Czech Attitudes Towards the Roma: 'Expecting More of Havel's Country'?

Abstract

EVER-GROWING IS THE ISSUE OF RIGHTS FOR ROMA and their relations with majority nations throughout Central and Eastern Europe. If one group of people seems today to be consistently verbally derided, subjected to physical abuse, social marginalisation and even legal disenfranchisement in the post-communist space, it is them. While hardly unique, this situation nevertheless has become particularly evident in the Czech Republic. Few incidents in the fate of contemporary Europe's Roma have seized the international imagination-rightly or wrongly-as much as those that have occurred in the Czech Republic. These issues, which not only require careful examination but also some qualification of foreign media coverage, include the 'wall' built effectively segregating Roma from Czechs, a series of killings, a 'citizenship' law condemned internationally as intentionally denying Roma Czech citizenship, the departure of Roma from that country and their claim of asylum in several states, and the continued operation of an industrial pig farm on the site of a World War II concentration camp for Roma.' All these incidents should be striking in themselves and call for explanation and analysis, as well as in some cases clarification of how they have been presented in the West. They are perhaps all the more unusual because of a paradox: the ethos of liberalism and tolerance accorded to Czech society by many of its own citizens, intellectual and law makers, and especially by its admirers and supporters abroad. Indeed, the present author would be among these, and this article carries some concern for the prestige and reputation of the Czech Republic.2 The importance of this assessment is multidimensional. The Romani issue has captured international media attention, if perhaps in a simplified manner. Its ramifications are numerous, affecting the Czech Republic's relations with several