President, PM pay respect to 1989 student demonstration

Prague, Nov 17 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus, Prime Minister Petr Necas and Prague Mayor Pavel Bem Wednesday paid respect to the 1989 student demonstration at Prague's Narodni Street that sparked off the end of the Communism rule.

Klaus told journalists November 17 should unite Czechs.

Necas said freedom was not granted and it should be remembered what the nation had paid for it.

Like dozens of people, Klaus, Necas and Bem paid homage at the commemorative plaque installed in the place where the Communist police brutally dispersed a student demonstration.

The police action and the (false) report that one of the students had died sparked off massive demonstrations against the totalitarian regime throughout the country that eventually ousted the Communist regime.

Klaus told journalists the events on November 17, 1939 and November 17, 1989 were linked.

The student demonstration on November 1989 was held exactly 50 years after the Nazi rule brutally suppressed a rally against it, detaining a number of students some of whom were eventually executed.

"This day is therefore a national holiday that should unite us, make us remember all the things, make us all realise that inexorable time has not pushed all the events into the past," Klaus said.

Necas said it was vital to remember constantly history and the time when "Czechs started a march towards freedom."

"We should not live in a world in which we would think that freedom should be taken as granted," he added.