INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-CZECH REPUBLIC:

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST NEO-NAZIS IN SVITAVY:

The following item comes from the A-Infos website. It has Canadian relevance because of the continuing refusal on the part of our Harper Conservative government, in terms of its refugee program, to recognize that the Roma people face persecution in Europe. Of course they do. Here is an example, one amongst many, of people demonstrating the sort of thing that government claims doesn't exist.

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Czech, Svitavy, East Bohemia, Media, Some 70 anarchists and other activists attended a one-hour protest against mounting neo-Nazi activities in the Czech Republic Saturday:

They paid tribute to all victims of neo-Nazi violence since the fall of the previous regime in late 1989.

---- "The police were monitoring the march, we dealt with no misdemeanour during the event," Svitavy police spokeswoman Anna Stegnerova told journalists.

---- The activists carried posters reading "No to further neo-Nazism victims" and "No to xenophobia and racism."

---- An anarchist claimed in his speech during the event that there have been more than 30 victims of neo-Nazis in the country.

--- The march was joined by about 20 Romanies from the association We Want to Live!

--- "We have arrived from Brno, we have come to pay tribute to Ota Absolon," a member of the association said.

--- The march of neo-Nazism opponents was held on the day when in the past years skinheads used to stage marches in support of the convicted skinhead Vlastimil Pechanec.Pechanec was sent to prison for 17 years for a racially-motivated murder of a 23-year-old Romany man in 2003.