In the Czech Republic extremism started openly manifesting itself after November 1989. At that time the problem of extremism (until then artificially covered up by the communist régime) started surfacing in a more visible and striking way.
The general public has become aware of the problem of extremism especially through attacks by skinheads against the Roma (Gypsies) and other dark-colored citizens. For more than 40 years the Czech society had some of its attitudes suppressed and after the fall of the communist regime certain xenophobic attitudes held by part of the population started expressing themselves. The indifference of the general public (or at least a substantial part of it) towards displays of extremism and those secretly, or even openly supporting it, helped to create an opportune climate for extremism. In 1993 the Ministry of the Interior attempted to name and describe these socially negative processes in its material: “Inter-ethnical conflicts. Analysis of the clashes in consequence of which the attacks against the Roma or other ethnic groups were reported in the Czech Republic during January-October 1993.“ In 1994 the Czech Republic government in its work: “Safety Situation in the Czech Republic Report“ classified racial conflicts as a security risk with an international factor. Since then the government as well as the Ministry of the Interior, Police and other administrative organs have engaged in the issue of extreme manifestations. They are striving to minimalize and paralyze the criminal activities with a racial or extremist subtext. Even in 1997 these points at issue remained on the priority list of the Czech Republic Police.
In this report all manifestations of racial and national intolerance and related criminal activity are encompassed in a broader term “extremism”. The reason for this is that in case of skinhead activities it is difficult just to separate racially motivated conflicts and emphasize these among their other activities, which are all related. It is therefore more accurate to speak about criminal activity with extremist subtext - where also supporting and propagating movements tending to suppression of citizens' rights and freedom (according to § 260 and 261 of the penal code) can be included. Nevertheless it has to be noted that at the present time it is exactly this type of crime which police officers, investigators, prosecuting counsel and judges encounter most often within the framework of extremism. It is this criminal activity which is most visible on the outside and gets biggest media coverage and extra attention abroad. Above mentioned bodies at the present time know and come into contact with extremism particularly in the form of activities of supporters and members of the skinhead movement. Another group with whose extremist manifestations the police have some experience are anarchists and anarcho-autonomists - ideological opposite of skinheads. No information has been recorded about serious criminal activity of religious sects, registered political parties or other organizations.
Extremism stems out of intolerant moods in the society or uses these moods purposefully for its own ideological goals or for gaining power. Intolerance is an intolerant attitude, inability or unwillingness to respect other people's beliefs, opinions, behavior, culture, religion, morals, aesthetics or even just the physical difference.
Intolerance in society may be just a passive attitude (which in itself is highly detrimental to society), or it can grow into active manifestations, which is already extremism. Even if the intolerant attitudes are just being held passively in latent form, they can be understood as a crime-causing factor.
Intolerance in society may have various forms of which the most common ones are: racism, extreme nationalism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Nevertheless there is a whole set of other intolerant attitudes aimed against different groups of inhabitants - e.g. people with a different sexual orientation or those physically or mentally handicapped. Drives for increased intolerance vary, stemming from the psyche of intolerant individuals and the ideological atmosphere in the society or the group in which the individual mixes. One of the conspicuous (though far from prevailing) motivations towards intolerance is a religious fundamentalism, represented in the Czech Republic environment most visibly by particular sects.
The term extremism is being used in a variety of contexts of a different extent. This may cause misunderstandings while traversing from the political context into the legal or criminological context.
Extremism is sometimes understood and defined as a phenomenon, sometimes as an ideology, and sometimes as an activity. Sometimes it is understood as an already illegitimate activity, at other times as a factor supporting crime.
In democratic countries the term extremism serves as an external and comprehensive designation of a specific social phenomenon in general but it also serves as an ideological foundation or special activity stemming out of it. Ideological foundation of extremism is composed of various ideologies (primarily political or secondarily political) which have in common questioning democratic foundations of society or particular basic human rights and freedoms. Extremism manifests itself by more or less systematic and organized activity - verbal, graphical, or physical - based on an extreme ideology of loosely or tightly organized individuals. Most often these activities have character of breach of the peace, attacks against people, damaging of possessions or propagating ideas which are in dissension with foundations of legality. Extremist activity uses legal and legitimate as well as illegal and illegitimate means. Extremism turns into crime when the law is broken.
At the present time there is no consistent, generally accepted definition of extremism, not even in western democracies. Legally this term has not been laid down at all. The whole issue remains a vital ground for politics experts and becomes a subject of extensive scientific debates. Also the politics experts' definitions, which too are indispensable, cannot (because of their vagueness) satisfy the needs of organs active in criminal proceedings. The only material available is then the working definition which the Security Information Service, Ministry of the Interior, Police of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Justice or General Attorney's Office have made up for their own purposes.
Racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and extreme nationalism become extremism especially at the point when they are being actively enforced - in public, in an organized way and especially by means of violence.
The manifestations of racial and national intolerance, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and related criminal activity are in this material understood as an integral part of extremism. They are being referred to on a general level as manifestations or criminal activity with extremist subtext, or (in particular cases) as manifestations or criminal activity with racial or national subtext.
What is in the presented text meant by racism is an opinion or ideology tracing out immoral, especially illegal goals based on racial signs.
What is in this report understood by anti-Semitism is an attitude or ideology of religious, national and racial intolerance towards Jews.
What is meant by extreme nationalism here is an opinion or ideology which makes qualitative differences between people based on their nationality and lifts its own nation above others, bringing other nations into contempt.
The term xenophobia is sometimes used as a general term for racism, anti-Semitism, extreme nationalism, sometimes in the narrower sense to denote antagonism towards strangers, especially immigrants, refugees and foreign workers.
What is meant by religious fundamentalism is a tendency of thinking, which through its “verbatim“ non-historical interpretation of religious texts brings pre-democratic and pre-humanistic elements into the present times. This phenomenon becomes socially dangerous at the moment when fundamentalists are ready to strive for achieving their ideas of morals etc. by means of violence or other impairing of legality.
What is meant by sect (or as the case may be religious sect) is a religious fellowship which tends to close itself off from the surrounding world and tends to form a highly distanced attitude towards general society and its' culture. A sect also attempts to create a firmly organized structure of its own with often totalistic claims to its' members, using sometimes psychic manipulation. A sect may become socially dangerous when it instigates its members to self-destruction or uses violence against society in general.
Particular democratic countries have accepted in the 90´s several precautions against extremism and terrorism. The laws forbidding legal existence of organizations with extremist orientation have been passed. Also the legal punishment for right-wing, left-wing and nationalistic extremist propaganda and activity have been raised. After a terrorist attack in a Tokio subway, some democratic governments began pursuing stricter policy towards extreme religious movements and sects. In this area no international agreement exists as shown by the example of contention between the USA and Germany over the Church of Scientology.
Besides the threat of severe punishment (adopted in democratic countries after wave of left-wing terrorism in the 60´s and the 70´s) special state structures are being established in reaction to new dangers of terrorism. These are appointed for direct fighting of terrorism and for managing possible consequences of terrorist attacks realized by means of conventional or mass annihilation weapons.
The European Parliament resolution from January 29.1997 concerning the problem of fighting terrorism calls on member states for intensifying the cooperation (especially within the European Union) and for drawing up the legal norms which would in the future become valid throughout Europe as an integrated democratic and just state. For the criminal-law classification, the resolution considers it necessary to specify the term terrorism, to create good conditions for information exchange about serious crime in the EU and to conclude and ratify an agreement about transferring offenders. According to the expert opinion about the security situation at the end of the century and the beginning of the next one, there is a real threat of terrorist activity escalation, which could change the very substance of the current organization of armed and security organs of democratic states.
In European conditions it is possible to divide the extremist spectrum into:
To this spectrum there are sometimes adjoined various dangerous religious or pseudo-religious sects or movements.
In the phenomenon of right-wing extremist movements, which have stood out in recent years, there is a noticeable inclination towards terrorism. On the European continent this movement takes up with the tradition of preceding nationalistic and later racist and anti-Semitic movements. The right-wing extremist movement stands in opposition to the government, centralization of state administration and globalization of internal politics in the area of nationalities, environment, social minorities and protection of individual rights etc. At the present time there is (especially in European countries and the USA) an overall expansion of right-wing extremist activities. These groups have in lighter cases formed provocative signs and pamphlets directed specially against foreigners, less adaptable home ethnic groups and sometimes also against certain peripheral groups (homeless, drug addicts, handicapped etc.) Through these manifestations the extremist groups usually demand strong rule, displacement of specific groups (in a better case) or even their physical liquidation. Another group (besides the Roma) which often becomes a target of extremist manifestations, are the citizens of Jewish origin. One of the most aggressive manifestations of the right-wing extremists, (which are usually organized in military-like groups and train themselves in using weapons) is the attack against life. What sometimes happens is, that some less balanced members of these groups resort to murder attempts for national, racial and other reasons or resort to terrorist attacks against representatives of the state power. Aimed and deliberate attacks against life can be in the present time considered the ultimate extremist and terrorist manifestation of the right-wing extremist spectrum in Europe. A special phenomenon in Central Europe (Germany, Austria) is the use of letter-bombs.
A considerable part of the extremist scene in Europe is represented by left-wing extremist movements. In contradiction to other parts of the world, in Europe the activity of the most notorious left-wing terrorist groups has decreased.1
The most serious present phenomenon in Europe is the existence of terrorist organizations working on a nationalistic principle like The Irish Republican Army (IRA) or separatist Basque organization (ETA). A possibility of rise of new terrorist groups with nationalistic orientation is acute especially on the Balkan Peninsula.
One of the left-wing nationalistic extremist organizations identifying with Marxism-Leninism whose activities may in the future grow in Europe is the Kurdish Worker´s Party (PKK).2At the present time this party is attempting to establish rear bases in Middle-East-European countries.
Since the mid 90's Islamic fundamentalism has became a worldwide problem. During the last ten years it has scored an unusual rise and as it seems it will be a significant phenomenon of world terrorism in the future. Islamic fundamentalism is directed against Christianity, Judaism, secular and heterodox systems and it is extremely intolerant. It is possible to say that it is directed against the whole current Western civilization and in recent times also against moderate Islamic regimes. A special feature of Islamic terrorist activities compared to other types of terrorism is that they are being covertly supported by orthodox Muslim states. In spite of that there must be extra sensitivity applied, so that Islamic fundamentalism is not wrongly identified with Islamic religion as such.
Besides the so-called right-wing and left-wing extremists, whose dangerousness the governments are aware of, there is a latent and not completely negligible danger coming from various religious or pseudo-religious sects and organizations. The public manifestations of these groups are usually absolutely inconspicuous.
These groups may be dangerous to individuals but also to the whole democratic society. The experience with sects in other countries is very often negative and for this reason the state organs of many countries closely watch the activities of dangerous sects and are concerned with this problem.3 The same goes for certain fundamentalist movements working in the scope of large religions.
