If people know their rights, they will know how they should behave

Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliament
in conversation with
John W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange Project
at the Czech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000
Jack Erwin
The last time we were together, Monika, we were in Terezin, for the Stories Exchange Project conference "Arts of Tolerance.” As you remember, one of the participants in the conference, Kumar Vishnawathan, was detained by the local police because he fit their profile of criminal suspects. And some people went to the police station and we all talked about it.
[see, also in this memnu, “Being a Citizen,” “They forced me into the car and took me to the police station”] Do have any comments on that, on that kind of thing happening?
Monika Horakova
I have to say that this is part of the daily reality of Roma in the Czech Republic. Kumar is not a Rom, but from India and is of the same physical type as the Roma, so he had this bad experience.
He is not the only one who experiences this kind of thing. It is true that this is happening to Roma, and we would like to do something about it. We would like to change the situation. We would like to teach people about their rights. I hope that if people know their rights, they will know how they should behave in the kind of situation in which Kumar found himself.