Czech Republic Intransigent on Honoring the Forgotten Holocaust

by Gwendolyn Albert, WW4 Report

PRAGUE — As has been amply documented over the 15 years of its existence, the Czech Republic has a poor record when it comes to protecting the rights of members of the Roma minority. Unfortunately, this does not apply only to present-day victims of rights abuses, but even to the memory of Roma who perished on Czech territory during the Nazi occupation.

Reading between the lines in the Kosova coverage can sure be depressing, especially for those of us who have been following the conflict there over the past 20 years. While 20 years ago, Albanian protesters were throwing rocks at Serbian police, today Serb protesters are throwing rocks at Albanian police. Ah, progress. Meanwhile, for all the passions in play over Kosova's supposed "independence"—whether Albanian pride or Serb rage—the new government still does not seem to have any real control over its territory. When Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, made his controversial visit to the territory, it was the UN administrator Joachim Ruecker who took responsibility for the decision to "allow" him in. In other words, the "international community" is obviously still running the show. And angry Serbs are throwing rocks and Albanian cops retaliating with tear gas over a mere fiction. From AP, Feb. 25:

Kosova's Parliament approved a declaration of independence Feb. 17. All 120 MPs were called for the extraordinary session, but only 109 were present—all the Serb MPs boycotting. Those present—all Albanian—voted unanimously for the declaration. The session was also attended by representatives of the US and EU. When the declaration was read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, Kosova's capital Pristina erupted with fireworks and celebratory gunfire. Celebrations centered around a new monument to independence unveiled earlier in the day. Ethnic Albanians also staged loud celebrations in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, and at the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels. But in the Serb-majority Kosovar town of Mitrovica, two hand grenades were thrown at a UN building and the new EU mission (the latter failing to explode).

Police arrested 24 in Spain's Basque region Feb. 14 in a strike called by the outlawed Batasuna party to protest the banning of other parties supposedly linked to the armed group ETA. Strikers, mostly teachers and academics, held banners reading: "No to the violence of persecution, no to the banning of ideas." Some chained themselves together and attempted to block traffic by placing cement-filled oil drums on the road leading into the northern city of Bilbao. Another two hung themselves by harnesses from a bridge over a commuter line, stopping trains from running. (AlJazeera, Feb. 14)

Danish newspapers this week reprinted the notorious cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb for a turban, a day after three people were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill the artist who drew it, Kurt Westergaard, a 73-year-old illustrator with the daily Jyllands-Posten. Several other newspapers, including Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and the Ekstra Bladet tabloid, also decided to run the picture, in an act of defiance to intimidation. At least three newspapers in Sweden, Holland and Spain also reprinted the cartoon. "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," Copenhagen's Berlingske Tidende said. "Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror."

Spanish police Feb. 11 arrested 14 prominent members of the outlawed Basque nationalist party Batasuna. Most of the arrests, ordered by leading anti-terrorist prosecutor Judge Baltasar Garzon, took place in towns around the northern Basque region and neighboring Navarra. One, Nuria Alzugarai, was arrested in the southern city of Cordoba, where she was visiting a prisoner. Police searched the houses of Karmelo Landa and Mikel Etxaburu, arrested in Bilbao, and seized several computers. police also searched several houses in other Basque towns, including Elorrio. The detainees, who have been transferred to Madrid, are accused of "collaboration with a terrorist group." (EiTB, Feb. 11)

A 37-year-old US businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh. Yara, who does not want her last name published, was bruised and crying when she was released from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign confessions by the kingdom's "Mutaween," or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Spain's Justice Minister Mariano Fernandez Bermejo said Jan. 23 he will ask the Spanish cabinet to outlaw Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK) on grounds that they are part of Batasuna, the nationalist party banned in 2003 for its supposed links to the Basque armed group ETA. The move to ban the parties would have to be upheld by the courts. (EiTB24, Jan. 24)