Czech Republic
This was a difficult year for the re-established Czech democracy. Elections
to the chamber of deputies in May 1996 and to the new senate in November
resulted in substantial losses for the main governing party, the Obcanska
demokraticka strana (ODS, Civic Democratic Party), which is led by the prime
minister, Vaclav Klaus. In the immediate post-election period, the governing
coalition had difficulties in adopting new legislation and dealing with
the escalating crisis in education, health and railways.
The market-based economy continued to show solid growth, with over two-thirds
of the gross domestic product coming from the private sector. Most macro-economic
indicators were favourable-balanced budget, low inflation and unemployment.
The annual inflation rate was around 9 per cent, the unemployment rate 3.3
per cent.
Over 1,000 years of Jewish history in Bohemia and Moravia have witnessed periods of both prosperity and persecution. The flourishing Jewish community under Czechoslovak President Tomas Masaryk (1918-35), which numbered 118,000 people, was almost completely annihilated in the Holocaust. In 1952 the show trials, orchestrated by Moscow, of Rudolf Slansky and other top Communist Party officials, several of them of Jewish extraction, bore clear antisemitic overtones. Most survivors of the Holocaust left the country either after the Second World War or after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Since the collapse of the communist regime and the division of the country into two sovereign republics, the rights of the small Czech Jewish population have been fully respected by the authorities.
After ethnic Slovaks, the most significant minority in the Czech Republic
is the Roma population, officially estimated at 200,000. Roma are concentrated
in the industrial towns of northern Bohemia. They suffer disproportionately
from poverty, inter-ethnic violence, illiteracy and disease. Efforts by
foundations and individuals in the education and health fields to improve
their living conditions, especially the conditions of Roma children, have
had only minimal impact. There is a Czech-language programme for Roma on
state television and another on state radio. There are various publications
for Roma, of which all but one are state-supported. Roma leaders have had
limited success thus far in organizing their local communities.
Racially motivated violence against Roma, usually by skinheads, has risen
sharply in recent years. Statistics in 1996 recorded a sixfold increase
in the number of reported incidents over 1994. Local authorities have been
unable (or, according to some observers, unwilling) to curb this violence.
In the last five years, over 200 people have been charged with racial violence;
to date, just under 100 have been convicted. In mid-1995, parliament passed
legislation to stiffen the penalties for certain categories of racially
motivated crime, and the state attorney instructed prosecutors to act more
vigorously in such cases. Nonetheless, many judges and police officers remain
extremely reluctant to ascribe a racial motive to anti-Roma violence, even
when skinheads are involved.
The government devoted increasing attention to illegal immigration into
the country and took steps with its neighbours to control the movement of
people across its borders. The government has signed readmission agreements
with all the country's neighbours and with Hungary, Romania and Canada.
In 1996 the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) observed
that these agreements "do not specifically take into account the special
situation of asylum seekers" or "ensure access to refugee status
determination procedure", while noting that in practice the government
allows all interested parties to apply for such protections.
The Sdruzení pro republiku-Republikánská strana
Ceskoslovenska (SPR-RSC, Association for the Republic-Republican Party of
Czechoslovakia) remains the sole mainstream political movement that is generally
classified as a far-right organization. The party, led by Miroslav Sladek,
gained 8 per cent of the popular vote in the May general elections and obtained
eighteen parliamentary deputies. Following the stalemate that developed
as a result of no single party having a parliamentary majority, an increase
in tolerance towards the SPR-RSC by other parliamentary parties was noted.
The skinhead movement, although small, is highly politicized, focusing on
spreading racial intolerance. It concentrates on the Roma minority but instances
of attacks against the small black community (typically students, diplomats
or businessmen) are occasionally reported. The skinheads are in regular
contact with other far-right groups in both East and West.
In comparison with last year, the ultra-nationalist organizations became
more fractious. Most of them are not registered or were driven into illegality
once the strengthened anti-racist legislation began to have greater effect.
The Bohemia Hammerskins remained the largest, non-registered ultra-nationalist
skinhead movement. Its membership is estimated to have dropped to around
800 hard-core activists. It co-operates with Czech branches of the international
Blood and Honour skins and with White Aryan Resistance (see United Kingdom,
United States of America).
Attempts at reconstruction of the Národni obec fasisicka (NOF, National
Fascist Community), which is based in Prague and has an estimated membership
of fifty, are difficult to confirm. The Národní socialistické
hnutí Evropy (NSHE, National Socialist Movement of Europe) is estimated
to have 200 members, with branches in Hronov and Trutnov. It adheres to
a neo-Nazi, racist and antisemitic ideology.
