Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 05:20:36 +0000
Subject: CZECH POLICE ARREST MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT


POSTMARK PRAHA No.162
Postal  address : PO Box 42, 182 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic
E-mail <exner-AT-psp.cz>
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NEW TEL NO : (420 2) 85 84 107
NEW FAX NO : (420 2) 57 17 37 33
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Date : Monday 3 March 1997
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UPROAR AS CZECH POLICE ARREST MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

After stormy  scenes in the lower  house of the Czech  Parliament, the=8D
Chamber of  Deputies, proceedings were  suspended on Friday  afternoon=8D
following the arrest of the chairman of the 18-strong Republican Party=8D
parliamentary  group,  Miroslav  Sl dek.  They  resumed after Sl dek's=8D
release at 3pm. He had been in police custody for three hours.
The  previous day,  by 94  votes  to  66 the  Chamber of  Deputies had=8D
removed the parliamentary immunity of  Sl dek and two other Republican=8D
MPs,  at the  request of  a public  prosecutor, so  that they could be=8D
prosecuted in  connection with statements and  acts allegedly inciting=8D
national and racial hatred against  Germans. The statements related to=8D
remarks  made by  Sl dek at  a demonstration  in January  opposing the=8D
recent Czech-German Declaration (see PP153,154 and 160).
It  has emerged  that Sl dek's   arrest went  ahead before  the public=8D
prosecutor in question had even  received official notification of the=8D
removal of the MP's immunity. Allegations  are rife that the action of=8D
the  police in  arresting Sl dek  was at  best yet  another blunder on=8D
their part or,  more seriously, a deliberate provocation  aimed at all=8D
MPs who oppose the Klaus government.
While the  Republicans regularly parade their  racist views, targeting=8D
in particular  the 400,000 Romany ("gypsy")  minority, and resorted to=8D
offensive invective  against "Jews, Poles and  Sudeten Germans" in the=8D
Czech government during their anti-Declaration campaign, a substantial=8D
number of deputies  apart from the Republicans opposed  the removal of=8D
the immunity of their deputies.
The Communist group  voted against because they see it  as part of the=8D
vicious campaign launched by the  ruling right-wing coalition to crush=8D
opposition  - not  only to   the Declaration  but to  NATO membership,=8D
swingeing rises  in rents and domestic  energy costs, the run  down of=8D
the health service, the schools and the railway network, other current=8D
current attacks on living standards, and government moves to introduce=8D
anti-strike legislation (see PP161).
The Communists themselves  have been bracketed with the Republicans as=8D
"extremists"  seeking to  undermine  "young  Czech democracy"  and are=8D
treated  as pariahs  by the  regime, from  President Havel  downwards.=8D
Railway strikers were recently called "terrorists" by a leading member=8D
of  Prime  Minister  V clav  Klaus's  Civic  Democratic Party, Senator=8D
V clav Benda,  a self-declared admirer  of the former  Chilean fascist=8D
butcher Pinochet and boss of the interior ministry's unconstitutional,=8D
McCarthyite  Office for  the  Documentation  and Investigation  of the=8D
Crimes of Communism.
In opposing the move to lift the MPs' immunity Communist deputy Zden=D8k=8D
Klanica pointed out  that immunity could properly only  be lifted if a=8D
deputy  was  being  prosecuted  for  an  offence  like  drunk driving.=8D
The immunity law, he said, was intended to protect deputies from being=8D
prosecuted for carrying out their political duties.
At one stage the Klaus government  has admitted that it had considered=8D
applying  to   the  Constitutional  Court  for   the  banning  of  the=8D
Republicans because of their  "neo-fascist, racist" idelology. This is=8D
rich indeed, given  that a previous Klaus government  at a stroke took=8D
away the citizenship, and therefore  the civic rights, of some 300,000=8D
dark-skinned Romanies at  the time of the breakup  of the Czechoslovak=8D
Federation in 1993. Police under  the control of the interior ministry=8D
or right-wing  local councils regularly protect marches by racist Nazi=8D
skinheads  as they  march through Czech streets  chanting slogans like=8D
"Gas the  Gypsies!" The ruling coalition's  sudden "conversion" to the=8D
cause of suppressing "neo-fascist racism"  says much about its cynical=8D
approach  to politics,  now that  its back  is to  the wall as popular=8D
discontent rises and even the popularity of President Havel is waning.=8D
According to  the latest opinion  poll, his rating  slumped by 12  per=8D
cent in a single month.    END
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