Last month both the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia commemorated the 54th anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by troops from Warsaw Pact countries led by the Soviet army during the night of 20 August and early morning hours of 21 August 1968, during which dozens of inhabitants of Czechoslovakia died in clashes with soldiers or in traffic accidents caused by the occupiers. In Košice, Slovakia, one of the resisters who was shot to death by the invaders was a Romani man, Bartolomej Horváth.
One of the occupiers' victims was Romani
The invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops on 21 August 1968 cost the lives of more than 130 victims - in Košice alone, six people were shot dead, including a Romani man, Bartolomej Horváth, during the first day of the occupation. He lived at Dobrianského 13.
Mr. Horváth was a construction worker and was single. At the time of the invasion, he was working on the construction of the Hotel Slovan on Náměstí osvoboditelů (Liberators' Square) in Košice.
When the occupiers drove through the town at about 11 AM on 21 August, Mr. Horváth ran out from the construction site and crawled onto one of the tanks. He used a shovel to try and break the glass of its periscope.
A soldier then came out of the tank and fired a machine gun at him. The young Romani man suffered gunshots to his abdomen and a projectile also damaged his left arm.
He was taken to the hospital in Rostislavova Street, where he fought for his life for another two weeks. He succumbed to his injuries on 11 September 1968.
