Olah Roma gather for king's funeral

Ostrava, North Moravia, Oct 18 (CTK) - Hundreds of guests from various European countries and the United States attended the funeral of the Olah Romanies' king in the Czech Republic, Jan Lipa, held in Ostrava yesterday, Josef Stojka, head of the Olah Romanies Union, has told CTK.

Lipa died of a heart failure in an Ostrava hospital on Monday, aged 72.

His younger son Josef Danis, whom Lipa himself allegedly chose as his successor six months before his death, will be probably elected a new king, but not sooner than in a year. Until then Romanies will be mourning for their dead king, Stojka said.

Before the funeral, Lipa's closest relatives organised a mourning meeting for over 500 people at a chateau in Ostrava-Poruba starting on Wednesday.

Women and men met separately. They discussed the late Olah Romany king's life, the laws he issued and the disputes he resolved.

Hundreds of wine bottles were prepared for the participants. "But no one was allowed to get drunk," Stojka said.

The family members met at the king's open coffin in Ostrava's Cathedral of the Divine Saviour this morning.

Some 200 people came to the funeral.

A Romany band was playing Lipa's favourite songs. The singing and the sound of violins were mixed with the women's loud crying and the men's shouting.

The deceased king had several things he liked during his life in the coffin, such as his stick, cards and his hat, along with money and liquor. Other bottles of high-quality liquor and wine were placed directly in his tomb at the cemetery in Slezska Ostrava.

Over 500 people came to Ostrava to pay their last respects to the deceased Olah Romany king, including Romanies from Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovakia as well as the United States, Stojka said.

"I have counted 580 people, with children even over 600," he added.

Lipa was born in Belusa, Slovakia, on January 19, 1940. Before he died he lived as an old-age pensioner in Ostrava-Hrabuvka. In his youth he experienced the Olah Romanies' nomadic life.

"He then lived in the United States and Canada for many years. He returned to the Czech Republic after the fall of the previous regime in 1989. He spoke several languages. He was a respected personality," lawyer Stanislav Brtnik, who defended Lipa several times at court, said about him previously.