PRAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 6 (Hina) - The Czech government's human rights commissioner Petr Uhl called on his government to seek apology from the local Croat minority for their treatment by the former Czechoslovakian government which in
February 1948 proclaimed Croats "unreliable" for their cooperation with the Nazis. In line with this proclamation, Croats were exiled to different parts of the country between 1948 and 1951, the renown Czech magazine of the left orientation "Pravo" reported on Wednesday. "In this politically violent act, the principle of collective responsibility was applied, which is in opposition to the basic human and civil rights", said Uhl, who spent nine years in prison during the Communist regime for his activities in the field of human rights. Uhl said it was true that some members of the Croat minority had collaborated with the Nazi regime, but it was not possible to establish whe
PRAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 6 (Hina) - The Czech government's human rights
commissioner Petr Uhl called on his government to seek apology from
the local Croat minority for their treatment by the former
Czechoslovakian government which in February 1948 proclaimed
Croats "unreliable" for their cooperation with the Nazis. In line
with this proclamation, Croats were exiled to different parts of
the country between 1948 and 1951, the renown Czech magazine of the
left orientation "Pravo" reported on Wednesday.
"In this politically violent act, the principle of collective
responsibility was applied, which is in opposition to the basic
human and civil rights", said Uhl, who spent nine years in prison
during the Communist regime for his activities in the field of human
rights.
Uhl said it was true that some members of the Croat minority had
collaborated with the Nazi regime, but it was not possible to
establish whether their collaboration was voluntary, pragmatic, or
forced.
Croats settled in South Moravia in the 16th century and most of them
lived in three villages - Jevisovko, Novy Prerov, and Dobre Pole.
Under accusations of cooperation with the Nazis, they were exiled
to other parts of the country.
The Czech Academy of Science's Institute for History claims Croat
collaborators had already been individually punished during 1945
and 1946. The archive material on the then position of the whole
minority and their collaboration, guilt, and punishment has still
not been processed, the Academy of Science said.
The public debate on the problem of rehabilitation of the Croat
minority in the Czech Republic started in early September, after a
local Croat organisation erected a monument in memory of the
persecuted in the Jevisovko village.
(hina) rml