Czech President Vaclav Havel has described
treatment of Roma, commonly known as Gypsies, as a "litmus test for a civil
society." His fellow Czechs have failed this test miserably. Since time
immemorial Roma have suffered from hate crimes and discrimination, but
that persecution should currently exist in the Czech Republic, a country
lauded for espousing market reforms, lofty democratic ideals and personal
freedom since the Velvet Revolution, seems shocking. Twenty-seven Roma
have been killed in the Czech Republic since 1989, more than the combined
total in Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia. In one case a man was clubbed
to death by skinheads while his wife and five children watched. One hundred
and eighty-one racially motivated attacks have been recorded since 1993;
42 of these occurred in the first two months of 1996, showing that the
trend of hate crimes against the Roma in the Czech Republic has become
increasingly prevalent.
Skinheads and other right-wing extremists commit the most grievous crimes
against the Roma. However, discrimination against Roma pervades all aspects
of Czech society, from the common practice of placing Romani children in
programs for the mentally handicapped because they have not mastered the
Czech language to banning Roma from restaurants and other public places.
In the town of Kladno this summer, the Roma were banned from swimming pools
due to a hepatitis outbreak among Romani children, although health officials
insisted that such a ban would not contain the spread. The Roma often suffer
from such epidemics due to poor standards of living and lack of appropriate
health care.
Roma, referred to as "blackies" due to their darker
skin coloring, have often been "encouraged" to leave the Czech Republic.
A Romani woman from the industrial town of Usti Nad Labem was forced to
go to Slovakia to have her baby. In 1993, a beauty pageant contestant from
the same town won a standing ovation when she announced her dream of becoming
a public prosecutor, "so that she might cleanse the town of all the dark-skinned
people."
Thus, while the Roma have long preferred to maintain their traditions
and lifestyles, they are finding it increasingly difficult to function
in a society which attempts to ignore and displace them. Although there
are an estimated 200,000-300,000 Roma in the Czech Republic, only 32,903
people described themselves as such in the 1991 census, reflecting a fear
of racial discrimination. Most Czechs have reaped the fruits of a booming
economy, but the Roma have again been left out. In a country that possesses
a mere 3% unemployment rate, 70% of the Roma are unemployed due to a lack
of marketable skills and lack of available training in a system that is
strongly biased against them.
The plight of the Czech Roma has received worldwide
attention, especially concerning the Czech citizenship law which effectively
renders the Roma stateless, forcing them to live as foreigners in their
own land. The majority of the Roma are of Slovakian descent, though they
have lived in the Czech lands for decades. Similar to German citizenship
laws, all Czech residents born of non-Czech parents, Slovaks included,
must apply for Czech citizenship. To qualify, one must be fluent in Czech,
have had a stable residence for at least two years, and possess a clean
criminal record for the previous five years.
These stipulations have marginalized the Roma, already living on the
fringes of society. At the time of legislation, the clean criminal record
requirement dates back to the communist era, when many un-employed or self-employed
Roma acquired records for "avoiding work" or "neglect." No distinction
is made between minor and serious crimes, giving Czech authorities excuses
to refuse Roma applications for citizenship. This requirement is notoriously
labeled the "Romani clause" because it directly targets the Roma population.
The residency requirement has discriminated against the Roma because many
of them have held temporary residency status despite having lived in the
Czech Republic for sometimes five years or more. These years of residency
under temporary status do not count towards the residency requirement for
citizenship.
A Czech human rights group, the Tolerance Foundation,
has estimated that at least 20,000 Roma, about a tenth of the Roma population,
have been excluded from Czech citizenship since 1993. Roma from Karvina,
North Moravia, were stripped of Czech nationality without being properly
informed or given time to make alternative arrangements. These Roma can
not vote, were not included in coupon privatization, receive no social
benefits (previously often their sole source of income), and must pay foreigners'
rates at hospitals. The process of applying for citizenship entails meandering
among the bureaucratic mazes of the various Czech institutions, a daunting
process for many Roma who are not proficient in the Czech language. Furthermore,
they must spend money that they do not have to produce documents
such as marriage or birth certificates and in many cases must travel far
away to retrieve them.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe described the
citizenship law in an open letter to President Havel as "the largest denaturalization
in Europe since the World War II period." Other entities have made outcries
about the citizenship law to the Czech government: several human rights
groups, the U.S. Congress, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the
Council of Europe, stating that the law violates international norms.
Initially President Havel and Prime Minister Vaclav
Klaus defended the Czech citizenship law. In July of 1995, Representative
Christopher Smith, head of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe, asked Havel to "exert his considerable moral authority" to change
provisions in the law considered unfair against the Roma. In December,
Havel replied that it was "more worthwhile to work for the proper interpretation
and application of the citizenship law of the Czech Republic than to seek
its amendment." Klaus dismissed the U.S. State Department's annual human
rights report which criticized treatment of the Roma as based on
poor information in the Czech Republic.
However, the citizenship law was amended last April, in which Czech
citizenship will be granted on a case-by-case basis. This measure, while
an improvement over the former law, allows officials to make arbitrary
decisions and does not help those whose applications were previously refused.
According to an official from the U.S. Embassy in Prague, only 200 individuals
were granted citizenship since April, a paltry number considering the tens
of thousands of Roma involved. Czech officials are paying lip service to
the Roma's plight, but effective changes have yet to be made.
The Roma possess little political power and have
virtually no domestic lobbies, other than human rights groups, supporting
their cause. Only one MP in the 200-seat Czech parliament is a Rom, Ladislav
Body of the Left Bloc. In opposition, political anti-Romani sentiment has
increased. The far-right Republican party campaigned on a platform of ridding
the country of Roma and won four parliamentary seats in the elections in
early June.
As it strives to become a member of NATO and the EU, the Czech government
must make more concrete efforts to protect Romani rights and to provide
proper opportunities for them to receive training and education. Czech
Roma deserve to be Czech citizens and steps must be taken to incorporate
the Roma into society.