Prague, Aug 2 (CTK) – Roma activist Cenek Ruzicka believes that the Czech state will buy the pig farm built on the site of a wartime internment camp for the Roma in Lety, south Bohemia, he told CTK on the Roma Genocide Remembrance Day today.
Ruzicka said the chance that the Czech state agrees on the purchase of the pig farm with its owner, the AGPI firm, seemed to be 75 percent to him.
The negotiations about the purchase have never got as far as now, but if the government does not reach the agreement before the October general election, the plan is likely to fall through, he said.
Culture Minister Daniel Herman, who led the negotiations with AGPI, said the transaction may be completed in September. On Monday, AGPI agreed with the idea of selling the pig firm to the state. However, no price has been released yet.
“No deal has been made yet. The negotiators are only allowed to hold the final talks. It will depend on what sum they will agree,” Ruzicka said.
He said Czech Roma are to blame that they failed to persuade the Czech state to deal with the issue sooner. “It is a shame that we, the Roma, did not join forces because of this. Something like this is unimaginable in our culture… The grave is something we take pride of, it is always flooded with flowers,” Ruzicka said.
He said he feels sorry that the present memorial to the Roma victims from the Lety camp probably is not the place where his relatives were buried.
Roma organisations have been striving for the pig farm’s relocation for years. The European Parliament (EP) as well as other international organisations have called on the Czech Republic repeatedly to remove the farm from the commemorative site. Several Czech governments have dealt with the problem.
In 1940-43, 1308 Roma men, women and children were interned in the Lety camp, 327 of whom perished in the camp and over 500 were sent to the extermination camp in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) where most of them died. According to estimates, the Nazis murdered 90 percent of 6500 Czech Roma.
The pig farm was built in Lety in 1972. In 2013-15, AGPI equipped half of the buildings with new technologies. The pig farm covers seven hectares of land, which belongs to the state and on which 13,000 pigs are bred in 13 buildings. In 2013-15, AGPI equipped several buildings with new technologies.
The Roma Genocide Remembrance Day is celebrated on August 2, which is the anniversary of the liquidation of the Gypsy family camp in Auschwitz, during which nearly 3000 Roma were killed in 1944.
Terezin Initiative director Tereza Stepkova said the Roma Genocide Remembrance Day was declared a significant day in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. She said NGOs have been striving to have this day officially recognised in the Czech Republic as well.
