Czech Police arrest suspects in conflict between Romani men and three non-Roma either from Russia or Ukraine, Romani youth sustained facial injuries from a knife

News server Romea.cz has learned that one of the Romani men sustained facial injuries from a knife and had to get medical treatment. He was released that same evening with two stitches.

Several Romani community members have convened a protest in Pardubice for Sunday about the lack of security their community is experiencing. Police are investigating the case and have called for calm.

It is not yet clear why the conflict on Anenská Street in Pardubice transpired as a whole. However, police were immediately at the scene and forcefully intervened against the three men whom eyewitnesses allege are from Ukraine.

In one of the videos circulating on social media the police intervention can be seen from the beginning, with more than one police vehicle arriving at the scene of the crime. “On the ground, on the ground!” an officer shouts at one of the arrestees.

The other two were already prone on the ground and being handcuffed by other officers. This morning police said they responded just before 10 PM with more than one patrol to Anenská Street in Pardubice because a brawl involving several persons was reportedly underway there.

“After the officers arrived there were about 18 people on the scene who were assaulting each other physically. The officers managed to calm the escalated situation after a moment and separated the groups from each other. One participant had suffered a facial injury during the brawl and was transported to a hospital for treatment. Officers arrested three persons on the spot and took them to the police station,” police spokesperson Markéta Janovská said.

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“Officers are currently interrogating those persons and performing other necessary tasks to ascertain what the motivation was for the conflict and what exactly happened. That information will be key to officers establishing a final legal qualification,” the police spokesperson said.

Police: We would like to ask those concerned not to escalate this conflict further

The Pardubice videos have been shared thousands of times and sparked an enormous wave of outrage on social media. Romani residents of Pardubice have convened an assembly today there to express their dissatisfaction with the security situation in the Czech Republic.

Officers know the assembly has been called for and are calling on all those involved to stay calm. “In association with this incident we have also noted certain calls and convenings on social media. We would like to ask those involved not to escalate this conflict further, not to commit violence, and not to commit any other illegal behavior. The police is still monitoring the situation as a whole,” the police spokesperson told Romea.cz.

“We are currently taking steps to meet with those concerned immediately on Monday and with other competent entities to resolve the entire situation as soon as possible,” the police spokesperson said. Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková, who began to immediately investigate the Pardubice situation, has confirmed such steps have been taken.

“In Pardubice there is a Romani City Council and I have already asked the city for us to convene first thing Monday morning. I am also bringing together the representatives of all the important Romani families and the affected ones to discuss the situation in the city with them,” Fuková told Romea.cz.

Eyewitnesses say the three alleged Ukrainians first assaulted the Roma verbally

According to testimonies given to news server Romea.cz, the three men who are presumed to be Ukrainian were walking down Anenská Street and first verbally attacked the Romani residents of a particular building. “They were shouting in front of that building, cursing and threatening the Romani people, but those inside the building were afraid and nobody reacted,” one eyewitness to the beginning of the conflict described to Romea.cz.

What preceded those threats and why the trio walked to that building in particular is not yet clear. “After that they walked into the pub where we were, and there were other Ukrainians already there who were absolutely cool and who distanced themselves from the three who had just walked in. Those Ukrainians said the trio were Russians. The trio also said some stuff to us, but we didn’t react. They had a drink and walked back toward that building and began shouting and giving the Nazi salute there,” the eyewitness described how the incident developed.

“A conflict then happened out on the street with a small group of young Romani guys around 19, 20 years old. They began to rush at them. The three men were awfully big, they weren’t like the Ukrainians here who work on construction sites or the ones who’d been sitting in the pub. We went to help the [Romani] guys, but the others were terribly strong and one had a knife in a plastic bag. He kept spinning and spinning the plastic bag at them and he hurt one guy with that knife in the plastic bag,” said the eyewitness as to how the injury happened to the young Romani man.

The wife of the injured man described the incident similarly. She said the trio first threatened the residents of the building verbally with violence.

“They first came to the building and began threatening to slit our throats and kill our children,” the young Romani woman described in a live broadcast through Facebook. She said the trio then moved on to a local restaurant and that the Romani men went in there afterward as well.

“Our guys didn’t know they were there, though. Then the Ukrainians left. They came back in front of my building, where they began shouting,” the wife of the injured Romani man described.

“The [Romani] guys went out after them, because I was here at home alone with the children and the other women here were also alone,” the wife of the injured Romani man said. According to her, a conflict followed during which the Romani man sustained the knife injury to his face.

“They began fighting and one of the Ukrainians pulled out a knife and stabbed my husband in the face,” the woman said. Emergency medical responders then took the injured man to the hospital for treatment; news server Romea.cz has ascertained he was released that evening with two stitches.

This is the second such incident to transpire between Romani men and men presumed to be Ukrainians in a matter of weeks in the Czech Republic. In Brno, interethnic tensions rose recently after an incident near the Brno Reservoir during a fireworks festival as a result of which a Romani youth died.

According to information that has not been confirmed by authorities, the assailant in that case was Ukrainian, but police will only say he was a foreign national; the suspect is in custody. As far as the Pardubice conflict goes, the police also did not want to comment on the citizenship of those detained.