In relation towards their members the religious sects or pseudo-religious organizations use various forms of psychic manipulation and violence resulting often in destruction of personality.4
After gaining psychic control over the person the sects may force him/her to committing criminal activities. Their goal does not have to be only gaining other believers and eventually their possessions but sometimes also pervading into company and government structures. Under the veil of enthroning “the only and most just“ order there is often a hidden attempt to increase their own political and economical power. Among other extreme manifestations of some sects there may be also collective suicides (Sun Temple - France, Canada; Heaven's Gate - USA). The sects which may be indicated as most dangerous by their manifestations are various cults proclaiming a soon-coming end of the world and survival of the chosen ones. We may assume, that exactly these groups might be in the future eager to get a hold of mass annihilation weapons and aim for the end of the world according to their own scenario. The typical representative of such a sect is the Japanese sect Aum Shinrikyo.
In the recent years in all extremist and terrorist organizations there was the following trend: modernization of their armament, but also very significant modernization in the area of ideological propagation and leading of terrorist operations. Today's extremists legally own a number of publishing houses and the development of modern printing methods enables them to do even low print-runs with relative profitability. Also the worldwide computer network Internet is being very often used for propagation. Some organizations even use satellite television for this purpose. Public network of mobile phones (especially digital GSM) facilitates the communication during terrorist actions. Using commercially available high quality enciphering equipment and programs becomes reality.
What comes most strikingly to the foreground is the problem of abusing the Internet.5 Highly effective coding systems already make possible secret communication beyond any control in the worldwide network of Internet. The idea of adopting measures against unregulated usage of cryptographic methods is debatable. In this area the basic human rights collide with security interests of the state. The ways of punishing Internet crime are yet to be solved.6
In the last few years the Czech extremist scene went through a whole set of changes.8 The like-minded people have been connecting which has resulted in a growing number of extremist group members. The international cooperation of these groups extended and deepened in the area of information transmission as well as in organizing joint social occasions.
Structuring and profiling of extremist “basis“
Internationalization
There was:
More frequent use of computers related to the development of computer systems and networks enabling the extremists to achieve a larger independence and lowering the possibility of disclosing their often unlawful activities.
Today's activists and representatives of extremist groups represent an already new generation, dedicated to proclaimed ideologies
Often purpose-made connections of the extreme right-wing and left-wing structures
This is not mixing of members but in the first place joining the strategy and course of action - for the reason of common goals, attitudes and methods. This is in the first place opposition to current democratic regime, opposition to NATO, EU, “Germanization“, then professing sharp nationalism, anti-Semitism and Pan-Slavism. The fact that their ideological sources are on a different theoretical level does not mean much in the cases of these pragmatic unions.9
Extremist groups have been putting an emphasis on better organization conception and ideologization of their activity and have attempted to:
Since the beginning of the 90's this scene went through a whole set of changes. The former activity focused especially on organizing demonstrations and various marches, has been replaced in 1992 by “cultural activities“ - benefit concerts, concerts of cult music bands, creating its own media - especially magazines. After suspended sentence of the publisher of the anti-Semitic magazine Týdeník Politika, (Politics Weekly) the publishing work moved to the underground. Gradually, printed materials started appearing. These were not only informative but started serving as a tool for searching out “kindred spirits“, people with similar opinions. In this way the magazines of respective groups gradually came into existence.
Around mid 1994 the volume of the activities grew even further. Right-wing extremists started organizing concerts of skinhead bands. In this way they gained not only finances but by the successful organization of concerts they also won the admiration and respect of foreign extremist movements. At this time there was already higher level of conspiracy, especially in hiding foreign contacts including foreign financial sources. At the same time a split of supporters of so-called fascist skinheads (connected to similar organizations in Western Europe) and so-called national skinheads occurred. This trend went on even in 1995 when there was radicalization of younger members, so called “Fashion skins“ which commit brutal, racially motivated attacks. Also there was an increase in the volume of fascist activities presented by printed materials and CD´s. Hammerskins and so called Faschos presented themselves by publishing underground press, coming against people of different color and keeping contacts with foreign countries.
In 1996 an increased intensity of spreading and propagation of the ideas and opinions incompatible with basic democratic principles have been recorded. These ideologies already see as an enemy not only the other racial or ethnic groups but often also the supporters of other ideological, political or religious movements.
A number of right-wing extremists have started focusing on commercial affairs - issuing CDs and other media with cult music, recorded concerts, producing and selling printed T-shirts, sew-on signs etc.
Closest to violent action is still the skinhead scene.
Extremist doctrines have spread especially by means of illegally printed publications - about 50 titles are known in the Czech Republic. In these publications racist, fascist and neo-Nazi texts are being uninhibitedly published.
Another its non-fungible activity are concerts of skinhead bands. These serve besides other to spread and propagat extremist ideologies and it is exactly where the mentioned publications and other materials are being distributed. The concerts held in the Czech Republic are at the present time the biggest in Europe and they serve also as the meeting place of movement personage. These facts have led the police to more severe action. A number of concerts have been canceled by the police, several organizers and musicians are being prosecuted for a criminal offence. By the reduction of concerts, the natural exchange of opinions, printed materials etc. have been impaired. Consequently a higher conspiracy of the skinhead scene has occurred.
The right-wing extremist scene is getting increasingly marked by radicalism of young people who often do not work out in their mind the consequence of proclaimed ideas. Their conviction is often superficial and slogan-ridden and it is being put across with fanaticism rather than argumentation. They are attracted to “direct action“ and operate rather in a group than individually.
The culprits of violent (not only racially motivated) actions are mostly the people on the margin of right-wing extremist organizations or their sympathizers.
At the present time this scene may be divided into:
Among significant fascist organizations there is unregistered organization founded last year: Hnutí národního sjednocení (HNS) (National Consolidation Movement) based on ideas of corporate-state and fundamental Catholicism. After the press media campaign this group retired (only for tactical reasons though). The organization publishes illegally its own magazine, pamphlets and organizes leaflet actions. It cooperates with similar organizations abroad.
Due to internationalization of neo-Nazi groups the range of interests of their members widened. Besides anti-Roma attitudes they are also starting to stand for anti-Semitic attitudes and after that there comes explicitly expressed xenophobia.
Among neo-Nazi organizations in the Czech Republic there was during the last year established a branch of the international organization Blood & Honour - Division Bohemia. The organization issues illegally its own magazine “Rahowa“. It identifies with National Socialist Alliance in Great Britain joining neo-Nazi organizations with “Blood & Honour“ and “Combat 18“ at the head. This organization took over the leading role in Czech neo-Nazi spectrum after Bohemia Hammer Skins (BHS) (also unregistered supranational organization) drew back due to increasing curiosity of police. Blood & Honour closely cooperates with organizations in other countries and at the present time it is the only director and coordinator for organizing concerts.
With this group it is possible to adjoin also the skinheads without definitely formed opinion and “spontaneous“ skinheads who like to “chase around Roma people“, visit concerts etc.
Next to the skinhead scene represented by youth groups there are also other, less significant neo-Nazi, fascist and nationalistic groups in the Czech Republic, which are not a domain of young people though.
Since the beginning of the 90's this group has been mostly organizing demonstrations, manifestations and various marches. This group also issues magazines, organizes meetings with similar foreign groups (East-West type of actions), leaflet actions etc.
The most visible elements on the left-wing scene remain anarchists and autonomists.10 In 1994 they already did demonstrative manifestations (actions against enterprising activities of Mc Donald´s, nuclear energetics, security and arms equipment exposition IDET 94 etc.) Anarchist scene also started permeating with radical ecologists.
In first six months of 1995 there was considerable activation of the anarchist (and punk) movement with numerous demonstrations and actions directed against administrative organs, especially police, courts and municipal organs. The anarchists deliberately chose the form of unauthorized demonstrations (which make possible confrontation with police) and also squatting where following eviction was interpreted as a sign of state and police terror.
During 1996 negative shifts have occurred in the behavior of the left-wing extremist scene supporters (punks and redskins). Their activities became harsher, directed especially against skinhead movement supporters. Also damaging of possession has occurred more often.
At the present time the left-wing extremist scene may be divided into two basic groups:
Anarcho-autonomist groups associate on a ground of vague visions of some kind of absolute freedom and a negative attitude towards “bourgeois“ (denotation for decent citizens). They have a tendency to affiliate with all “protest movements“ - starting with ecologists all the way down to orthodox communists. Their ideology does not suggest any possible solutions but attacks the existing system for being wrong. Due to temperament of the members and high individualism this movement is (even historically) not really capable of long-term strategy which might lead to taking-over the power. The trouble-makers from this movement craving for radicalism and “action“ can therefore either establish purely terrorist groups or else seek satisfaction in ultra-Marxist theories especially Trotskyism and Bolshevism. This rejuvenates a second basic part of the left-wing extremist scene - neo-Bolshevik groups and organizations.
Compared to right-wing extremist groups the Neo-Bolshevik scene has its basis much better grounded in concrete social conditions. It is more sophisticated and it is backed by experience with the worldwide “worker´s“ movement. It is willing to wait for an appropriate situation and prepare this situation in conspiracy, illegally. It takes its goal very seriously (a class struggle, struggle against reaction, contra-revolution etc.). All this makes it a risk for the society - by reminiscence of the past regime and clever populism it may create longing for some type of authoritative regime. Its dangerousness is even bigger for the fact that its supporters and members do not differ from the average society and do not deviate from normal behavior (age, appearance, way of life).
As it is in West-European countries or other post-communist countries also in the Czech republic there operate various registered organizations of right-wing or left-wing orientation which share the refusal of existing social order. Concrete manifestations of this “refusal“ project into some internal policy-statement documents and declarations.
The registered organizations work mostly very carefully and try not to display extremist behavior in public. These organizations do not perform any visible activity which is unconstitutional or contradictory to the Czech Republic law. Members of these groups are not usually found among culprits of torts with extremist subtext. Even when it happens, it is not possible to explicitly prove the link between individual action and activities of the organization. Formally these organizations appear to cause nearly no problems from the viewpoint of state security and order. It is not possible to classify these organizations unequivocally as a part of the extremist spectrum.
Within the spectrum of anti-system organizations the left-wing representatives have in comparison with the right-wing exponents a better starting position. It is because they have more possibilities to obtain information - their members often recruit from top pre-November politicians, former policemen, judges and other people who still often have connection to current state organ structures (personal, economical and other relations). One of the visible manifestations of these groups is taking advantage of various situations in the society for propaganda or misinforming campaigns.
Often it is not possible to distinguish clearly the attitudes held by the organization from those of individual members. In this sense it seems to be necessary to submit the activities of all registered organizations to democratic public control. The organs of public power must within the bonds of their qualification strictly insist on keeping the current law especially in terms of the limits for activities of political parties and civic associations as stated in the constitution and related laws.
