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Three quarters of young Czechs have a negative attitude towards the Roma, according to a survey of 12 to 20 year olds. The survey, by non-governmental organization People in Need, indicates that Czech teenagers have a negative view of prostitutes, prisoners, drug addicts and homeless people. At the same time, more than three quarters of respondents said there was no discrimination in the Czech society. According to Dzamila Stehlikova, the minister in charge of human rights, the attitude of Czechs towards minorities is not improving fast enough.

North Koreans living and working in the Czech Republic under a controversial labour programme will be sent home by the end of January 2008, AFP agency reported on Monday, citing the Czech Interior Ministry. It will end the practice of allowing them to work in factories as a source of cheap labour, after some human right groups said they were being used as breadwinners for the authoritarian regime in their home country. 134 Koreans were still working in the country at the end of November, the Interior Ministry said.

Only one twelfth of Czech primary school teachers are younger than 30 years of age, according to a recent report conducted by Czech School Inspectorate, and only 10% of teachers are male. The average age of Czech teachers is currently 42.5 years. Most graduates are discouraged from teaching jobs by low pay. In addition, teachers are not remunerated according quality of teaching but according to years of experience, the report says.

The Czech Foreign Ministry has described as “unacceptable” a warning by Russia’s army chief that any US interceptor missiles that might be launched from Poland could trigger inadvertent retaliation from Russia. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova said Moscow’s language was “unimaginable in the democratic world” and stressed that Prague had always worked for dialogue on the issue. Russia has reacted with hostility to US plans to site part of its missile defense system in central Europe – with a radar base in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland. Russia’s Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevsky on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction with the course of negotiations between Moscow and Washington on this matter, saying the two states were locked in a “direct stand-off”.