Czechs Mourn In Anger

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 17

Czechs Mourn In Anger

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PRAGUE, August 27.

Men and women carrying Czechoslovak flags broke down and wept at the funeral in Prague yesterday of a 27-year-old man crushed to death by a Russian tank last

As anger and hatred mounted throughout Czechoslovakia against the Warsaw Pact invaders, hundreds of people gathered in the Roman Catholic chapel of Prague’s Strasnice cemetery to mourn the first victim of the occupation.

A man who collapsed in the chapel and was carried out by friends cried to Western journalists and cameramen at the entrance to the chapel:

“Tell the world we hate the Russians. “Tell the world the truth. Tell the world what is happening here, I beg you.” A young friend of the man killed by the Soviet tank addressed the congregation, asking: “Why don’t the Russians leave? We have done nothing to them. We want our liberty." The funeral ceremony began one hour after the start of a 15-minute general strike heralded by the wail of sirens and factory hooters—the latest Czechoslovak act of defiance against the troops of five Communist powers who marched in late on Tuesday to crush this country’s hopes of democratic socialism. Flirting Stopped Reports from the provinces said two young girls flirting with Soviet tank men were dragged away by youths who shaved their heads. Mile-long columns of Soviet tanks and infantry moved northwards along main roads to Prague yesterday, through towns and villages draped in black and with the Czechoslovak flag at half-mast They passed a monument to a Soviet Second World War soldier in one village square disfigured by scrawls of “Get Out Russians” and the Soviet flag bearing the slogan “Red Army Men—Stop Sullying Your Colours.” One column moved even more slowly than most —at the front was a Czechoslovak bulldozer filling the road completely and driving at a snail's pace with a grinning driver at the wheel.

A big demonstration took place during another funeral yesterday—that of a 14-year-old boy killed by the Russians in front of the Wenceslas monument in central Prague.

More Leaflets Thirty-six red and white buses earlier led a demonstration in Wenceslas Square marking the start of the 15minute general strike. As the strike became effective, cars and trams halted in the streets.

After a night of sporadic tank movements, and the noise of tank cannons and

machine-gun fire, Soviet helicopters scattered more propaganda leaflets over the capital and occupation troops searched cars in the streets. About 100 political leaders, intellectuals and journalists had been arrested —most of them by collaborators in the secret police, he said. The spokesman discounted some of the atrocity stories circulating about Russian behaviour, such as the shooting up of Red Cross ambulances. Early in the occupation

patriots painted red crosses on the sides of cars and vans used to distribute clandestine pamphlets and newspapers, and some of these vehicles had been shot up for refusing to halt after curfew, he said. One ambulance driver told N.Z.P.A.-Reuter, however, that he and a doctor had to run for cover under fire from a Soviet tank which swung into their path as they drove through the city on Saturday night.