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One on OneJaroslava Moserova - political David who stood against two Goliaths
Three weeks ago few people in this country knew much about Jaroslava
Moserova. Some perhaps would have known her as a former ambassador and
senator for the tiny Civic Democratic Alliance. Others would have seen her
name inside their favourite Dick Francis book - she's translated almost
four dozen of his detective stories into Czech. And then others still
would know her as the burns specialist who was the first doctor to treat
Jan Palach, the Czech student who set himself alight on Wenceslas Square
in 1969. Today, however, she's known as the woman who stood against two
political giants in the Czech presidential elections, and - surprisingly -
eliminated one of them in the first round. When I visited Jaroslava
Moserova this week in the Senate, I asked her if sudden fame had changed
her life.
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WitnessJaroslava Moserova - remembering Jan Palach
Jaroslava Moserova is one of the most widely respected Senators in the
Czech parliament, and has even been spoken of as a possible successor to
President Havel. But her memory for this week's Witness goes back to her
previous career as a doctor and burns expert at the plastic surgery clinic
of the Charles University Faculty Hospital here in Prague. She was on duty
when, on the 16th January 1969, the twenty-year-old Jan Palach was rushed
into the clinic with third degree burns. He had doused himself with petrol
and set himself alight on Wenceslas Square, a desperate protest against
the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia five months earlier. Jan Palach
died three days later, 34 years ago last Sunday, but around the world his
name remained a symbol of the tragedy of the occupation.
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Current Affairs32nd anniversary of Palach immolation
The 16th of January is one of the most significant dates in the modern history of the Czech people. Exactly thirty-two years ago, the young student Jan Palach walked to the top of Wenceslas Square and set himself on fire in protest at the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Palach died in hospital three days later, but the significance of his act lives on in the consciousness of the nation. has the story.
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