fawn.roma

EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES Vol 53 No 8 2001 1193ndash1219

Czech Attitudes Towards the RomalsquoExpecting More of Havelrsquos Countryrsquo

RICK FAWN

EVER-GROWING IS THE ISSUE OF RIGHTS FOR ROMA and their relations with majoritynations throughout Central and Eastern Europe If one group of people seems todayto be consistently verbally derided subjected to physical abuse social marginalisationand even legal disenfranchisement in the post-communist space it is them Whilehardly unique this situation nevertheless has become particularly evident in the CzechRepublic Few incidents in the fate of contemporary Europersquos Roma have seized theinternational imaginationmdashrightly or wronglymdashas much as those that have occurredin the Czech Republic These issues which not only require careful examination butalso some quali cation of foreign media coverage include the lsquowallrsquo built effectivelysegregating Roma from Czechs a series of killings a lsquocitizenshiprsquo law condemnedinternationally as intentionally denying Roma Czech citizenship the departure ofRoma from that country and their claim of asylum in several states and the continuedoperation of an industrial pig farm on the site of a World War II concentration campfor Roma1

All these incidents should be striking in themselves and call for explanation andanalysis as well as in some cases clari cation of how they have been presented in theWest They are perhaps all the more unusual because of a paradox the ethos ofliberalism and tolerance accorded to Czech society by many of its own citizensintellectual and law makers and especially by its admirers and supporters abroadIndeed the present author would be among these and this article carries someconcern for the prestige and reputation of the Czech Republic2

The importance of this assessment is multidimensional The Romani issue hascaptured international media attention if perhaps in a simpli ed manner Itsrami cations are numerous affecting the Czech Republicrsquos relations with severalWestern countries It is the one issue that most jeopardises Czech accession to theEuropean Union as even Czech Prime Minister MilosIuml Zeman admitted in 19993

Apart from the diplomatic and accession rami cations Czech attitudes towards theRoma have sullied even damaged the positive image of the Czechs abroad Perhapsof foremost importance and one that underpins these issues is that the Romaniquestion presents some insights into how the Czechs see themselves and in thissense Czech attitudes towards the Roma are iconoclastic for domestic and foreignperceptions of Czech national identity

While no study could possibly encompass and assess all incidents in CzechndashRo-mani relations nor embody all popular media and political views this article seeks

ISSN 0966-8136 print ISSN 1465-3427 online010801193-27 Oacute 2001 University of GlasgowDOI 10108009668130120093192

RICK FAWN1194

to provide at least the contours of those relations It does not aim to identify orexplain sources of a possible Czech liberalism but primarily seeks to consider thenature of CzechndashRomani relations by examining and categorising Czech responses tothe problems and then by offering some explanations for the nature of these dif cultrelations The article does not seek to apportion blame to any one side It begins withthe paradox of Czech values and relations with the Romani minority

Czech tolerance

To be sure relations between Romani minorities and titular majority nations appearto be at best strained throughout former communist Eastern Europe even if speci cdimensions explanations and consequences are evident as well

What is particularly striking about the Czech case is the indigenous and especiallythe foreign perception of the Czechs as a highly liberal tolerant people From theinception of Czechoslovak statehood the country was deemed to be more democraticliberal and tolerant of its minorities than other new post-World War I states Politicallegacies thereafter reinforced this image The Roma were classed as a nationalityalong with Czechoslovakiarsquos German and Hungarian populations The 1948 commu-nist takeover was supported as author Milan Kundera wrote by the best parts ofsociety to create a society of equality Misguided as that idealistic thinking was toprove for the majority of the population Czechoslovak reform communists dis-tinguished the country within the socialist bloc by initiating the most liberal andfar-reaching reforms during the Prague Spring Events surrounding and following theNovember 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia bolstered the countryrsquos image ofexceptional political liberalism A repressive hardline communist regime was toppledwith no violence by protestors and ultimately little by the government and withpoetic attacks of jingling keys The sobriquet lsquovelvetrsquo that became associated with thatsmooth clean political transition gave rise not only to a new dictionary entry but ametaphor for the country as a whole Its economic change while rhetorically drasticproduced the lowest unemployment in Europe The Czechoslovak Federationrsquospeaceful dissolution on the eve of 1993 could only be compared favourably with theviolent disintegration of Yugoslavia

Throughout the 1990s political leaders debated the meaning and practice of civilsociety While these debates could become acrimoniousmdashand the personal scorn ofthe two leading proponents Vaclav Klaus and Vaclav Havel became well-knownmdashagain the Czech Republic elevated itself not only in the post-communist world butmore widely for the fact of such discussions occupying the centre stage of politicallife

Unsurprisingly the political and ethnic tolerance of the Czechs has been noted andcelebrated inside and outside the country The country was referred to as embodyingthe original vision championed by the rst Czechoslovak President TomasIuml Masarykand Havel of a lsquomultiethnic state founded on humane valuesrsquo4 As Sharon L Wolchikobserves Czechoslovakiarsquos interwar political traditions gave the Czech lands apositive legacy that differentiated the country from its neighbours For exampleopinion polls nd Czechs signi cantly less anti-Semitic than Poles Hungarians orSlovaks and more disposed towards political compromise5 In the new Czech

CZECH ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ROMA 1195

Republic the values of tolerance and liberalism were also expressed The Chairmanof the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee called civil society a lsquotraditionalattribute of Czech democracyrsquo6 and its application to the EU referred to the countryas multiethnic Even Fedor Gal who had otherwise spoken and written about racismin the Czech Republic calls Czech society lsquoliberalrsquo and says the country is an lsquooasisof stabilityrsquo7 Jack Snyder has written that lsquothe sophisticated Czechs were able toinvent a working civil society almost overnightrsquo8

With such perceptions of the Czech political environment majorityndashminorityrelations could be expected even more to be positive Relative demography wouldseemingly be conducive as well The Czech Republic might be even more achallenging case because the number of Roma is relatively smaller than in many otherpost-communist countries9 Roma are calculated to be 111 of the Macedonianpopulation 89 of the Slovak 8 of the Romanian 72 of the Bulgarian and 49of the Hungarian With Roma approximated at 24 of the Czech population or eventhe 31 gure given by the European Roma Rights Centre the Czech Republic hasroughly half the number of Roma of Hungary which has a comparable overallpopulation10

Czech President Vaclav Havel called the treatment of the Roma in the CzechRepublic lsquoa litmus test of civil societyrsquo11 And as British journalist Linda Grantwrote even though Roma have left other countries such as Poland lsquoone expects moreof Havelrsquos countryrsquo12 Having brie y outlined the Czech claim and the foreignperception of Czech tolerance and the centrality of civil society the article now askswhat forms Czech attitudes towards the Roma take

The form and content of Czech attitudes

Czech attitudes towards the Roma can be divided into various categories the rst andprobably the most central to CzechndashRomani relations stems from a societal viciouscircle This concerns on the one hand general Czech perceptions of Roma not onlyrefusing to conform to social standards and squandering opportunities of socialmobility but also pursuing a lifestyle destructive of majority values on the otherhand some Roma feel and their activists argue that they are intrinsically excludedfrom the means that would eliminate their social marginalisation such as educationand employment The second category of relations conducted at the fringes ofsociety is semi-organised racist violence perpetrated largely by right-wing andorlsquoskinheadrsquo groups The other categories concern whether of cial policies can andshould be delineated as of cial neglect deliberate but indirect policies and deliberateand direct policies As will be discussed in a later section on Czech responses of cialinitiatives if not also attitudes have not been static rather it will be shown thatimportant measures have been taken particularly since 1997 to offer assistance toRomani citizens of the Czech Republic

The societal vicious circle

Czech social attitudes involve a mixture of a sense of imposition resentment anddiscrimination all of which are interconnected and mutually reinforcing Some

RICK FAWN1196

historical reasons will be offered later but the starting point for most Czechs is thepractical daily imposition on them resulting from the incompatibility of Romanicultural and social behaviour At a minimum the common Czech view is that theRoma opt for a lifestyle of indolence theft and unsanitary living conditions Thismight be acceptable to Czechs were these social practices isolated from their ownlives and neighbourhoods but they cannot be in the closer con nes of urban housingcomplexes and when welfare payments are distributed unequally to the much largerRomani families in which statistically few members earn wages and pay taxes13

Resentment is aggravated because Czechs often refer to how Roma had theirsocio-economic standing elevated under communism Once given access to housingand education the Roma are generally seen to have squandered these opportunitiesincluding the destruction of the housing belonging to Sudeten Germans expelled afterWorld War II to which they were relocated Many Czechs including those holdinguniversity degrees and in professional capacities are frank in asserting that any socialinequality Roma may claim is of their own making as if it is also preordainedethnically-based or even biological14

Resentment is even found in the aftermath of violent attacks against Roma withRoma often deemed to have brought their fates upon themselves An incident in thecity of Krnov is illustrative Following an arson attack the KovacIuml family refused tomove out of their burned out at into a one-room replacement since they were stillasking the town for a three-room at The view of many Czech neighbours was thatsuch lsquorent dodgersrsquo were bene tting from the offer of housing while 1200 localinhabitants awaited housing Deputy Mayor Vladim otilde r Vocelka summarised Czechfeelings that the familyrsquos lsquoattitude is creating anti-Roma feelings among peoplePeople have the feeling that the KovacIuml s are trying to exploit their misfortune for asmuch as they canrsquo Ester Kotlarova of the League of Peace and Human Rights ofRoma con rmed that local Czech opinion believed the attack lsquoserved the Romarightrsquo15

Perceived abuse of social services augments Czech resentment Even the sympath-etic lsquoBratinka reportrsquo of the Czech government issued in 1997 illustrated that thesocial support received by a family with three children would exceed the averagewage lsquowhich is not achievable in the job market for Romamdashusually unskilledlabourmdash[so] they often prefer to receive welfare bene tsrsquo16 Disclosure by Czechmedia for example that unsuccessful asylum seekers were eligible under Czech statesocial support law for retrospective social bene ts generated claims that Roma wereleaving not because of lsquopersecutionrsquo but to exploit asylum bene ts abroad whileretaining government payouts at home17

Czech views include a vocal current among the majority population that seeks todiscriminate against Roma to isolate or even eliminate them from the Czech socialspace The general social tension between Czechs and Roma is indicated by publicopinion polls that nd that 45 of Czechs favour the departure of Roma from theCzech Republic and 90 of Czechs have an lsquoaversionrsquo to Roma and would not havethem as neighbours18 This thinking takes the form also of some Czech pubs banningthe entry of Roma with signs reading lsquoNo dogs or gypsiesrsquo The Czech HelsinkiCommittee commented in its report for 1995 lsquoCases of open non-violent discrimi-nation against minorities in particular Roma were registered in consumer services


stores restaurants etc where employees refused to serve Roma or let them enterrsquo19

