Praha - The Janov housing project attracts attention not only of local politicians. Wednesday will see Dutch ambassador Jan Lucas van Hoorn visiting this real estate where mainly Romany population lives.
"We want to learn what the situation in Litvínov looks like. Czech media cover the issue a lot but we want to see it with our own eyes," says deputy ambassador Jennes de Mol.
Litvínov mayor Milan Šťovíček has promised together with deputy mayor they will arrange for everything. "We will tell him all we know," said Šťovíček.
The ambassador is planning to meet the town hall authorities and social department head, police department, NGOs, Roma community representatives, teachers and pedagogical assistants.
Problems also in the Netherlands
According to Šťovíček, Jan Lucas van Hoorn is scheduled to be present at a public debate that will deal with the integrated plan to grapple with the uneasy situation in Janov.
The meeting will take place in the building of a Litvínov primary school. On the way back to Prague, the ambassador is to hold a brief meeting with the mayor of the town of Most.
In an interview for Aktuálně.cz, Jennes de Mol said that the Netherlands has its own Roma community too. The ambassador wants to learn about the possible solutions for the problems the majority society has with the Czech Roma community.
"In the town of Nieuwegein, which is near Utrecht, there is a Roma community and the situation with the locals is not as good as it could be," de Mol confessed in the interview. The problems in his own country, though, are different than the ones in the Czech Republic, according to de Mol, but there are "common issues" for both sides.
The latest solution Litvínov mayor has presented is to move the "inadaptable" Roma families into dormitories.
December 10, the Human Rights day, was chosen randomly, according to the Litvínov mayor. "The meeting was planned weeks ahead," Šťovíček said. "It does evoke a certain link," the embassy added.
The Dutch embassy has been involved in numerous social and educational projects in the Czech Republic dealing with the integration of minorities but the Janov visit is the first of its kind.
In the past three weeks the Janov Roma ghetto has been visited by Regional Development Minister Jiří Čunek, Human Rights Minister Džamila Stehlíková and ombusdman Otakar Motejl.
During her state visit to the Czech Republic, her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, was interested in the issue of Romany in the Czech Republic. Among other things she also visisted the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno, hosted a dialogue with Czech youths from all walks of life and attended a conference on multiculturalism.
