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Today's Top News
Anger Mounts as Police End Protest Against US Base
Military police end six-week ‘occupation’ by activists
The battle lines for America's controversial anti-missile missile shield in central-eastern Europe have been drawn across the Czech Republic, with the pro-base Prague government fast losing the fight for Czech hearts and minds.
Military police have forcibly ended a six-week-old Greenham Common-style "occupation" by Czech Greenpeace activists of Height 718, the planned site of America's missile-tracking high-speed radar base in the Brdy military district southwest of Prague.
Following the centre-right Prague government's signing of the US-Czech missile base agreement last month, a wave of mass protests and "rolling" hunger strikes demonstrated the level of public disquiet over the siting of the US base on Czech soil.
The ranks of environmental protesters, leftist anti-missile activists and the usual rent-a-crowd have recently been boosted by prominent public figures on symbolic, short hunger strikes at Brdy to show their opposition to the American base.
They are being backed by Bruce Gagnon, one of America's leading anti-nuclear protesters. Gagnon, an activist of the US-based Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, spent two weeks on sympathy hunger strike with the Czechs in his Maine home. He explained to Radio Prague that, having recently been invited to Prague by the No to Bases Coalition, it was "very clear" to him that there was "overwhelming opposition to the US radar in the Czech Republic".
The protesters are demanding the government of Mirek Topolanek halts the parliamentary ratification of the base accord, scheduled for the autumn.
According to the latest opinion poll by Prague's CVVM agency, 66% of Czechs now oppose the siting of the American base in their county, with those backing it down to 24%.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, pictured below, is flying to Prague early next month to formally sign the accord. Reflecting the government's alarm over the public's mounting anti-base mood, Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister, has threatened to resign if parliament rejects the US radar base accord.
"I really think I would have to go to the prime minister and hand in my resignation," Schwarzenberg said. "If I don't succeed, I have to give the prime minister a chance to find someone better."
Right on cue, a leading Czech Greenpeace activist countered the foreign minister's pro-base arguments.
Jiri Tutter, leader of the Czech chapter of the environmental protection group, explained the reasons for the Greenpeace protests and the six-week-long occupation of Height 718 at Brdy: "We do not believe that the US radar and the Czech national missile defence are the best tools to secure international peace."
Meanwhile, prime minister Topolanek, and defence minister Vlasta Parkanova condemned the planned hunger strikes as a "political tool unfit to a democracy". President Vaclav Klaus has also condemned the planned "chain of hunger strikes" to stop the government from ratifying the radar base accord.
He rejected a call from Jan Toma and Jan Bedna, two prominent activists, who recently ended a three-week hunger strike, to discuss the American base issue. Calling the hunger strike "blackmail", president Klaus said that such practices had no place in a modern democracy.
The hunger strikes are to be joined by prominent Czech public figures, including former anti-communist dissident Petr Uhl and actress Anna Geislerová. They have announced they would hold one-day hunger strikes at the Brdy base.
The earlier protests were mainly mass demonstrations. Greenpeace organised a protest against the US base accord outside government offices in Prague; and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia staged the biggest anti-base demonstration to date, attended by 2000 people, along the perimeter of Brdy.
"The ratification of the Czech-American base treaty in Parliament will not be easy," Klaus has ruefully admitted. The once-supine Czech public is now too vocal for that.
©2008 newsquest (Sunday Herald)
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19 Comments so far
Show AllI for one FULLY support pulling ALL our troops out of every foreign country. We lost over 2,000 men on D-day in Normandy in less than 24 hours, for what, to save Europe from the nazis? What a waste! If the nazis wanted europe we should have let them have it. There is NO reason we should have troops in South Korea, hell if the Russians hadn't taken a piss break in the UN when they did we never would have gone there in the first place. If the North Koreans want to take over the south let them it's their land. If the people of the Czech Republic don't want a missile shield against Iranian missiles it's there right to fry when an Iranian nuke hits them.
Mohamed ElBaradei the UN atomic watchdog chief) has stated Iran WILL have a nuclear bomb in 6 months to a year. Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold Pakistan blueprints for putting a nuke on the end of a missile to a bunch of Swiss businessmen who promptly resold them to the Iranians and North Koreans and who knows who else. The Iranians have upgraded the Shahab-4 (a two stage missile) to 2,000 km from 1,200 km and if they put a 3rd stage on it it will have a range of 2,672-2,896 km putting the Czech Republic well with in it's range. Shahab-6 is expected to have a range of 5,470 to 6,200 km, putting all europe in range. I for one DO NOT want my tax dollars paying for a missile shield for them or any other European country. Let them pay for their own damn missile shield or let them fry! The US out of Europe, the US out of Europe, there is no reason a single US soldier should fry for a European. The Iranian president and Ayatollah Rafsanjani one of Iran's most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, and after Israel who is next in range, not us - Europe.
How many Czech patriots died driving out the Soviet occupiers and how many more will die driving out the American occupiers?
The once-supine Czech public is now too vocal for that
Gee, President Klaus, you means that a "political tool unfit to a democracy" might actually have a democratic result?! Amazing, is it not, what can sometimes happen when people reject the "rules of the game" that are laid down by their overseers.
http://www.votestrike.com/
This just shows again how the pro-US governments in the world do not respect the will of the people. Democracy in the 'west' is a sham and non-existent. I hope there will be serious repercussions for the Czech government if they defy the will of the people.
Hopefully theres a backlash each time in each country where the government goes along with american imperial ambitions, like what happened in Australia. Small gains but gains none the less.