The group Sudetáci (Sudeten Germans) is based in the Czech-German
border area and is active mainly during football matches. The Brno-based
Hnutí národního sjednocení (HNS, Movement of
National Unification) is a white supremacist organization. The Narodni fronta
(NF, National Front), which has branches in Hodonín and Mladá
Boleslav and publishes the Národní listy (National
Letters), appears to have merged in 1995 or 1996 with the Bohemia Hammerskins
(see above). The Bratrské vlastenecké hnutí, ceska
krev (BVHCK, Patriotic Brotherhood Movement, Czech Blood) is based in Plzen.
The Jednota kalich (JK, Union of the Chalice), Vlastenecká liga (VL,
Patriotic League), Vlasteneck· fronta (VF, Patriotic Front) and the
Národní front kastisu (NFK, National Front of the Castists)
are all registered as civil societies.
There are no estimates of the overall membership of these ultra-nationalist
organizations for 1996. However, the increased number of racial activities
and incidents indicates that membership or supporters of these groups have
very likely increased from the 1995 figures of about 7,000 provided by the
Czech interior ministry.
SPR-RSC deputy Jan Vik is being investigated by the parliamentary rights
and privileges committee, which is considering withdrawing his immunity
for the second time. His immunity was originally withdrawn in January 1996
in connection with his having spread false anti-German rumours (at that
time he also accused President Václav Havel of "co-operating
in building world Zionism"), but was restored in May following his
re-election to parliament.
The parliamentary rights and privileges committee also considered withdrawing
the immunity of two other SPR-RSC deputies-Josef Krejsa, who is also editor-in-chief
of the far-right weekly Republika (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA), and
Rudolf Smucr. Both were charged with hooliganism at a memorial ceremony
in Terezín in 1994. In November 1996 the committee recommended that
no further action be taken against Smucr. Krejsa's case remained undecided.
According to Mláda Fronta Dnes (Youth Front of Today) (11
October), Pavel Dostál, deputy for the Ceská strana sociálne
demokratická (CSSD, Czech Social Democratic Party), speaking in a
parliamentary debate, charged deputy Josef Krejsa with using his party's
weekly, Republika , to spread racist and antisemitic abuse. Dostál
quoted excerpts from an article in Republika that stated, inter
alia , that parliament was "an illegitimate Jewish gathering".
In an incident reported from the Decín district in northern Bohemia
that followed the November senate elections, a victorious CSSD candidate,
Egon Lánsky, is reported to have been described by the local ODS
weekly as a "Slovak Jew".
In February a leaflet signed by the Czech National Socialist Movement
that appeared on several buildings in the centre of Ceské Budejovice
claimed that the Czech Republic was "under the economic domination
of Jewish capital" and demanded an end to the "Jewish-bolshevik
game". Czech Jewish leader Jirí Danícek criticized what
he saw as the slow initial reaction of the local police; attempts to find
the culprits have not yet been successful.
In June, a Prague synagogue that had repeatedly been the target of vandalism
was defaced with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti.
On 11 July, leaflets protesting against an exhibition in memory of Israeli
prime minister Yitzhak Rabin appeared in Brno. The leaflets were distributed
by the VF (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS), which described itself
as a "movement of Czech patriots fighting for the preservation of national
traditions and the survival of the Czech nation". The leaflets, entitled
"Against Zionism and Islam!", claimed, inter alia, that the exhibition
"confirms that the Jewish ethnic group plays an undue role in Czech
national and political life".
In November, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a series of Nazi-inspired
mob attacks on German Jews and their property in November 1938, an international
crowd of about 700 people gathered in Kozolupy near Plzen to attend a concert
by skinhead bands. Police detained nine participants who made the "Heil
Hitler" salute, an offence punishable under Czech law, and charged
the owner of the venue with supporting and propagating a movement that aimed
to suppress citizens' rights and freedoms, also a criminal offence. Police
refrained from further intervention at the time of the concert, but an investigation
is continuing.
Damage to a number of Jewish cemeteries was reported in 1996. Since these
cemeteries are often neglected and lacking in basic security monitoring,
it is difficult to assess whether damage is caused by persons with antisemitic
motivation or by vandals.
The SPR-RSC weekly Republika is at present the only nationally
distributed newspaper with openly racist undertones, directed in particular
against the Roma minority. It is also strongly anti-German and supportive
of the international far-right scene. Its anti-Jewish line is pursued mainly
by its editor-in-chief, Josef Krejsa, a parliamentary deputy for the SPR-RSC
who, in his articles, attacks Jews in public life. Republika is not widely
available and it is difficult to gauge the size of its readership.
In April, the secretary of the Roma Democratic Congress, Ivan Vesely, supported
by other organizations, appealed to the supreme court to ban Republika
for, among other things, incitement to national and racial hatred. The
appeal failed.
