Roma home attacked by arsonists

For the second time in as many months, arsonists have attacked the home of a Roma family, this time in the small village of Krty, central Bohemia.

"The whole town is in shock," said Jan Brda, the Krty deputy mayor. "None of us has experienced anything like that."

Police are investigating an attack in the early morning hours Aug. 10, in which assailants allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into a home near the railway station. Twelve people were in the home at the time of the attack, and the homemade explosive targeted the bedroom where two Roma parents and their 1-year-old daughter were sleeping. The father of the family suffered second-degree burns as he tried to put out the fire after the others had fled the building.

Soňa Budská, a spokeswoman for the Central Bohemian Regional Police, said authorities are conducting an investigation under the guise of "attempt to do grievous bodily harm," a crime that carries with it the potential for a prison term of five to 12 years.

"We do not know yet whether it was one or more perpetrators," she said. "We have one suspected person traced, but there is nothing else to say related to the ongoing investigation. … A racial motive in this crime is not confirmed, but it is not excluded."

While police are cautious in attributing the attack to racial discrimination, it does come just weeks after a similar attack in Býchory, central Bohemia, where a burning torch was tossed into a Roma family's home. That assault came on the shoulders of several similar events in recent years.

Gwendolyn Albert, a longtime Roma rights activist, called the incident the "latest in a rising series of incidents which the Czech authorities seem at a loss to prevent."

"Members of the Roma minority in the Czech Republic - even those who have long since fled the country because of such violence - understand that these attacks target not just the random individuals involved, but the entire minority as a whole," Albert said. "In most cases, that assumption is entirely justified."

Firefighters from several nearby towns responded to the fire, which caused just 1,000 Kč in damage. By all accounts, the family that was targeted had no known enemies.

"The family has been living in Krty for 20 years. Of course we know each other. Krty has 107 citizens, so everyone knows everyone," Brda said. "We are very sorry for what happened, and luckily the family is healthy and fine."

- Šimona Müllerová contributed to this report.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com