While some pub owners have been taken to court for such signs prosecution isgenerally unsuccessful20 in part because as the Helsinki Committee stated lsquothere isno direct legal instrumentrsquo for such cases and lsquowhat are called indirect instruments arenot usedrsquo21 Popular views were further indicated by the comment of beauty contes-tant Magdalena BabicIuml ka in Ustotilde nad Labem in 1993 In response to the typicalquestion of her choice of career she received applause for declaring that she wantedto become a public prosecutor lsquoso that I might cleanse our town of all thedark-skinned peoplersquo22

While these may be surprising statements of rejection of the Roma by individualCzechs the process extends to major organisations such as the CIuml SA the CzechRepublicrsquos national airline In early 1998 CIuml SA employees were marking the names ofthose on passenger lists whom they suspected of being Roma with the letter lsquoGrsquo torepresent the English word lsquoGypsyrsquo A CIuml SA representative in London explained thatthe measure allowed those with the lsquoGrsquo to be sent directly to immigration of cers inLondon thereby expediting the immigration process23 But here the representationabroad of Czech actions is incomplete for Czech correspondents stress that theBritish government had requested and insisted upon this measure by internationalcarriers in order to stem asylum applicants from the Czech Republic In response tothe authorrsquos enquiries the British Foreign Of ce and through it the British HomeOf ce con rmed that it had not been involved in any way with the practice

A similar measure although this time with fuller media coverage of Britishinvolvement was instituted on 18 July 2001 Under a bilateral Consular Agreementmade in February 2001 British consular of cials began lsquointerviewingrsquo airline passen-gers to Britain before their embarkation at Praguersquos RuzyneIuml international airport Thelsquosystem of pre-clearancersquo checks conducted even before check-in was explained thusin a statement from the British Embassy in Prague lsquoUnfortunately the continuedsystematic abuse of the UK immigration and asylum system by some Czech citizensmade this unavoidablersquo24 The Czech press noted that lsquowhitersquo Czechs had briefinterviews while others were directed aside for lengthier meetings Within 4 daysabout two dozen Romani passengers were denied ights25 While Romani and humanrights activists declared the measure lsquoracistrsquo and in violation of international law theBritish Embassy defended the measure as lsquonon-discriminatoryrsquo and the BritishEmbassyrsquos statement explained that the passports and travel documents of lsquoallpassengersrsquo would be inspected26

Returning to social perceptions between the Czechs and Roma tension betweenthem must certainly be found in socio-economic differences Unemployment amongthe Roma is not known exactly but was estimated in 1996 at as much as 7027

Human Rights Watch estimated unemployment among Roma in the Czech Republicin 1998 to be 80 and a European Commission report in 1999 suggested Romaniunemployment could be as high as 90 For several years after communism bycontrast the Czech Republic enjoyed the lowest unemployment in Europe hoveringat 27 nationally although some regions have had much greater levels Even whenthe Czech economy faltered in the mid- to late-1990s unemployment crept up to nomore than 7

The socio-economic argument produces an obvious vicious circle Many Roma are

RICK FAWN1198

poorly educated and even illiterate in the Czech language Their ability therefore togain employment is severely and arguably perpetually limited Perceptions may bereinforcing this limitation For example job placement centres are known to be askedby employers not to send Roma for posted openings28 The Czech Ministry of Labourand Social Affairs by contrast asserted that no discrimination towards Roma wasfound in employment of ces29

The Czech refrain is that one can think well of the Roma only until one has anlsquoexperiencersquo of them As one recorded comment summarises lsquothis talk of helpingRoma and of tolerance is nice but you try and live with them for 3 years in the samebuilding I canrsquot sleep because of the racket I am afraid to go into the corridor andthere is not a thing I can dorsquo30 Even if the majority of Roma could be proved to tsuch descriptions this remains an ascription of collective guilt31

To summarise broad social considerations the more the Roma are dispossessed andmarginalised the more they are unable to enter mainstream Czech society the morelikely it is that they will live in relative squalor and resort to crime to supportthemselves The viewpoint of many although not all Czechs remains that Roma havehad opportunities even disproportionate ones under communism to elevate theirsocial standing but have squandered them wholesale Czech perceptions of persistentanti-social Romani behaviour will heighten Czech fears and loathing and the desireto reinforce psychologically and practically the marginalisation of the RomaDegrees of racism may be expected at a popular level in liberal democratic societiesSemi-organised violence by lsquoskinheadsrsquo the second category of relations is notunique to Czech society and unfortunately is also perhaps not surprising

Semi-organised violence

A 1996 report by the State Attorneyrsquos Of ce on racially motivated crimes suggestedthat tension was greatest between skinheads and Roma32 Skinheads are deemed to beresponsible for the majority of violent attacks against Roma of which there have beenover 1500 including nearly 30 deaths between 1990 and 1998 Such semi-organisedviolence is however conducted by small groups and is hardly representative ofCzechs as a whole These types of attacks have become prominent not only for theirracial implications but also for the graphic nature of the attacks Two skinheads werereported for example to have been responsible for the May 2000 beating of a youngRomani couple in the north Moravia town of Orlova while they attempted to protecttheir 4-year-old invalid daughter33

Despite the high pro le of some of these cases the number of skinheads in theCzech Republic is calculated at 3000ndash4000 and though they are thought to belsquoresponsible for the vast majority of racial attacksrsquo they cannot be seen as organisedmeaningfully ideological or fully representative of society Most lsquocannot be con-sidered much more than groups of delinquent youthrsquo34 A June 1995 report of theMinistry of the Interior calculated that 7000 people were members of extremistgroups of which 1500 belonged to the Neofascists 4000 were associated withorganisations called the Patriot Front and 1500 were skinheads The report also notedintensive contacts among these groups including through the use of secret equip-ment35


Although they do appear to be responsible for racially motivated crimes techni-cally they cannot be considered guilty of these because as will be considered belowthe Czech courts have overwhelmingly acquitted skinheads in cases that haveproceeded as far as trial

Skinheads and the far-right are hardly unique to the Czech Republic They arecertainly one aspect of CzechndashRomani relations one that receives particular attentionbecause of the deliberate public image of the skinheads and the viciousness of theirattacks but this is still likely to be only a relatively small feature of the Czech attitudetowards Roma And while proportions are impossible to assign this feature ofrelations goes both ways Roma have also been known to engage in street ghtsWhile such activities are lamentable no signi cant societal problem would exist ifCzechndashRomani relations started and ended with skinheadndashRomani violence Indeedthe overall role and prominence of the skinheads may be small they were evenconsidered socially insigni cant by a leading Czech campaigner for equality36

Additional answers must be sought having considered unof cial Czech societyof cial policies now receive consideration While these have changed over time withrobust policy reports being issued in the later 1990s three possible forms of of cialattitudes can be discerned especially before 1997 of cial neglect deliberate butindirect policies and deliberate and direct policies

Of cial policies

Of cial policies of neglect At one level the government can be accused ofcontributing to the problem through indifference or inaction namely that governmentagencies do little to assist Roma or to mediate in relations between Czechs and Roma

This includes police and judicial responses The government has been criticised byforeign organisations for not ensuring adequate policing of Romani areas and ofpreparing the police for race-related crimes Roma often do not report violencecommitted against them to the Czech police As Bella Edginton of the CivicSolidarity and Tolerance Movement explained this is because Roma lsquoknow theevidence will be used against them The police take their testimony and then chargethe Romanies themselves with a crimersquo37 European Commission reports also notedthat police and court protection for Roma was de cient38 Suggestions are made thatthe skinheads have actually in ltrated the police39 In addition to police simplytending not to enter Romani neighbourhoods two leading commentators observed thatonly in 1998 did the Czech government instruct the Ministry of the Interior to trainCzech police forces in the identi cation of racially motivated crime and to give suchtraining lsquopreferential attentionrsquo40

The Czech police and judiciary seemed for several years to be inactive in dealingwith racially motivated crimes or even biased against Roma including in casesinvolving charges of discrimination against them Cases concerning seeming acts ofracism were dismissed by courts such as those pub-owners barring lsquogypsiesrsquo fromentering their establishments Racist murders also appeared not to be recognised assuch That foreign institutions criticised and prompted Czech governmental changessuggests that there were indeed areas of of cial neglect By 1995 the US Con-gressional report on human rights in the Czech Republic which was generally critical

RICK FAWN1200

of the treatment of Roma observed that Czech courts had become more active inprosecuting attacks against them and that the Czech government was also condemningsuch attacks Similarly from the Czech judicial viewpoint the problem was alreadybeing redressed in the mid-1990s For example the chief state attorney Bohumotilde raKopecIuml na said that the State Attorneyrsquos Of ce handled ve times more raciallymotivated cases in 1995 than 199441 But foreign observers and diplomats stillmaintain in reports in the late 1990s that Czech police and judges either treat racistcrimes leniently or label them as ordinary crimes42

One Romani MP Ladislav Body questioned whether the law would be used andsuggested that even with these penal amendments the police might still deem a racistcrime to be an ordinary one Similarly Rudolf Tancos a Romani member of theCouncil for Nationalities dismissed the need for the laws because of the larger failureof the judicial system to deal with racist crimes lsquoIrsquom convinced that if the laws hadbeen adhered to as they ought to have been it wouldnrsquot have been necessary to callfor tougher penaltiesrsquo43 A similar view was suggested by the OSCE High Commis-sioner for National Minorities who asked in 1995 whether legal amendments draftedby the Czech government would actually be implemented44 Five years later Jan JarIuml abof the Czech governmentrsquos Human Rights Department said that the courts weredealing ineffectively with racially-related crimes and that skinheads accused of suchoffences received lsquoinappropriately benevolentrsquo treatment from prosecutors45 Simi-larly the 2000 report of Human Rights Watch wrote that US Ambassador JohnShattuck lsquocriticised Czech courts for leniently sentencing perpetrators of crimesagainst Romarsquo46 If these assessments of the legal system in dealing with race-relatedissues are fair and correct they present serious risks to the Czech label of liberalism

This is an issue that may gradually change as suggested for example by the 21convictions of skinheads on 14 March 2001 for their attack on a Romani party in aCIuml eske BudeIuml jovice restaurant on 22 November 1999 which caused six light injuries(and much damage to the restaurant)47

