Krupka, Czech Republic: Roma say foreigners harassed their children, police say suspects are not Ukrainians and what happened was not sexual, assaults happened among more than one person. Dozens of Roma demonstrate in front of the police station
Several dozen Romani residents of Krupka, Czech Republic assembled yesterday evening on the Maršov housing estate where Romani children were said to have been harassed by several foreign nationals. Local Romani residents claim the suspects were Ukrainians, but news server Romea.cz has learned that claim is not true.
The police have refuted the claim that persons of Ukrainian nationality were involved in the incident. Videos from Krupka began to spread yesterday after 19:00 on social media.
The footage shows an intervention by local police patrols who arrest two foreign nationals. According to locals, the suspects had been sexually harassing several Romani children.
“The Ukrainians [sic] shut up three or four children in a basement where they wanted to rape them,” alleges a Romani man in one of several live broadcasts made on Facebook straight from Krupka. Police, however, are refuting the allegations that there was a sexual subtext to what happened or that any kind of moral offense was involved.
All the police have said so far is that they are investigating the incident in Krupka as disorderly conduct and that they are refuting the rumors that Ukrainians were involved. “Yesterday on 16 July 2023 at about 19:00, physical assaults were committed in Krupka in a publicly accessible place among several persons, some of whom were under the influence of alcohol. We are investigating the matter as a suspected offense of disorderly conduct,” police spokesperson Kamil Marek told news server Romea.cz.
“The course of the investigation so far is not confirming that this incident had a sexual subtext or was a morals offense,” the police spokesperson told news server Romea.cz.
“Furthermore, we are refuting the allegations that are appearing on social media alleging that persons of Ukrainian nationality were involved in this incident, they were not. We are continuing to investigate and we will provide more information as soon as that becomes possible,” the police spokesperson said.
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Several Romani activists arrived in Krupka yesterday evening, such as Alex Muraškin, who organized a demonstration in Prague last week about the recent cases of conflicts between Romani people and Ukrainian nationals. Miroslav Tancoš, who spoke last Wednesday in Prague at another demonstration convened by controversial Romani community member David Mezei, was also in Krupka.
At around 22:00 several dozen Romani people set out for the local police station, where they demanded security be provided on the housing estate. “We do not know exactly, we do not have confirmed information, but we do have some approximate information about what has happened there. That’s enough for us to be concerned and to do what we are doing now. This is not just our right, it is our responsibility. We want to know what you will do,” Robert Horváth, who lives in Krupka and negotiated with the police on behalf of the Roma, said in front of the police station.
Officers assured him that the police are doing all they can to arrange for security and investigate the case.
Michal Miko: Some Romani people are creating an unnecessarily tense situation
Escalation of the atmosphere on the housing estate has been criticized by the director of the RomanoNet organization, Michal Miko. “The Romani people there are creating an unnecessarily tense situation. I’m not belittling what happened yesterday, but you have to realize that these are children who have been exposed as victims to the public discourse by some ‘smart people’. It is stupid and pathetic to address a scandal of this kind in this way – some people should have their smartphones confiscated and their access to social media cancelled,” Miko told Romea.cz.
People also appeared on the scene that evening who claimed to represent Zdeněk Chytra and who filmed Muraškin’s speech. Chytra is a Czech national living in Germany who is an activist against immigration and has appeared at different anti-system demonstrations in the Czech Republic. He also maintains contact with the extremist Workers’ Social Justice Party, chaired by Tomáš Vandas.
A protest gathering is scheduled to be held in Krupka on Tuesday, 18 July. Mayor of Krupka Jan Kuzma expressed his view of the incident on Monday.
“I would like to assure all the citizens of Krupka that the incident is being investigated by the Police of the Czech Republic,” the mayor said, adding that the town is prepared to collaborate even more intensively not just with the police, but also with the local Romani community to calm the situation at the housing estate. “As part of our Commission on the Issue of Excluded Localities, National Minority Integration and Crime Prevention, we are proposing increasing security in the locality in the upper part of the housing estate through crime prevention assistants and installing an improved CCTV system,” he pointed out, adding: “Given the growth in misdemeanors, zero tolerance will be necessary in that locality for any misdemeanor behavior and the subsequent enforcement of any unpaid fines.”
