[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S788-S789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ATTACKS IN HUNGARY AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, as co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki 
Commission, I wanted to bring to the Senate's attention that next week, 
February 23, will mark a tragic anniversary. Two years ago on that 
date, assassins gathered outside the home of Robert Csorba. They threw 
a Molotov cocktail into the house. Although some family members escaped 
the blaze, five-year-old Robert Csorba and his father did not: as they 
tried to flee the flames, their attackers riddled them with bullets. 
The murderers were prepared: if the bomb did not finish them off, their 
guns would. They were prepared to kill men, women, and children.
  The Csorbas were just two of the victims in a wave of racially 
motivated attacks against Roma that has roiled Hungary. According to 
the European Roma Rights Center, between January 2008 and July 2010 
there were at least two dozen cases where Molotov cocktails, hand 
grenades or sniper fire were used. The victims included nine 
fatalities, including two children, and others who were seriously 
injured.
  Among them was the 13-year-old daughter of Maria Balogh. Ms. Balogh 
was murdered when snipers shot into her home in the middle of the night 
on August 3, 2009, killing her and leaving her daughter an orphan. Her 
daughter was also grievously wounded: she was shot in the face, blinded 
in one eye, and maimed for life. It is no wonder that these attacks led 
one Romani activist to declare that Roma would need to arm themselves 
or flee, and another asserted that if these attacks continued, Hungary 
would be headed toward civil war.
  There are some positive developments. The fatal attacks have stopped. 
Hungary's new government has reached out to the victims to provide 
support for rebuilding homes that were damaged or destroyed in arson 
attacks.

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Hungary's new Minister for Social Inclusion, Zolton Balog, has 
demonstrated a rare and welcome compassion for his Romani fellow 
citizens.
  But the wounded and the dead still wait for justice in Hungary. 
Although four men have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the 
serial killings of Roma that occurred in 2008 and 2009, there have been 
no trials and no convictions.
  The Czech Republic has also seen a dramatic rise in anti-Roma 
rhetoric and violent actions in the past few years. Last October, I 
joined Helsinki Commission cochairman, Alcee Hastings in welcoming the 
lengthy sentences handed down in the Czech Republic to four neo-Nazis 
who firebombed a Romani home in 2009, an act which left an infant, 
widely known simply as ``Baby Natalka,'' with second and third degree 
burns over 80 percent of her body and a lifetime of painful 
rehabilitation ahead of her.
  When that judgment was handed down against the four men who 
firebombed Baby Natalka, I was heartened. I also said I was watching 
another Czech case--one that is largely unknown.
  On November 8, 2008, a roving mob attacked several Roma in the town 
of Havirov. One teenager was so savagely beaten, he was effectively 
left for dead. For a prolonged period of time afterwards, he was in a 
coma, and when he regained consciousness, he was unable to talk. 
Although he has learned to speak again, he has suffered permanent brain 
damage. He is paralyzed, was forced to end his studies, and may never 
be able to work.
  A decision in the case is expected to be announced in the Ostrava 
regional court at 8:30 a.m. on February 24. Behind the high profile 
murder cases of Roma that make their way into the news, there is an 
even larger number of cases involving Roma who have been attacked, but 
not fatally; they do not die but are maimed, disabled, and traumatized 
for life by the racially motivated violence they have encountered. 
Their stories are often never told, but each of them stands as a living 
monument to everyone in their families and everyone in their 
communities, testifying to the government's failure to protect them. 
Each of them deserves justice, including Jaroslav Horvath, the teenager 
attacked in Havirov.

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