EMBASSY SPONSORS WORKSHOP ON EXTREMISM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000727 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EZ SUBJECT: EMBASSY SPONSORS WORKSHOP ON EXTREMISM REF: A) PRAGUE 386, B) PRAGUE 454 PRAGUE 00000727 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On September 29, the Embassy's Political Section, in cooperation with the Legal Attache, hosted a workshop on extremism in the Czech Republic. The debate featured the Deputy Interior Minister, judges, prosecutors, police, and two FBI special agents. The Czech Deputy Interior Minister cited concrete steps the GoCR has taken in 2009 as part of Interior Ministry's Anti-Extremism strategy, including forming a special task force fighting extremism, distributing a manual for towns on how to deal with extremist demonstrations, and projects for the socially excluded. Czech judges expressed concern about internet crime and terrorism because many Czech servers which present terrorist and extremist ideology cannot be closed down because their domain is in the United States and the First Amendment prevents the U.S. authorities from abolishing them. End Summary. -------------- The Workshop's Purpose and Priorities -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On September 29, the Embassy hosted a workshop on extremism in the Czech Republic, building upon an earlier and related seminar the Embassy organized last June on "Confronting Extremism in the Czech Republic" (Reftel). While the June debate focused on sociological and human rights aspects of extremism, this latest workshop dealt with practical methods of investigation, prosecution and legislation. The workshop was particularly timely as there has been a rise in rightists' public activities, violence and hatred targeted especially at the Roma population. ¶3. (SBU) Moderator Johannes Vandenhoogen, Legal Attache, outlined three major areas for discussion: 1. An analysis and comparison of extremism in the United States and the Czech Republic; 2. How the government can successfully respond to extremism; and 3. The effectiveness of law enforcement pertaining to extremism. The workshop brought together 40 Czech judges, prosecutors, special agents, police, and alien police dealing with extremism cases. -------------- Extremism in the United States and the Czech Republic -------------- ¶4. (SBU) FBI Special Agent Steven Kimball described various categories of domestic terrorism in the U.S., noting that in some categories (animal rights/environmental),the number of extremist incidents has decreased recently, while in other categories, such as white supremacy groups, incidents may be on the rise. Deputy Interior Minister Jiri Komorous singled out white supremacy, neo-Nazi and anti-Roma activities as the biggest problems in the Czech Republic. Komorous expressed concern over the politicization of confronting extremism. In response to these concerns, Komorous said the government is developing better cooperation among police, the Ministry of Interior and Czech municipalities. -------------- A Disturbing Trend -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The most alarming issue, according to Komorous, is the focus of right wing groups on the Roma population. He described as the biggest security risk the rising support for right-wing extremists in mainstream Czech society, which is now represented by an official political party - the Workers Party. This party has become a possible "gateway" to the political scene, similar to the German rightist, extremist National Democratic Party (NPD). (Comment: The Workers Party won 1.07 of the vote in the June 2009 European Parliament (EP) elections, enough to qualify for state funding but not enough for a seat in the EP. In comparison, the right-wing Jobbik party in Hungary won 14.8 percent of the vote in the EP elections, gaining 3 seats, while the Slovak National Party won 5.6 percent of the vote and will send one member to parliament. Germany's NPD won no EP seats, but was successful in local elections in 2009. End comment.) ¶6. (SBU) Komorous thinks a major problem in Czech society is a lack of mutual adaptability of the broader population and Roma. He singled out the need to convince the public that populist solutions advocated by extremists, reminiscent of the Nazi "final solution" to the Romani issue, cannot be tolerated. He emphasized education and mentioned a Czech strategy for fighting social exclusion that was recently adopted by the Interior Ministry, as well as a pilot educational project currently under way in Chanov, one of the most troubled localities. -------------- -------------- Extremists Spread Message Through Internet, Concerts -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Both the American and Czech speakers discussed the danger of spreading extremist ideology via the Internet. FBI special agent PRAGUE 00000727 002.2 OF 002 Thomas O'Connor mentioned that extremism in the United States is primarily linked to religious, political, or anti-government views. These views and speech are protected in the U.S. by the First Amendment, which is not the case in the Czech Republic. Jiri Raz of the Terrorism Unit of the Czech Police noted that neo-Nazis in particular are starting to cooperate with like-minded groups in other countries. The use of the Internet makes such collaboration easier. Raz pointed out that the extremists' ability to host sites in the United States, where they are protected under the First Amendment, makes it difficult if not impossible to obtain information regarding these sites through formal legal assistance requests. ¶8. (SBU) As a catalyst to spreading this ideology, extremist groups also use "white power" slogans and concerts to spread their message. Raz pointed out that Czech neo-Nazis proceed on the ideology of "the protection of the white race" as advocated by extremists in the United States and Great Britain. They reject both communism and capitalism as a "Jewish fabrication." ¶9. (SBU) Finally, another troubling trend according to Raz is the use of violence against police and the targeting of politicians and other officials. Raz estimated the number of sympathizers of right-wing extremism at five thousand and he described their organization as "leaderless resistance and cell-focused." The reason for the leaderless concept is, according to Raz, the extremists' conviction that the second leader has not yet been born (with reference to Hitler). ¶10. (SBU) Czech prosecutor Brigita Bilikova provided the audience with a vivid example of the threat in the Czech Republic by reviewing her office's ongoing prosecution of individuals who carried out an arson attack against a Roma family in the small North Moravian town of Vitkov last April, in which a two-year-old girl suffered burns on 80 per cent of her body (the girl survived but will have health problems throughout her life). The investigation revealed that the attack was motivated by racism and carried out by the extremist Resistance Movement. The investigation, nonetheless, also showed the willingness of investigators and prosecutors to pursue such crimes. -------------- Tougher Penalties, But Vague Legislation -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Judge Miroslav Capek of the Ministry of Justice gave an overview of current and new Czech legislation on extremism (the new legislation will come into force on January 1, 2010). He praised the effort of the former Justice Minister, Jiri Pospisil, and his team who put together much tougher penalties for terrorism and extremism crimes. He expressed concern, however, over instances within the police and the Czech army of extremist, neo-Nazi, racist, and xenophobic sentiments. Capek singled out the example of a professional soldier who appeared to be one of the founders of the racist White Justice organization in the Czech Republic who was involved in organizing four "fight camps" where he trained small units of neo-Nazis for a guerilla war. The new penal code envisages up to ten years in prison for this crime. Raz, however, said both the old and the new penal codes are somewhat vague when it comes to the issue of suppressing the rights and liberties of an individual. Referring to the use of neo-Nazi symbols, Raz quoted a recent decision of the Constitutional Court which ruled that "[in this country, as well as in the whole of Central Europe] historical experience [with German Nazism] suffices." The Constitutional Court referred to Nazi atrocities during World War Two, which these symbols evoke and the use of which is banned by the Czech law (Article 260 of the Criminal Code, which bans the use of symbols propagating extremist movements such as Nazism and Communism). -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) In his closing comments, FBI/Legal Attache Vandenhoogen reminded the audience of the seriousness of extremism, in particular rightwing extremism. Czech, European and US authorities must work together to deal with this issue, he said. Even though there may be differences in the U.S. and Czech legal systems or approaches to solving problems, these should not hinder efforts to eliminate extremism, he added. The Embassy and the FBI welcomed requests from our Czech colleagues to further collaborate on this issue. THOMPSON-JONES