TWO DIE IN CZECH DEMONSTRATIONS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32073, 22 August 1969, Page 11

TWO DIE IN CZECH DEMONSTRATIONS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PRAGUE, August 21. Two people died in demonstrations marking the first anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Interior Ministry announced this morning. An announcement read over Prague Radio and the city’s public address system said that during demonstrations last night “young people including irresponsible and criminal elements built barricades, lit fires, wrecked shops and plundered them and damaged public transport as well as private cars.”

A massive attack by the police was necessary to clear Wenceslas Square, it said.

Arms were used against the police and, the announcement added “two citizens have died.” It did not reveal how they lost their lives. The Ministry said that calm had now been restored. The Interior Ministry announcement said that 320 arrests had been made so far in the demonstrations. By midnight, riot police, I Army units and the militia > had quelled fierce demonstrations which raged I throughout the evening in j many parts of the capital, a news agency report said. Troops with fixed bayonets faced demonstrators at one stage last night Percussion grenades, tear gas, water cannon and truncheons were used against thousands of jeering people who took to the streets in protest against the invasion. Between 50 and 100 of them were believed to have been injured.

Special Buses Special buses carried arrested demonstrators to police headquarters. More than 200 are believed to have been detained so far.

Prague resembled a huge military depot this morning and the authorities faced the prospect of a mass protest of a different kind.

Thousands of people have been called on to walk to work, wear black, and boycott shops and all forms of public entertainment. There might again be trouble on the streets.

Armoured personnel carriers stood guard in Wenceslas Square and detachments of troops and militia guarded other key centres. Midnight pealed out over a city scarred by broken I shop windows and littered with tom-up paving stones I and tramlines—particularly lat the bottom of Wenceslas i Square, a traditional rallying point for Czech patriots.

Barricades Up Earlier, some 500 young demonstrators threw up barricades of construction equipment, park benches, and an overturned police traffic control tower in an attempt to stop armoured personnel carriers which periodically stormed against them down Wenceslas Square.

Thousands of by-standers continually jeered “Gestapo, Gestapo” as the security forces approached. It was the worst violence seen in Prague since the occupation when people

thronged the streets to thump their fists on the sides of Soviet tanks. After repeated tear gas raids and charges by police and troops on Wenceslas Square, demonstrators moved to the adjoining Narodni Street where the barricades were set up. The corner of Jungmannova and Narodni seemed set for a blood bath. Police and troops—accompanied for the first time by militia—advanced menacingly down Narodni Street four deep and then charged with truncheons flailing.

Brief Volley The young demonstrators fired a brief volley of tom-up cobblestones and then scattered. Some were beaten to the ground by a rain of blows. Some police and militiamen stopped to pick up the cobbles and hurled them back after the retreating youngsters. Ambulances scuttled back and forth throughout the night with sirens wailing. Fumes of tear gas lingered in many parts of the city this morning as security forces snatched a brief rest in preparation for the crucial day ahead. In the picturesque old town square tourists watched the famous astronomical clock strike the hour while about 40

Army lorries carrying an estimated battalion of men stood nearby. Strong forces of militia in blue battle dress ringed key points in the old parts of the city. About 30 militiamen accompanied by a few police officers guarded the historic powder tower at the end of Pricopy Street. A dozen personnel carriers with ancillary vehicles stood around the Czechoslovak air* lines terminal on Revolution Place. At the foot of Wenceslas Square 14 troop carriers were drawn up in line ahead facing into Narodni Street which was still sealed by a cordon of troops. In the square itself an equally strong force of personnel carriers and water cannon blocked the junction with Narodni and Pricopy Streets.

One hundred yards behind a similar force formed a second line of defence and further up the square the Wenceslas memorial was still guarded by police and troops.