TENSIONS AFTER ATTACK ON ROMANI FAMILY SUBSIDE(Czech Rep.)

The tension that hit Bedriska, Ostrava's neighbourhood with mainly Romany population, after the attack on a local family this weekend has subsided now and the locals have dropped up their original plan to form home guards, Coexistence NGO head Kumar Vishwanathan told CTK yesterday. Coexistence is a civic association focusing on work with the Romany minority. "Peace has prevailed. The locals have placed confidence in the police's work. They won't organise home guards or patrols on their own," Vishwanathan said. A wave of fear arose among the locals after an unknown perpetrator's arson attack on a Romany family house in early hours on Sunday. The police, along with Vishwanathan, had lot to do to talk the locals out from forming a home guard unit to defend themselves against potential assaulters. "We talked to everybody there last evening once again in an effort to calm the situation down. We managed it. Although no one understands the attack, no panic persists there," Vishwanathan said. "We fear, mainly for our children. We will set up patrols to guard our neighbourhood," Jiri Koller, the neighbour of the afflicted family, told CTK on Monday.
The Molotov cocktail the perpetrator threw in a local house fortunately did not flare up, except of the burning wick, and no one was injured. "The residents had a good luck. If the bottle had broken, it could have caused a fire. The house would have flared up quickly and the fire could have afflicted the neighbouring family as well. Up to eight people were threatened," Ostrava criminal police head Radovan Vojta told journalists. A similar attack elsewhere in north Moravia injured three members of a Romany family last April. A two-year girl suffered burns on 80 percent of her body. Four suspects, all far-right radicals from north Moravia, have been charged with attempted racially motivated murder. Their trial will start in May. The police on Monday said nothing indicates that an organised group of right-wing extremists was behind the attack in Bedriska. By no means was it "another Vitkov case," they emphasised. Vishwanathan said he shares the view. "It does not seem that an organised criminal group intervened from outside. It seems to be a culmination of a problem inside the [Bedriska] locality, he said.
The police on Monday warned the Bedriska Romanies against setting up home guards, which the officers said, would complicate the situation in the problematic neighbourhood. "It is not necessary. We have no information about another imminent attack. We've reinforced police patrols in Bedriska," said Ostrava police director Tomas Landsfeld. According to the Labour and Social Ministry, there are ten Romany ghettos, similar to Bedriska, in Ostrava, the north Moravian centre with 315,000 inhabitants. The population of these excluded areas is estimated at up to 6,600. Most Romanies have been moved there intentionally in recent years. Most adult residents are jobless, with only elementary education. The families live on social allowances. In many such localities usury, drug trafficking and thefts are flourishing.

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