They're noisy, they often fight, and as a rule all the other guests leave. So we say we're sorry. Security guards trail them in shops. Skinheads taunt and beat them. The head of a local district government even offered to pay most of their costs to Canada if they gave up any future claim to scarce housing.
Officials deny any systematic discrimination.
C ity council spokeswoman Jana Pilarova said Ostrava had several programs for Roma and other disadvantaged minorities. She said that a special school was opened specifically for Roma children. Josef Stojka, a Roma activist in Ostrava, says such programs condemn them to the underclass. Most Roma living in the Czech lands are descendants of immigrants resettled from Slovakia after World War II to fill the void left by deported Germans. H uman rights organizations have criticized the Czech Republic for its reluctance to give Roma Czech citizenship when Czechoslovakia split in 1993.