According to the Government Council for Ethnic Minorities which Stehlikova heads and which held a meeting today, organisers of demonstrations can abuse the present law to convoke racist events under the various pretexts, Stehlikova (Greens, SZ) told journalists. She said that first a legislative analysis will be worked out with the assistance of lawyers.
"Only afterwards we will agree whether the present legislation should be changed," she added. The discussion about possible changes in the assembly law has History Meets IT in New Hebrew Script Archive ...
Ahmadinejad to make visit to Iraq ... started in reaction to the recent marches of neo-Nazis in Prague and Plzen, west Bohemia. The aim of the marches, which their organisers announced to the authorities beforehand, was not at variance with the law. Both cities faced the problem of how to prevent the ultra-right extremists' events. Civic Democrat (ODS) legislators from the Plzen region want to submit a draft amendment to the assembly law, and another amendment is planned by Hana Orgonikova, deputy for the senior opposition Social Democrats (CSSD). Stehlikova said today that a change in the assembly law has been separately demanded by representatives of several ethnic minorities for a long time. She said the problem in the present law is, among others, that authorities have a mere three days to justify their ban of an announced rally. The extension of the deadline is prepared under the draft amendment completed by Plzen Mayor Pavel Roedl (ODS). Government human rights commissioner Jan Litomisky told journalists it is difficult for authorities to prove that a planned demonstration is aimed against an ethnic minority. He said the extremists can convoke a rally under an innocent pretext, which makes the authorities helpless. For example, the neo-Nazis last year announced they would march through Prague on November 10, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht Jewish pogrom in Germany, in protest against Czech participation in the occupation of Iraq, Litomisky recalled.
(Ceske Noviny)
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