Prague, April 11 (CTK) – Police President Tomas Tuhy has sent a letter of apology to Pavel Jech, dean of the Film School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), for the police having come to the school over the Tibetan flags hoisted during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Prague.
In the letter posted online, Tuhy wrote that the police conduct was “unsuitable and redundant.”
The two police officers are now facing disciplinary proceedings over it, he added.
The FAMU joined the public hoisting of the Tibetan flag as a symbol of support for the victims of human rights abuses in Communist China.
Two men, who introduced themselves as police detectives, came to the FAMU building and asked questions about the flag.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Tuhy met Jech on the academic soil to clear up the situation yesterday.
Chovanec said on Sunday the law had not been breached, but the police had acted clumsily and too eagerly.
Tuhy said the investigation into whether the school board had known about the Tibetan flag on the building was caused by a communication error and by the police officers’ excessive activity.
“The police of the Czech Republic declares that no order was given to withdraw the symbols of Tibet from the FAMU building,” the letter said.
Xi Jinping and President Milos Zeman signed 30 deals at the close of Xi’s visit in late March. According to them, Chinese investors might invest up to 230 billion crowns in the Czech Republic by 2020.
The visit was accompanied by strict security measures and unusual behaviour of Chinese demonstrators, who advocated Xi Jinping. Critics say they grossly attacked the protesters against China’s human rights record.
($1=23.771 crowns)
