No violence, arrests or damage reported at demonstrations in Prague / Czech Republic
By Mindy Kay Bricker
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
(November 27, 2002)
Fearful of a repeat of the riots that rocked Prague during the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank meeting in 2000, Interior Minister Stanislav Gross and Police President Jiri Kolar declared a “war on activists” ahead of the Nov. 21-22 NATO summit.
It was a war that never came.
“Only Gross and Kolar fought a war, not the anarchists,” said protest organizer “Jiri W. Krovinek,” whose pseudonym translates as “George W. Bush.” He went on:
“The clear bubble of 12,000 demonstrators, with a percentage of them being militant, popped. The events took place as the anarchists wanted and not how the police wanted.”
Krovinek, who wore a Vaclav Klaus mask for all of his dealings with the media, was referring to Gross’ initial estimate that 12,000 anti-NATO protesters were expected to come to the city. Kolar had predicted that about 20 percent of the 12,000 would be violent extremists.
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“These tactics are old now and have to change. We were successful in disrupting the IMF summit, but the media used this to turn the world against us.”
Arnost Novak,
a member Reclaim the Streets-Prague.
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But the largest of several protest gatherings during the summit barely reached 3,000 people — and there were no reports of violence, arrests or property damage.
In contrast, 12,000 demonstrators protesting the IMF/World Bank summit in 2000 managed to disrupt that gathering, forcing organizers to halt the meeting. Authorities tallied 5 million Kc ($163,934) in property damage, 54 police were hurt and legal watchdog Civil Watch recorded 60-70 cases of police misconduct.
Nevertheless, thousands were ready for violence. Journalists donned yellow vests identifying them as members of press. Some wore helmets. Meanwhile, 12,000 police officers patrolled the streets. Border authorities turned back 352 people attempting to enter the country. Many downtown businesses boarded up their windows.
But activists said there was never any need to worry about violence.
“Those tactics are old now and have to change. We were successful in disrupting the IMF summit, but the media used this to turn the world against us,” said Arnost Novak, 30, a member of Reclaim the Streets-Prague.
“It was good because we didn’t want to disturb the summit. We wanted to make a normal protest to make known our opinions.”
The protesters, most of them anarchists from the Czech Republic and Europe, said that NATO had committed atrocities against civilians during its campaigns in the former Yugoslavia and that the alliance was a tool of American military and corporate ambitions.
Shouting in a call-and-response chant at one rally (“Whose war is it? George W. Bush!”), a 25-year-old Austrian wearing a mask of Bush’s face marched in company with other protesters wearing masks depicting Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
“NATO will bring more terror, more wars and more poverty in other countries,” he said.
Human rights observers said they were satisfied with police conduct during the summit.
Anarchist Ondrej Slacalek speaks to anti-NATO demonstrators gathered at namesti Miru.
“We are happy that the police were not violent and protesters did not cause any damage,” said Civic Legal Observers Project (OPH) manager Jiri Kopal, who had a team of 40 representatives monitoring police and activist relations.
But Kopal was critical of security zones the government established near the Congress Center, where the summit was held. He said travel restrictions imposed in the zones during the summit infringed on the rights of the people who live there.
The government spent about 620 million Kc on security preparations, not all of it directed against political demonstrations. There were fears of a terrorist attack that also never materialized.
“If the only criticism is that security measures were too high and expensive, then I will be very satisfied,” Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said.
After the summit, President Vaclav Havel criticized the measures as excessive.
Anarchists were not the only group protesting the summit.
Communists, most of them elderly pensioners, listened to speeches and country music in Old Town Square Nov. 20. Two days later, outnumbered by police determined to keep them apart from leftist protesters, a band of about 25 members of the far-right National Party rallied in Old Town Square.
Protest actions on the Nusle bridge offered an example of how different this year’s demonstrations were from those in 2000. During the IMF/World Bank meeting, the bridge was the scene of the most violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
This time, most protesters avoided the bridge. The main protest march of Nov. 21 wound its way through the Nusle valley instead.
But a few protesters approached the police barricade of armored personnel carriers and water cannons on the bridge for a more light-hearted protest.
Charging toward what protesters called “Robocops” — the riot police who stood shoulder to shoulder, flanked between plastic riot shields and the military vehicles — three anarchists, cloaked in black handkerchiefs and pushing wheelbarrows filled with dummies representing NATO officials, stopped a few feet away from the helmeted police.
They dumped the dummies onto the pavement and shouted, “We are the Eastern European anarchists and these are the NATO guys. We do not need them.”
With this, they turned around and joined the protesters who were heading beneath the bridge. The march eventually wound its way back to namesti Miru, where the group dispersed.
Some protesters said they were disappointed with the events of the week.
One 20-something Estonian who came to join what he hoped would turn into a revolution instead found himself missing demonstrations because he was hung over. You cannot forsake Czech beer when you travel to Prague for a protest, he said.
As the summit came to a close Nov. 22 and protesters folded up their signs and packed their musical instruments, two demonstrators had the final word at a press conference given by NATO Secretary General George Robertson.
As Robertson spoke, two Russian men bearing journalists’ credentials lobbed tomatoes at him — and missed.
“You are covered in the blood of children,” said the two, who were identified as members of the nationalist Russian National Bolshevik Party. “NATO is worse than the Gestapo.”
–Lenka Ponikelska and wires contributed to this report.
Mindy Kay Bricker’s e-mail address is
source: http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2002/Art/1127/news2.php