Do tourists really know what they are looking at?

Even on a cold February afternoon, the rolling hillside in Malá Strana is swarmed with tourists. They meander up the hill to snap photos of the city as it emerges beneath them.

But before they can begin their ascent, they are met with a peculiar set of bronze statues at the base of the hill. The statues, anonymous figures, are staggered along large, concrete steps. The first of the figures is a whole, life-sized man, his face gaunt, his body inclined forward as if he can barely hold himself upright.

With each step, a piece of his body disappears; first a jagged hole rips across his torso, then his arms are eaten away until finally, there is nothing left but a pair of deteriorated legs.

This staircase of human decay is supposed to represent what happened to the spirit of Czechs persecuted under the communist regime of 1948-1989. The Memorial to the Victims of Communism was built in 2002, 12 years after the fall of the regime.

A bronze ribbon that runs up the center of the staircase tallies the numbers: 205,486 arrested; 248 executed; 4,500 died in prison; 327 shot trying to escape; 170,938 forced into exile.

The unveiling of the memorial by renowned Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek sparked a debate between those who welcomed it as a much belated tribute and those who felt it was artistic kitsch, and an unsightly blemish on Prague's architectural landscape

More controversy erupted when the Civic Democrats, the party largely responsible for its establishment, snubbed President Václav Havel by declining to invite him to the ceremony until the last minute. The Civic Democrats were led by Václav Klaus, now the Czech president and long a rival of Havel.

Most visitors to Petřín Hill seem unaware not only of the controversy surrounding the statues, but also of what they are supposed to be honouring. The disappearing man certainly stops them in their tracks; they gape curiously and clamber up the steps to pose for pictures, kissing his cheek and holding his hand.

But after saying cheese, they move on, consulting maps and pushing baby strollers up the rest of the hill. At one point, 12 onlookers gather around the memorial, but not a single one of them stops to inspect the dedication plaque or the numbers running up the middle of the steps.

With the next round of visitors, one young man does pause, however. Sascha Junkert, 24, on holiday from Russia, thinks the meaning of the memorial all depends on how you look at it.

"For me, communism is good in the beginning," he says. "Everyone owns everything, but in the end it breaks down. This is what you see if you look at the statues from the bottom up. But what about those people at the top of the stairs? What do they see? They see a body getting stronger and stronger. It is the same with communism - it all depends on your perspective." Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek tried to depict the deteriorating human condition under four decades of communism.

"This memorial is dedicated to all victims, not only those who were jailed or executed, but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism," reads a small bronze plaque, a chilling reminder of a recent past at the bottom of Prague's otherwise picturesque Petřín Hill.









This story is part of an occasional series of articles from the Prague Wanderer, a webzine created by New York University students in Prague. Learn more about the Prague Wanderer here. Aisha Gawad is a third year student at New York University studying journalism and Middle Easter and Islamic Studies. She is from Burke, Virginia.

US Radar Plans In Action

The negotiations about the planned US radar base in the Czech Republic has taken a new course as Prague declared its wish to have the Czech army modernized by the Americans.
Concretely, the Czech Republic would like to be assisted by the USA in its planned acquisition of military transport planes and modernization of anti-aircraft defense, informed Czech Television (ČT), a public service broadcaster. So far, the government has been speaking only of scientific and economic cooperation with the USA. "We have asked the USA for cooperation in acquisition of tactical transport aircrafts and we would like to discuss this issue together with radar base negotiations," said the Deputy Minister of Defense Martin Barták. According to the ČT, the Czech Army plans to get two Hercules transport planes that would replace small and obsolete Antonov aircrafts still used for transporting Czech soldiers to foreign missions.

Greens ultimately to decide whether radar base gets green light or not

How likely is it that the parliament will approve the stationing of the radar base on Czech soil – a crucial prerequisite? Where are the potential pitfalls? We analyse what lies ahead for Mirek Topolánek’s centre-right coalition.

Mirek Topolánek and Václav Klaus, photo: CTK

Alexandr Vondra certainly has reason to be satisfied with Point 37 of NATO’s Bucharest Declaration – the bit that deals with the U.S. missile defence shield - although it’s not quite the unmitigated victory described by some in the Czech and international media. NATO merely declares - "We are exploring ways to link this capability with current NATO missile defence efforts as a way to ensure that it would be an integral part of any future NATO wide missile defence architecture."

But that declaration – lukewarm as it is – will be pored over and analysed by politicians and experts in the Czech Republic for months to come. The reason is simple. The radar base – to be built about 75km southwest of Prague in the Brdy Hills – will be manned by American soldiers. Their presence on Czech soil will be governed by a treaty – two treaties actually – which must be ratified by both houses of parliament. And there lies the rub.

Prime Minister Topolánek has a wafer-thin majority in the lower house of parliament. His centre-right coalition controls 103 seats in the 200-seat parliament. But those 103 votes include six seats belonging to the Green Party. For the radar base to be approved, Mr Topolánek will need at least four of the six Green MPs to vote yes. And the Green Party appears deeply divided on the radar base.

