Nationalist meeting in Lety was election campaign - Pape, press - www.romea.cz

The weekend meeting of the far-right National Party (NS) on the spot of a former WW2 camp for Romanies in Lety, south Bohemia, was part of its election campaign, German journalist Markus Pape told today's issue of the daily Lidove noviny (LN). 'I'm afraid that what took place in Lety on Saturday may happen again anytime in Terezin or Lidice,' Pape said. The village Lidice, central Bohemia, was razed to the ground by the Nazi troops in 1942. Terezin (Theresienstadt), North Bohemia, was a Nazi-established ghetto from where people, mainly Czech Jews, were sent to concentration or extermination camps. Pape, who has recently focused on the Romany issue in the Czech Republic, was detained by police when he shouted 'Down with Nazism!' during the nationalist NS meeting in Lety. Pape believes it is the duty of the government and police to prevent such gatherings. 'The government must clearly show that no political parties are allowed to gather in such places. It must also clearly say that it is the police who must stop such events at the very beginning,' he told the paper. Pape said he considered the NS gathering a discussion in a public area as he got to know that it was not officially permitted. After he tried to interfere with the address of NS head Petra Edelmannova, some party followers attacked him. 'This reveals a lot about the party's character,' he said about the incident.