News

Brno-based Romany rights activist Karel Holomek has criticised Czech legislation aimed at compensating Roma who were interned in Czechoslovak labour camps during World War II as being too strict. Only descendents of Roma who are known to have died in the labour and concentration camps are entitled to compensation, he said. The Interior Ministry has received about 8,000 applications for compensation so far. Mr Holomek predicts that at most a few hundred people will receive compensation. He said he regretted the fact that that no experts, historians or Romani people were invited to participate in drafting the bill.

The Social Democrat central executive committee on Saturday approved the new government of the party's acting chairman, Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross, by an overwhelming majority, with 110 delegates giving him their endorsement, 10 abstaining and only two of those present for the vote opposed. The strong endorsement gave an important psychological boost to Mr Gross, who must still face a vote of confidence in his government before the Chamber of Deputies in August. With only a majority of one in the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, however, it is far from certain that Mr Gross will win that vote. Even members of his own party, including MP Josef Hojdar, have spoken out against the agreement to continue in a coalition government with the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union parties and the distribution of ministerial posts.

The bulk of the 100-member strong Czech biological and chemical warfare unit charged with helping to protect the upcoming Olympic Games in Greece from terrorist attack left for Athens on Saturday. An advance group of 10 members for the unit arrived in Greece on Wednesday. They will join troops from the Czech component of a NATO rapid response unit, which will be based in Athens from August 1 until September 30, at the request of the Greek government.

In sports news, the Czech hockey centre Radek Bonk has signed a three-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens. He had spent all of his previous ten NHL seasons with Ottawa. The Canadiens hope that Radek Bonk, who stands 1.9 metres tall, can give them the size at centre the team was lacking in recent seasons. Meanwhile, Czech international midfielder Vladimir Smicer will miss six months of Liverpool's Premiership football campaign after having surgery on his right knee, the club revealed.