A number of new sects from abroad made its way into the Czech Republic and some other have been founded in the country. No truly dangerous religious extremism has been noted in the Czech Republic (the case of Message of the Holy Grail of Parsifal Immanuel may be regarded rather as an exception).12
The experience in other countries warns especially from certain sects, which are already being active in the Czech Republic. Among religious organizations not registered within Ministry of Culture according to law No.161/1992 and 308/1991 and thus not enjoying benefits of related laws in the Czech Republic there are for example: Church of Scientology, Satanic Church, Transcendental Meditation - Maharishi Society, God´s Children (Family of Love) or The Message of a Holy Grail of Parsifal Immanuel. There are dozens of smaller religious organizations with sect character unregistered with the Ministry of Culture. The measure of their influence and possible dangerousness varies.13
The point at issue is, whether the activities of certain religious organizations or sects should be judged according to experience from foreign countries or just by their manifestations in the Czech Republic. Another problem is collective charge because the rulebooks neither the basic teaching of the sects (even the dangerous ones) does not have to necessarily be in contradiction with the law. The cases of unlawful acts done by members of sects then have to be evaluated individually even in cases where the link between individual action and the teaching of the sect is obvious. The amount of criminal offence committed by members of sects in the Czech Republic is not significant.
On the general level we can say that from 1991 until now the manifestations of the extremism (including racially motivated attacks) did not blow out to mass proportions anywhere in the Czech Republic and never led to the destabilization of security in any of the regions nor in the country as a whole. These conflicts remain “excesses“ but in some cases they mean personal tragedy of the individuals or families. They actually affect whole Roma minority, which lives in the conditions of growing feeling of distress.
In the overall volume of criminal activity in the Czech Republic the criminal activity with extremist subtext (including racially motivated acts) represents statistically a very low number. It has to be nevertheless approached as a highly dangerous social phenomenon with high potential.
Even though from 1990 - 1997 a growth of criminal activity with extremist subtext have been recorded we have to understand that these statistic data might be inaccurate, because systematic record keeping of this type of criminal activity has started only after 1995.
An increased number of recorded racially motivated torts since 1996 may be actually an outcome of increased police activity in finding out and describing this activity and its cooperation with stuff of Security Information Service with mutual exchange of weighty information about people organizing meetings and publishing unregistered magazines.
It is not possible to a priori associate criminal offences and trespasses with the existence of extremist groups and related antagonistic groups in the area. It is also not possible to claim that in places where there is no concentration of Roma people there are no right-wing extremist groups.
Higher occurrence of extremist criminal activity is for example in the area with more difficult social situations and lower educational structure - people in such areas incline more to “simple solutions“ which extremists offer.
Escalation of inter-ethnical conflicts is a consequence of permanently insoluble tension between ethnic groups:
Criminal offences and trespasses with extremist subtext are being committed especially by:
The mentioned groups make themselves visible especially by:
Repressive organs have the most numerous experience with supporters of the skinhead movement and with anarcho-autonomists, whose activities have been recorded with various intensity in all regions of the Czech Republic.
What is missing is knowledge about criminal activity of the so-called dangerous sects. At the moment their activities in the Czech Republic are not as intensive as in other countries. A number of sects (as operative police signals suggest) are at the present time building their position here. The same may be said about organizations registered with Ministry of the Interior. Until now it was not possible to prove any link between acts of individual persons and activities of the religious associations. Basically we may say, that there is no record of proved serious crime associated with the members of these organizations.
The most serious cases of breach of the peace in the Czech Republic are connected especially with racial and national intolerance. The criminal activity with racial or national subtext is being done especially by the supporters of the skinhead movement, it is predominantly a matter of young people and it is directed especially against the Roma community. For this reason an increased attention is being paid to the supporters of the skinhead movement and their activities.
In comparison with the preceding years the structure of criminal activity committed by supporters of the skinhead movement has not considerably changed.
This criminal activity (criminal offences and trespasses) is henceforth connected with:
The direct verbal attacks of skinheads without physical contact consist of verbal attacks possibly followed by chasing the victim, insults and menace. Quite common is also a riot in front of Roma houses and breaking windows - always accompanied by threats of liquidation or beating, sometimes culminating by an attempt of breaking in or actual breaking in, where the physical contact usually happens. Sometimes they throw fire-bombs into Roma houses.
Verbal attacks and insults serve usually as an introduction for a physical attack.
The physical attacks of skinheads are being marked by increasing brutality.
Besides other means of aggression skinheads also use psychic terror. These are for example protest marches through the city aimed against Roma people, with chanting slogans (“Gypsies into the gas-chamber“, “Racial control“, “Heil Hitler“) threats of killing accompanied by insults or marking the walls of Roma houses or houses of other foreigners by nazi, fascist, or other symbols. During these occasions the afflicted people feel essentially endangered and await an attack. These acts of psychic terror are often linked with public manifestation of power. They have direct impact on part of the majority society which does not agree with the skinheads but out of concern for its own safety does not react to xenophobic manifestations and is not willing to offer any help to the victims.
Besides few exceptions the group criminal activity prevails. It can be divided into four basic categories:
The crime done in a group is not only more difficult to prove but it is also difficult to legally assess. This is often the reason for prolonging investigation time. Even when the circumstances indicate that the criminal offence has been based on racial or ethnic intolerance this motive is hard to prove during the investigation.
What may become socially very dangerous is the attempt of endangered groups to protect themselves in reaction to inconsistent work of police, courts, state and voluntary organs. Endangered groups might try to defend the group and its possessions by themselves (establishment of so called Roma home-defence) and also take the justice into their own hands (retaliatory action, threatening by blood vendetta etc.).
More considerable activation of Roma people have been noted in Moravia where they started forming troops in defense from skinheads and started taking over some of the skinhead practices (armed attacks at the member of another race with a masked face).
The age-group of offenders also have not changed, they are mostly juveniles. What grows however is the number of under-aged people involved. Many proceedings have to be stopped because of young age of the culprits. This type of criminal activity continues to be done mostly by men.
The most common places of attack also remain similar: public places, streets, public transport stops, stations, subway stations (in Prague) etc. The attacks happen usually spontaneously without long-term preparation.
The most common types of criminal offence are: breach of the peace, assault and battery, violence against the group of the citizens and the individual, disgrace of the nation, the race and the creed, support and propagation of the movement tending to suppressing citizens´ rights and freedoms.
In the future we may expect:
In the Czech Republic the security organs have paid attention to the problem of extremist manifestations since 1990. First clashes between the Roma and skinheads were noted in North Bohemia, serious cases were registered in the capital - Prague. In spite of all the effort the racially motivated clashes have not been successfully eradicated.
Record-keeping of this criminal activity was first introduced in 1995 (entered into force on 1.1. 1996). The previous statistical data must be used with the awareness of their possible inaccuracy.
The data from official crime statistics tell us only about criminal offence with final criminal-law qualification. They are comparable only to the data of the Prosecuting Office for the Czech Republic. They do not convey those criminal cases which remain in a state of prosecuting, have not been completed yet, have been re-qualified, stopped or postponed. Official criminal statistics also do not keep record of trespasses, nor of activities of the supporters of the extremist movement (meetings, concerts, demonstrations etc.) where no criminal activity has occurred. This is a reason why the data from the official crime statistics cannot be compared with data presented in internal databases of the CR Police presenting the cases of criminal activity with extremist subtext the CR Police have dealt with. (Databases of CR Police offer lists of recorded events without regard to their final criminal qualification).
It is therefore necessary to emphasize that both above mentioned outputs have completely different declarative value. It is not possible to compare statistical data from official crime statistics (below) with the data presented in Appendix No. 2.
During 1990 17 serious racially motivated clashes occurred.
In 1991 the CR Police noted a rising number of violence between ethnic groups - 26 serious cases had been registered.
In 1992 this number rose up to 35 cases. Besides that there were dozens of minor conflicts especially between the Roma and the supporters of the skinhead movement, which police did not record because nobody reported it.
In 1993 already 51 manifestations of racial violence were recorded. In comparison to the previous years there were fewer attacks against the Roma and foreigners of dark color in Prague and North Bohemia while there was an increase in number of such cases recorded in North Moravia (13 in comparison to only 1 such case in 1992) and South Moravia (8 in comparison to 3 cases in 1992).
In period January 1991 - September 1993 the Criminal police of the Czech Republic recorded the highest number of conflicts in Prague, North Bohemia and South Moravia. Some isolated cases also occurred in South Bohemia.
This trend continued also in 1994 when 130 cases of criminal offence (racial conflicts) were recorded. Most of the conflicts were between skinheads and the Roma. Their number and type differs in respective districts of the Czech Republic. The prevalence of skinhead activities have been recorded in North Moravia as well as South Moravia where also several skinhead meetings and concerts took place. Another center of skinhead activities in 1994 was East Bohemia. There were cases of breach of the peace and also actions of particular movements presenting their attitudes and power.
In 1995 181 criminal acts were found out and 452 people had been prosecuted.
The gravest cases of racial violence occurred in South Moravia (murder of Tibor Berki in Žďár nad Sázavou, grievous bodily harm inflicted upon J. Polák in Břeclav). As a new phenomenon in 1995 in South Moravia series of the Roma attacks against white people occurred. The activities of the supporters of the skinhead movement were also considerable in North Moravia and also East Bohemia where the most serious clash took place in the town of Broumov (physical assaults between skinheads and a group of the Roma - all together about 60 people).
On some skinhead occasions the foreign participation had been confirmed. The biggest occasion took place in South Bohemia, district of Jindřichův Hradec, in the village Majdaléna. Here during 3.- 6.8.1995 eight hundred people gathered from several states (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Austria). Rise of skinhead activities in South Bohemia have been already noted in 1994.
In 1996 the criminal statistics registered 131 cases of criminal offence with extremist motivation. 152 people were prosecuted.
The cases of criminal acts with racial subtext (of various intensity) were observed in all regions of the Czech Republic including Prague.14 Most of these criminal offences took place in North Moravia (37), in Prague (23) and in South Moravia (21); the lowest number were in South Bohemia (3). The most conflicting climate in South Bohemia was in the town PÍSEK due to debates concerning the death of Tibor Danihel who drowned in the river Otava during a skinhead action in 1993.
Like the years before, the supporters of the skinhead movement have been responsible for most manifestations of extremism and racism. Also the nature of their activities have not basically changed. Those were especially physical attacks against the Roma people (43). In 14 cases foreigners had been attacked. The police have also recorded the attacks of the Roma against the skinheads (12). There were also noted racist and fascist manifestations of skinheads at the concerts, meetings, demonstrations etc.
The skinhead meetings have been recorded in nearly all regions of the Czech Republic. The biggest meeting took place in West Bohemia on 9.11.1996 in the village Kozolupy, district Plzeň-sever. Here more than 700 skinheads (including foreigners) and their supporters gathered at a rock concert of five skinhead music bands.
In first six months of 1997 there were 120 cases of criminal offence with extreme motivation in the Czech Republic (+40 compared to first six months of 1996). For these 168 persons were prosecuted (+79). In first three quarters of 1997 there were 164 cases of criminal offence with extremist motivation registered, for which 188 people were prosecuted.15
Characteristic feature was a large number of conflicts with extremist motivation, especially inter-ethnical conflicts between the supporters of the skinhead movement and the Roma. This situation is undoubtedly influenced by free distribution of racist and neo-Nazi publications (directly or through Internet pages) and also by connection of skinhead groups with similar organizations abroad.
