Prague, Nov 24 (CTK) – Czech extremists plan to form paramilitary units over the current migrant wave, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
“We must build up paramilitary units that will be able to defend the citizens´ opinions in case of a certain opinion conflict. If they had existed now, the parliament, government and NGOs could not have behaved as they did,” Frantisek Krejca told his fellow members of the extremist National Democracy party, headed by Adam Bartos, in late October.
He added that the paramilitary members should have weapons.
Marek Obrtel, leader of “the Czechoslovak Reserve Soldiers (CVZ) against War Plans of NATO Command” initiative, shares the view of National Democracy.
“We are prepared to assume the task from National Democracy to methodologically help build up paramilitary units,” Obrtel said at a demonstration held in Prague on November 17, the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy that commemorates student demonstrations against Nazi occupation in 1939 and against the Communist regime in 1989.
Bartos´s marginal party has thereby gained a significant aid as the former soldiers underwent a professional military training and they can handle weapons and heavy military equipment.
Krejca, the author of the original idea of “civilian guards,” is both a member of the Czechoslovak Reserve Soldiers and head of the South Bohemian cell of National Democracy and a leading force of its military commission, LN says
Krejca has elaborated the idea in detail so the concept of paramilitary units can be submitted, Bartos said.
So far the guards should be patrolling the region without arms, LN writes.
Bartos also urges the guards not to drink alcohol before patrolling and call the police whenever they see anything suspicious.
Though Krejca promotes unarmed guards, according to the instructions on the Internet, holders of firearm licences can hold a gun in them.
The instructions also recommend that the organisers of paramilitary guards join forces informally or establish a civic association. They also warn of “liberals supporters of Islamic immigrants” since they may attempt to discredit the patrols of the “National Paramilitary Guards,” LN cites Bartos as saying in the web instructions.
The Interior Ministry has expressed indignation at the initiative, LN says.
Moreover, the Czechoslovak Reserve Soldiers is monitored by the intelligence services as a potential security threat, an aide to Chief of Staff has told CTK.
The Czech legal order does not include the concept of civilian guards or paramilitary units, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Hana Mala said. However, she admitted that if such groups acted in compliance with law, the police might welcome their help.
Paramilitary guards may face a problem since their initiators do not conceal they are forming them in reaction to the Islamic migration and that they have a negative stance on refugees.
“The associations with the purpose to deny and restrict personal, political and other rights of persons on the grounds of their nationality, sex, race, origin, political or religious conviction and social status, and to incite hatred and intolerance, support violence and similar are not permitted,” Mala told LN.
Politicians from the government parties say they would not fear the threats of nationalists and their allies from the ranks of former soldiers, while opposition Civic Democrat (ODS) chairman Petr Fiala warns of the connection between parties and armed forces, though informal, LN writes.
Political analyst Jan Outly, for his part, said he would not overestimate the efforts of such marginal parties as National Democracy.
hol/t/pv
