Protests against Communists planned in six towns

Prague, Jan 11 (CTK) - Several Czech regional civic associations, joined in the Without Communists initiative, plan to stage a series of demonstrations for the departure of the Communists (KSCM) from the regional councils next week, Petr Marek, one of the organisers, told reporters Friday.

The anti-communist rallies start in Olomouc, north Moravia, on Monday, January 14, and they will culminate on Wenceslas Square in Prague centre on Saturday, January 19, Marek added.

The participants want to symbolically join the hunger strike of students in south Bohemia against the KSCM participation in the regional government.

Besides, the demonstrations will be held in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, on January 15, and in Karlovy Vary, west Bohemia, on January 16, in Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia, on January 17, and in Zlin, south Moravia, on January 18.

The Communist representatives entered the regional self-rule bodies in all of these towns except for Prague in the October 2012 regional elections.

People are protesting against Communists and sign petitions in the Ustecky, Jihocesky, Karlovarsky, Olomoucky and Zlinsky regions.

The anti-communist rallies will be held during the "Palach week" commemorating student Jan Palach who burnt himself to death in 1969 to rouse the society from lethargy following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

The organisers have chosen the time intentionally. It evokes the demonstrations in mid-January in the 1980s in memory of Palach.

The organisers want to primarily raise public awareness of he issue.

"We strive for the revival of spiritual traditions and defence of freedom and democracy. Communism is in a fundamental contradiction with democracy," Marek said.

A symbolical prison cells and gallows will be presented at all rallies as a reminder of the Communist show political trials and executions.