Even in first six months of 1997 the main carriers of extreme attitudes and racist manifestations have been the supporters of the skinhead movement. The most aggressive group in North Bohemia are now “Football Hooligans“ who present themselves by verbal and physical insults and also by manifestations of racial and national intolerance including vandalism.
In first six months of 1997 most of the cases of criminal offence took place in South Moravia (27), in capital - Prague (21) and in North Moravia (19); least in South Bohemia (1). Biggest number of prosecuted people were in South Moravia (59), Prague (25) and in West Bohemia (22).
The most endangered districts in South Moravia are: Brno - město, Jihlava, Žďár nad Sázavou and Břeclav.
The most striking drop in occurrence of racially motivated criminal acts (compared to the same period of 1996) occurred (according to the reports of CR Police) in North Bohemia (nearly 50% less) and in Central Bohemia, North Moravia and East Bohemia.
In terms of criminal activity with extreme or racial subtext an increased attention has to be paid to North Moravia and South Moravia. These regions had even in 1996 the biggest occurrence of the above stated criminal activity. This trend started in 1993 and continued in 1994 and 1995. Since 1994 there have been certain areas in this territory, which have the highest occurrence of this type of criminal activity in the Czech Republic. In North Moravia these are: OSTRAVA, KARVINÁ, PŘEROV, BRUNTÁL and FRÝDEK-MÍSTEK, joined in the first six months of 1996 by OLOMOUC and OPAVA; in South Moravia it is BRNO, HODONÍN, BLANSKO and JIHLAVA. Moreover it was in this area where in 1995 a racially motivated murder happened (Žďár nad Sázavou) and also grievous bodily harm resulting from racially motivated assault (Břeclav).16
The affliction of both regions by extremist criminal activity (connected especially with activities of skinhead movement supporters and members) might be directly or indirectly related to following situation:
Since 1996 it is possible to observe a growing number of torts with racial or other extremist motivation and a growing number of offenders. This comes out of statistical data for the first six months of 1996 and 1997: This trend is being confirmed by statistical data for the first 3 quarters of 1997. Until 30.9. 1977, 164 cases of criminal offence with extremist motivation were already registered, which is 33 more compared to the whole of 1996. Also the number of offenders recorded in the first 3 quarters of 1997 had already outgrown the number of offenders registered in whole of 1996 (by 36 people).17
By the constitutional statute No. 4/1993 (concerning measures related to extinction of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic) the newly established Czech Republic took over all the related commitments ensuing from the international law. The statute came into force on 31.12.1992
By this act the Czech Republic has also agreed to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Also on 9.10.1993 on the European Council Summit in Vienna along with other states the Czech Republic accepted Declaration and Action Plan for Overthrowing Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Intolerance. In January 1995 the Czech Republic agreed to the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Inappropriate Behavior at the Sport Contests Especially Football Matches from 19.8.1985 (governmental resolution No. 27 from 11.1. 1985).18 The Ministry of the Interior is at the present time responsible for preparing the report about the attitude of the Czech Republic towards the European Union material (Part A, Section I, Chapter 3 with the sub-item concerning the issue of the prevention and overthrowing racism and xenophobia. Brussels, December 1996.).
The Czech Republic, striving for acceptance into the EU, meets in the area of human rights and protection of minorities rebukes related to the complex problem of the situation of the Roma in Czech Republic and racial discrimination (as illustrated by expert opinion of the European Committee to Czech Republic membership application). According to this expert opinion, there are various sorts of everyday discrimination in the Czech Republic. What is pointed out there is exposition of the Roma to skinhead violence without adequate protection from the police and offices. The social situation of the Roma is burdensome - distinct discrimination of Roma by the majority of society projecting into the area of job opportunities and housing. The expert opinion also mentions a discrimination in the area of citizenship rights.
In this context, the publicly declared wish of a number of the Roma to leave the country and ask for refugee status in Canada because of racial discrimination worked quite like “an explosive“ on the international scene. This has provoked an unpleasant and prematurely conscious campaign in massmedia against the Czech Republic.19
According to the notification of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (within the scope of international human-right control mechanisms) between January 1995 and June 1997 one report of human right violation in connection with racial discrimination was submitted. This was the complaint made on February 29. 1996 (No. 96/4/2.466) according to so-called “Procedure 1503“. The UN Committee for human rights (higher organ of Procedure 1503), consented on its 53rd conference in March 1997 to stop observing the case.
According to notification of the Ministry of Justice, until now the Czech Republic has not been officially informed about any complaint made to the European Commission for human rights (further only as “Commission“) reporting any discriminative behaviour of domestic bodies towards the Roma. But the Czech Republic is not being officially informed about the complaints entered to preliminary record or final registration by the Committee Secretariat. Only after this steps follows the decision concerning the acceptability of the complaint that the discussion may start and the particular state is notified. For this reason it is not possible to rule out registration of such complaint which is going to be communicated to the Czech Republic after prescribed conditions and requirements are fulfilled.
The whole issue of the Roma in the Czech Republic is being watched abroad and more or less covered by media. In the publications and articles about the situation in the Czech Republic there is often unclearness about the validity and relevance of the information sources.20
Recently the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted several attacks against foreign students in the Czech Republic based on xenophobic motives.21If this negative phenomenon should rise there is a danger it will get covered by media and the international prestige of the Czech Republic will be harmed.
One of the priorities from the viewpoint of preparing the Czech Republic's entrance into the European Union is reaching compatibility of the Czech law with European, also in the area of “extremism“ as a whole with an emphasis on the manifestations of racism, national intolerance, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the society. What comes into the foreground is the necessity to make an evaluation of the juristic means used in other European countries for the elimination of extremist manifestations and to ponder their possible application in the conditions of Czech law.
The Czech Government has continued to pay attention to the issue of racism and other intolerant manifestations in the society already since 1993, the first year of its existence. The Czech Government had already declared its decision to “stand up to all manifestations of intolerance which are causing distress to any minority“ in its resolution No. 67/1993. In 1994 it included racial conflicts and racial discrimination among the most serious security risks. The instigation for this was from the written material: “Inter-ethnic conflicts (Analysis of the Conflicts in Consequence of Which the Assaults Against the Roma and Members of Other Ethnic Groups Have Been Reported in the Czech Republic During January - October 1993)“ (1993) prepared by the Ministry of the Interior. This was the very first material concerning the issue of inter-ethnic conflicts in the Czech Republic. It notably contributed to a description of its risks. The security situation is being closely observed and evaluated annually in the “Reports on the security situation in the Czech Republic“, which are being discussed in Parliament.
Other significant activities of the Czech Republic Government happened in 1995 in reaction to the development of extremism and criminal activity with racial or national subtext.
On 10.5.1995 the Government adopted a resolution No. 279 concerning “Information about manifestation of extremist attitudes in the Czech Republic“, presented by the Ministry of the Interior. In this resolution the Government ordered the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Justice to adopt measures ensuring more effective policy for preventing and punishing criminal offences and trespasses motivated by racial or national intolerance or committed by supporters of extremist groups. After a meeting with the Prime Minister on 16.5. 1995 (following the case of the brutal murder of T. Berki) in the presence of top representatives of Ministry of Interior, Police board, CR Prossecutor Office, Ministry of Justice, and the Attorney General's Office, other systemic measures for elimination of extremist attitudes in the Czech Republic were adopted. By this step the Government made it clear, that it is not willing to tolerate manifestations of racism and that it is going to punish severely such acts. The Government supported its resolution by a decision to increase the number of policemen assigned for the problem of extremist and juvenile crime (resolution No. 456 from 16.8.1995). Also a governmental proposal of the penal code amendment intending to deal out severe penalty for crime activity motivated by racial or national intolerance was approved. It entered into force on 1.9. 1995
In reaction to a grievous bodily harm caused to J.Polák, the Czech Government issued the resolution No. 580 on October 1.1995. The Government asked for the document “The Information About Measures Ensuring More Effective Policy of Preventing and Penalizing Crime Offences and Trespasses Motivated by Racial or National Intolerance or Committed by Supporters of Extremist Groups“, presented by the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice. The material also informed the Government about solving the criminal offences referred to in the supplement “Information“ from May 1995.
The way systemic measures are being performed is being observed in the course of things. By resolution No. 577 (item 8/1) from 13.11.1996 (concerning actualization of the Ministry of the Interior conception in the area of home order and security and doctrine of CR Police) the Government of the Czech Republic has imposed on the Minister of the Interior together with the Minister of Justice a task to present by 31.12.1997 the evaluation of the efficiency of measures adopted on basis of government's resolution No. 279/1995.22
The government of the Czech Republic is occupying itself with the given problems and it is fully aware of its seriousness and dangerousness. Until now the government did not succeed in organizing an extensive universal campaign against racism and manifestations of extremism, similar to that in Germany, for example.
At the time of the first conflicts between skinheads and the Roma the first measures had been taken in 1990. (Extra security actions, establishing operative headquarters in the administration offices of the Public Security and the Municipal Administration Office of the Public Security Praha, reinforcement of police capacity in Prague etc.). The past leadership of Ministry of the Interior discussed these problems with the representatives of the Romany Civic Initiative and the Civic Forum. They agreed to cooperate and mutually exchange information at the central level as well as in the regions and districts. The Czech Republic Government and the Nationality Board of the Czech National Council has been repeatedly informed. Because of police registering a growing number of violent inter-ethnic conflicts (the skinhead movement supporters started attacking also the citizens of Vietnam, Bulgaria, Romania and other foreigners with darker skin) the Chief Constable of the Czech Republic issued a command No. 9 on 21.11. 1991 (“Methodical instruction for uniting police actions in protecting security of people and possessions from unlawful acts of extremist groups and movements“). At that time already, the first needed steps for the elimination of extremist manifestations had been determined.
It was obvious from the very beginning, how difficult it was going to be to recognize motivation of the criminal offence in its subjective aspect (which means in the consciousness of an offender) and to prove this part of the fact of the case. Another problem that came out is the subjective attitude of the police officer to which the offence had been reported. It depends on the police officer whether the manifestation of the inter-ethnic violence will be played down or not, whether it will be defined as a trespass or as a criminal offence and whether some of the penal code provisions concerning manifestations of racial intolerance will be applied.
After the origination of the Czech Republic (1.1.1993) Ministry of the Interior and the Czech Republic Police kept paying increasing attention to a development of the criminal activity with racial or national subtext or committed by supporters of extremist groups. Ministry of the Interior worked out first material describing this issue and together with the Czech Republic Police started looking for systemic solutions to minimize these undesired and potentially dangerous social phenomena.
