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Roma plan gets mixed reviews

Čunek proposes segregating minority based on income

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 24th, 2008 issue

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
People in Need's Šimáček says the proposal opens discussion.
Regional Development Minister Jiří Čunek’s multifaceted proposal to address problems within the Roma community is being met with mixed reviews among Roma officials and local humanitarian groups.
Published earlier this month, the 30-page proposal, which ministry officials call “a motivational effort for Czech municipalities,” has drawn staunch criticism from some authorities mainly for suggesting that Roma citizens be divided into three groups based on origin and income level.
According to the proposal, the first group will comprise families living independently of government subsidies. The second will include Roma citizens requiring some financial and social assistance, and the third group will represent those caught abusing government allowances. Citizens in the third group will be subject to regular supervision by social workers and moved into hostels. The proposal, which officials say is worth a projected 1 billion Kč ($55.7 million), also states that only citizens working in municipality-funded occupations will be eligible for financial support and housing subsidies.
According to Čunek’s adviser Josef Baláž, these designations will act simply as suggested guidelines to allow the individual municipalities to focus on the varying problems within each of the three groups.
“When social workers work with these people on a regular basis and spend time with them, they realize that these people are on different levels, and therefore have very different needs,” Baláž said.
But Roma officials felt differently, calling the proposal reminiscent of a fascist dictatorship and an infringement of their civil rights.
“To categorize Roma citizens into groups is against both Czech constitutional and social laws, and it violates all of the ideas and messages of the Velvet Revolution,” said Ivan Veselý, deputy head of the government council for the Roma community. For many Roma citizens, segregating people into groups according to income level — which could potentially divide family clan members — has Holocaust connotations. “It’s essentially the same idea that neo-Nazis have,” he said.
Regional Development Ministry officials contend that the bulk of the proposal has been largely misinterpreted by Roma officials as well as the media. The published proposal is, in fact, a draft that was not meant to be seen by the general public for some time. Authorities now allege that the ministry was forced to publish the proposal on its Web site after details of the document’s contents were leaked to the media by an unknown party.
“Believe me, we did not want to publish the document this early, because it hasn’t been completed yet,” Baláž said, adding that the document was only circulated among nine members of the government council for the Roma community for consultation earlier this month. “There are many missing chapters describing matters that pertain to particular ministries, including the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and the Education Ministry.” Baláž claims he began receiving phone calls from journalists a week after the document was distributed to commission members. Currently, the ministry does not have a set deadline for the final draft of the proposal.
But Veselý alleges the document’s early release is simply an effort to drum up publicity for Čunek, chairman of the Christian Democrats, prior to the fall Senate elections, a claim which Baláž refutes.
“It’s just a dirty game connected to the upcoming campaign,” he said. “Once the election is over, the question will be how the Christian Democrats will work with this.”
Martin Šimáček, director of social integration programs for Člověk v tísni (People in Need), a Prague-based nongovernmental organization, has praised Čunek’s recent efforts, calling the proposal a welcome first step in the Czech government’s acknowledgment of Roma issues.
“This might be the best proposal of its type that we’ve seen in the country,” said Šimáček, who has helped organize social and educational programs for Roma citizens in Kladno and Libčice nad Vltavou for seven years. While admitting that some revisions in the proposal’s wordings were necessary, he added, “There are a lot of really good suggestions. ... It’s creating the opportunity for political discussion on this very important, complex issue.”
Šimáček particularly applauded the proposal’s emphasis on education. The document outlines a plan to offer Roma families additional housing subsidies if all of their children are enrolled in school.
The number of Roma citizens living in ghettos has risen an estimated 30 percent since 1989, despite a series of government reforms designed to combat the issue. Officials estimate more than 80,000 Roma live in 330 such neighborhoods across the country, where they are segregated both geographically and socially.
Baláž pointed out the proposal’s emphasis on granting additional support to citizens employed within the municipality was also a key feature.
“It is necessary to motivate the municipalities to want to solve this problem, to motivate the people to want to change their lives,” he said. “This conception is above all trying to find the motivation for all the key players — Roma people living in segregated areas, the state, the municipality and civic associations and NGOs working with these people.”
This isn’t the first time Čunek has been criticized for his approach to Roma-related affairs. In 2006, Čunek, who was then mayor of Vsetín, north Moravia, moved a number of Roma families out of central neighborhoods and into the outskirts or to surrounding villages.
Veselý remained confident the proposal would not receive future government approval.
“Čunek [has set the stage for] a big conflict between low-income Czechs and Roma residents with this proposal, because Czechs will wonder why so much money and effort has been granted only to Roma,” he said. “If this proposal was accepted, it would bring international shame to the Czech Republic.”
— Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at cwong@praguepost.com


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