Education presented divergent perceptions of what Roma want and need From theCzech perspective Roma have been given educational opportunities but have rejectedthem Romani activists and outside observers contend that little has been provided inthe Czech educational system for the particular needs of Roma48 Children areoverwhelmingly sent to lsquospecial schoolsrsquo often meant to serve not as remedialteaching institutions but as holding pens for the mentally de cient (again Czechoslo-vakia and Bulgaria are particularly prone to this among post-communist states49)Even assuming cultural differences the proportion of Romani children sent to suchlsquospecial schoolsrsquo is stunning In 2001 in the Moravian industrial city of Ostrava forexample Romani children constitute under 5 of the primary school population butover half those in special schools and 75 of all Romani children in the CzechRepublic are sent to such establishments50 Once on such a path the likelihood of aRomani child advancing to secondary school is remote In 1997 US AmbassadorJenone Walker called for the provision of nursery schools for Romani children sayingthat would provide them with the same chance of success in elementary school asother children51 For many Czechs however these criticisms are de cient for notasking whether all Roma would actually embrace the opportunity to be educated

Some improvements have nevertheless occurred In the west Bohemian town of


Rokycany Romani activist OndrIuml ej GinIuml a secured local and national funding for apre-school class to teach Romani children the Czech language before entry intomainstream Czech schools As he put it lsquothe image of the Roma here is bad and itall starts with the education systemrsquo a situation that could be improved withclassroom integration52 Even with some recent moves to change and adapt theeducational system to prepare Romani children for mainstream schools rather than thespecial schools long-term problems remain from the insuf cient numbers of Romaniteachers and the problem of attracting future ones53 An April 2000 report by theOSCErsquos High Commissioner for National Minorities Max van der Stoel found thatthe routing of Romani children into special schools was worst in the CzechRepublic54 Clearly this issue remains a fundamental problem one that requires inputsfrom both Romani activists and various levels of the Czech government

Apart from legal and educational issues the government could have been proactivein the issue of the Lety pig farm This is the site of the World War II concentrationcamp in the Czech lands where thousands of Czech Roma were interned between1939 and 1943 and 327 Roma were killed The camp was closed in 1943 and itsinternees deported to Auschwitz In 1974 the site began operating as an industrial pigfarm When activists tried to have the pig farm closed and the site commemoratedthey met with indifference from local and national of cials The government delayedmaking a decision on the fate of the farm in early 1999 it then considered but rejectedas too costly the up to 700 million crowns required to buy the farm55 Governmentindifference might have mirrored popular sentiments as only 11 of those polledwere willing to dedicate public money to the Lety site although this view may beunsurprising because of the Czech economic downturn In what may be seen byothers as both a belated and frugal decision the Czech government decided on 18May 1999 to allocate 1 million crowns or approximately US$ 25 000 to improve theLety monument While often expressing extreme views the Republican Partyrsquos attackon funding the monument might have found wider resonance As Republican JosefKrejsa declared lsquothe government isnrsquot ashamed to raise prices at the present time butit nds the money to build a monument to gypsies It is simply rudeness and an insultto all white citizens of this statersquo56

Deliberate but indirect policies Romani and international community activists wouldperceive amendments to the Czech Citizenship Law as an of cial policy of deliberatebut indirect marginalisation and discrimination against the Romani minority Insti-tuted with the creation of the new Czech Republic after the break-up of federalCzechoslovakia the provisions for gaining citizenship were widely considered to havebeen aimed at excluding Roma Regardless of the intentions the results are clear thedisenfranchisement of thousands of Roma and their placement in a condition ofstatelessness The number of those thus affected was estimated at 100 000

As one account related lsquothe paper- lled application process which puts the burdenof proof on applicants has often been scrambled by district of cials who knowinglygave Romani applicants false information or simply told them to get lostrsquo Theprocess resulted in leaving Roma who had resided for years even their lifetime in theCzech lands without proof of residence to ensure access to any public services Twohundred Roma in north Moravia were stripped of the citizenship that they had applied

RICK FAWN1202

for and had been granted after they were charged with but not convicted ofcorruption This was in contradiction to Praguersquos pledge to the Council of Europe notto deprive people of their citizenship57 Organisations such as the Council of Europethe Helsinki Citizensrsquo Assembly the Organisation for Security and Cooperation inEurope and the United Nations Human Rights Commission for Refugees all criticisedthe citizenship law The Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe of theUS Congress (known as the Helsinki Committee) said the citizenship law brokeinternational human rights agreements and caused the largest nulli cation of citizen-ship since World War II58

The citizenship law was amended moderately in February 1996 so that applicantswith criminal records received in the past 5 years became eligible to applyNevertheless the Helsinki Committee still referred to the obstacles faced by Roma insecuring Czech citizenship in its report for 1996 which was released at the end ofJanuary 199759

The changes were probably the result of foreign pressuremdashthe amendment origi-nated in the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and its chairman JirIuml otilde Payneexplained that the change was intended to make the Czech citizenship applicationprocess more akin to that of Western Europe60 Limitations of Romani citizenshipwere lifted in July 1999 probably again in response to international pressure As WillGuy observes lsquoalmost 5 years after the controversial citizenship law had beenintroduced the Czech government at last began to admit that international and NGOcondemnation of this law in particular and of its overall inaction in alleviating theplight of Roma might be well foundedrsquo61

Deliberate and direct policies Assessing direct and deliberate policies is dif cult butnecessary This section begins with one political party the Republican which was notin a position of power and then examines a second the Civic Democratic which wasin of ce before assessing some speci c policies undertaken at different governmentallevels

Political manifestations of anti-Romani rhetoric and actions rest largely but notexclusively with the far-right Republican party Unlike the skinheads this is anorganised and recognised political party whose Deputies sat until 1998 in the CzechChamber of Deputies The rhetoric and policies of its leader Miroslav Sladek havebeen openly hostile to the Roma He declared lsquofor Gypsies the age of criminalresponsibility should be from the moment of birth because being born is in fact theirbiggest crimersquo62 He has advocated the deportation of Roma and his party SecretaryJan V otilde k proclaimed in 1996 that Roma lsquomurder rape and rob decent people It is hightime to resolutely stop the raving of these black racists who are acting as parasites tothe detriment of the whole societyrsquo63 Republican Party bigotry extends to practicalmeasures In February 1993 Sladek called on Czech mayors to expel Roma from theirtowns and offered the prize of a car to the most successful He had called for newlegislation granting police special powers to arrest Roma and he equated Roma withthe ma a and crime

Nevertheless even less than the skinheads the number of Republicans activelypersecuting Roma seems small For example about 40 members of the RepublicanYouth marched through predominantly Romani neighbourhoods in the north Mora-


vian town of Karvina on 1 May 2000 and protested against various issues includinglsquoracial murders committed on white victimsrsquo64 The political signi cance of theRepublicans in relation to the Romani issue may also be diminishing For a party sovocal about Roma the Republican Party lost electoral support so that after the 1998election it was unable to meet the 5 electoral threshold of the popular vote to ensurerepresentation in Parliament But while many Czechs have privately voiced the viewthat the loss of Republican support is evidence of a corresponding decrease in popularsupport for anti-Romani policies this does not necessarily provide a correlation

While no other political party has made of cial anti-Romani statements manystatements have been made by members of the Civic Democratic Party (abbreviatedin Czech as ODS) Led by Vaclav Klaus this organisation headed the coalitiongovernment between 1992 and 1997 and its representatives also held numerous localgovernment positions Thus for example ODS Senator ZdeneIuml k Klausner proposedrelocating Roma from out of Prague and the ODS mayor of Ostrava Liana JanacIuml kovaproposed municipal funding for one-way air tickets for Roma who opted to leave forCanada In August 1997 the Executive Committee of the ODS condemned raciallymotivated statements although it did not ask either member to leave the party65 ODSMPs generally did not support the parliamentary resolution that ended the MaticIuml n otildestreet wall (the details of which are discussed below) Some members of the partysought not to have their opposition to the resolution construed as anti-Romanihowever As ODS MP Jaroslav Melichar explained after the parliamentary motionthose who voted against the wall were lsquoparlour defenders of human rightsrsquo who didnot lsquocare for the Romany communityrsquo66 Nevertheless several members of the ODShave been vocal about or taken steps against Roma

While Czech liberalism may arguably be contested at different levels throughoutsociety more questionable must be the action of government authorities After allindividuals in generally liberal societies may engage in racist or discriminatorylanguage or behaviour for of cial bodies to do so is both unusual and unacceptableSpeci c policies aimed against the Roma have been perhaps most evident at themunicipal level Local authorities have banned Roma collectively from municipalswimming pools sometimes on the basis that they carry hepatitis and often with noreason at all67 Several town mayors in addition to those mentioned as members ofODS sought publicly to rid their jurisdiction of Roma often by offering prepaidone-way ights to those willing to leave on condition that they never return

Local policy also resulted in one of the most visible forms of strained CzechndashRo-mani relations This was the May 1998 decision of the NesIuml teIuml mice district council ofthe northern city of Ust otilde nad Labem to build a lsquowallrsquo effectively dividing Roma fromCzechs Taking its name from where the wall was proposed and then erected MaticIuml n otildestreet the incident grew into a domestic political issue and a crisis that drew erceinternational condemnation of the whole of Czech society and polity

Indeed Czechs remain surprised at the attention the lsquowallrsquo received internationallya Czech-language anthology on the issue being subtitled lsquothe most famous street inthe worldrsquo It is important also to distinguish from Western reporting at least somefeatures behind the local reasons for the construction of the lsquowallrsquo Indeed the verylanguage that was adopted in foreign reporting appeared to many Czechs to be unfairrepresentation lsquoZedrsquo or lsquowallrsquo seemed much more sinister and physically substantial

RICK FAWN1204

than the lsquoplotrsquo or lsquofencersquo the town council planned to erect68 It was also apparentlynot meant to pen anyone in (or out) but simply to extend down the length of a streetStill more importantly the area to be affected by the lsquowallrsquo was not strictly inhabitedby Roma but also by rent-defaulting non-Romani Czechs

The motivation for the fence stemmed from local accusations that the residents ofthe four privately-owned houses and apartments along MaticIuml notilde street were unceas-ingly noisy dirty and unnecessarily amassing large quantities of festering garbage inthe street

Whatever the differences in coverage and interpretation of the lsquowallrsquo some localand national governmental responses further surprised international observers Theinitial response of the Czech government was to declare that it would act only onceconstruction of the wall actually began This seemed insuf cient to the UnitedNations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which criticised thePrague government for not acting against what it saw as illegal racial segregation69

