PM: extremism, not military invaders, threat today

Prague, Aug 21 (CTK) - No "allied troops'" invasion threatens at present but an "invasion" of displays of radicalism, intolerance and extremism, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said in a press release on the 43rd anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops yesterday.

The invasion then put an end to Prague Spring, the Czechoslovak communist reform movement aiming to introduce "socialism with a human face."

A period of "normalisation," the communist hardliners' rule, started in the country, still occupied by the "allied troops," which ended only with the Velvet Revolution in late 1989.

"At present, no "allied troops'" invasion threatens any more, but an invasion of displays of radicalism, intolerance and extremism we are witnesses to in a number of countries. This extremism of various tinges may threaten freedom and democracy any time, now as well as in the near future," Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) said.

Necas's three-party government itself has tackled a problem of political extremism recently, in connection with Ladislav Batora, controversial far-right-oriented clerk whose employment at the Education Ministry, controlled by the Public Affairs (VV) party, has caused a rift in the coalition.

The biggest shock that right-wing extremism caused in Europe most recently was linked to the July terrorist attack in Norway.

Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra (ODS), in his own press release sent to CTK yesterday, pointed to the symbolical importance of the August 21 date.

"We should not approach such anniversaries with resignation but we should draw a lesson from them. A state that gives up its own defence cannot exist as an independent state for long," Vondra said.

Also in a press release, senior opposition Social Democrat (CSSD) chairman Bohuslav Sobotka wrote that the eastern bloc's invasion "broke the strength and hopes of Prague Spring and enabled the start of [hardline communist] normalisation."

"One of our main tasks is to fight against totalitarian regimes and dictatorships, both left- and right-wing ones," Sobotka added.

Other politicians, along with local residents, marked the anniversary this morning outside the Czech Radio headquarters in Prague, where many people spontaneously gathered to defend the building against the occupiers on August 21, 1968.

yesterday's young generation can no longer imagine how important and crucial media the radio was at the time, said Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS).

Lower house chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova (ODS) said that for twenty years now the Czechs have openly commemorated the invasion anniversary, which they had not been able to do under the totalitarian regime.

Shortly before midnight on August 20, 1968, five Warsaw Pact countries' armies entered Czechoslovakia without warning the then Czechoslovak state bodies.

The first invasion wave comprised some 100,000 soldiers, 2,300 tanks and 700 planes. The occupation force gradually rose up to 750,000 soldiers. The invasion and subsequent occupation claimed human lives.