Police say extremism on the rise

Police say crimes committed with an extremist motive were up 22 percent in 2009 on the previous year, according to a report presented to the Chamber of Deputies Defense and Security Committee.

The report tallied 265 extremist crimes in 2009, compared with 217 in 2008. The data also pointed to increased arrests and prosecutions of assailants, though only about one-third of those prosecuted were convicted.

Deputy Interior Minister Zdeněk Salivar said the statistics are a sign that "the extremist scene is on the defensive."

While some NGOs monitoring the trends agree that the influence of far-right groups is in decline, they say law enforcement comprises only part of the picture.

"The neo-Nazi scene is currently in decline, almost in decay," says Jana Součková with the activist group Antifa. "Some of this comes from increased police involvement; however, we should not forget about internal disputes among individuals in the movement. This decline would probably have happened anyway."

Součková says she also "has a problem with the terminology" used by the government, specifically the word extremism.

"When you speak about extremism and you mean racist and xenophobic views and activities, it is a problem of a whole society, not only few hundred racist thugs," she said. "The racist groundswell in society partly enables their activities by not actively opposing it. Police repression of these movements is only a short-term solution, and in some cases even counterproductive."

In May, the Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor) released a report saying, among other things, that intolerance and xenophobia are on the rise.

The police said 0.07 percent of all crimes committed in 2009 came with an extremist motive.

Salivar singled out the banning of the right-wing Workers Party (DS) as among the biggest successes combating extremism last year. However, the party has reconstituted itself as the Workers Party of Social Justice (DSSS).

"The DSSS has its own intellectual and other limitations; they are unable to step out of their own shadow," Součková said. "We can more or less expect the party to stagnate even though they might gain some seats in the municipal elections. The party in its rhetoric began to compete with the established political parties and politicians, and so they lost their attraction."

Součková says the DSSS is now fighting with other far-right groups including the National Resistance and the Autonomous Nationalists.

Police Presidium President Oldřich Martinů said law enforcement successfully curbed the number of concerts hosted by extremist groups, which is a key source of their financing. Martinů says concerts tallied only 18 in 2009, half the number from the year before.  

According to the report, police investigated six cases of police ties to extremist crimes last year. One case resulted in punishment, two remain under investigation and three other cases saw officers cleared of any wrongdoing. A total of 24 police officers were involved in those cases, the report said.

All applicants for security-sector related positions are given a background check and cross-referenced for extremist ties, Salivar told the Czech News Agency.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com