By Katerina Zachovalova Jul 27, 2009, 13:42 GMT
Prague - From all over Europe, members of a Romanian Roma clan have descended on Prague in recent days to pray for the recovery of one of their most treasured sons, Ion Miclescu, injured last week in a swimming accident.
The young man, pegged to rule his hometown's Roma one day and considered a kind of prince, has been lying in a Prague hospital in a coma since nearly drowning Wednesday in a lake on the city's outskirts.
The clan's vigil is testing the tolerance of Czech society and has exposed racism that is often hidden from the public eye.
Miclescu, who turned 17 two weeks ago, had gone for a swim on Wednesday to refresh himself as the semi-nomadic family from southern Romania paused in the Czech Republic during a journey through Europe, relatives said.
However, he slipped underwater and remained submerged for about 10 minutes before an athletic stranger managed to fish him out, they said. It took another 40 minutes for rescuers to restart Miclescu's heart. The good samaritan remains unidentified, police said.
Once alerted of Milescu's accident, his clan - Miclescu's father has seven brothers - descended upon the Czech capital in their battered BMWs from sites across the continent, including the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. They pitched camp in a park in front of Vinohrady Hospital.
'It is normal for us to come together. We wait, we pray,' said Vitomireanu Bobi-Corneliu, 29, Ion's distant cousin, who goes by Bobi and picked up English from movies.
Miclescu, the youngest son of the clan's elder, is something of a prince, Bobi explained. He has been on track to become one of a half- dozen elders of 'all Gypsies' in Ramnicu Valcea, the family's hometown in Romania, because he is 'very smart.'
At an estimated 10 million, the Roma, also known as Gypsies, are Europe's largest minority. They are also seen as the most marginalized group on the continent. Most live in exclusion, undereducated and impoverished. There are an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Roma in the Czech Republic.
Recent economic woes have heightened racial tensions in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe.
In the past few months, neo-Nazis have marched through Roma ghettos, and several houses belonging to Roma have been fire-bombed. Earlier in July, Canada re-introduced visas for Czechs to stop the country's Roma from seeking asylum there.
In opinion polls, Czechs consistently rank the Roma as the least- liked national minority. A March survey by the CVVM polling institute found that Roma are disliked by 77 per cent of respondents, followed by Ukrainians, who are disliked by 56 per cent of respondents.
Miclescu's immediate family began setting up camp near the hospital on Wednesday. Other clan members arrived later in the week and over the weekend. The impromptu gathering soon triggered a wave of residents' complaints, officials said.
A hospital security guard observed disapprovingly that Miclescu's relatives did not pay for parking. 'Police ignore it, but I would not get away with it,' she griped.
Partly to prevent potential neo-Nazi attacks, the municipal authorities moved the group from the hospital to a nearby campground on Friday, where they have been loosely separated from other visitors. The family gathering included over 100 people by Monday.
During the weekend, men were passing time quietly talking, sipping beer and smoking on benches under a willow tree, while women in long colourful skirts adorned with spangles cooked meat-and-potato stew on propane burners.
'They have their own space because they exceed our capacities,' the campsite's operator, Zita Strnadova said. But she added that some vacationers fled when Miclescu's family arrived.
Some Czech news websites temporarily shut down discussion about the family's vigil, as they were overflowing with racist comments.
One anonymous reader commented on the site of iDNES.cz on Monday: 'Czechs have no money for vacations because of the crisis and they should support the gypsy trash?' Another reader wrote: 'Send them back where they came from. As if we did not have enough of them.'
The comments surprised a local Roma who coaches boxing.
'I was astonished,' said Stefan Licartovsky, who is collecting money for the clan. 'There were people who wrote that a dead gypsy is a good gypsy. They should be jailed.'
For now, donations are covering the campground fees, but the family may be forced to move again soon.
Despite the odds, clan members are ready to stay nearby as long as Ion needs them, said his oldest brother, Laurentiu, 25.
Miclescu breathes only thanks to a respirator and has been on dialysis since Saturday, when his kidneys failed, a hospital spokeswoman said.
'I wait for a positive result. It is up to God,' Laurentiu said, glancing up to the sky.
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