Archive: Society | Minorities

Pupils at primary and secondary schools around the country will receive a new comic book soon; it’s called My World and it’s all about a Chechen refugee struggling to adjust to his new life in the Czech Republic, including dealing with prejudice and hostility. Magda Faltová, director of the Prague-based NGO the Association for Integration and Migration which produced the comic book, told us more.

Leaders of the banned Workers’ Party said on Saturday that they will fight upcoming general elections under the banner Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS). Leader Tomáš Vanas said he felt support following Wednesday’s decision by the Supreme Administrative Court to dissolve the Workers’ Party and said that could be vented in the elections. It was the first time a court has banned a party on political not financial grounds since the creation of the Czech Republic in 1993. The court cited the party’s racist, xenophobic and anti-gay stances and Nazi links for its decision. The extremist party currently has only a handful of local council seats.

The Brno police has defended the use of force in dispersing a crowd of far-right protesters outside the Supreme Administrative Court on Wednesday. The police took action against several dozen supporters of the far-right Workers’ Party who turned up to protest against the court’s decision to ban the party on the grounds that it spreads xenophobia and racial hatred. A police spokesman said the protesters had repeatedly ignored orders to disperse and in view of the fact that they were violating the law the police had no option but to use force. He stressed that no one had been injured in the operation and there had been no damage of property. The police action was criticized by the Human Rights League on the grounds that the party’s supporters were entitled to show their discontent with the court’s decision.

In a breakthrough ruling on Wednesday, the Czech Supreme Administrative Court banned the far-right Workers Party. The court ruled that the Workers’ Party spreads xenophobic and chauvinist views and had racist undertones in its materials. The party’s programme also exploited homophobia and fears of foreigners and immigrants, the court said. While Czech politicians have welcomed Wednesday’s ruling, Worker’s Party head Tomáš Vandas said the group would appeal the ruling and run in May’s general elections.

Wednesday’s ruling is the result of a second attempt by the government to ban the party, which it maintains is a dangerous offshoot of the neo-Nazi movement. An initial attempt at the start of 2009 was dismissed by the court for lack of evidence.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court in Brno delivered the first-ever verdict outlawing a political party in the Czech Republic. It ruled in favour of the government’s proposal to ban the far-right Workers Party on the grounds that it spreads xenophobia and racial hatred. Sarah Borufka has the details.

The Czech police temporarily reinstated border controls on the frontier with Germany on Saturday in relation to a planned neo-Nazi march in Dresden. The police checked vehicles at ten Czech-German border crossings as well as passengers on Germany-bound international trains. Several dozen police and customs officers took part in the operation, a police spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, thousands of anti neo-Nazi protesters, including the Czech minister for human rights and minorities, Michael Kocáb, prevented the extremists from marching through the city of Dresden on Saturday. Around 4,000 right-wing extremists gathered in the city to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden during which an estimated 25,000 people died, most of them civilians.

The Czech police plan to establish new riot units in two of the country’s regional centres, Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava. They should help combat the growing threat of extremism which has seen a sharp rise over the last two years. At the same time, police units across the country face serious understaffing due to budget cuts.

The Czech Police have announced new and additional measures to combat extremism in the country. The head of the riot police, Petr Sehnoutka, told reporters Tuesday that units would be receiving additional training, public order squads would be used more frequently, and new, heavy-armour units will be added in the Ústecký and Moravskoslezský regions. The police said that the further specialisation of the units was in reaction to the greater specialisation of extremist groups themselves, which Sehnoutka said are becoming more aggressive, better organised and embracing new methods. The two regions in which the new units are to be placed were chosen due to their being what the police called major bases for extremists. Currently only Prague and Brno riot police have such heavy-armour squads.

Brno restaurant owner Richard Hošek has launched a new initiative aimed at feeding homeless people in the Moravian capital. From Wednesday, he will collect leftover lunches from restaurants around Brno and deliver them to the city’s homeless community, which numbers around 1500. The entrepreneur was inspired by a similar project in Germany. The leftover meals will be brought to a central location where Brno’s homeless can pick them up.

There are now between 2,000 and 3,000 Vietnamese-run večerky (corner stores) in the Czech Republic, a senior member of a Czech Vietnamese business association, Nguyen Nam, said at a Prague conference on the retail industry on Wednesday. He said, however, that while the grocery business was growing, Vietnamese traders reported stagnation in textiles sales. Mr Nam said one sign of the growing importance of Vietnamese retailers was that the large Czech wholesaler Makro was now advertising in their language.