From:
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 202, Part I, 18 October 2000


CZECH PRESIDENT DISAGREES WITH ZEMAN'S READING OF ANTI- GLOBALIZATION PROTESTS.

President Vaclav Havel, in an interview with the daily "Lidove noviny" on 18 October, said he does not share Prime Minister Milos Zeman's view that the protest actions and the riots in Prague during last month's IMF/World Bank annual meeting were an "anti-Czech " or an "international" conspiracy, CTK reported. To do so, he said, is to elevate their significance. The riots, Havel said, had been caused by people "whose profession is to disrupt such events," and who were supported by Czechs "interested [in seeing] that the whole affair turns out badly." Havel repeated his praise of the police action during the riots but added that "some police excesses probably took place and I do not believe anyone should cover this up. They should be investigated and perpetrators should be punished."