Hungary - Gregori Kwiek
Dufunija - Kati Sztojka - Steponas Aleksandravicus - Mr. Asmet
Elezowski - Mr. Ramis Osmanowski - Mr. Ahmet Jasarewski - Mr. Samir
Demirowski - Velko Kostov - Mihail Georgiev - Amalia Pompova - Josef
Cervenak - Josef Chomanic - Vaclav Miko - Fedor Andrash - Marian Gil -
Tadeusz Gabor - Mr. Adam Andrasz - Stanislaw Andrasz - Irina Vaskiv -
Sebastian Kurtisi - Jacek Glowacki - Bozzena Adamajtys - Tino Knudsen
- Regina Adamajtys - Sebastian Waszkowski - Adrian Waszkowski -
Violetta Waszkowska - Sergiusz Kwiek -
-----------------------------------
CANADIAN VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR CZECHS TO BE LIFTED?
Prague / CZECH REP. (RNN Coresspondent) 31 May 1999
During his visit to Canada, Czech President Havel was informed that
visa requirements for Czech citizens entering Canada may shortly be
lifted, after they were imposed in October 1997. The visa requirements
were imposed to curb a flood of Czech Roma seeking ayslum in Canada
and any change in the current situation would be the result of
Prague�s promises that Canada would not have to deal with a repeat of
1997, when 1,500 Czechs applied for asylum. The Czech government
itself admitted that it did not impose retaliatory visa requirements
on Canadians because it was aware that it bore the responsiblity for
poor living standards for Roma in the state.
-----------------------------------
CONFLICT OVER CZECH REPUBLIC�S "WALL OF RACISM"
Prague / CZECH REP. (RNN Coresspondent) 1st June 1999
For the past year there has been talk of it in the north Bohemian town
of Usti but now all romours are laid to rest: building has begun on a
wall in Maticni St. which is to divide the homes of "white" Czechs
from Roma tenents in a house across the road. The former have been
complaining for months of a reduced standard of living caused by the
mess the Roma are claimed to make: they say their houses are no longer
worth anything and could never be sold now. The town council has
justified the action by saying that it has to come to the aid of its
citizens, though it would seem that ordinary Czechs are the only
citizens worth aiding.
The two sides of the street were originally meant to be separated by a
construction 4 meters high; the first protestors pointed up how
similar this would have been to a similar construction which once
stood in Berlin and the council subsequently decided that a 1.80 meter
high ceramic edifice will do the trick.
Officals in Prague attacked the project from the very beginning,
President Havel accused those responsible of racism and appealed for
them to come to their senses. A presidential visit to the street at
the centre of the debate attracted the attention of the international
media, eventually Congress in Washington took notice of the wall in
Usti which has become symbolic worldwide for the unbalanced opinions
most Czechs harbour against their Roma fellow citizens. An especially
cynical twist in the tale is the rumour that it the Roma themselves
will end up building the wall: the construction company has hired five
men who are prepared to work for a pay no "white" Czech would accept.
Prague has grave doubts about the agreement between the Usti council
and Roma representatives which has allowed construction to start: the
state does not accept the wall despite the local agreement having been
formulated with the apparant co-operation of some Roma, claimed to be
unrepresentative of the community as a whole. Havel�s office has
mentioned a breach of honour and in the wake of his visit a study
group has been set up to pinpoint the exact causes of the conflict and
identify possible solutions. Until these questions have been answered
the town has agreed to halt the building of the wall.
The government�s human rights representative, Petr Uhl, has gone a
step further and, by way of a tactical counter-attack, the Usti
council together with the "white" residents of Maticni St. has called
for his demotion. The reason? The image of the town is being dragged
through the dirt and is scaring much-needed potential investors off.
Not because of the decision to build the wall but because of the
criticism voiced against it.
-----------------------------------
RomNews is published by the Roma National Congress on a Non-commercial
basis
European Central Office:
Simon von Utrechtstr. 85
D - 20359 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: ++ 49 40 319 42 49
Fax: ++ 49 40 31 04 75
URL: http://www.romnews.com
Emergency Hotline ( Phone ): ++ 49 171 8931 831
Emergency Hotline ( Fax ): ++ 49 171 8910 702
Emails:
Editorial Office: [email protected]
Send News to: [email protected]
Comments: [email protected]
RomNews Network: [email protected]
Moderator Listserver: [email protected]
ITEMS PUBLISHED IN ROMNEWS ARE COPYRIGHT OF THE RNC
PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE ROMNEWS NETWORK / RNC WHEN QUOTING.
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================