Georgia's Conflicts Coincide With 1968 Russian Invasion Of Czech Republic

Prague/Tbilisi- Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who has cut his holiday short over the conflict in Georgia, today said Prague supports Georgia where by a sad coincidence fights broke out shortly before the 40th anniversary of the Soviet-Russian led invasion of Czechoslovakia, by the "Warsw Pact" Troops in August, 1968.

She told CTK that Schwarzenberg, who is returning to the office now instead of August 18, as originally planned, is in contact with his Georgian counterpart Eka Tkeshelashvili and also with Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France that presides over the EU now.

Czech Ambassador in Tbilisi Ivan Jestrab today said that some 30 Czechs have left Georgia along with a convoy bound for the Armenian capital Jerevan, from where most of them are to leave by a Polish plane for Warsaw later today.

Further Czechs will leave Armenia in the same way on Monday, Jestrab told CTK.

Another four Czechs, who find themselves in western Georgia and cannot use their air-tickets to depart from Batumi by plane, will go to Istanbul by car. The Czech consulate in Istanbul will help them reach the Czech Republic, Jestrab said.

About 15 other Czechs want to remain in Georgia. The embassy knows their identity, their whereabouts and it has connection with them.

Another 15 Czechs, however, reportedly stay in Georgia's mountainous areas, according to the embassy's unconfirmed information. The embassy does not know their names nor is it in contact with them. Nevertheless, according to available information, all Czechs in Georgia are in order, unharmed and face no problems, Jestrab said.

He said the situation in Tbilisi is calm, but local residents are naturally nervous.

The Czech carrier CSA's regular flights from Prague to Tbilisi and vice versa on Saturday was cancelled over the security situation in Georgia.

Another CSA plane is to depart for Tbilisi on August 12. "It will depend on the general situation whether the flight will depart," CSA spokeswoman Daniela Hupakova told CTK.

On Friday, the Georgian military used force to gain control of the country's separatist and pro-Russian province South Ossetia. It met with armed resistance of the Russian military that sent in troops to reinforce the Russian members of the South Ossetian peace corps.

Thousands of victims have been reported by various sources from the South Ossetian centre of Tskhinvali.

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.

EU presidency - Czechs are not too thrilled

In January 2009, the Czech Republic will begin its six-month presidency of the European Union. However, according to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (CVVM) it appears that as much as three quarters of Czech citizens are not interested in this momentous event at all. Only 24 percent responded that they are interested in the Czech presidency of the EU. This group is composed predominantly of university-educated people and potential voters of the right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

According to the CVVM, the public's awareness of the issue is even worse. No more than one fifth of the society have sufficient information about what the EU presidency means, how the government is preparing for it and who is participating in the process.

However, the question whether those polled believe that the Czech Republic will be successful in its role brought more positive responses. Half of those questioned expect the Czech Republic to succeed.

The CVVM conducted the poll this year in the first half of April, questioning more than one thousand people.

For more detailed information czech out: Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union

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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