Havlickuv Brod town hall: fence is not an issue of race

Members of the town hall of Havlickuv Brod, East Bohemia, say that a fence that could be erected to separate a town-owned building occupied by rent defaulters from other privately owned houses is not an issue of ethnicity. The building houses Roma as well as non-Roma families who have reportedly been bothering the inhabitants of nearby houses with disorderly behaviour and poor sanitary habits. Deputy mayor of Havlickuv Brod Libor Honzarek said that the objective is not to close off one community from another, but rather to establish basic principles of co-existence. It remains unclear when the fence will be built as well as its precise location. A similar project involving construction of a fence was carried out in Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, in 1999. The local town hall was heavily criticized by human rights organisations and eventually pulled the fence down.