Only in May 1999 a year after the MaticIuml notilde proposal was rst introduced did theCzech Cabinet order Ustotilde nad Labem city council head LeosIuml Nergl to take measuresto halt the wallrsquos construction He complied by suspending the council resolution andin August 1999 the city council annulled its earlier decision The construction of thewall began in October 1999 regardless In the early hours of 13 October 1999 ankedby 90 policemen builders began constructing the 2-metre high wall It included threesteel doors that were planned to be locked nightly after 10 pm The attitude of thetown council and local residents included comments that the Roma were free todecorate their side of the wall and that one was abnormal not to nd the structurelsquoprettyrsquo70 The wall was removed after the national government agreed to give thetown council 3 million crowns to ameliorate local social conditions The townaccepted the funds and declared that they would be used in part to purchase theproperties of those in the MaticIuml notilde street area who wished to leave the Romanineighbourhood

Sometimes international criticism was unfounded or misinformed One case ofconcern across the middle of the Czech political spectrum were the comments of theEU Commissioner for Enlargement Gunter Verheugen He called the Ust otilde wall aviolation of human rights and said that the EU would require a solution to the issueBut Foreign Minister Kavan and Czech EU negotiator Pavel TelicIuml ka both determinedthat Verheugen was unaware of the Czech parliamentrsquos resolution halting the wallrsquosconstruction Klaus replied to Verheugenrsquos charges that lsquoI would be very disap-pointed if someone wanted to make an international affairrsquo out of the MaticIuml notilde walland that lsquoWe have said a thousand times that the Czech Republic was building noWall in Ustotilde I would like the EU gentlemen to listen to thisrsquo71 Other Czech of cialresponses were dismissive of and derogatory towards foreign criticism The mayor ofUstotilde not only rejected European Commission President Romano Prodirsquos October 1999condemnation of the wall but also declared lsquoProdi Isnrsquot his rst name Romany Wedonrsquot want to belong to a European Union that makes this wall an obstacle to ourmembershiprsquo72

The incident had further implications involving much of the Czech politicalsystem This too was revealing about the inability to impose restrictions on parts ofthe polity even though other seemingly commanding parts felt racial intolerance was


being practised The resolution of the Chamber of Deputies the lower house of thebicameral Czech parliament rescinding the NesIuml teIuml mice councilrsquos decision to constructthe wall was partially overruled by the Czech Constitutional Court on 12 April 2000This followed a ruling a week before that rejected the ability of parliament to annulmunicipal council decisions The court however did not strike down the sections ofthe resolution condemning the wall as racist73

Eventually one part of the wall was placed in a municipal museum while otherparts were sold to the city zoo which was needing a fence anyway Now it is in useless than a mile from where it was intended While CzechndashRomani relations have thustaken many forms the nal one is what has in popular media and foreign reportsbecome known as the Romani lsquoexodusrsquo

Exodus

The emigration of Roma from the Czech Republic would appear to give an additionalurgency and tenor to the plight of the Roma Whether their decision was purelypolitical is debatable but this international aspect evoked greater attention to thepreviously identi ed characteristics of CzechndashRomani relations

The exodus refers to the departure of rst hundreds then some thousands of Romafrom the Czech Republic to Western countries The situation arose following thebroadcast by the Czech commercial television station TV Nova of the programme lsquoNavlastnotilde ocIuml irsquo (In Your Own Eyes) It depicted Romani families living in Canada andreportingmdashincorrectlymdashthat that country ran a special asylum programme for RomaThereafter approximately 1200 Roma applied for asylum in Canada Once Canadaresponded by imposing visas on Czechs Roma then sought asylum in West Europeancountries particularly Britain and to a lesser extent France and Belgium

While only one family in four was granted asylum in France and most applicationswere rejected in Britain 70 of those applying to Canada were granted asylum bythe end of 1998 which suggests at least that one Western government saw groundsto deem many Roma victims of persecution The response however showed bothpopular and of cial Czech inclinations towards the Roma Local mayors responded byoffering one-way tickets to the Roma if they signed away their property and theirrights to return

The MaticIuml notilde street wall also provoked Romani claims of further ight GinIuml adeclared on 10 October 1999 that if that situation intensi ed lsquowe will have tosurrenderrsquo and lsquoseek the closest safe country and ask for asylumrsquo in Germany Headded that his group had consulted with Romani organisations there and that theywere prepared to help Czech Roma74

What the lsquoexodusrsquo caused was unprecedented Not only did it cast a bad light onthe Czech Republic but it also resulted in a collective censure of all Czechs whenCanada attempting to stem the ood of refugee applicants reapplied visas for allCzechs Initially a Canadian Embassy spokeswoman said that Ottawa considered theCzech Republic to be racist but it moved away from that position One newspapercommentator suggested that the Ust otilde fence would ultimately result in thousands ofCzechs being affected if other countries followed by imposing visas75

The lsquoexodusrsquo also intensi ed the international criticism of the plight and treatment

RICK FAWN1206

of Roma in the Czech Republic that had been issued before the exodus and createddiplomatic dif culties In April 2000 the Belgian Foreign Ministry invited the CzechAmbassador for consultations and told her to lsquodo somethingrsquo about the number ofasylum applicants from her country A Czech Foreign Ministry spokesperson said thatthe number of applicants represented only 1 of asylum seekers in Belgium and thenumbers from Slovakia were much greater76 The Czech Ambassador to Belgiumreplied by mentioning Czech integration policies for Roma and stating that theyapplied to Belgium because it granted generous living allowances while taking a longtime to decide asylum applications She also challenged the utility of the Belgianvisas because of the countryrsquos participation in the Schengen agreement77

The British government responded to the continuing arrival of Romani asylumapplicants from the Czech Republic with a meeting between its ambassador to Pragueand the Czech Interior Minister on enabling British immigration of cials to work outof Prague international airport in order to identify potential asylum seekers amongthose travelling to Britain While they would lack powers to prevent anyone fromboarding the aircraft the proposal was for them to alert counterparts in Britain inadvance of the ightrsquos arrival The programme as mentioned above was imple-mented on 18 July 2001 but stopped on 8 August

As Czech Human Rights Commissioner Petr Uhl explained in May 2000 lsquotheappearance of passengers and whether they look like Romanies will be a weightycriterionrsquo for admitting them into Britain He added that it was lsquounfortunatersquo that theInterior Ministry was undertaking such discussions at all and that the plan for Britishof cials to identify and separate people on foreign soil was a lsquoclear expression ofracial discriminationrsquo British Professor of Romani studies Thomas Acton called theproposed move lsquoracially segregativersquo and said that it would also contravene Britishand international conventions78

Thus the fourth aspect of CzechndashRomani interactions contains wide and unusualinternational implications We now ask how Czech social and governmental responsesto these manifestations of CzechndashRomani relations re ect on Czech perceptions ofliberalism

A liberal response

Discussion throughout this article indicates that parts of Czech government andsociety have of course responded to aspects of Romani relations But part of thecomplexity in CzechndashRomani relations lies in the nature of the governmentrsquosresponse While the local level has aggravated CzechndashRomani relations the nationalgovernment has generally tried to smooth them Indeed the variation in response byof cial circles to the Romani question is revealing about the Czech national characterThis is considered by examining the attitude of various of ces of and personalities ingovernment including President Havel civil society governmental bodies created forthe Roma and other minorities and the Klaus and Zeman governments

Havel

Havel is exceptional as a politician His contribution to the Czechoslovak and Czechpolitical transition has received considerable intellectual discussion While some


suggest that he is in a singular moral position as a dissident writer he has perhapsinevitably been compromised by over a decade of politics His support for Roma inthe Czech Republic is also unusually visible and consistent

Among his activities was the opening of a Romani festival in July 1990 He did thisimmediately after returning from the Salzburg Music Festival where he did what noother statesman was willing to do (with the exception of the leader of TurkishCyprus) meet publicly and shake hands with Austrian Chancellor Kurt WaldheimThis act demonstrated Havelrsquos unusual sense of values While Klaus dismissed orridiculed much of the international criticism of the MaticIuml n otilde street wall Havelrecognised that lsquonot just the town of Usti nad Labem but the whole of the CzechRepublic is identi ed with this symbol of intolerance and discrimination Above allthe wall has a symbolic importancersquo79

Nevertheless important and bene cial to the Romani cause as Havelrsquos stand mightbe it might be worth noting that several post-communist presidents in Central andSoutheastern Europe such as Hungaryrsquos Arpad Goncz and Bulgariarsquos Zhelyu Zhelevhave taken similar stands including criticising their own governments for insuf cientmeasures to assist their Romani minorities80

Czech lsquocivil societyrsquo

Various Czech non-governmental organisations now exist to help the Roma althoughthe mainstream Czech daily newspaper Lidove noviny has written that informationsupplied to it by NGOs has routinely been inaccurate81 Currents within Czech societyindicate some rejection of racial intolerance as indicated by anti-racism marches of10ndash15 000 people held after a Sudanese student was murdered Some people haveproposed boycotting restaurants that ban entry to Roma82 Czech intellectualssometimes in concert with foreign counterparts have made public statements regard-ing certain events For example leading Czech and international cultural gurespublished a letter in December 1998 calling for the closure of the Lety pig farm whichwas also sent to Premier Zeman The letter was signed by 100 Czech and internationalpublic personalities such as Simon Wiesenthal and Gunter Grass It called thecontinued operation of the pig farm a lsquodesecration of a monument to the victims ofthe former concentration camp as well as an insult to humanityrsquo83

Some developments have also occurred in the private sector For example a majorretailer began employing Romani security guards and found that theft thereafterdecreased markedly84

Governmental institutions and parliament

Institutional mechanisms for accommodating at least some Romani concerns exist orhave been created within the Czech polity Of course the existence of such structuresin itself is not suf cient to address problems In March 2000 a bill on minoritieswhich established minority rights to work in the civil service was criticised alongwith the parliamentary subcommittee for ethnic minorities by VavrIuml inec FojcIuml otilde k headof the Association of Ethnic Communities because it had only met once since 199885

RICK FAWN1208

Nevertheless Roma can and do get elected and sit in the parliament Thepost-communist Czechoslovak federal parliament had three Roma and the RomaniCivic Initiative was included in the umbrella coalition that governed after the June1990 elections one Rom serves as a MP in the post-1998 parliament (although shedoes not represent a Romani party) As noted before Romani activists and concernedCzechs alike believe however that Roma need to be more proactive in forming theirown political organisations

