Czech Police investigating online call for march on Brno's Romani localities
Late on Saturday evening a controversial social media post appeared online from a Facebook user named Ivan Kovtun calling for the Ukrainian community in Brno to march against Romani people. In the post, Kovtun asserts it is time Ukrainians show "the fucking Gypsies" who they are, how many of them there are, and that they "don't want to harm anybody".
Romani people started sharing the post online, sparking fears for the safety of the Romani community in Brno. Police are investigating.
By now Kovtun has already deleted the post. It was public for 11 hours and shared more than 120 times and read: “Good evening, dear Ukrainian community. This is a call above all to those people who call themselves Ukrainians and mainly to those who employ Ukrainians in Brno. It’s time to take to the streets of Brno and show those fucking Gypsies who we are and how many of us there are and that we don’t want to harm anybody here.”
“All the guys have to meet up on our day off, which is Sunday for most of us, and hold a peaceful march through Cejl, Bratislavská and Francouzská streets, because that’s where most of the Roma live. A lot of our countrymen live there too and now they fear for their children, their women or eventual vandalism against their cars,” Kovtun’s post read.
The post was published to Facebook just after 23:00 CET Saturday evening. By Sunday before 11:30 the Facebook user deleted it.
Police had already noted the online call and began investigating. “We noted that activity, naturally we have those high-risk areas under surveillance, if any illegal behavior or disruption of public order happens there we are able to respond operationally,” police spokesperson Bohumil Malásek told Romea.cz.
The Ukrainian Initiative of South Moravia (Ukrajinská iniciativa Jižní Moravy) responded to the post and called on community members not to respond to such calls. According to the initiative, those who publish such calls are just further inciting tensions between Romani people and Ukrainians.
