Europe, Headlines

CZECH REPUBLIC: Georgia Sets Off an Old Debate

Ramesh Jaura

PRAGUE, Aug 23 2008 (IPS) - The coinciding of military confrontation between Russia and Georgia and the 40th anniversary of the brutal crushing of the 'Prague Spring' in 1968 in what was Czechoslovakia has triggered a debate on whether a comparison between the two events is justified.

As Czech and Slovak leaders held solemn ceremonies in Prague and Bratislava to mark the historic Aug. 21, 1968, the Czech leaders were conspicuously divided in their views on the conflict between the great power Russia and its tiny neighbour Georgia.

Czechoslovakia split peacefully in 1993 into the Czech and Slovak republics, on the heels of the fall of the Berlin Wall that paved the way for parliamentary democracy in the country.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has strongly criticised Georgia. Klaus, together with eminent writer Vaclav Havel and his Social Democrat counterpart Milos Zeman is recognised as one of the three most important Czech politicians of the 1990s, and the last of them to remain active.

Klaus argues that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's "fatal" actions against the separatist region of South Ossetia were to blame for the conflict.

Mountainous South Ossetia in Georgia is separated from North Ossetia in Russia by a border running high in the Caucasus. Georgians account for less than a third of the population of South Ossetia.

President Klaus vehemently rejected the parallel between 1968 and 2008, pointing out that Czechoslovakia did not act provocatively by attacking Subcarpathian Ruthenia 40 years ago, and that then Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek's conduct bore no similarity to that of Saakashvili during recent events.

Subcarpathian Ruthenia is a small region of Central Europe, now mostly in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, easternmost Slovakia, Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramures. Since 1945 it has been a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the subsequent independent state of Ukraine.

President Klaus is supported by the opposition Social Democratic Party and by Communist Party leaders.

Miloslav Vlcek, chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, told the Czech News Agency CTK: "The same politicians who did not respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia are now calling on Russia to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia."

Vojtech Filip, Communist Party chairman, was quoted in the Lidové Noviny newspaper saying: "The (Georgian) attack on South Ossetia was politically an absolutely unwise and amateurish step and by this, Saakashvili has lost the confidence of the democratic thinking world."

President Klaus is at odds with the pro-Georgian opinions expressed by other government leaders. Eminent among them is Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who heads the right-wing neo-liberalist Civic Democratic Party founded by Klaus in 1991.

"The Czech Republic supports Georgia's effort to strengthen its sovereignty," Topolanek said in an Aug. 8 statement shortly after Russian military action against Georgia began. "The Russian tanks on the streets of Georgian towns remind those of us who experienced it, of the 1968 invasion," he added in a recent newspaper article.

Lidové Noviny newspaper quoted Alexandr Vondra, deputy prime minister for European affairs, as saying: "Russia might think its massive military operation against a sovereign state would pass unnoticed. It is mainly we Czechs, with our own experience, who should not tolerate something like this."

The newspaper cited Jan Hamacek, Chamber of Deputies foreign committee chairman as saying: "It was an inappropriate reaction from the Georgian government. An inappropriate reaction from the Russian side only followed."

While the Czech leaders debated whether the events in Georgia now are comparable with those in 1968, Sergej Mironow, chairman of the Federation Council, said the invasion of Czechoslovakia was a "mistake".

The invasion had helped trigger the end of the Warsaw Pact, a communist military bloc headed by the Soviet Union after the Second World War (1939-45) until the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union itself.

The bloc, set up to counter the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO, the western military alliance), comprised the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

"The (Warsaw Pact) tanks were not battling an enemy but a political concept – and this is an attribute of weakness," Mironow said last week in Moscow.

In March 2006, Vladimir Putin, now prime minister and then president, said that Moscow "undoubtedly bears moral responsibility" for the invasion.

Also, Hungary offered apologies for joining the invasion. Hungary's President Laszlo Solyom said at a commemoration that he regretted the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and was sorry for Hungary's role in it. An apology could serve reconciliation, he added.

On the same day, Culture Minister Istvan Hiller said in a political statement at a press conference that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was "an act of aggression."

The crushing of the Prague Spring was clear evidence that a Soviet-type power was unable to reform and unfit for change. Hiller said the invasion was shameful, and an apology was moral obligation. "We apologise," he added.

Czech responses to the military confrontation between Russia and Georgia, and the former Warsaw Pact allies' soul-searching stands in stark contrast to the results of a recent poll. It found that 70 percent of Czechs younger than 20 have "no opinion" on the events of 1968.

"The reason is that there is nothing in Czech textbooks about 1968," says Alena, who is in her early 20s and is engaged in a Youth Forum that helps build a strong civil society.

Several Czech activist groups have condemned Russian actions in Georgia. Pro-Georgia demonstrators rallied in front of the Russian consulate in Brno on Aug. 15 and the Russian Embassy in Prague Aug. 12. Several Czechs have signed a condolence book for Georgian victims at the Georgian embassy.

"This is not an ethno conflict as it's presented by the Russians," said Georgij Alanija, head of the Prague-based Georgia activist group Samsoblo. "This is an occupation of Georgia. And the conflict did not start a couple days ago, but 19 years ago."

He added his own take on differing opinions among Czech officials. "We are happy with the way the Czech government and the foreign affairs minister expressed their feelings about the conflict. On the other hand, we are horrified by Klaus's latest statements, and also by the Czech communists."

According to the Prague Post weekly, Samsoblo is considering filing a suit against Klaus over his comments against Georgia.

Such differences are typical of Czech foreign policy, analysts say.

"The biggest problem is not that top officials have different opinions," said analyst Jiri Pehe of the New York University in Prague. "However, it is highly problematic when they are not able to compare notes and speak with one voice. Czech foreign policy is a real cacophony of voices."

This is a source of great concern particularly as the Czech Republic will take over the six-monthly presidency of the 27-nation European Union next January.

But there is a sense of relief that Czech officials have welcomed the U.S.-Polish agreement to host a U.S. missile base. It is considered a victory for Czech officials who have promoted the expansion of the U.S. missile defence shield in their own country.

"We welcome the great advance that has been made between Poland and the United States. It is clear that the Poles feel Washington can guarantee their safety, and we should not be afraid to follow in their steps and construct the U.S. military base on our soil," Jan Vidim, chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' defence committee told the Czech News Agency Aug. 15 four days before the formal agreement being signed.

"Everyone can now see that (Prime Minister) Topolanek's administration has been right all along in saying that Poland will sign the treaty eventually," Zdenek Zboril, a political scientist at the Institute of International Relations in Prague told the Prague Post. He added that he thinks the new U.S. military bases in Europe will force a swifter European unification.

"Hopefully, signing these agreements will end all the hype that the story has generated, and people will come to realise the new geo-political situation," Zboril said. "It is clear that if Europe wants to become a viable international partner, it needs to have one address and one voice. As long as others have to call 27 people before reaching a decision, they will never take the European Union seriously, and instead deal with individual states."