The year 1994 seemed to be a turning point. While from 1990 - 1993 there were only few cases reported, there were already 130 cases of criminal offence (racial conflicts) recorded in 1994. The course of action of the CR Police against extremist manifestations and criminal activity with racial or national subtext had not been efficient enough until the beginning of 1995 and the number of criminal offences kept growing. This had been also criticized on meeting of Romany organizations arranged by the Council Nationalities of the Government of the Czech Republic. After this discussion it was imposed on the police president to make sure the police act more strictly in cases of racially or nationally motivated violence. By Ministry of Interior's resolution No. 23 from 5. May 1995 the course of action in reporting cases of serious breech of the peace and other such events had been determined.
The racially motivated murder of T. Berki, which happened on 13. May 1995 fully confirmed the propriety of the Czech Government's decision expressed by resolution No. 279 from 10.5.1995 which initiated passing a number of essential measures for punishing and preventing the mentioned type of criminal activity.
On account of the governmental resolution No. 279/1995 and consultation with the Prime Minister on 16. 5.1995 the Police President imposed on his deputies and regional directors a duty to take uncompromising, resolute, strict measures against all manifestations of racism or national intolerance and for this to use all available powers and means including technical ones.
On 19.5.1995 the Police President issued Binding instruction No. 6 determining the course of police action in case of the mass breaking of the peace or criminal activity with racial or national subtext. The instruction determines in more details especially:
The Binding Instruction of the Police President No. 6/1995 was amended by Binding instruction No. 14 from 18. July 1996. The above mentioned tasks are of a permanent nature and they are being performed in the police departments of all commandment degrees.
In order to ensure more effective proceedings against criminal activity and trespasses motivated by racial or national intolerance or committed by the supporters of extremist groups, Ministry of the Interior adopted special measures (of personal. organizational and legislative nature). These measures are expressed in the Order of Minister of the Interior No. 39 from 13.6.1995, which imposes the tasks of the elimination of extremist attitudes in the Czech Republic, the Binding Instructions of the Police President (Order No. 41, 43, 72, 91 and Binding instructions No. 12, 13 and 16 from 1995 and No.14 from 1996) and also in the instruction of the Chief Constable of the CR Police - Prosecuting Office for the Czech Republic (from May 23.1995). What also helps to strengthen the efficiency of the mentioned measures is the Order of Minister of the Interior No.75 from 14. November 1995 by which “The General Pact Of Cooperation Between Ministry of the Interior, the CR Police and the Security Information Service“ has been concluded.
The Order of Minister of the Interior No. 20 from 29. April 1996 specified the activity of the Coordination Committee for the Issues of Spectator Violence and Inappropriate Behavior at the Sport Contests, Especially Football Matches. In the same year (out of the initiative of Minister of the Interior) an inter-departmental working group was established for preparing analytical data for the material to be presented to the Government. The idea was to make a multi-layer picture of the observed problem, out of which it would be possible to derive other systemic steps towards the remedy of the problems connected to extremist manifestations in the society.
The Minister of the Interior also took up the tasks contained in the Chamber of Deputies Resolution No.108 from 10.10.1996
Strict policy towards public manifestations of racial intolerance and extremist actions remains one of the priorities of the work of the Czech Republic Police.
Fulfilling the Order of the Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995
The execution of the Order of the Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995 is supervised by the Ministry of the Interior and the need to react to new processes connected to extremist activities will be pointed out to responsible functionaries.
For the use of the CR Police the Binding Instruction of the Police President No. 16/1995 was issued, which prepared the conditions for the basic orientation of the police officers in the spectrum of extremist manifestations. In this material the attention is being paid to all extremist manifestations (be it elements of racism, religious sectarianism, anti-Semitism, etc.) all this in various levels of consequence (trespass, criminal offence but also just an operational signal). The Binding Instruction also allows to fulfill the tasks presented in other paragraphs of the Order. What seems to be needed in the present time is an amendment of Binding Instruction No. 16/1995.
The policy for the prosecuting of criminal offence with racial subtext was treated by the Instruction No. 2 issued by the Director of CR Prosecuting Office on 23.5.1995. It orders the directors of respective prosecuting offices to appropriate these criminal cases to the expert prosecutors or at least to the most experienced ones. If it is an exacting case (by the act itself or by the number of offenders) than the team of prosecutors should be put together to ensure a good quality of prosecuting. The instruction also specifies the duty to clarify the motivation of an act, obligation to use legal qualification according to related provisions of the penal code, duty of regular consultation with the supervising state attorney and also the reporting duty of passing the experience to the Criminal Police. It also specifies the reporting duty towards the Czech Republic Prosecuting Office. The directors of prosecuting offices in the districts and regions observe this instruction, no breaking of it has been found. The inspection of the prosecuting offices discovered, that in most cases the legal definition of the unlawful acting was in advance consulted with the state attorney, or the prosecutor received a binding instruction of the state attorney to bring charge for a specific criminal offence. According to opinion of the Chief Constable of the CR Police - Prosecuting Office, the wrong assessment is a mistake but it is not a serious procedural failing because the final decision still belongs to the independent court. The reporting duty has been extended by the Instruction of the Chief Constable of CR Police - Prosecuting Office, from 27.6. 1997 imposing the duty to send fact-based decisions when the prosecuting is finished.
A consistent record-keeping of the criminal offences and trespasses with extremist subtext has been started on all levels of the CR Police including the CR Prosecuting Office. Also the decision has been made to create, within the scope of information system “Purification“ (Očista), another subsystem called “Extremism“ for the use of the expert criminologists. The subsystem derives from the Order of the Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995 and respects the conditions for the work in the sector of extremism defined by the Binding Instruction of the Police President No. 16/1995. The objective of this subsystem is to bring under control all criminal activity connected to extremism including trespasses.23This may considerably help to improve the quality of work of criminal police experts in finding out and penalizing the criminal activity with extremist subtext.
Respective prosecuting offices contribute to coherent record keeping by providing the Criminal Offence Form and the Unknown Offender Form into the Crime Record Keeping and Statistical System. For reporting criminal activity with extremist subtext are still relevant only the data presented in official crime statistics. Even though these criminological statistics are based mostly on the data from the prosecuting offices, these are still not completely in line with statistical data presented separately by the CR Prosecuting Office. This testifies lasting problems in the area of reporting.
Cooperation of the Czech Republic Police with the Security Information Service in the sector of extremism has been ensured by adopting a general agreement between Ministry of the Interior and the Security Information Service. On basis of this agreement, another pact concerning the relationship and cooperation was signed at the end of 1995 by the director of the Department IV of the Security Information Service and the director of the CR Criminal Police Headquarters. By this agreement a mutual information exchange on the level of basic, operational contact has been ensured. The CR Police closely cooperates with the Security Information Service, which results in a better standard of the police interventions against mass extremist actions. This improvement has been noted during 1996 by the CR Police functionaries and also by the general public and by activists engaged in the protection of human rights. For this reason the agreement has been prolonged at the end of 1996.
According to item III/2 of the Order of Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995 the CR Prosecuting Office is obliged to keep informing the Civil-Administrative Sector of Ministry of the Interior about handing-over to the State Attorney's Office the proven extremist criminal cases connected with associations registered with Ministry of the Interior. It was stated on the meeting of the representatives of the CR Prosecuting Office and the Civil-Administrative Sector of the Ministry of the Interior that up to now, there has been no case where the connection between the act of the physical person and the activity of an association has been proved. An agreement has been made to extend this cooperation also in the area of criminal activity of functionaries of various political parties and movements.24
The Legislative Council of Ministry of the Interior discussed on 17. July 1997 the objective purpose of amendment of the law No. 83/1990, concerning associating of citizens. The revised proposal was presented on 29. 7. 1997 for the inter-department commenting procedure. On 1.10.1997 it was sent to the Government Legislative Council. The proposed amendment goes together with original intention to speed up the work of Ministry of the Interior and use legal sanctions (to break up the association in case racist or other extremist activity has been discovered in it).
On 1.6.1995 a peace-keeping unit was established in Prague, containing 170 policemen. Similar unit containing 120 policemen operates since 1.1.1993 in Ostrava. These units participate in police interventions against mass breaches of the peace and criminal activities with racial, national or other extremist subtext.
On 1.8.1995, within a scope of Dept. 5 of the General Crime Department - Criminal Police Headquarters CR (which deals with juvenile crime, crime done to juveniles, moral criminality and addiction) a specialized center for methodology and operative coordination of the CR Police in the sector of extremism was established. Resulting working group “extremism“ occupies itself with the issues of extremist manifestations, racially motivated attacks, hooliganism at sport contests and dangerous sects.25
For the investigation of the criminal activity of extremist nature (including racially motivated criminal activity) there are no expert-investigators appointed specializing chiefly in this type of criminal activity. It is not possible due to a low number of investigators and a high occurrence of this criminal activity. The investigation of this type of criminal activity is being entrusted to the most experienced investigators though.
The basic precondition for successful fighting of extremism is the consistence of duty performance in this sector. This requires an exact definition of the relationship between the departments of the criminal police within various levels of command:
The experts, which ensure especially methodical and control work are not equipped with sufficient competence and their recommendation is not binding for the commanders of regional and district criminal police. Not respecting the experience and methodical advice of specialists from the group “Extremism“ has a negative impact and impairs solving the problem.
The tasks:
By the governmental resolution No. 456 from 16.8.1995 the number of policemen assigned for the issue of extremism and juvenile crime was raised by 87 men. The second part of the decision says, that from 1.1.1996 there will be gradually at least one policeman singled out for the mentioned issue in each district headquarter of the CR Police.
On 2.1.1996 a proposal was worked up for redistribution of chart-posts assigned to the issue of extremism (issuing from demands of police functionaries and their evaluation of the security situation in the sector of extremism). On the basis of this proposal in keeping with the Governmental resolution No. 279/1995 and the Order of Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995 the task was secured from the reserve-fund of Ministry of the Interior. The minimal number of chart-posts assigned exclusively to specialists in the sector of juvenile crime has been raised. At the same time also the number of chart-posts for the issue of extremism was raised. All together there were 140 chart-posts redistributed among districts, municipal criminal police headquarters, regional administrative departments and the criminal police central headquarters.
The utilization of assigned chart-posts is at the present time quite different at different places. In spite the fact it has been pointed out to the responsible police functionaries, that the chart-posts are assigned for a special issue requiring extra attention, some of them did not fully appreciate the intention to create a nation-wide network of experts in the problem of extremism. On the basis of control and methodical work, conclusions of instructive and methodical occupations and consultations with police functionaries and workers on basic posts, we know, that in some cases the chart-posts remain unoccupied, in other cases there is high fluctuation, the policemen assigned to the issue of extremism are being given other tasks in different sectors of general crime (usually juvenile delinquency, moral or violent crime) they are being transferred to completely different issues.
The tasks:
Within the framework of the grant system of Ministry of the Interior a grant was given for the writing of an expert monograph: “Political Extremism In the Czech Republic“ (1996 -1997). This manual offers a theoretical definition of political extremism as well as the typology of the main current forms of political extremism in the Czech Republic and a general overview and the basic characteristics of the main extremist anti-system formations operating in the Czech Republic.