Some representation is also enshrined institutionally in other organs Both housesof parliament have subcommittees concerned with minority rights including theRoma The Council of Nationalities was composed of representatives of minorities Itincludes three representatives each from the Slovak and Romani communities twoeach from the German and Polish and one each from the Hungarian and Ukrainianpopulations The Council of Nationalities issued an important report in August 1997criticising the governmentrsquos neglect of the Roma which was approved with negligiblechanges by the government in October 1997 This could be seen as a turning pointin government attitudes to its policy towards the Roma

A further initiative has been the Interministerial Commission for Romani Com-munity Affairs which was established in 1997 following the exodus and which beganwork in early 1998 In December 1998 it was enlarged to comprise 12 governmentmembers and 12 Romani members along with the Commissioner and DeputyCommissioner for Human Rights But despite this membership enlargement thecommission was criticised by the European Commission for being ineffectual It wasalso censured by the ROI which declared in a 7 October 1999 statement that thecommissionrsquos inactivity had contributed to further Romani migration and to allowingthe construction of the Ustotilde fence86

Some initiatives have also been taken at the municipal level which following theMaticIuml n otilde case indicates the importance and relative power of local bodies Prague citycouncillors appointed a City Hall Romani coordinator on 21 March 2000 to deal withRomani education security and potential discrimination against Roma by publicservices Praguersquos deputy mayor explained the measure in terms of the capital city nothaving lsquobig problems with ethnic minoritiesrsquo and that the city was lsquoseeking topreserve communicationrsquo with them87

Educational changes also largely rest with municipalities While created by thecentral government the lsquozero gradersquo programme of a special year before regularschooling to prepare disadvantaged pupils for mainstream education is funded bylocal councils Bilingual CzechndashRomani textbooks have also been introduced inseveral elementary schools But an important indicator of government responseremains at the national government level It can set both the parameters of action andthe ethos and example by which much of society could live

Cabinet and government

The response of Klaus and his government which ruled from the inception of theCzech Republic in 1993 to November 1997 was mixed His initial declarations werethat a Romani problem did not exist88 Like Havel Klaus met with Romanirepresentatives but his statements can generally be viewed only as responses to


glaring cases He seemed to respond strongly after the 1995 murder of Tibor Berkywho was bludgeoned to death in front of his wife and ve children by four youthswho broke into the familyrsquos at Klaus convened a special meeting following themurder and called for a strong response from government ministers the police andstate prosecutors against race-related crimes He asked Justice Minister JirIuml otilde Novak toincrease the sentences He subsequently suggested raising the sentences for raciallymotivated murder from 15 years to life Klaus called the attack lsquothe last strawrsquo89

At other times however Klaus was dismissive of Romani issues particularly whenpresented as criticisms by foreign groups Klausrsquos government responded withindifference or de ance to international criticism of the Citizenship Law To theletter from the US Congressrsquos Helsinki Committee for example Klaus replied that itwas unof cial and undeserving of a reply He added that lsquotens if not hundreds ofletters come to my desk every dayrsquo When the Citizenship law was amended byparliament on 7 February 1996 removing the ban on applicants with criminal recordsKlaus said that the alteration should make gaining Czech citizenship by Roma andSlovaks easier implying that the law did prevent them from doing so previously Asspeaker of the Chamber of Deputies a position secured after resigning as PrimeMinister in November 199790 Klaus was de ant about criticism over the lsquowallrsquo Hedeclared lsquoI see walls in Northern Ireland which are far greater in signi cance thanthat in Maticni Street and no one threatens to expel Britain from the EUrsquo91

While Prime Minister Zeman who has headed the Czech government sincesummer 1998 can also be criticised over the handling of the MaticIuml n otilde wall he didmeet personally with Romani representatives over the issue and his cabinet re-sponded by declaring that it would take lsquoevery legal measurersquo to prevent the wallrsquosconstruction But ODS Deputy Chairman Ivan Langer still said that people were lsquorightto enact private initiativesrsquo This last statement demonstrates the divided attitude evenwithin the elite to which we shall return The cabinetrsquos proposed legislation forcingthe town council to rescind its decision to build the wall illustrated that the Zemangovernment differed from its centre-right predecessor Some 100 of 174 MPs presentvoted on 13 October 1999mdash2 hours after the wall had been completedmdashto overturnthe municipal decision to construct it 58 MPs voted against Even with thisparliamentary vote the matter remained undecided in practical terms The Ust otilde towncouncil claimed it would take the issue to the Czech Constitutional Court And evenafter the parliamentary motion Foreign Minister and CIuml SSD member Jan Kavan saidin Helsinki that the wall would lsquoeventuallyrsquo be removed He commented lsquoI am fairlyconvinced that whatever legal steps are taken the solution will be the removal of thewallrsquo92

Zemanrsquos response to continued British concern over the arrival of Roma from theCzech Republic in Britain might also be considered more positive and workable thanthat by Klaus Zeman called a September 1999 letter from British Prime MinisterTony Blair a lsquofriendly warningrsquo and said that he had answered his British counterpartby detailing responses by his government to the issue93

In response to the citizenship issue Zemanrsquos cabinet submitted a bill to parliamentin February 1999 that would permit former Czechoslovak citizens living in the CzechRepublic since 1993 to claim citizenship on the basis of a declaration This simpli edprocess was deliberately aimed at assisting the 10ndash20 000 Roma still believed to be

RICK FAWN1210

without citizenship as a result of the earlier law The changed practice was rati ed bythe Czech parliament on 23 September 1999 While an important development inremedying the citizenship question the new law does not make provision for thosewho were outside the country for extended periods during the existence of the CzechRepublic and this might affect Roma who sought asylum abroad

In general approaches to Romani affairs Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Rychetskylaunched a proposal entitled lsquoRomanies and Human Rightsrsquo as part of the lsquoKhamoro2000rsquo Romani cultural festival held in Prague in May 2000 It planned to ameliorateRomani housing improve education and reduce unemployment He also spoke aboutthe need to preserve Romani identity stating that lsquothe linguistic and culturalldquoCzechisationrdquo of Roma has deprived us of the contributions of one of the oldestEuropean minoritiesrsquo94

But media and popular views were often that even the Zeman government was notresponding suf ciently and appropriately to external criticism An editorial thatdeemed the EUrsquos annual assessment of the Czech Republicrsquos accession eligibilitylsquokindrsquo nevertheless still called Czech politicians unfair partners for the representativesof the citizens of the EU95

This overview of the of cial Czech responses to the Roma is mixed It suggests thatthose with power to address at least some of the issues in CzechndashRomani relationshave not always attempted to do so This is not to say that all the matters includingsocial perceptions and social realities can easily or ever be resolved Nor is it to saythat governmental attitudes have remained unchanged as witnessed by the commis-sioning and acceptance of governmental reports in the later 1990s on the situation ofthe Romani minority Many of the categories of policy still indicate an of cialexacerbation of tensions or at least indifference or inaction Such an assessmentfurther challenges the reputation of Czech liberalism and tolerance We now turn tosome possible explanations for the divergence between Czech political ethos andmajorityndashRomani relations

Explanations

This article began by acknowledging that the general Czech response and attitudetowards the Roma are similar to those elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe andalso in Western Europe Indeed as the Czech press keenly reported OSCE HighCommissioner for Ethnic Minorities Max van der Stoel said in 1995 that the violencetowards Roma in the Czech Republic was analogous to what was happeningelsewhere in Europe96 But the article has also sought to outline how CzechndashRomanirelations have produced developments thatmdashto outside observersmdashare depicted asunprecedented among the very dif cult majorityndashRomani relations throughout Centraland Eastern Europe

Regardless of any similar manifestations in relations between Roma and majoritynations relations between any majority and an apparently dissatis ed or even abusedminority need categorisation and assessment This is particularly true to the extentthat a distinct Czech political ethos of tolerance and liberalism is said to exist Thissection brie y considers reasons for the Czech response from historical and politicalperspectives


Czech legacy

Once decidely multi-ethnic in composition since 1948 the territory that now com-prises the Czech Republic has become overwhelmingly Czech After World War IIfollowing the mass expulsion of three million ethnic Germans predominantly fromthe Czech lands the percentage of Czechs and Slovaks in the Czech Lands climbedfrom 64 in 1921 to 94 in 195097 By the 1990s the population that was lsquoCzechrsquoexceeded 94 with even fewer people declaring themselves anything other thanCzech This included some Slovaks long resident in the Czech lands often asPrague-based federal employees In the post-1992 Czech Republic Slovaks constitutethe largest minority at 3 of the population Even these who identi ed themselvesas Slovaks have probably assimilated or intermarried for those who have not thesmall cultural and linguistic differences seem not to pose serious problems Andagain these are largely Slovaks who adopted Czech citizenship after 1993 many ofwhom lived in the Czech lands for years having worked for the federal bureaucracyThey tend to consider themselves Czech and are largely accepted by their co-nation-als as such98 Increasingly with the end after 1992 of bilingual radio and televisionprogramming and the inclusion of Slovak literature and poetry on the Czech schoolcurriculum both Czechs and children of Slovaks are losing their comprehension anduse of the Slovak language

In addition to ethnic homogeneity the Czech Republic can also be seento be engaging in nation building and this process may not accommodate non-Czechs While often seen as the dominant nationality in interwar Czechoslovakiathe Czechs nevertheless have had little opportunity to develop a Czech identityand effectively none to develop a Czech political state99 Some autonomy wasgranted under the federalisation of the country that was allowed to continue afterthe Prague Spring For Czechs this was a mixed legacy one that suggested thatSlovaks gained much more from the salvaged constitutional reforms of 1968The opportunity to engage in nation and state building after 1993 howevercertainly created the circumstances in which a new Citizenship Law could be writtenAn exclusive de nition of Czech lsquonationhoodrsquo would also be necessary to arguethat the law was intended to delimit citizenship along ethnic rather than civiclines

Czech-born anthropologist Ladislav Holy considered Czechs to have an exclusiveview of Czech national identity According to him Czechs de ne nationality bycertain criteria that include being born in the Czech lands and speaking Czech asonersquos mother tongue But these two criteria are insuf cient As Holy writes lsquomost[Czechs] are of the opinion that having been born in the Czech lands and speakingCzech is not enoughrsquo100 One must have lsquoCzech parentsrsquo and this tautological processensures that Czech-born and Czech-speaking Romani can never be consideredCzechs Some Czech observers note that racism is an ideal of a homogeneoussociety101 If Czechs are engaged in nation and state building then racism towardstheir largest visible minority seems likely not least when combined with Holyrsquosassessment of the exclusive Czech view of Czech identity

