VZCZCXRO9131
PP RUEHIK
DE RUEHPG #0727/01 3511303
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171303Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2010
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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