Radio Praha 05.09.2003

Activists protest against closure of Sorb-language school in Saxony

Several dozen Czech and German activists demonstrated in Prague on Friday in protest of the closure of a Sorb-language primary school in the village of Chroscice in the German state of Saxony. The Saxonian region of Lusatia is inhabited by the dwindling Slavic-speaking minority of Sorbs. Leos Satava, the head of the Friends of Lusatia Association, said that Chroscice is a symbol of Lusatia's problems. He also said that assimilation of this ethnic minority still continued. Only over 50 children entered Sorb-language schools this year. The demonstrators used the one-day visit of the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to voice their protest and hand a petition to the German embassy and the Office of the Czech Government in Prague.

Pavla Horakova