It may be that the Czechs engage in selective racism Foreign of cials haverecounted the story of an IMF representative from India who mistaken for a Romani

RICK FAWN1212

was attacked When he managed to explain that he was from the Asian subcontinenthis Czech assailants picked him up dusted him off and took him to the pub102

But lsquoselective racismrsquo is not a likely or comprehensive explanation and unsatisfac-tory to the Roma A Romani representative said that lsquo80 of the whites [in the CzechRepublic] are racistrsquo103 A representative of the Czech NGO Nadace Nova SIuml kola saidlsquothere is bias in the treatment of Roma in every sphere of life in the Czech Republicfrom the top government of cials all the way down to the owner of the villagepubrsquo104 Czech newspaper commentaries write that lsquothe image of the Gypsy [sic] oreven the Arab Turk or Indian who has no desire to work and indecently takesadvantage of ldquoourrdquo social cushions is of course nothing new in Europersquo105 The PragueDocumentation Centre for Human Rights calculates that a racially or ideologicallymotivated incident happens in the Czech Republic every other day106 The murder ofa Sudanese student the attack on the son of an Arab diplomat or the numerousassaults on non-white foreign visitors indicate that Roma while perhaps detested byaverage Czechs are not alone in receiving verbal and physical abuse

If general intolerance is at the root and Roma tend only to be the most availableand numerous recipients then the political isolation of an otherwise monoculturalCzech society becomes a relevant consideration Despite the political and economicexperimentation under communism political views have not fully modernised theright-wing party as elsewhere in the region did not have the opportunity of the past40 years to moderate its positions and seek more central political ground This ispartly the Czech communist legacy a speci c part of that legacy is how the Czechoutlook on the Roma was shaped

Czechoslovak communist legacy

Not only had the Czech lands become relatively homogeneous by 1950 but thecountry was also isolated under communism The treatment of Roma under commu-nism could have reinforced negative popular perceptions twice over First the Romawere seen as bene ting from society while the condition of Czechs was deterioratingIn the early years of Czechoslovak communist rule Roma were moved from Slovakiato the Sudetenland to occupy the homes of expelled Germans

In the popular book and lm SkrIumlivancotilde na niti (made in 1969 but banned thereafter)contrasts are drawn between the condition of Czechs and Roma Average Czechs areincarcerated in a labour camp and suffer at the hands of Czech communists Czechcommunist of cials spend their leisure time bathing Romani children In the co-edcamp two Czech prisoners decide to wed but are unable to consummate their marriagebecause the groom is forcibly removed by guards as punishment for a trivialindiscretion Meanwhile a Czech prison guard from the camp marries a Romaniwoman she is depicted as unable to adapt to living in a at engaging in pastoralRomani practice including starting a camp re in the at and throwing what wouldappear to urban Czechs as a wild destructive party for her Romani family andfriends107

Thus under communism Czechs could develop or continue to develop negativeviews of Roma views heightened by the sense of communist favouritism towardsRoma and injustice towards Czechs But the average Czech would be unaware of the


measures taken against Roma by the communist regime such as the forced sterilis-ation of Roma women108

And while the communist regime propounded equality it nevertheless undertookmeasures to erase even criminalise Romani lifestyle Furthermore some Czechsociological studies suggested that lsquothe latent racism covertly encouraged by thecommunist regime took on in November 1989 new and open formsrsquo of which themost evident was from skinheads109

The communist-era legacy extends further to the limitations of post-communistorganisation of Czech Roma The Czechoslovak regime along with its Bulgariancounterpart can be seen as the most consistently repressive among East Europeancommunist governments towards its Roma and where they have been lsquomost compre-hensively uprooted from their traditional culturersquo110 Whereas in Poland or HungaryRomani organisations were permitted or even encouraged Czechoslovakia adopted adeliberate policy of atomising Romani society and associations The Czechoslovakregime also extended particular discrimination among its minorities considering thatit accorded rights to its Hungarian minority while the Bulgarian regime is viewed ashaving been equally discriminatory against its Turkish and its Roma population111

Czech sociologists have claimed that the wider implications of the lsquoaversionrsquo to Romaand other minorities lsquocan be easily transformed into an aversion against homelesspeople drug addicts the mentally handicapped or the long-term unemployedrsquo112 Hasthe post-communist transition contributed speci cally to Czech attitudes towards theRoma

Post-communism and transition

The Czechs have undertaken several policies that demonstrate ambiguous liberaltendencies particularly ones that invoke collective guilt These include the restitutionof property con scated under communist rule the lsquolustrationrsquo act that arguablyimposed collective guilt on a whole cadre of communist-era of cials and bureaucratsand barred them for rst 5 and then a further 5 years from posts in governmentmedia military and education and relations with the Sudeten Germans over theircollective expulsion after World War II

Relations with the Roma could be placed in a similar context but other factors arerelevant as well Some Czech commentators while acknowledging that racism hasalways been present in society give it greater play during times of socio-economicdif culty113 The undertone of the British television documentary lsquoGypsies Trampsand Thievesrsquo was that the Czechs are discharging their frustrations from the post-com-munist socio-economic transition on the Roma114 And as was discussed earlier onsocietal relations post-communist transitional problems inevitably aggravate RomandashCzech relations The large size of Romani families incline Czechs for example tothink that Roma are receiving disproportionately great governmental assistance eventhough Romani kindergartens were among the rst social services to be cut asgovernmental expenditure came under strain in the early 1990s115 While socio-econ-omic changes may exacerbate existing tensions they cannot account for everythingRather a 1994 assessment drew wider lessons from the Czech experience Writtenwhen the Czech economic transformation was at its most successful it contended that

RICK FAWN1214

the situation in the Czech Republic lsquoillustrates that racism and racist violence are notnecessarily related to economic performancersquo116

It is likely that both the features distinct to Czech historical development and theimpact of the post-communist transition are mutually reinforcing The standarddictionary de nition of the Roma illustrates this The 1952 Dictionary of the CzechLanguage de ned lsquogypsyrsquo as a lsquomember of a wandering nation a symbol ofmendacity theft wandering jokers liars imposters cheatersrsquo This was a de nitionas Josef Kalvoda observed that was issued just 2 years after the Czechoslovakcommunist regime outlawed any discrimination based on colour117

These may be relevant but another issue is also central both to an explanation ofCzechndashRomani relations and to the speci c paradox of Czech liberalism This is therole and nature of the Czech elite

Elite divisions and divisions between elite and masses

The previous discussion of of cial Czech responses to Romani issues has alreadyindicated an important trend that some Czech public of ce-holders are highlysympathetic toward the Romani situation while others are indifferent and still othersintend to exacerbate it

President Havel typi es the rst elite outlook To be certain he has undertakenmeasures of exceptional conciliation He was also aware of moral decay in post-com-munist society His New Year speeches came to carry great political signi cance forthe country (and wider philosophical value being translated and published innumerous august Western intellectual publications) In his rst and second New Yearaddresses he noted the degree of moral rot in Czechoslovak society He was able tocriticise (albeit perhaps illiberally attributing collective guilt) society includinghimself for moral fallibility In his 9 December 1997 State of the Nation address toa joint session of parliament he said culture had to be measured not by the visit ofrock stars to the Czech Republic or the display of wares by prominent fashiondesigners Rather he said it was what skinheads chanted in a pub how many Romawere lynched or killed or the appalling behaviour of some of lsquoour peoplersquo to otherson the basis of the colour of their skin Later in the speech he also rejected identityas being determined by genes or blood118

Havelrsquos behaviour and attitude towards the Roma is atypical among Czechpoliticians One striking example was the presidential pardon he issued to two Romawho attacked right-wing leader Sladek It is dif cult to imagine any other Czechleader doing so and in fact none endorsed Havelrsquos action Other Czech public gureshave also taken positive stands towards improving CzechndashRomani relations Stillother mainstream Czech politicians as we have seen have been indifferent or hostileto the Roma

Another related factor may be a perception that the nature and quality of politicalleadership has declined since 1992 By illustration Jan Rusenko a representative ofthe Romani Civic Initiative explained that only members of Civic Forum theEvangelical Church and students were responsive to the Roma following the rstpost-communist skinhead attacks119 The broad-based umbrella grouping of CivicForum that led the 1989 revolution had disintegrated by 1991 under pressure from


some members led by Klaus for a hardline approach to market reforms The formerdissident Eva KantuEcirc rkova wrote that after the June 1992 elections a poorer quality ofpeople came to power including entrepreneurs who were aggressive and immoral120

This assessment might explain how some politicians particularly in the nationalcentre rather than the municipalities can be openly hostile towards the Romanicommunity This is in addition to what can be seen as the prevalence of Klausrsquos ethosstated bluntly that Czechs should enrich themselves by implication a generalcommitment to morals took second place The section on varying governmentalresponses above may also indicate the particular indifference of the Klaus governmentto domestic and especially international criticism of its policies towards the Roma

Conclusion

The sources of relations between Roma and Czechs are deeply rooted and related toand reinforced by the vicious circle of cultural distinctiveness marginalisation fromsociety and societal non-conformity While Roma may argue they have been giveninsuf cient means and opportunity to integrate into Czech society many Czechsargue that the Roma have been unwilling and unable to do so Various Czechconcerns should be acknowledgedmdashfor example the non-maintenance of standards ofsocial health and welfaremdashand Romani leaders themselves concede a high incidenceof crime among their population Furthermore as this article has noted the socialmanifestations described here in majorityndashRomani relations are demonstrated else-where in Central and Eastern Europe and the aversions that many Czechs show toRoma are evident in Western Europe as well Indeed West European governmentshave seemingly contradictory attitudes to the Roma while the Czech Republic hasbeen rebuked for its apparent mistreatment of the Roma and even accused ofinstitutionalised racism European governments have rejected Romani claims forasylum

However several features make CzechndashRomani relations more singular thanelsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe This includes a perception within at leastsome Czech and many Western circles of the Czechs being tolerant liberal anddemocratic Indeed Czech society and polity were hailed after 1989 as almost aparagon of liberal virtue in the post-communist world Against this political legacystand the strained relations between Czechs and Roma the citizenship law theMaticIuml n otilde Street wall the Lety pig farm and the rst and largest lsquoexodusrsquo of Roma

