Far-right assault Roma

Thirteen far-right extremists have been charged with rioting offenses in the town of Nový Bydžov after an assault on a Roma man who was hospitalized with a concussion, police said.

The March 12 attack happened just hours after the Workers Party of Social Justice (DSSS) held a protest march in the town, citing rising crime rates.

Some 500 extremist supporters took part in the march, while 200 anti-racism campaigners staged a counter-demonstration led by the "Nový Bydžov Is Not Alone!" initiative and including supporters of the Green Party and the Pirate Party.

Mounted police bearing nightsticks broke up a sit-down protest staged by some of the counter-demonstrators forming a human chain and declining police calls to leave, in an effort to disrupt the DSSS march.

Vandas

Police said one demonstrator suffered bruising during the police action. However, witnesses alleged to news site Romea.cz that more demonstrators were victims of excessive force by some of the police officers involved.

"The events that transpired during and after this 'protest' have shown what its real purpose was: An opportunity for large numbers of neo-Nazis to commit violence against members of the Roma minority," said Gwendolyn Albert, a human rights researcher and activist.

"Officers on horseback charged nonviolent counter-demonstrators in order to clear the way for neo-Nazis to march past the homes of Roma people whom they later tracked down and assaulted, one of them so seriously he was hospitalized," she told The Prague Post.

Calling the discrimination of Roma "one of the most serious problems of Czech domestic politics," Albert said that "everyday racism" against Roma had to be eradicated at all levels of society if hate-crime prevention efforts were to succeed.

DSSS Chairman Tomáš Vandas said meanwhile he thinks extra police patrols and even the Army might be needed to deal with the "extraordinary situation" of crime levels in the town.

"It is necessary to stop tolerating violations of the law and peaceful coexistence just because someone has a different skin color," he told The Prague Post, in a clear reference to the Roma community.

Vandas previously led the Workers Party (DS), which was legally dissolved in February 2010 after the Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favor of the government's case that the DS was a threat to democracy because of its rhetoric of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and anti-Semitism.

While police have confirmed a protester was arrested for wearing a DS logo, Vandas said the party had been "dissolved, not banned" and that he believed there was "nothing illegal" about using the logo.

In an online statement after the march, Vandas thanked the police for what he called "their professional approach" in maintaining the march's route and "eliminating" all efforts to stop it.

He also criticized Interior Minister and former journalist Radek John (Public Affairs, VV), telling the police he wished they would get "a head of department who would be a real expert, not some journalist windbag, or sensation and blood seeker at any cost."

Police told the Czech News Agency the cost of its operation in Nový Bydžov March 12, which involved some 200 officers, would run into several hundred thousand crowns.

Green Party Chairman Ondřej Liška, who filed a motion with police and the local town hall seeking to have the march canceled, said in a statement March 13 police had facilitated the dissemination of racial intolerance by allowing the march.

In a statement ahead of the march, newly appointed Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková condemned the DSSS as well as the radical National Resistance and Autonomous Nationalists, which she said signposted their participation online.

"These groups publicly call for resistance 'against Gypsy terror' and openly incite a hateful attitude toward Roma people in the Czech Republic," Šimůnková said.

The DSSS claimed it was staging the march at local residents' request over fears for their security.

The issue first came to a head last November after several assaults and a case of rape were reported. A recent petition urging greater security in the town was signed by almost half of its 7,000 residents.

In the petition's wake, Mayor Pavel Louda issued a statement sharply criticizing the local Roma population and vowing a series of measures against what he called unadaptable inhabitants.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com