News

The UN Human Rights’ Committee has asked the Czech government to close down a pig farm located on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp for Romanies. The pig farm at Lety, in south Bohemia was built on the site of the camp by the communist regime in the 1970s and has been a source of embarrassment to post 1989-governments. Although the issue has sparked heated controversy the matter has not been resolved on the argument that buying the farm from its present owners and removing or relocating it would be too costly. More than 1,300 Romanies were held prisoner in the camp between 1942 and 1943. Over 300 Romanies died there, others were transported to Nazi extermination camps.

The meeting between the president and the Olomouc high state attorney elicited a sharp response from TOP 09 deputy chairman Miroslav Kalousek who said he considered it proof that the high state attorney was not acting impartially and independently. Mr. Kalousek said the meeting clearly indicated a link between the police operation that brought down the centre-right government and the political changes that President Zeman was trying to implement.

The authorities in the west Bohemian town of Pilsen are taking steps to diffuse growing ethnic tension in the city, following a wave of complaints against the local Romany minority. The city council and the local police have agreed on a number of measures including an increased police presence in problem areas, more surveillance cameras in the streets and Romany mediators in places where conflicts have escalated. City hall officials say the problems are exacerbated by developments in Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia, where a conflict on a playground between Romany and non-Romas parents triggered protests and street violence for several weekends in a row.

Police investigating a murder attempt against fugitive Czech businessman Radovan Krejčír suspect the attack may be linked to the Cape Town movie industry, according to The Star newspaper. Krejčír narrowly escaped death from a battery-operated, remote-controlled automatic weapon built into a parked car. A source close to the investigation told the paper that the attack could also be linked to Krejčír’s dealings with Cape Town gangsters over territory. The source indicated that Krejčír had allegedly met with one of Cape Town’s most notorious members of the underworld in an attempt to iron out their differences. Krejčír himself has refused to comment.