The letter quoted the Prima TV reporter: "Well-organized fighting units of up to 20 people were (...) seen from this helicopter footage, the units attacked simultaneously in several places... armed with military materiel, for example, V30 explosives which are used by the Czech Army and police during training exercises."

Samuels pointed to a police officer who stated, "They were using (...) items not normally available on the commercial market." The report also named two Czech soldiers from the rapid reaction brigade, "who have participated in neo-Nazi demonstrations."

Celebrating the fact that "70 years after Kristallnacht and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, and only two decades since the end of the Communist regime, a robustly democratic Czech Republic is about to preside over the European Union," the letter also lamented that, as "all Czechs are children or grandchildren of the victims of totalitarianism - whether Communist or Nazi - it is inconceivable that, once again, in the Czech Lands, a minority group be targeted - this time the Roma."

The Centre urged the Minister "to turn 'Litvinov' into a pedagogical, moral exercise in every school class, every police academy, every military unit throughout the Czech Republic."

"The heroism of the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution - which I personally witnessed - cannot be held hostage to jackboots and the jeers of 'Sieg Heil'", concluded Samuels, suggesting that "Your response, Sir, to the Litvinov planned pogrom is a litmus test, and will set the tone in combating racism for the Czech Presidency of the European Union."

 For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.