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Current Affairs15 years on: the East German exodus recalled
It may seem hard to believe but it is fifteen years since the world
witnessed the dramatic days of social upheaval and protest that eventually
led to the fall of Communism in Europe. At the time reform movements in the
Soviet satellites were given a new impetus by the Soviet Union's last
leader Mikhail Gorbachev who announced "Life punishes those who come
too late". The scenes in Berlin in November 1989 are vividly
remembered, but we sometimes forget one of the last episodes just before
those heady days - in the autumn of that same year thousands of East
Germans determined not to wait another minute, found a rather
unconventional way of leaving, to seek asylum in the West.
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Letter from PragueThere IS such a thing as a free lunch!
A couple of years ago, during one of our Christmas specials, Peter Smith
and I did a short sketch on what it's like to be a reporter for Radio
Prague. In the programme, we answered made-up questions, one of which was
"with so many listeners from all over the world and different kinds
of interests, how do you decide what press conference is important enough
to be covered in the programme?" Our answer was simple: the one that
is guaranteed to have the best refreshments. We were just joking, of
course, but little did we know that there actually is a group of some
twenty-five or so 'journalists' who actually go to press conferences just
for the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the other promotional freebies
that are given out. And, the people concerned have even been given a name.
They're called "Holub's fleet"...or should they now be called
Dita's fleet?
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Current AffairsHistoric building reopens on Prague's Wenceslas Square
The Melantrich building on Prague's Wenceslas Square will forever be
associated with one of the most significant periods in Czech history.
Leading figures in the Velvet Revolution, such as Vaclav Havel and
Alexander Dubcek, addressed delirious crowds from one of its balconies in
November 1989 on a day that will be remembered by Czechs for generations
to come.
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Current AffairsPribyl case reveals loopholes in security screening
The row around the appointment of Pavel Pribyl as head of the government's
office is now over. Mr Pribyl's problems became untenable when it emerged
that he had commanded a riot police unit which beat up anti communist
demonstrators in the streets of Prague in 1989. Pribyl resigned last
Friday and will most likely be replaced by a man whose past could hardly
be more different - former dissident Ales Sulc. Pribyl is gone -but a lot
of questions remain unanswered. How is it possible for a man with such a
history to have gone undetected for so long and to hold such an important
post? And how many others are there like him? Daniela Lazarova has been
trying to find out some of the answers. Daniela, is the Pribyl case an
isolated one?
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Current AffairsArchitects ordered to apologise to former communist teacher
Three former students from the Faculty of Architecture at Brno's Technical
University were ordered by a Moravian court on Thursday to apologise for
libel against their former teacher some fourteen years ago,
during the turbulent days of the Velvet Revolution. The student body
leaders labelled communist party representative Jan Snasel an
"arrogant demagogue" and an "opportunist". More
WitnessIvan Plicka: in the wrong place at the wrong time during "Palach Week"
It's exactly fifteen years since one of the events that accelerated the
fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. January 1989 was the 20th anniversary
of the death of Jan Palach, the student who had set himself alight on
Prague's Wenceslas Square in protest against the Soviet occupation. All
through the week starting from the 15th January thousands of people
gathered beneath the statue of Saint Wenceslas with flowers, to remember
Palach's sacrifice. Their quiet protest was put down by police in riot
gear using water cannon, a gross over-reaction that helped to turn many
Czechs against the regime. The young architect Ivan Plicka was a chance
witness of the demonstrations that are now known as "Palach
Week", and as he now recalls, he almost found himself being arrested.
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Talking Point14th anniversary of Velvet Revolution
During the second half of the 1980s, the tension that was created after the
1968 Soviet-led invasion in Czechoslovakia had eased, especially after the
introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika reforms in the Soviet
Union. The Czechoslovak leadership, however, still headed by Gustav Husak
who came to power after the '68 invasion, was suspicious of movements
intended to "reform communism from within" and continued to
embrace a hard line. But by 1988 there were organized demonstrations
demanding change and with the fall of the Berlin Wall and weakening
communist governments in other neighbouring countries, it was not to be
long before Czechoslovakia too would be freed from its oppressive regime.
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Current AffairsNew book examines Czech students' role in demise of Communist system
A new book entitled "Students and Communist Rule between 1968 and
1989" has just appeared on the bookshelves. The aim is to highlight
the special role Czech students played not only in overthrowing the
communist regime fourteen years ago, but throughout the totalitarian era.
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One on OneIska Lichter: remembering a time when "we all got along"
Iska Lichter was born Jindriska Zofie Roudnicka in the town of Kolin, in
1930. The daughter of a Jewish father and a gentile mother, she lived a
normal life until 1939 and the Nazi occupation. Her parents divorced -
deliberately - to avoid the family being persecuted. Her father sent the
family to the countryside, he himself went to his mother's town of
Podebrady. He was deported to Terezin in 1942 and later sent to Auschwitz,
from which he never returned. Iska, who now lives in Colorado, says hardly
a day goes by when she does not think of her father, and her life before
the war.
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