The international consequences of these developments have potentially been greaterfor the Czech Republic than elsewhere including explicit and consistent criticismfrom a range of international governmental and non-governmental organisations andthe use of superlatives regarding the Romani situation in the country The practicalinternational consequences have also been distinguished including plans for the traveldocuments of suspected Roma to be marked at Prague airport to facilitate immigrationchecks in the destination country (the UK) and negotiations between the British andCzech governments to allow the former to screen visitors to the UK before theychecked in at Prague airport a measure practiced in July and August 2001

If indeed Czech liberalism is placed in contrast to CzechndashRomani relations thisparadox may in part be explained by Ladislav Holyrsquos distinction of the lsquolittlersquo and thelsquogreatrsquo Czech nation the former representing petty circumscribed parochial thinking

RICK FAWN1216

the latter being the grand humanist and universalist aims that have punctuated Czechphilosophy and history throughout centuries The paradox may also in part berationalised through divides in the population especially a liberal intellectual popu-lation divided from the less liberal masses a feature arguably heightened by the exitfrom political life of certain personalities after 1992 and the subsequent accentuationof other values These individuals may perhaps be acting because of the posts theyhold which would suggest that changes to judicial institutional and bureaucraticpractices in themselves can and will result in ameliorated practice towards the RomaThus as with Havel individual political personalities are attempting to make positivechanges However ultimately contextualised Czech relations with Roma will continueto be deeply vexing for domestic Czech affairs and for the international reputation ofthe Czechs and the Czech Republic

University of St Andrews

Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities ofScotland The author wishes to thank those who gave comments often off the record for this study WillGuy kindly agreed to provide an advance copy of his excellent forthcoming chapter lsquoAnother FalseDawnmdashThe Roma of the Czech Republic and Slovakiarsquo as this article went to press Particular thanksare owed to Jan CIuml ulotilde k for his extremely perceptive and helpful comments but neither of them bearsresponsibility for its contents

1 Different spellings and terminology are used in English for the Romani people The articleemploys lsquoRomrsquo when referring to a single person lsquoRomarsquo for the group and lsquoRomanirsquo as an adjective

2 Some Czech commentators insist that such Western thinking about Czech lsquoliberalism andtolerancersquo is misguided including one of the specialist reviewers of this article Features of recent Czechpolitics have come under increasing criticism such as the lsquoVelvet Corruptionrsquo depicted in the penultimatechapter of Aviezer Tucker The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from PatocIumlka to Havel(Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press 2000) Societies and polities differ from ideals and this isconsidered in Rick Fawn The Czech Republic A Nation of Velvet (Amsterdam and Reading HarwoodAcademic Publishers 2000) A senior Czech of cial said that the views of the book were much moreoptimistic than his

3 Czech Prime Minister MilosIuml Zeman admitted this for example during a state visit to Latvia CIuml TK1 November 1999

4 Rob McRae Resistance and Revolution Vaclav Havelrsquos Czechoslovakia (Ottawa CarletonUniversity Press 1997) p 321

5 Sharon L Wolchik lsquoThe Czech Republic and Slovakiarsquo in Zoltan Barany amp Ivan Volgyes (eds)The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe (Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 1994) p169 For the comparative public opinion she cites lsquoAttitudes toward Jews in Poland Hungary andCzechoslovakia A Comparative Surveyrsquo American Jewish Committee and Freedom House January1991

6 Lidove noviny 3 February 19957 Zemedelske noviny 10 July 1995 see also Fedor Gal O jinakosti (Prague G plus G 1998)8 Jack Snyder From Voting to Violence (New York WW Norton 2000) p 73 also citing the then

forthcoming book by John K Glenn now published as Framing Democracy Civil Society and CivicMovements in Eastern Europe (Stanford Stanford University Press 2001)

9 Estimating the number of Roma has always been dif cult for social and political reasons in thepost-communist era governments potentially have an interest in underestimating numbers and Romaniorganisations the opposite

10 The Economist 11 September 1999 p 59 For an assessment of the dif culties of establishingexact numbers for the Roma especially in the early period of post-communism see Andre LiebichlsquoMinorities in Eastern Europe Obstacles to Reliable Countrsquo RFERL Research Report 1 20 15 May1992 pp 32ndash39

11 Cited in Isabel Fonseca Bury Me Standing The Gypsies and Their Journey (London Chatto ampWindus 1995) p 293 On p 14 she gives the full phrase as lsquothe Gypsies are a litmus test not of democracybut of a civil societyrsquo


12 Linda Grant lsquoIn the Ghettorsquo The Guardian Weekend 25 July 1998 p 1713 As is discussed elsewhere gures from various sources place unemployment among Czech Roma

at as high as 80 or 9014 This is not to suggest that every member of a nation can be said to hold the same view although

these opinions were frequently and clearly articulated and none wished to have a name recorded Theseextreme views including reference to biological criminality have been made by the far-rightRepublicans This is discussed below

15 Mlada fronta Dnes 7 February 199816 Report on the Situation of the Romani Community in the Czech Republic and Government

Measures Assisting its Integration in Society 1997b Section I p 17 amended quotation from Will GuylsquoAnother False Dawn The Roma of the Czech Republic and Slovakiarsquo in Will Guy (ed) Between Pastand Future The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe (Hat eld University of Hertfordshire Press2001)

17 See CIuml eske Slovo 12 April 200018 Petr JanysIuml ka lsquoMensIuml ina a veIuml tsIuml inarsquo Respekt 1 6 January 199219 Czech Helsinki Committee Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic in 1995

January 1996 p 3720 A pub owner convicted of refusing to serve Roma was subsequently acquitted for lack of evidence

establishing a pattern of discrimination Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 Czech Republichttphrworg hrwworldreport99 europeczechhtml

21 Czech Helsinki Committee Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic in 1995January 1996 p 37

22 Fonseca Bury Me Standing p 14523 CIuml TK 18 October 1999 and RFERL Newsline 19 October 199924 Statement from the British Embassy entitled lsquoPre-Clearance Checks at Prague Airportrsquo 17 July

200125 See Mlada fronta Dnes 20 July 2001 and Petra Breyerova lsquoCzech Republic Donrsquot Get on That

Planersquo Transitions-on-Line 17ndash23 July 2001 httpwwwtolczweekhtml26 Kate Swoger lsquoBritain Screens Travelersrsquo The Prague Post 25 July 200127 Lidove noviny 8 March 1996 citing Czech non-governmental organisations28 United States Department of State Human Rights Report The Czech Republic 1999 p 2129 Reported in Mlada fronta Dnes 24 May 199730 This thinking is routinely expressed by Czechs of all ages educations and professions The

quotation is cited in Jaroslav Spurny lsquoHadka u vystavisIuml teIuml rsquo Respekt 42 21 October 199131 Some Roma have assimilated including taking on routine work and in these cases seem to be

accepted by workmates32 Mlada fronta Dnes 23 March 199633 Nova Television 4 May 2000 see also BBC Monitoring httpwwwcentraleuropecom

featuresphp3id 5 15720034 Political Extremism and the Threat to Democracy in Europe (London Institute of Jewish Affairs

for CERA 1994) p 1935 Lidove noviny 12 June 199536 Fedor Gal in ZemeIumldeIumllske noviny 10 July 199537 Randall Lyman lsquoMixed Reviews A Human Rights Report on the Czech Republicrsquo Prognosis

7 December 199438 See Czech media commentary in CIuml TK 13 October 199939 Grant lsquoIn the Ghettorsquo p 1940 Stanislav Penc amp Jan Urban lsquoExtremist Acts Galvanize Roma Populationrsquo Transitions 5 7 July

1998 p 3941 Mlada fronta Dnes 23 March 199642 See the summary in Human Rights Watch Report Czech Republic Human Rights Developments

(1999) httpwwwhrworghrwwr2kEca-08htm43 Kathleen Knox lsquoGovernment Steps Up Fight Against Hate Crimersquo The Prague Post 11 July

199544 Re ex 25 August 199545 Stated on Romani affairs programme lsquoO Roma Vakerenrsquo 21 April 2000 Czech Radio BBC

Monitoring transcription46 Human Rights Watch Human Rights Developments Czech Republic httpwwwhrw

organization hrwwr2kEca-08htm47 CIuml TK 14 March 2001 This is not to say that Romani activists felt the sentences were suf cient

Said one lsquoI cannot blame the judge But given the great social threat which the behaviour of the accusedskinheads represents the sentences could have been tougherrsquo

RICK FAWN1218

48 See the overview and categorisation of Romani educational provision in Jaroslav Balv otilde nlsquoVychova a vzdeIuml lavan otilde RomuEcirc rsquo Listy 1996 3 pp 68ndash73

49 Fonseca Bury Me Standing p 16350 Human Rights Watch World Report httpwwwhrworg wr2k1europeczechhtml51 CIuml TK 20 May 199752 Bella Edginton lsquoFor the Czech Republicrsquos Gypsies discrimination starts at school Now that

might be about to changersquo httpwwwvsoorganizationuk pubs orbit67closeuphtm53 Balvotilde n lsquoVychova a vzdeIuml lavan otilde RomuEcirc rsquo p 7254 Van der Stoelrsquos senior assistant Walter Kemp said of the 2000 report lsquoI think itrsquos fair to say that

the problem is most pronounced in the Czech Republic and this is something thatrsquos brought out in thehigh commissionerrsquos report He actually was scathing in his criticism of the so-called ldquospecial schoolsrdquoand strongly suggested that they be phased out as soon as possiblersquo Cited in Roland Eggleston lsquoOSCEReport Details Discrimination Against Romarsquo RFERL special report 18 April 2000

55 Mlada fronta Dnes 11 May 199956 httpwwwromovecz romovejan98html57 Randall Lyman lsquoMixed Reviews A Human Rights Report on the Czech Republicrsquo Prognosis

7 December 199458 Ibid59 For the view of Czech sociologists on the citizenship law see JirIuml ina SIuml iklova amp Marta Milusakova

lsquoDenying Citizenship to the Czech Romarsquo East European Constitutional Review 7 2 Spring 199860 Emma McClune lsquoGovernment Moves to Change ldquoRacistrdquo Lawrsquo The Prague Post 20 February

199661 Guy lsquoAnother False Dawn The Roma of the Czech Republic and Slovakiarsquo62 Cited in lsquoCzech Republican Party Chairman Miroslav Sladek spews anti-Roma racismrsquo (report

of Parliamentary session of 25 July) Carolina (electronic newsletter of Charles University students)212 2 August 1996 in ibid

