At 10 a.m. yesterday, March 23^rd, police forces entered and searched the homes of Roma civil rights activists in the town of Rockycany, "accusing" the activists of being among the signatories of a protest against the mayor of the town. This protest is concerned with the racist politics of mayor Oldrich Kozisek and the unbearable living standards Czech Roma have to put up with. Among those whose homes were searched is the well-known activist and Roma leader Ondrej Gina.

The town has been internationally infamous for years because of anti-Roma activities. A few months ago a fence was built on the mayor's orders which would "protect" the town's Czech inhabitants from Roma. Media reports have for years been written with a racist bias. Roma have been denied entry to the town's bars and restaurants; the frequent attacks and use of physical violence against Roma have been dismissed by the mayor, calling them reactions to the "asocial behaviour of Roma". This kind of treatment led a few months ago to a wave of Roma refugees from the Republic - last year alone more than 4,000 sought refuge abroad from persecution at home.

Czech civil rights organisations have been for years drawing attention to the steadily deteriorating situation of Roma in the Republic.

More then 50 Roma have been murdered since the "Velvet Revolution"; hundreds have been brutally attacked by racist nationalists.

Roma have repeatedly also been the victims of state violence and antiziganism: over 50,000 became stateless persons in their own land after the dissolution of the Czechoslovakian state into two separate political entities.

The Czech Republic is the only country in the world which could let a pig farm be built on the site of a concentration camp: the camp at Lety was constructed especially for Roma and was supervised and run by Czechs during WWII. Hundreds of Roma women were subjected to involuntary sterilisation under Communism. Roma children are relegated to special schools and over 90% of all Roma are unemployed; discrimination and violence are things they have to cope with every single day in the Czech Republic. No Czech government has yet seen it fit to issue an apology for the continuation and the continuity of persecution of Roma in the country.

• The RNC protests strongly against the Czech Republic's actions.
• The RNC sees in this police campaign and the behaviour of the powers that be against the Roma civil rights movement and Ondrej Gina an attempt to criminalise their work and silence them.
• The RNC has noticed with alarm the manner in which the Republic has openly and shamelessly engaged in repression and discrimination since becoming a NATO member.
• The RNC calls on international civil rights organisations to join it in protesting against the situation and contact their governments.

Czech Roma organisations ask you for your support

Fax: 00420 181 727 598

Fax: 00420 181 723 011

Czech Republic, Rockycany 33701, Krece

Addresses in the Czech Republic:

• The Czech embassy in your country