Martin Bursík, photo: CTK

The party’s pragmatic chairman Martin Bursík says an American pledge that the radar base will become part of a NATO system meets Green Party demands on the issue. Deputy chairman Ondřej Liška disagrees. He says it is too early to call the U.S. missile defence shield a NATO project, and also describes the NATO declaration as extremely vague.

The Green Party’s policy statement on the matter – approved by the party leadership – calls for a “binding guarantee from the government of the United States” that the European components of the missile defence shield will form part of NATO. Many – perhaps most – of the Green Party’s rank and file members oppose the plan. Some are calling for a party referendum on the issue.

The party’s national leadership will meet this weekend to discuss whether the U।S। pledge constitutes such a binding guarantee। If it does, Mr Topolánek can breathe easy. If it doesn’t, much work lies ahead. Either way, it seems it will be the Greens who will decide whether the radar base gets the green light or not.

Canadian ambassador: jump in asylum claims “a concern”

It has only been five months since Ottawa dropped visa requirements for Czechs, but since then Canada has seen a marked jump in asylum applications by Romanies from the Czech Republic. On Wednesday, the Toronto Star reported that more than 100 claims had been put forward since November and there is now concern a rise in applications could cross a key threshold in 2008. Under such circumstances, Canada might reassess its visa policy and reintroduce travel restrictions for Czechs.

Canadian Ambassador to Prague Michael Calcott

Eleven years ago Canada saw a major influx of some 4,000 Czech Roma seeking political asylum: a programme at the time by private broadcaster TV Nova was one of the first to highlight (some say exacerbate) the situation, which continued well into the summer of 1997. Images of Romanies departing for Canada flooded Czech homes and eventually the situation became untenable, and Ottawa re-imposed visas. The restriction for Czechs was only dropped last November. Five months later, Canadian daily the Toronto Star has reported that visa-free relations could again be under threat, saying that restrictions could be reintroduced by Canada if the number of Czech asylum applications continues to grow. A little earlier I spoke to the Canadian Ambassador to Prague Michael Calcott:

“When the visa was lifted we certainly informed Czech officials of the various criteria that we use regarding re-imposition and that involves abuses of asylum claims that is definitely one of them. I know that the Czech government has been very sensitive to this issue and has been watching very closely the number of claims that have been made. It’s not the only issue that we look at and I would refer back to when we were looking to first lifting the visa we had a number of criteria that we used that we reviewed constantly to assess if the Czech Republic to be ready.”

“Those issues include the security of documentation, criminality issues, possible deterioration in democratic processes, and so on. Asylum claims are just one of the criteria: while increases in refugee claims are a concern, they are just one factor which would decide whether we needed to re-impose a visa requirement on Czech citizens.”

The Toronto Star reported that if the figure of Czech claims reached 580 (a figure more or less confirmed by the ambassador, 2-percent of all asylum claims received by Canada annually) that could tip the scale towards reintroducing visas, although as Ambassador Calcott stressed that would not be the only factor. As for the Czech Republic, the country is not in the same position it was a decade ago, when Czech Romanies applied for asylum en masse.

“The situation is ‘incomparable’ in the sense of the historic changes: membership of the EU, membership in the Schengen zone, in NATO. The Czech Republic is indeed a very different country than it was when we re-imposed back in the ‘90s. These factors are part of what we examine. So while I am not going to belittle the number of refugee claims as a factor that we look at, we have to put it in context with democratic processes which are now in place, a human rights record which is excellent and other factors like that.”

National Party screens anti-Islamic film

National Party screens anti-Islamic film

Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia, April 15 (CTK)

- The Czech extra-parliamentary extremist National Party (NS) presented the controversial anti-Islamic film Fitna of Dutch ultra-right MP Geert Wilders in Hradec Kralove Tuesday.

Over 20 people attended the screening.

On this occasion, Pavel Sedlacek from the NS pointed to the alleged danger of Islamisation and he mentioned demonstrations in the Czech Republic and abroad against it.

Only several people took part in the debate. One of them said problems with the Islamisation of society should be solved on the official level.

"You must call on politicians to start dealing with it," he said.

Sedlacek objected that one cannot rely on politicians in this respect.

The local branch of the NS, which was officially registered in 2002, also screened the film Ahmed - Dead Terrorist and offered T-shirts and papers to the audience tonight.

The NS has released Wilders's film called Fitna, an Arabic word used to describe discord, on its website.

"A total of 26,000 people have seen the film, a half of them from Germany and Austria. People from 71 countries have watched it on our website," Sedlacek said.

The police organised crime squad (UOOZ) started investigating the film's release on the NS's Internet page to check whether the film's content is in compliance with Czech law.

UOOZ spokesman Pavel Hantak told CTK that the investigation had not been completed yet.

The film describes the Koran as a book that provokes intolerance, murders and violence, and it ends up with the slogan: "Stop Islamisation. Defend Our Freedom."

The film, released in March, met with sharp criticism in the Muslim world.

The Dutch TV channels refused to broadcast it. The authorities expressed fears that the film might stir up violent protests in Muslim countries similar to those that followed after the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Danish papers two years ago.

WATCH "Fitna Here" -

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