In the first six months of 1997 a manual called: “Extremism“ was issued for internal use. The manual presents a brief but comprehensive look at extremism. It starts with the description of its basic features and ends with special issues of proving and juristic qualification of manifestations of extremism. The manual sufficiently fulfills the needs of policemen and prosecutors by its extent as well as its printing run (9200 pcs).
Further education and training of policemen and prosecutors related to the issue of extremism, its particular forms, controversial questions concerning interpretation and application related to criminal offences with extremist motivation have been ensured by the departments of the CR Police through expert lectures and courses.
The tasks:
The main tasks
The registered publications still remain on the margin of the interest of organs active in the criminal proceedings. For the present time nobody is engaged in systematic monitoring and evaluating of possibly defective contents (xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-system or otherwise hateful contributions).29
Unregistered publications (including so-called “zines“ full name skinzines), the magazines published by various branches of the skinhead movement often contain practical directions for illegitimate and criminal activities and contributions provoking racial and national intolerance. The legal punishment of authors, publishers and distributors of such publications is difficult and at the present time not efficient enough. The police keep concentrating on discovering sources of these publications. In spite of this effort only a small percentage of cases are being carried through to a trial. Some of the cases are being returned by the prosecutor for the lack of supporting data collected by the criminal police. According to the record of the criminal police some cases are being put aside or stopped without sufficient reason or the investigation goes on but for the criminal offence with a lower tariff than that formerly assessed by the criminal police.30
The illicit publications are mostly distributed on the collective extremist occasions. The P.O. boxes serve just for receiving orders.
Practical experience of the Headquarters of the Criminal Police, CR Prosecuting Office and Security Information Service has shown, that investigation of criminal activity committed by means of printed matter is ineffective when carried out in the following steps: The police (for example disciplinary police) get hold of a piece of unregistered publication and passes it over to the Criminal Police Headquarters. There the specialists from the group “Extremism“ extract all possible information from the publication. But then they get into the situation of lacking direct evidence, unable to prove the intention etc. The result is that the members of the group “Extremism“ record a large number of such publications, but cannot prove the offenders (authors, publishers, distributors) guilty.
The power of activities of the CR Police has to be focused on the extremist demonstrations and concerts that are being prepared. On these occasions then police have to consistently confiscate publications from concrete people. This policy would increase the efficiency of penalizing the criminal activity connected to the propagation of extremist ideologies and treasonous attitudes.
What becomes more and more obvious is the danger connected to the information network Internet. Until now there was no legal complaint filed for the distribution of information with racial or other extremist subtext through the Internet and no investigation is being carried out. Nevertheless the Internet network is being used for illicit purposes. It is a very powerful means of communication. The measures against spreading “hostile“ information do not turn out well even in developed democracies.
The tasks:
Improvement of cooperation with foreign partners in solving the problem of extremism
At the moment there is not sufficient cooperation between the CR Police and repressive organs of neighboring countries concerning the issue of extremism. Such cooperation could at least improve the process of document check-up of people entering the Czech Republic and aid effective uncovering of personal connections of Czech extremists with the foreign ones. The cooperation on international level would make possible information exchange concerning the fluctuation of the members of the extremist groups between CR and other countries and also cooperation while keeping peace an order on occasions within the country.
The tasks:
To ensure that:
The Ministry of Justice worked up the proposal of the penal code amendment, which entered into force on 1.9.1995. All the penal tariffs for criminal offence with racial motivation have been raised on average by one year of imprisonment. Raising the penal tariff in itself is not a sufficient measure, though, and it does not solve the problem of racially motivated criminal activity. In order to make it effective it is necessary to concentrate on speeding up court trials, but this is limited by the lack of judges and their overburdening case load.
Ministry of Justice regularly observes and evaluates the quickness of the court action in cooperation with the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the district and county courts.
Annually the Ministry inspects all competently closed cases related to the observed criminal activity. The inspection observes especially fluency and quickness of trial and correct use of the legal qualification. In 1996 there was found no delay caused by work of the courts.
On 1.1.1998 the law No. 209/1997 concerning financial help to the victims of criminal activity from 3.9.1997 will enter into force. This law also applies to the victims of criminal activity with racial subtext committed by the members of extremist groups.
The Attorney General's Office issued the general instruction No. 3/1995 according to which the state attorneys are obliged since 1.6.1995 to strictly and quickly prosecute the cases of criminal offence with racial motivation. This instruction yields good practical results and there is no need for amending it.
As for the supervision of investigation of criminal activity the state attorneys make sure that the criminal activity is clarified as soon as possible and that the offender is put to the court. The increased supervision by state attorneys contributes to improvement of the work of investigators (especially eliminating wrong qualification and making them to use the facts of the case).
It is generally thought that the state attorneys are not effectively doing their job and that it is their duty to search for the cases of criminal activity and find out the offenders. But in reality this is the role of the police.
The accepted measures resulted in an increased smoothness and quickness of investigation of criminal cases with extremist subtext and in a growing number of people prosecuted and sentenced for this type of criminal activity.
Solving particular cases is most effective when the specialists mutually cooperate from the beginning of investigation all the way through to the lawsuit.
In 1996 there were 128 persons sentenced for criminal offence with racial motivation. These criminal offences were committed mostly by juveniles (81 culprits, which is 63,28%). 14 condemned persons were designated by the court as recidivists. For the criminal offence of violence against a group of inhabitants and against individual according to penal code §196, art. 2, art. 3, 56 persons were sentenced. For the criminal offence of vilification of the nation, race and creed according to the penal code §198 14 people were sentenced. For the criminal offence of instigation of racial and national intolerance according to the penal code §198 18 persons were sentenced. For the criminal offence of murder according to the penal code §219 art. 2 g) 2 persons were sentenced. For the criminal offence of physical harm according to the penal code §221 art.2 b) 21 persons were sentenced. For the criminal offence of bodily harm - grievous bodily harm according to the penal code §222 art. 2 b) 17 persons were sentenced. For the criminal offence of support and propagation of the movement aiming for suppressing the rights and freedoms of inhabitants according to the penal code §260 5 persons were sentenced and according to the penal code §261 51 persons were sentenced.
During the first six months of 1997 there were 96 people sentenced (out of which 45 were juveniles). During first three-quarters of 1997 there were 131 people sentenced (out of which 52 were juveniles).
The statistical data from the Attorney General's Office and the criminal records testify to unevenness of occurrence of the criminal activity connected to racial, national or other hateful motivation. In 1996 the highest number of the prosecuted, sued, and sentenced people were recorded in the court districts of South Moravia, North Bohemia and Prague.
In cases where the court dismisses racial or national motive or imposes sentence inadequate to seriousness of the criminal act, the state attorneys usually submit a legal remedy. As for the verdict there is usually no disaccord between the opinion of state attorneys and judges. From the state attorneys' point of view the sentences are mostly adequate. These are given in keeping with final proposal of the state attorney at the main trial. In case this proposal is not respected, the state attorney submits the usual legal remedy.
At the present time there is no forthcoming amendment for eventual simplification of punishment of the criminal offences with extremist motivation. It is because the penal code determining the course of action of all the organs active in the criminal proceedings provides sufficient possibilities with the aid of the penal warrant. In judicial practice courts in most cases apply the penal warrant, because it speeds up the proceedings. Only when imprisonment for more than one year may be assumed are the cases heard in the main trial.
The problems occur especially:
For the time being, what comes out of comparing specifications of the possible criminal torts which extremists abroad can commit is the conclusion that Czech law concerning extremist acts is basically sufficient. Actually as for the acts characterized as racially motivated or directed against an individual or group of citizens for their different political opinion or religious faith, the Czech law is actually more detailed and contains more special facts of the case (for example §219 art. 2. g), §221 art. 2 b) and §222 art.2 b).
The only thing missing in the Czech penal code is the provision concerning undesired manifestations of political extremism. In some other countries (France, Germany) the criminal acts, which may result from manifestations of the political extremism, are worked out in more detail compared to the current Czech penal code provisions. This brings out a question, whether or not it would be appropriate to introduce (at the time of re-codification of criminal law) penalization of manifestations of political extremism consisting in unlawful activity against democratic foundations of the state. This potential criminal activity may for example consist of unlawful acting of the party (association, club) representatives. This means these would be criminal acts related to breaking the norms determining the right of association. Another potential criminal activity may consist of breaking the prohibition of the right to assemble, which means that people held responsible would be functionaries, who summoned unlawful meeting, manifestation etc.
Just the fact that Czech penal code does not contain the above mentioned facts of the case, does not mean it is insufficient. The law of other countries must be always compared in broader context with regard to the prescribed penalty for a particular criminal offence. Actually in some cases other sanctions (usually of administrative nature) may be more severe and efficient than criminal law of a particular foreign country. In this connection it will be needed in terms of forthcoming re-codification of the criminal law to assess the criminal law of the EU countries concerning manifestations of extremism and its practical efficiency. This procedure is expected by the committee of the Ministry of Justice which receives and works out the proposal for re-codification of criminal law and penal code.
In the appendix of this report there are quoted legal regulations representing the main tool the state uses to ensure the equal status for all people and to work against the manifestations of racism, xenophobia and national or ethnic hatred. The regulations quoted in this summary may be divided into two major groups. The first group contains those legal regulations, which either positively establish and define principles of equal status of all people regardless of their race, nationality or other aspects, or in which these principles are being expanded into concrete legal spheres. These principles have their basis in the constitutional order of the Czech Republic and from them must derive all the laws and procedural regulations. In case of a contradiction between these the decision is up to the Constitutional Court. There is no case known when only after the findings of the Constitutional Court some legal regulation or its part had to be canceled because it created unequal status of people as to their race or allegiance to a particular nation or ethnic. In practical application of the mentioned regulations anyone who feels that his/her rights have been violated by a decision the public administration organ may turn to a court for a review of the legality of such decision (Article 36 section 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms). This right may be limited only by law.
The second above-mentioned group consists of legal regulations, which should stand up to manifestations of racism and national intolerance and punish such things, when they happen. In this respect the dominant position belongs to the penal code which has been significantly replenished through recent amendment by the statute No.152/1995 in order to achieve more efficient penalization of racially motivated criminal activity. But we must point out otherwise very limited possibilities of the criminal law to correct often voiced opinion that criminal activity (of any sort) is just a consequence of insufficient penal tariffs, having the basis in the penal code. Through application of the penal code it is possible to protect the society in some way (even though not absolutely) from the offenders because during the punishment (and in dependence on its pedagogical effect also after it) - we prevent reoccurrence of the criminal activity. Even just declaring certain behavior a crime may have preventive effect that increases especially when the punishment for such act is swift and adequate. The penal code usually cannot significantly help to eliminate the causes of criminal activity. It can only discover them, point them out and take them into the consideration while deciding the punishment. It is up to other subjects then organs active in criminal proceedings to look after evaluating these facts for more effective tools (legislative, organizational, pedagogical or other) aimed especially at the prevention of this criminal activity.
