Soviet invasion of 1968 to have its own web page

Prague - A comprehensive list of documents related to the August 1968´s invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops is presented on a new web page run by the Totalitarian Regime Study Institute.
Besides various secret analyses and testimonies, the web page also offers previously unpublished radio transmissions and a list of 108 victims - people who died between August 21 until the end of 1968 and their death was related to the presence of the Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia.

This list includes basic biographic data, often accompanied with a photo of the victim. Some of them were shot, others were run over by Soviet tanks.

Twenty-two year old Eduard Netušil died in a road accident. The young man was trying to take over a badly lit military transporter that suddenly reversed, forcing the young man to drive his motorbike into a tree.

Or, sixty-three years old Josef Bulík who died when a tank crushed a newspaper stand he happened to be in.

The original records of the radio broadcast programs of August 1968 have been long lost in archives - now they are all disclosed online.

They include radio news or speeches of major political figures.

"These are ten freest days in the history of Czechoslovak radio," said Totalitarian Regime Study Institute head Pavel Žáček.

Prague Spring

The territory of what was Communist Czechoslovakia then was invaded by five Warsaw Pact member states - Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, German Democratic Republic and Poland - during the night between 20 and 21 August 1968.

The military intervention took place because the Soviet Bloc's leaders were not happy with the liberal reforms initiated by the new Czechoslovak government.

Alexandr Dubček was elected the head of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) in January 1968 and has become an iconic figure of the 1968 reform program.

For a short period of time Czechoslovakia broke free from Soviet rule. The new government introduced economic reforms, limiting state controls and allowing freedom of speech. This brief period of about four months is now known as the Prague Spring.

You can see the page here

LN: Roma to set up vigilante patrols in Karlovy Vary

Prague, June 24 (CTK) - Romanies in Karlovy Vary, West Bohemia, will set up their own patrols outside a local school in response to the patrols established by the Czech extremist National Guard (NG), Lidove noviny (LN) wrote Tuesday.

NG's patrols are to start guarding the school against what they call attacks by local Romany children against the schoolchildren later Tuesday.

The Romany children are from a hostel inhabited mostly by Romanies.

Last week, NG members went to the hostel "to explain their position" to the Romanies.

"We do not need any patrols here," a local Romany told the paper.

Stanislav Sivak, an activist of the local Romany Civic Association, said a brawl that occurred a few weeks ago had been investigated by the police.

"This is certainly no Romany gang that would harass the area," Sivak said.

"The authorities have enough measures with which to punish the parents who do not look after their children. Maybe they should be stripped of some welfare benefits," Sivak said.

Sivak said since Romanies feared for their children, too, they wanted to protect them outside the school.

At present, the school is being watched by police patrols.

Representatives of the National Party (NS), that had set up the para-military NG, are of the view that the problem was caused by the Romany children from the hostel for rent-defaulters.

"We will settle the repeated attacks on schoolchildren," Pavel Sedlacek from the NS press office told CTK.

NG members also want to organise a free self-defence course for local children.

There is tension among parents of the local schoolchildren, LN writes.

"If anyone harms my child, I will be very tough. I have a pistol and I would not hesitate to use it," LN quotes a father as having said.

Three children from the fourth grade told the paper they had been victims of a recent attack by Romany children.

"It happened about three weeks ago. We were suddenly attacked by the Gypsies," a boy, aged 10, said.

"One of them had a knife and asked us whether we want our hands to be cut off. Another one hit a friend of mine in his head. We took to our heels," he added.

The assailants were six to seven years old.

"They were younger, but it was unpleasant. Now both of us are trained for the fight with a stick," another boy said.