63 CIuml TK 9 January 199664 CIuml TK 1 May 200065 Pravo 18 August 1997 and RFERL Newsline No 98 19 August 199766 Statement cited on CIuml TK 13 October 199967 For an article discussing the banning of lsquoblacksrsquo the Czech slang for Roma see Martin Kontra

amp JindrIuml ich SIuml otilde dlo lsquoCikanuEcirc m vstup zakazanrsquo Respekt 33 15 August 199468 See FrantisIuml ek RocIuml ekrsquos important and useful Zedrsquo MaticIumlnotildemdashdokument o nejslavneIumljsIumlotilde ulicIumlce sveIumlta

(Ustotilde nad Labem Muzeum meIuml sta Ust otilde nad Labem 1999)69 See also the press release of the European Roma Rights Centre 14 October 199970 See the comments in Kate Connolly lsquoConcrete and steel to wall in Gypsiesrsquo The Guardian 16

October 199971 CIuml TK 1825 GMT 14 October 199972 Pavel TosIuml ovsky cited in The Times 20 October 199973 See the summary in RFERL Newsline 4 74 Part II 13 April 200074 CIuml TK 10 October 199975 Zemske noviny 14 October 199976 CIuml TK 11 April 200077 CIuml TK 10 April 200078 CIuml TK 19 May 200079 Cited in Michael Thurston lsquoUnblushing Locals Want Czech ldquoWall of Shamerdquo Strengthenedrsquo

Agence Press France 18 October 199980 See Zoltan Barany lsquoLiving on the Edge The East European Roma in Postcommunist Politics

and Societiesrsquo Slavic Review 53 2 Summer 1994 p 33681 Lidove noviny 8 March 199682 Kontra amp SIuml otilde dlo lsquoCikanuEcirc m vstup zakazanrsquo83 RFERL 4 December 199884 The Economist 11 September 1999 p 5985 CIuml TK 24 March 2000 1903 GMT86 The ROI statement was given to CIuml TK and its contents broadcast at 1939 GMT on 7 October

1999 Government Human Rights Commissioner Petr Uhl called the claims unfounded87 CIuml TK 21 March 2000 1947 GMT88 See Gal O jinakosti pp 79 and 8189 Kathleen Knox lsquoKlaus Terms Brutal Murder of Romany the ldquoLast Strawrdquo rsquo The Prague Post

30 May 199590 This was part of the lsquoopposition agreementrsquo struck between Zeman and Klaus after the June 1998


elections whereby the latter agreed that his party would not vote against and thus defeat the minoritySocial Democrat government in return for which Klaus became Chairman of the Chamber of Deputiesthe equivalent of Speaker

91 Connolly lsquoConcrete and steel to wall in Gypsiesrsquo92 The Guardian 19 October 199993 CIuml TK 24 September 199994 Cited on CIuml TK 16 May 2000 1210 GMT95 See Martin Komarek in Mlada fronta Dnes 14 October 199996 Re ex 25 August 1995 See however note 37 above which cites van der Stoelrsquos report of 2000

calling the Czech Republicrsquos special schools the worst of the region97 Carol Skalnik Leff National Con ict in Czechoslovakia 1918ndash1987 (Princeton Princeton

University Press 1988) p 9398 See JirIuml otilde Pehe lsquoSlovaks in the Czech Republic A New Minorityrsquo RFERL Research Report 4

June 1993 pp 59ndash6299 It may be argued as Leff does that the expulsion of Sudeten Germans was lsquoa spasm of postwar

Czech nationalismrsquo see Carol Skalnik Leff lsquoCzech and Slovak Nationalism in the Twentieth Centuryrsquoin Peter F Sugar (ed) Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Washington TheAmerican University Press 1995) p 142 This might therefore be construed as one example ofnation-state building within the Czech lands

100 Ladislav Holy The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation (Cambridge Cambridge UniversityPress 1996) p 64

101 See Josef Vohryzek lsquoAnatomie rasismursquo Respekt 11 15 March 1993102 Recounted privately by two foreign diplomats103 Comment by Petr Horvath head of the Moravian Romani Community at the time of the

construction of the MaticIuml n otilde street divider CIuml TK 14 October 1999 1139 GMT104 Quoted in Tibor Papp Who is In Who is Out Citizenship Nationhood Democracy and

European Integration in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Florence EUI Working Paper No 9913)p 14

105 See the commentary by Marek SIuml vehla on an IVVM poll lsquoMezi nami obcIuml anyrsquo Respekt 25 March1996 although he writes that it is not simple to make such statements and that conducting a public opinionpoll provides the venue for so doing

106 Penc amp Urban lsquoExtremist Acts Galvanize Roma Populationrsquo p 39107 Reference to the lm is given as a further suggestion as to how Czechs might have perceived

a tremendous contrast between communist treatment of them and the Roma Bohumil Hrabal authorof the novel on which the lm was based also wrote the novella ProtildelisIuml hlucIumlna samota (Too Loud aSolitude) whose herorsquos love a Romani woman dies in a concentration camp

108 For an account of non-consensual sterilisation of Romani women see Paul Hockenos Free toHate The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe (London and New York Routledge1993) p 220

109 Renata Weinerova RomaniesmdashIn Search of Lost Security (An Ethnological Probe in Prague5) (Prague Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic No 3 1994) p5

110 Fonseca Bury Me Standing p 113111 See the comparative analysis made in Zoltan Barany lsquoPolitics and the Roma in State-Socialist

Eastern Europersquo Communist and Post-Communist Studies 33 4 2000 pp 421ndash437 esp at pp428ndash429

112 Petr MaresIuml Libor Musil amp Ladislav RabusIuml ic lsquoValues and the Welfare State in Czechoslovakiarsquo in Christopher Bryant amp Edmund Mokrzycki (eds) The New Great Transformation (London and NewYork Routledge 1995) p 91

113 See the commentary by Fedor Gal in Zemedelske noviny 10 July 1995114 For a commentary on the documentary see Jan CIuml ul otilde k lsquoIf you prick us do we not bleedrsquo Central

Europe Review 2 4 31 January 2000 httpwwwce-review org004culik4_documenthtml115 Edgington lsquoFor the Czech Republicrsquos Gypsiesrsquo116 Political Extremism and the Threat to Democracy in Europe (London Institute of Jewish Affairs

for CERA 1994) p 19117 Cited in Josef Kalvoda lsquoThe Gypsies of Czechoslovakiarsquo Nationalities Papers 19 3 1991 p

269118 Projev prezidenta republiky Vaclava Havla k obema komoram Parlamentu CIuml eske republiky 9

prosince 1997 Prague 9 December 1997119 lsquoAbychom se museli stydeIuml trsquo Respket 11 23 May 1990120 Eva KantuEcirc rkova Pamatnotildek (Prague CIuml esky spisovatel 1994) KantuEcirc rkova was herself an MP

in the post-communist Czechoslovak parliament from 1990 to 1992

RICK FAWN1194

to provide at least the contours of those relations It does not aim to identify orexplain sources of a possible Czech liberalism but primarily seeks to consider thenature of CzechndashRomani relations by examining and categorising Czech responses tothe problems and then by offering some explanations for the nature of these dif cultrelations The article does not seek to apportion blame to any one side It begins withthe paradox of Czech values and relations with the Romani minority

Czech tolerance

To be sure relations between Romani minorities and titular majority nations appearto be at best strained throughout former communist Eastern Europe even if speci cdimensions explanations and consequences are evident as well

What is particularly striking about the Czech case is the indigenous and especiallythe foreign perception of the Czechs as a highly liberal tolerant people From theinception of Czechoslovak statehood the country was deemed to be more democraticliberal and tolerant of its minorities than other new post-World War I states Politicallegacies thereafter reinforced this image The Roma were classed as a nationalityalong with Czechoslovakiarsquos German and Hungarian populations The 1948 commu-nist takeover was supported as author Milan Kundera wrote by the best parts ofsociety to create a society of equality Misguided as that idealistic thinking was toprove for the majority of the population Czechoslovak reform communists dis-tinguished the country within the socialist bloc by initiating the most liberal andfar-reaching reforms during the Prague Spring Events surrounding and following theNovember 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia bolstered the countryrsquos image ofexceptional political liberalism A repressive hardline communist regime was toppledwith no violence by protestors and ultimately little by the government and withpoetic attacks of jingling keys The sobriquet lsquovelvetrsquo that became associated with thatsmooth clean political transition gave rise not only to a new dictionary entry but ametaphor for the country as a whole Its economic change while rhetorically drasticproduced the lowest unemployment in Europe The Czechoslovak Federationrsquospeaceful dissolution on the eve of 1993 could only be compared favourably with theviolent disintegration of Yugoslavia

Throughout the 1990s political leaders debated the meaning and practice of civilsociety While these debates could become acrimoniousmdashand the personal scorn ofthe two leading proponents Vaclav Klaus and Vaclav Havel became well-knownmdashagain the Czech Republic elevated itself not only in the post-communist world butmore widely for the fact of such discussions occupying the centre stage of politicallife

Unsurprisingly the political and ethnic tolerance of the Czechs has been noted andcelebrated inside and outside the country The country was referred to as embodyingthe original vision championed by the rst Czechoslovak President TomasIuml Masarykand Havel of a lsquomultiethnic state founded on humane valuesrsquo4 As Sharon L Wolchikobserves Czechoslovakiarsquos interwar political traditions gave the Czech lands apositive legacy that differentiated the country from its neighbours For exampleopinion polls nd Czechs signi cantly less anti-Semitic than Poles Hungarians orSlovaks and more disposed towards political compromise5 In the new Czech









RICK FAWN1196














RICK FAWN1198











Of cial policies




RICK FAWN1200











RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218



















































RICK FAWN1196














RICK FAWN1198











Of cial policies




RICK FAWN1200











RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218



















































RICK FAWN1198











Of cial policies




RICK FAWN1200











RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218















































Of cial policies




RICK FAWN1200











RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218











































RICK FAWN1200











RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218
















































RICK FAWN1202













RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218

















































RICK FAWN1204










Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218














































Exodus







RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218











































RICK FAWN1206





A liberal response


Havel











RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218




















































RICK FAWN1208














RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218

















































RICK FAWN1210





Explanations




Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218












































Czech legacy





RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218











































RICK FAWN1212
















RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218



















































RICK FAWN1214












Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218














































Conclusion





RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218











































RICK FAWN1216






































RICK FAWN1218



































































RICK FAWN1218











































fawn.roma

Documents

czech attitudes

czech accession

roma czech citizenship

czech society

czech republics relations

possible czech liberalism

effectivelysegregating

czech responses tothe