Another Molotov cocktail was found Thursday in a house in which Czech Romanies have been living and the local police said the liquid seems to be the same as that used in two cocktails thrown by unknown persons into another Roma house in Opava on Saturday night. None of the three Molotov cocktails burnt and nobody was injured. Sona Bradacova, spokeswoman for the regional police, said the police have been investigating the case. Nobody lived in the flat in which the bottle was found today and the windows of the room were permanently opened, she said. The incident was reported to the police by one of the house's residents. At night on March 14, unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail into a Romany house in Ostrava, which is the centre of the north Moravian region. The Molotov cocktail then fell into a room where a teenage girl was sleeping but it did not break. The girl woke up and managed to extinguish the burning wick and the carpet that had caught fire. The police investigate the case as an attempted murder.
The most serious arson attack afflicted a Romani family in Vítkov near Opava April 2009 when three Molotov cocktails burnt the house down. Three people were injured. A baby girl suffered burns on 80 percent of her body yet doctors succeeded in saving her life. The police caught the perpetrators, all right-wing extremists from north Moravia. Charged with an attempted racially-motivated murder of several people, their trial will start at the Ostrava court on May 11. They face up to 15 years in prison, but even life imprisonment, if found guilty. Kumar Vishwanathan, an activist working with the Romani community in the region, said previously that no such attack should be underestimated. He said much will depend on the court verdict in the forthcoming trial of four right-wing radicals suspected of the arson attack in Vitkov.
Prague Monitor