To sign a petition against the base, go to: http://www.nonviolence.cz/
The U.S. administration thinks all countries should bow to its imperial wishes. It does not believe in democracy for the U.S. people when they clearly do/did not want war with Iraq, nor at all for other countries unless they do as this administration wishes. Of course the U.S. can bribe the administration officials; that would not be new. The Czech people do not want to be a part of it - the U.S. admin. does not want to get it!
Congressional Candidate Carol Miller is participating in the International Day of Fasting in Support of the Czech protesters,
www.carolmillercongress.com
If hunger strikes are blackmail, what is government anti-protest military action and appeasement of US?
Fist in teeth mail ? People must vote on issues that affect their security. US bases and their imperial baggage are no thank you anywhere.
66% of Czechs now oppose the bases means that the bases are definitely coming.
Hell...just get ol..Erik Prince in there with BLACKWATER..and..voila' no more peace protestors...damn simple..or..actually..technically..the "overseas" branch of BLACKWATER is GREYSTONE..and does anyone other than myself understand what that name implies...or is actually "code" for?
the SF guys know..that is why their little shop is named after.......a TOMBSTONE..I know..pretty corny..in a way..but try to remember..that THESE guy's..actually HAVE killed..WILL kill again..so..for them..."tombstone group" is apropos...it also refers to "FOUNDATION" which is what GREYSTONE is for the BLACKWATER group...the foundation...the new company..is actually the...what you might call..SERIOUS branch of Princ's empire...the real deal..NOT white trash from all nations armed to the teeth..("PENGUINS WITH GUNS")...NOPE! it is about DEATH AND TAX'S..LITTERALLY...AS IT'S HEADQUARTERS IS BARBADOS...SO PATRIOTIC..THEY DON'T EVEN PAY TAX'S...THE SAME TAX DOLLARS THAT PAY THEIR CONTRACTS...GEE WHIZ...WHAT GOOD AMERICANS.....WAKE UP!
OH YEAH..AND YOU PAY FOR IT ALL...EVERY APRIL..
The Chez should arm thmselves and mount a revolution and take back their own gouvrnement. Shouting and words want hurt those who wish to put their country men in danger by agreeng with the missile bases.They should arrest those that want to sign the ok with US and throw all the americans out the country including that black voodoo puppet of wbush Condi.
If Bush supports it, it's a bad idea. Period
What wonderful people the Czech people are. What a statement from the government to make that there is no place for hunger strikers in that Republic? Their courage is the heart of democracy and their willingness to protest the despicable interference by the US armaments progression in their democracy deserves the admiration of all of us in Europe (clear majorities everywhere) who are disgusted by their political elites connivance with such evil intentions. How good it would do us all to witness such courage from our friends across the Atlantic. Would they at whatever costs in all outr interests protest against their filthy military. May God help the Afghanistani Iraqi and the Somalians the Haitians and the Palestinians, the Congolese and the citizens of Europe particularly in a dissolved Yugoslavia and the poor in central Asia. May God help them all. Why America do you not stand up as loudly as these Czech's do? Why indeed do not others in Europe especially in the UK and her allies Denmark, Holland and France? Let us never forget Germany. Why Germans don't you rip these dreadful bases off the face of the earth. And ona personal note how is i that the Irish Government doesn't realise that there is no place to hide from their Lisbon Treaty defeat when we support American troops by granting landing rights at Shannon Airport for murder mayhem and torture abroad? Just listening to the main news networks here about Sarkozy in Israel makes me physically sick. What a putrid invention what a total obscenity and what a racist forefront in mid summer where the stink is arising and where The True Friends of Israel are spouting evil in our faces. Dreadfully mean spirited and
ferociously cruel and greedy allies of Bush. Is it possible that anger will triumph for me? I hope not. But there is only one life and we must prevent this soon and it might take more than hunger strikes if we want to be free.
In addition to the nonviolence petition above, you can sign on to a document called the Prague Declaration, written by citizens/representatives of civic organizations of the Czech Republic and Poland to strongly protest the US location of these missile bases in their countries at:
www.prague-declaration.org
I oppose imperialism in all guises as a US citizen, whether from the US or from any other country. The opposition to the bases in the Czech Republic, including hunger strikes, is called by the Powers That Be an act of "blackmail." What activity in opposition to the bases by 64% of the people WOULD be seen as acceptable by the Powers That Be? When this question is fairly answered, you will understand better why I oppose imperialism no matter from whence it comes, for it always results in stuff being imposed on an unwilling populace by a powerful outside minority.
We could learn a lot from our fellow global citizens in the Czech Republic. That must be the reason that the corporate media keep stories like this hidden from the American public's view.
willybill:
I clicked on your link and was excited by the prospect of a similar united action being organized in this country -- but with dismay viewed the xenophobic, racist depiction of Mexican immigrants on the same website. What's up with that? How you gonna build a powerful coalition on that rotten old foundation?
Willy billy, Bernice's link didn't have one damn thing in there about Mexican immigrants. You must be aseeing things, unless you're referring to some other link, as I clicked on hers.
What link are you atalking about anyway? It's not that makes any difference in the debate over the real big time issue of US imperialism and militarism.
Also what this country fought for in the Second World War was damn well worth fighting for, but that's about the last military action this country should have been in! My uncle fought the damn Nazis in the Atlantic, and I'm proud of him for doing so, his destroyer took on a Nazi submarine and single handedly knocked that bad boy out. The destroyer probably had a soul brother skipper for that to be the case, even though "The Enemy Below," which might as well have been a movie about it had a white skipper.