Criminal activity motivated by racial or national intolerance does not harm just the state but also everyone living in the area. For this reason it cannot be only up to the state to look for the means of impediment or at least limitation of this criminal activity. The state should play the role of a coordinator and guaranty of the activities of a number of other subjects. The role of the law in the prevention and suppression of manifestations of intolerance is undoubtedly significant but it should not be over-estimated or understood as the only way of solving these issues.
The prevention of racial and national intolerance, xenophobia and criminal activity committed by the supporters of extremist groups is being done on several levels. It is necessary on two respective levels of prevention: 1) preventing criminal activity and 2) preventing intolerant moods in the society. Naturally, both these levels are connected.
On a general level of crime prevention the Czech Republic government adopted a number of measures naturally involving also the prevention of criminal activity with racial or other extremist motivation.
The organization, which is especially responsible for crime prevention (on the primary, secondary as well as tertiary level) is the Republic Crime Prevention Committee, appointed by governmental resolution No. 617 from 3.11.1993. Its' members are: the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance and the Inter-Department Anti-Drug Commission. Direction and coordination of its activity is up to the Ministry of the Interior. The Minister of the Interior is the Chair of the Committee and his first Secretary is the Vice-Chair.
The Republic Crime Prevention Committee carried the responsibility of the entire Czech government to provide methodical and conceptual support for the towns burdened with a high crime-rate. The mediator between the Republic Committee and local authorities is the crime-prevention division of the Ministry of the Interior.
Some other significant governmental measures include:
The priority of the Republic Crime Prevention Committee is the crime prevention program on the local level, made possible by the means of the Complex Coordination Program for Crime Prevention (CCP). At the present time the CCP program is functioning in 38 towns in the Czech Republic. These are the towns with the highest crime-rate or other socially-pathological phenomena (such as high unemployment rate [especially a long-term one], a high number of people receiving welfare and social help replenishing or substituting income).
The Committee supports projects that are aimed for helping endangered groups of the disintegrated Romany population. In choosing these projects the Committee gives priority to those in areas with high number of Romany population or high rate of racist manifestations.
Within the scope of CCP there are methodically and financially supported projects focusing on:
In 1998 the individual projects specialized in solving the social situation of the Roma (including their situation in local communities) will be evaluated and worked up as methodology of the systemic approach to the solution of inter-ethnic relationships at the local level.
A very important activity in the area of softening inter-ethnic tensions is a project performed by R-MOSTY association in cooperation with the Conflict Solving Center.
The Republic Crime Prevention Committee does not concentrate directly on the problem of extremism, nevertheless by its regular, generally oriented activity aimed at the problem-youth groups in the cities with a high criminal rate it plays an important role of helping to prevent extremist oriented crime.
The following institutions participate in prevention on a broader scale: The Council for Nationalities of the Czech Republic Government, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and partially also the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
The Council for Nationalities of the Czech Republic Government is the only centrally operating initiative and advisory organ of the government which takes part in solving public issues concerning minorities. It evaluates social connections of inter-ethnic tension, observes the situation of respective minorities in the Czech Republic, evaluates the attitude of the majority of society towards minorities etc. In the case of Roma ethnic it pays attention to the places of inter-ethnic tension and also the reasons for its escalation.
The Inter-Ministerial Commission For Roma Community Affairs solves the questions related to the position of Roma in the Czech Republic. (The commission was established on basis of governmental resolution No. 640 from 15.10.1997). The committee evaluates especially conceptual and realizable data for the governmental decisions concerning the Roma community, assesses performance of adopted governmental resolutions, suggests distribution of finances singled out for the Roma community support programs. It also assesses their efficiency and controls the use of finances, collects data concerning the situation and development of the Roma community. In case of need it also works up comprehensive information about the general situation of Roma community, supports acquaintance of Roma with these programs, cooperates with Roma and pro-Roma organizations and executes their suggestions.
The Ministry of Culture within its programs also deals with the prevention of xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism prevention. The most remarkable is its support of the projects in the area of the national minorities' culture. The basic principle of the approach of the Ministry of Culture towards the Romany issue is an attempt to create a space in which Romany people (represented mostly by civic associations) would by themselves assert their cultural interests and needs (support of Romany national press, folklore, museums etc.). Basically all the activities supported by the Ministry of Culture point to cultivation of personality which in the final effect contributes to the elimination of observed negative social processes.
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (thereinafter MEYS) has started a number of activities for the year 1995 on the occasion of “Year of struggle against racism, xenophobia and intolerance“ proclaimed by the Council of Europe.
In May 1995 the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports imposed on the Research Institute of Pedagogy and the Research Institute of Specialized Education the task of preparing “Analysis of pedagogical documents for basic and secondary schools with a regard for the possibility of the school working against manifestations of racism, xenophobia and intolerance“.
On the grounds of the mentioned analysis other significant materials have been prepared concerning anti-racist education and education towards tolerance in the basic and secondary schools: “Instruction of the Undersecretary of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic for the Basic and Secondary Schools Concerning Working of Schools and Schooling Institutions Against Manifestations of Racism, Intolerance and Xenophobia“ (No. 20734/1995 - 21, the bulletin of MEYS CR from 18.8.1995).
The instruction points out growing danger of manifestations of racism, xenophobia and intolerance in our society and also the necessity to prepare the children and young people for coexistence with people of different nationalities, religions and ethnic. This should be achieved by using the possibilities of respective learning subjects as well as the influence of the overall climate of the school. Consequently there is also a demand for further education of the teachers and pedagogical workers. The instruction also includes appendix with a list of the teaching subjects suitable for the prevention of racial manifestations.
In the school year 1995/1996 the Czech school inspection controlled, how schools observe the mentioned instruction. The report about results of the inspection in basic schools says that the headmasters have encountered manifestation of intolerance at 25% of the schools. In spite of this fact they do not consider school to be a place where the manifestation of intolerance are acute. The inspection found out that not enough attention is being paid to the effects of general intolerance, for example towards the pupils or group of pupils which are somehow different from the rest (due to special talent, physical built, various handicaps, etc.). The problem of the prevention of racism has to become a content of further education of teachers.
Another significant text is: “Department Activity Program Concerning the Crime Prevention“, authorized by governmental resolution No. 418/1995. Part of the measure related to the program is to create the conception of legal and ethical after-school training with the goal to minimize harmful influence of the street, to prepare a proposal for using free time centers for the children and young people as a centers for interest activities, to create the conception of new forms of educational consultancy by establishing centers of educational care in the places with the highest occurrence of the socially pathological phenomena.
A number of methodical materials have been prepared, for example a collection of methodical advice for the psychologists and social educationalists called: “We stand up to chicanery“.
The individual but also long-term courses are being organized for the extra education of the teachers in the area of social prevention. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports participates in organizing the seminaries and conferences like: “Education Towards Human Rights and Citizenship in the Countries of Middle and Eastern Europe“ (together with the Center for the Human Rights Education UK) or international seminary “Multicultural Education“ (UNESCO, UNHCR, EACY and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, CR).
A number of anti-discriminative measures have been adopted: a resolution of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) No. 291/1991 concerning the basic schools §3 art. 6, instruction of the MEYS CR No. 18 062/96-21, instruction of the MEYS CR No. 13821/1995-21 from 3.5. 1995, information of MEYS CR No. 16976/95-40.
Besides its own activities the state also supports in various ways the non-governmental initiatives and projects.
One of the state supported activities is a project “The Education Towards Toleration and Against Racism in Prague Schools“ established by the R - MOSTY association and the Czech Center for Negotiation and Conflict Solving. The trained lectors gave lectures and held discussions on the basic and secondary schools in Prague. The project allowed direct influencing of pupils and also analysis of the experience of the lectors and opinion of pupils concerning racial issues.
The goals of the project have been formulated in a following way:
The project also points to preparing alternative booklet for teachers of civics and social teachings.
Acquired information have shown that there is a higher tolerance in the school classes with at least one representative of minority and also that there are communication barriers caused by fear in the classes with even minimal number of the supporters of the skinhead movement.
In the area of prevention the Ministry will emphasize the necessity of quick and fluent working out of court routine in settling cases of mentioned criminal activity. The chairpersons of the courts will be given the task to focus (within the extent prescribed by law) especially on fast and fluent working out of these criminal cases. In case the Ministry of Justice finds some more serious faults in decision-making activity of courts, the Minister of Justice will receive a proposal to use her right for extra legal remedy - a complaint for breaking the law.
Out of her own initiative the Minister of Justice has revised the decision of the judge of the district court in Hradec Králové after the state attorney withdrew his appeal. In this case the verdict have been explained by the statement that Romany people and Czechs are of the same race - Indo-European - and for this reason the act could not have been racially motivated. After the withdrawal of an appeal the verdict came into legal power. On 8.8.1997 the minister of Justice made a complaint for breaking law which is currently in proceedings.
According to the opinion of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Office there is no need for strict specialization of investigators. Education and training of the investigators and state attorneys (problems in interpretation and application concerning mentioned criminal activity) is considered fully sufficient.
The training of the workers of the State Attorney's Office is being ensured through the Institute for Further Education of Judges and State Attorneys at the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic. The mentioned education has a form of specialized seminaries prepared by a wide circle of specialists from among judges of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, Attorney General's Office, high functionaries of the CR Police, faculties of law, etc.
The growing grudge against foreigners and citizens of a different race which is becoming a problem in western countries has its sympathizers also in the Czech Republic. Here too, the racial conflicts become a serious problem. Moreover the Czech society lacks the continuous historical experience of long-term coexistence with racially different nations and communities, which other western democracies have. This is naturally reflected in its degree of xenophobia. Also certain imprudent statements and the idleness of some of the state representatives have a strong impact on the public opinion and yield negative results.
At the present time there is a right-wing, left-wing and nationalistic extremist scene grounded in the Czech Republic. For the democratic countries these respective elements are equally dangerous. Underestimating the importance of punishment for extremist activities could open the space for the formation of well-structured organizations ready to realize major, violent, organized actions. That could lead to a destabilization of the security in particular regions or in the country as a whole. The problem of extremism must not be underestimated or schematically narrowed to include only the manifestations of racism and the criminal activity committed mostly by the supporters and members of the skinhead movement on one side or to the activities of anarchists or anarcho-autonomist on the other side.
The existence of extremist ideologies, groups and individuals who incline to such ideas is not just a temporary occurrence. It is a concomitant of the development of a democratic society and in this process the Czech Republic is not an exception.
In the Czech Republic the punishment for extremist activities is not as strict as it is in Western Europe. This inspires foreign extremists to develop contacts with the Czech extremist scene and move some of their activities here (concerts, recording, printing propagating materials). A consistent application of the current repressive and legal measures may help to eliminate certain manifestations of the extremist attitudes (violent attacks, various occasions supporting extreme opinions, dissemination and propagation of these attitudes).
