Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has attacked French president
Nicolas Sarkozy over the country’s ongoing expulsion of Roma or gypsies
originally from Romania. In an interview with the daily Lidove noviny, Mr.
Schwarzenberg said it was impossible not to suspect that a racist
perspective played a role in the ongoing expulsions. He said the move was
against the spirit and position of the European Union.
Mr. Schwarzenberg also criticized the French president for the
organization of a world summit on the Roma issue in Paris on September 6.
The Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, countries which host large Roma
populations and certainly would have something to contribute, have not been
invited to the summit. Canada, which has reimposed visas on Czechs because
citizens from the Roma minority were seeking asylum, has been invited.
The Czech government’s nominee responsible for human rights, Michael
Kocáb, said the Paris summit should not seek to decide people’s fates in
their absence. The Czech Republic currently heads a multinational
initiative on Roma rights grouping countries from central and southern
Europe.