Rise in hate crimes worries Czech Republic Jews and ADL

PRAGUE -- The Czech Republic's chief rabbi was out for a stroll with his young son last winter. Suddenly he was faced a volley of insults and abuse from a large group of skinheads who had started to tail him.

"I was worried because there were quite a lot of them and there were no policemen around," said Rabbi Karol Sidon. "I told them if they wanted to fight, that was OK as long as they let my son go."

Sidon escaped without injury, but the episode illustrates the Jewish community's wider concern -- the threat posed by neo-Nazi hate groups.

Since 1989, at least 13 killings in the country have been deemed to be racially motivated, according to the Czech government's human rights commission. Eleven cases involved Gypsies and two involved foreigners from North Africa.

Three or four extreme right-wing organizations are registered with the authorities, according to the Czech Ministry of Interior, but dozens of groups are operating in the country. A number of groups, such as Blood and Honor and the Hammerskins, are known to have links with international extremist organizations.

With that in mind, the Anti-Defamation League has appealed to the leaders of the Czech Republic and Hungary to take action against recent racist behavior directed against Jews and Gypsies.

Both countries hope to joint the European Union, which, particularly since the rise of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria, has served notice that it will monitor episodes of xenophobia and intolerance.

The ADL's Vienna-based Central and East European office sent a letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expressing "deep concern" at recent racist incidents in Hungarian soccer stadiums.

It also sent a letter to Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman expressing alarm over the frequency of aggression against Gypsies, known as Roma, in the Czech Republic.

ADL called on Orban and his government to take stronger legal measures against the anti-Semitic and racist behavior of soccer fans who in several recent matches chanted taunts such as "the train is leaving for Auschwitz."

"Until now, tools used against anti-Semitism and racism in soccer stadiums have not been effective enough or have been handled too leniently," the ADL said.

The ADL also called on Zeman and his government to take "stricter measures" against skinheads and other right-wing extremists who have staged attacks against Gypsies.

The ADL said it is alarmed by the latest incident in the town of Orlova, where 10 Czech skinheads attacked and severely injured a Gypsy family with a 4-year-old handicapped child.

"Following our research locally, we learned that the police did not locate the perpetrators," it said. "Meanwhile they are portraying the attack as not racist-motivated, calling it a brawl and thus playing down this violent outburst of hate.

"The insulting and inhuman behavior of skinhead and right-extremist groups does not match the image that ADL holds of the well-respected Czech Republic, the Czech people and the endeavors of the country to become a member of the European Union," it said.

Czech police statistics over the past few years show a steady rise in the number of racially motivated crimes, such as inciting racial hatred and verbally abusing a nation or race.

But Czech officials and human rights activists are unsure about the gravity of the problem.

"We have statistics which imply that the incidence of racially motivated attacks is growing, yet at the same time we know the police are doing a better job -- if only because they could only improve on their performance at the beginning of the 1990s," said Jan Jarab of the Czech government's human rights commission.

The manner in which crimes are defined in the Czech courts further complicates the picture. The U.S. State Department's recent annual report on human rights said the number of attacks in the Czech Republic was probably higher than recorded because the courts did not categorize attacks on Gypsies as racially motivated.

Although the Gypsies have borne the brunt of attacks and abuse, Jews have also been targeted by some of the country's estimated 5,000 skinheads. The following is a small sample of cases:

*In November 1998, a 17-year-old skinhead stabbed a 22-year-old Jewish soldier in a Prague restaurant.

*That same month, headstones in a cemetery in the eastern Czech town of Trutnov were sprayed with anti-Jewish graffiti. A plaque at the site of the town's former synagogue was also covered in graffiti, as was a monument to Jewish girls used as slave laborers in World War II.

*In March 1999, a police officer in Ostrov was charged with making racial insults against a group of Gypsies. In 1998, the same officer received a one-year suspended sentence for wearing a swastika in public.

*In June 1999, a Prague court prohibited the editor of the right-wing weekly Republika from publishing for 10 years following the publication of two articles containing anti-Semitic and pro-Nazis views.

*In March 2000, The Federation of Czech Jewish Communities received an e-mail threatening that skinheads would be coming to its headquarters to beat them up. So far nothing has happened.

*In April 2000, police confiscated dozens of CDs promoting neo-Nazism, racism and xenophobia at a market close to the Czech-German border. Two Vietnamese traders were arrested in the second such case within a week.

Other developments in recent weeks have worried human rights activists and caused considerable anxiety among Jewish groups in the country.

Earlier this spring, a documentary by German television station ZDF reported that German neo-Nazis had found new room for their activities in the Czech Republic, undergoing paramilitary training at a former army base.

In a fax to the TV station's Prague office, Czech Ministry of Interior spokesman Milan Kriz confirmed that paramilitary exercises of different extremist groups are taking place in the Czech Republic, but added, "We cannot confirm the presence of individuals or groups from foreign countries."

One of the Jewish community's main concerns is the perception that the police and the courts have acted leniently toward skinheads and other extremists who have been accused of racially motivated crime, thereby sending the wrong signal to perpetrators.

"Of course we would like to see the Czech authorities being tougher by introducing and keeping the concept of zero tolerance towards hatred," said Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities.

"I have to stress it is not because of the Jews or any other minorities. It is for the sake of the majority."