The police confirmed the existence of over twenty underground magazines
with small circulations propagating fascism, racism and antisemitism.
VTS Publishing in Breclav, which is owned by the Austrians Peter Kurt Weiß
and Franz Swoboda (see Austria), supplies racist and antisemitic material,
mainly to Austria. The company advertises the booklet Talmud bez masky
(The Talmud Unmasked) and other antisemitic writings on the Internet.
In February, the Votobia publishing house brought out a Czech translation
of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion together with comments by
Janusz Tazbir entitled "Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Truth or Falsehood?".
Votobia had previously published many titles of general Jewish interest.
According to the most recent opinion polls carried out by Gabal Analysis
and Consulting and published in November 1996, 87 per cent of respondents
objected to having Roma neighbours, 73 per cent to Vietnamese or Chinese
neighbours, 52 per cent to blacks and 12 per cent to Jews.
In the same opinion poll, support for the skinhead movement increased from
15 per cent of respondents in 1994 to 22 per cent in 1996. About 50 per
cent of citizens were inclined to support the removal of Roma from Czech
territory.
In May, the Olomouc supreme court reversed the sentence imposed on two
men charged with the murder in 1995 of a Rom, Tibor Berki. The court determined
that the murder had been racially motivated and increased the prison sentences
from twelve to thirteen years in the case of the principal defendant and
from eighteen to twenty months in the case of the second defendant.
The case of Leopold Hilsner, a Jew found guilty of ritual murder by a court
in Písek (south Bohemia) in 1899 and pardoned by the Austrian minister
of justice in 1918, returned to the fore. On 21 August, the Brno high court
responded to a private enquiry about the possibility of Hilsner's judicial
rehabilitation in the Czech Republic stating, inter alia , that:
"[T]here is no evidence of anything that would justify the conclusion
that Leopold Hilsner did not commit the crimes of which he was found guilty
and sentenced by the former district court in Písek." Thus,
in effect, the highest court in the Czech Republic confirmed that Leopold
Hilsner was guilty of ritual murder.
In March, the Czech education minister, Ivan Pilip, reacted to criticism
from the Jewish communal leadership concerning the teaching of history and
civics in Czech schools. The Jewish representatives contended that there
was a tendency to place civics teaching on a confessional Christian basis
and history teaching on selected chapters in the history of Jews and Judaism,
thus creating a prejudiced view of Jews and Jewish history. The minister
promised to consult with Jewish experts in the field, and a number of changes
in teaching material were introduced.
Throughout the year a Jewish initiative to provide general and coherent
teaching material on the Holocaust for state schools was introduced by the
Terezín Initiative and the Terezín Memorial Museum.
In January, the Israeli president, Ezer Weizman, made an official visit
to the Czech Republic. He was awarded the highest state order for his past
and present efforts to promote good relations with the democratic Czech
(former Czechoslovak) state.
On 30 May, Simon Wiesenthal was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa at Olomouc
University. His laudatio was devoted to the defence of freedom and justice.
In June a seminar of educational representatives and Jewish historians discussed
a Holocaust reader by a collective of authors entitled Cesta-cíl
neznámy (The Road-Destination Unknown). The seminar also discussed
means of getting the reader accepted as part of the schools' modern history
curriculum. The effort faltered through a lack of interest on the part of
the schools themselves.
In late August, on the ninetieth anniversary of the Prague Jewish Museum,
an educational and cultural centre of the museum was opened. Its aim is,
according to the museum's head, Leo Pavlát, to spread knowledge of
Czech Jewish culture and religion. It began its activities by offering a
series of lectures on Jewish history to Czech secondary schools.
On 10 October, parliamentary deputies passed a resolution expressing concern
about manifestations of xenophobia, racism and antisemitism in Czech society
and asking the interior minister, Jan Ruml, and the then justice minister,
Jan Kalvoda, to proceed resolutely against all who spread racial intolerance.
In December a Jewish centre was opened in Prague to inform visitors about
Jewish history and culture.
Also in December, the fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Terezín
ghetto was commemorated by a number of events, in particular an international
conference organized by the Terezín Initiative Foundation. Emphasis
was placed on Jewish resistance in TerezÌn and other ghettos and
camps.
The level of intolerance towards Roma specifically and foreigners generally
increased. It was accompanied by a substantial rise in racially motivated
incidents and a subdued, but nevertheless more politically oriented, anti-Jewish
mood in a period marked by growing general dissatisfaction with the state
of the economy and the government. President Havel continues to be a strong
voice for reason and tolerance. A similar role is expected of the belatedly
constituted second parliamentary chamber, the senate.
© JPR 1997