Two years have elapsed since 1995 when the Government had accepted new system measures for preventing and penalizing racially and nationally motivated criminal activity and the criminal activity committed by the supporters of the extremist groups. While evaluating these activities we must take into consideration that at the moment there is no consistent relevant statistical data available, which would allow for clear determination of the current trends. The systematic record keeping of this type of criminal activity was first introduced in 1995 and entered into effect on 1.1.1996. The previous statistical data is not accurate enough. Since 1996 the number of registered torts with racial or other extremist motivation has grown. In 1996 the crime statistics registered 131 cases of criminal offence with extremist motivation for which 152 people were prosecuted. In the first three-quarters of 1997 there were (according to preliminary data of the official crime statistics) already 164 registered cases of criminal offence with extremist motivation for which 188 people were prosecuted. The growing number of recorded cases with racial or other extremist motivation may be in fact evidence of the effectiveness of adopted measures and of increased police activity in discovering and qualifying this type of crime.
The analyses show, that in the Czech Republic the manifestations of extremism including racially motivated attacks have never grown to massive proportions and they have never led to destabilization of the security in any of the regions. In the total volume of all types of criminal activity the one with an extremist subtext represents a very small number. Nevertheless it is necessary to regard such criminal activity as a socially very dangerous with a lot of negative potential. It is necessary to go strictly against all the activities of the supporters of the skinhead movement who are responsible for most of the racially motivated criminal offences in the Czech Republic. At the same time it is necessary to strictly punish these criminal acts. At the present time it is necessary to not only pay attention to penalizing the criminal activities and trespasses issuing from supporting, propagating and distributing extremist ideologies and attitudes, but also to focus on scrutinizing and eliminating the causes of these manifestations.
The foundation for the successful elimination of criminal activity with extremist subtext consists in the good cooperation of the whole chain of members active in criminal proceedings and also in cooperation with participating members and institutions including civic movements and associations. The struggle against extremist manifestations cannot be understood only as a matter of repression and it cannot be just the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and the Police. The systemic solution to the problem is based not only on close cooperation within the respective departments, but also on their mutual collaboration. This cooperation should lead to the lasting involvement of those sections of the state machinery, which can flexibly influence the system of training, education, prevention and legislation. In these areas the problem is not being consistently solved yet. New occurrences on the extremist scene will require adequate measures and the need for a good system of prevention will be more and more obvious.
The conclusion of this report is that the measures adopted in 1995 have helped to introduce more effective penalization of the criminal activity with extremist subtext and have improved the performance of the repressive system in this area of crime.
Multi-layer, consistent monitoring of all the extremist groups and strict measures against particular activities and dangerous manifestations of their supporters and members is still the basic prerequisite for successful struggle against this phenomenon.
In the situation where questions concerning ethnic Romany in the Czech Republic are being covered by media on international forums (racial discrimination, attacks of the supporters of the skinhead movement against Romany people and foreigners with dark skin) this issue ceases to be just an internal affair of the Czech state. It is getting to the point where the prestige of the Czech Republic is being harmed and its credibility in the area of observing the human rights and protection of minorities suffers.
The main tasks:
The groundwork for success in solving criminal activity with extremist subtext lies in close cooperation between the police and prosecutors on all command levels including cooperation with other intra and inter departmental members and institutions. Here also a wide spectrum of the civic movements and associations, initiatives of charity and foundations has its place.
The Tasks:
1Even though there was a drop in number of direct terrorist actions, the left-wing extremists keep finding other ways for their action - either less covered by media or shielded by activities of other groups. As an example we may give the actions against the transportation of burnt-out nuclear fuel in Gorleben where the damage on the state possession reached the amount of tens of millions DM. The culprits have not been the members of anti-nuclear civic associations but autonomists.
2The goal of this organization is the founding of an independent Kurdish state on the territory of current Eastern Turkey and part of Iran and Iraq. Originally it started with only propagandist campaign on European territory; but lately its´ activities have been forbidden in some European countries which may provoke terrorist attacks.
3Compare: “Rapport de la Commission d´Enquate sur les sectes remis a l´Assemblée Nationale“, France, Decémbre 1995; “Rapport de la Commission d´Enquate Parlamentaire de Belgique sur les sectes“, Belgium.
4Part of their negative social effect is also the problem of psychic harm done to children whose parents are members of certain problem sects. According to current estimations done in Germany this problem concerns 200.000 children.
5The Internet offers for example a freely accessible illicit left-wing-extremist magazine “Radikal“ containing proposals for sabotages of railway transportation. German extremist magazines offers through Internet techniques for message coding.
6In beginning of November 1997 there was (sponsored by UN) a meeting of organizations inquiring into this problem and a convention has been adopted for further policy.
7The attempt of the Ministry of the Interior to characterize this particular scene in the material presented to the Czech government in May of 1995, “The Information Concerning Manifestations of Extremist Attitudes in the Czech Republic“ raised considerable polemics and media coverage. It was the first attempt to create a well-rounded picture of the scene and get an initial insight into the problem. Since then this specter was described in detail in a series of publications: Current Right Wing Extremism in the Czech Republic (M.Mazel, bachelor thesis) Youth Extremism in the Czech Republic (IKSP 1996), The Constitutional, Legal and Criminological Aspects of Extremism (IKSP), and Extremism (J.Chmelík, the Ministry of the Interior 1997). The monograph Political Extremism in the Czech Republic (P. Fiala) is also being prepared to be issued.
8On the basis of Government resolution No. 625 from 8.10.1997 connected with the Report about relevant security risks in the Czech Republic from the viewpoint of Czech intelligence services, Ministry of the Interior together with Security Information Service prepares a report which is going to replenish essentially characterization of the Czech extremist scene.
9The shift in left-wing or as the case may be Bolshevik attitudes manifested itself on the outside after 1989 by establishing left-wing oriented nationalist groups. In the rhetoric of these groups the protection of “national interests“ is one of the strong arguments against “imperialism“ and “Germanization“ “selling out national wealth“ which are in reality only synonyms for integration and cooperation with West European countries. This shift has to be regarded, because it is a ground for cooperation between seemingly ideologically antagonistic groups.
10In the following text the term anarcho-autonomists is used. Anarchism in its pure form has in the Czech Republic (as well as in most other European countries) an incomparably lower number of supporters then the ideas of autonomists. Anarchists propagate doing away with the laws and state power, but they envisage the establishing of more natural and spontaneous order. In comparison AUTONOMISTS are individuals rejecting any limitations of their personal freedom and for this reason they fight against the state, government and any other social arrangement).
11These organizations are not registered with Ministry of the Interior
12The dangerous religious extremism manifests itself in three forms: Psychic manipulation within a closed group leading to a self-destruction of its members, 2. Psychic manipulation within a closed group leading to purposeful infiltration into the government structures or economical sphere, 3. Taking advantage of traditional confessions (i.e. Christianity and Islam) and historical aversions between these confessions (by the groups following their own political goals using violence - Balkan, Ireland, Near East).
13Often discussed are also some religious organizations already registered in the Czech Republic according to the law No. 161/1992, and 308/1992, or are in the process of registering (religious society Jehova´s Wittnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - so-called Mormons, or Unification Church - so-called Moonists).
14The cases of criminal acts with racial subtext have been recorded in the following places:
The capital - Prague
Central Bohemia - districts of Benešov, Kladno, Kutná Hora, Mladá Boleslav, Praha-západ, Příbram
South Bohemia - district of Písek
West Bohemia - Plzeň-město, districts of Klatovy and Domažlice
North Bohemia - districts of Teplice, Jablonec n. Nisou, Děčín
East Bohemia - districts of Trutnov, Hradec Králové, Náchod, Chridim, Jičín
South Moravia - Brno, districts of Blansko, Hodonín, Jihlava
North Moravia - districts of Frýdek-Místek, Olomouc, Opava, Ostrava, Bruntál
15The statistical data for the first three quarters of 1997 are only preliminary. It is only a partial output from official crime statistics, which might still be corrected. The final data of these official crime statistics will be available only after the beginning of 1998.
16In case of these accounts of places afflicted by observed crime it has to be understood that making prognosis of development of this type of criminal activity is very difficult; the place of the next conflict is then usually completely unpredictable.
17The above mentioned trend will be confirmed only by final data from the official crime statistics in 1998. It should again be emphasized that this output is only preliminary.
18Summary of all international and internal regulations concerning this problem is presented in appendix No. 1
19Since 8.10. 1997 Canada has re-introduced the visa duty for Czech citizens. On 15.10. 1997 the Czech Government accepted resolution No. 640 about statute of Inter-department Committee for the Issues Concerning the Roma Community.
20For instance The Roma/Gypsies of Europe: a persecuted people, JPR 1996; Anti-Semitism, World Report 1996, JPR 1996 or the article from July 1997 about the causes of the Romany migration to Canada containing absurd claims about the attitudes of the Czech Government etc.
21The Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about findings of its foreign office in Caracas about the attacks against Venezuela students residing in the Czech Republic.
22By the resolution No. 686 from October 1997 the Government of the Czech Republic approved of the report “Romany Community Situation in the Czech Republic“ and declaration of the Government to the present situation of the Romany community. The Attorney General's Office has already presented its report to the Government in March 1997.
23Records in the IS “Purification“ are designed “for internal use“. Input data is being prepared only by expert criminologists which is in keeping with related binding instructions of the Police President. The system will be password-protected. The reason for that is respecting the law of the Czech National Council No. 256/1992 concerning protection of personal data in the information systems and the law of the Czech National Council No. 283/1991 concerning the CR Police; according to later regulation imposing in §2 section1 letter 1) on the police to “keep records and statistics needed for performing its tasks“.
24Even though such connections do exist, it does not work out to recognize them and so they are not reported. Since the effect of Ministry of the Interior Order of the Minister of the Interior No. 39/1995 until now, there have been only three such cases recorded. Prosecuting of Jan Vik (which has been dropped) prosecuting of PhDr. Miroslav Sládek, against whom an attorney of the District State Attorney´s Office brought the action on 2.7. 1997 (momentarily in proceedings) and the case of J. Krejza which at this time is being investigated.
25In this group experts on right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and autonomous movement, spectator violence and sects operate.
26Especially with the Criminal Police Department For Disclosing Organized Crime, the Criminal Police Department of Operative Documentation, the Criminal Police Special Technical Department, the Criminal Institute Praha, the National Interpol Office.
27Especially with the Disciplinary Police Service, the Traffic Police Service, the Railway Police Service and the Foreign and Custom Police Service.
28Proposal of CSÚ MV for introducing nation-wide trespass register have been repeatedly denied, last time during the preparation of the provision No. 200/1990 about trespasses.
29There is a proposal suggesting that Police Board of CR prepares the conditions for monitoring registered publications. The print department of Police Board already monitors radio and television broadcasting as well as periodical print. In this direction the cooperation with the Ministry of Culture might be helpful. According to thpress-law the publisher is obliged to send a sample-issues to the Ministry of Culture. The CR Police could possibly use these publications without burdening the police budget by their purchase.
30For example in the case of P.K. (South Moravia - prosecution stopped on 17.2.1996). At the present time the police are carefully observing the case of M.Z. (South Moravia - District Investigation Office Hodonín) which realization has been investigated since mid of 1996.