Police raid Prague marketplace, foreign vendors protest

Prague, Nov 22 (CTK) - Some 1000 Czech police and inspectors on Saturday checked
the biggest Prague marketplace and the Asian vendors who operate most of
the stalls protested against the police action.

The extensive check was performed by members of the Prague police, the
Czech foreigner police, the customs service and the retail inspection COI,
foreigner police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova told CTK.

The foreigner police ended their raid in the early afternoon, she said.

Rendlova said the police interrogated 44 people and revealed seven
suspected crimes. Five people were expelled from the country - three
Mongolian citizens, one Chinese and one Vietnamese.

Seven foreigners are suspected of obstruction the execution of an official
decision since they stayed in the Czech Republic even though they had been
expelled from it, Rendlova said.

Customs and COI officers continue to check stalls and storage areas,
searching for counterfeit goods.

In many cases, the inspectors had to open stalls and stores by force
because they failed to identify their owner, they said.

The Sapa marketplace complex, also called "Little Hanoi," is located in
Libus, a southern outskirts of Prague.

The foreign vendors have complained about the police and customs service
action.

"We resolutely protest against the way the raid was performed," Tran Hoang
Thanh, spokesman for the Vietnamese Association, told CTK.

He said the police handcuffed a man who did not protest against the
inspection and that they moved around the marketplace aiming guns at the
vendors.

Hoang Dinh Thang, director of Saparia company that owns the marketplace,
said the police acted in an insensitive way, violently removing the locks
from stalls and containers with goods.

"This was no check, but a demonstration of force," Czech-Vietnamese Society
head Marcel Winter told CTK.

Rendlova said the raid was "a reaction to the assessment of the long-term
security situation."

She said the foreigner police had information on various criminal
activities being committed in the marketplace. She dismissed the view that
the action was motivated politically.

Rendlova said the action had no connection with a big fire that recently
broke out in the marketplace, destroying its part.

With some 350 firemen fighting the flames, this has been one of the most
extensive actions by Prague firefighters.

Winter pointed out that the police intervention was bigger than that
against some 500 far-right extremists who wanted to attack a Romany housing
estate in Litvinov, north Bohemia, a week ago.

A helicopter, armed vehicles, police on horseback and trained dogs were
used in the raid.

Interior Minister Ivan Langer said previously the frequency of crime among
the Vietnamese also in connection with illegal migration was growing.
Besides, there is large-scale faking of branded goods, tax evasion and
growing of marihuana among them, Langer added.

The Foreign Ministry said earlier this week that the country will toughen
the issuance of some long-term visas for the Vietnamese as they often abuse
their stay in the Czech Republic and submit forged documents.

The Czech-Vietnamese Society has protested against the government's step
saying that only a small fraction of the local Vietnamese community is
involved in organised crime.