Correspondents' Correspondence
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Breaking a Charter Munich—In an ironic turn of events,...
...The crackdown was initiated with a blustery round of denunciations that branded "Charter 77" as "an illegal and subversive organization...
...The group disclaimed any political intention, declaring that it merely wanted to publicize rights violations and press the state to remedy them...
...Confronted with still mounting support for the group, the authorities gathered over 2,500 signatures opposing the Charter...
...Yet, despite these problems, "Charter 77," now listing over 700 signatures, has not ground to a complete halt...
...The U.S...
...State Department openly criticized Prague for its treatment of the dissidents, and it was joined in this action by many Western European political figures, including Euro-communists...
...And while this may seem a very banal way for a government to fight its dissidents, it has proved dismayingly effective in Prague.—Tom Heneghan...
...Telephone lines that at first kept the activists in touch with each other and with the Western press were cut, and mail service was discontinued...
...It left only Hajek, who had served with Aleksander Dubcek, as spokesman for a movement intended to reach beyond the dispossessed politicians of 1968—and he has been under virtual house arrest...
...Pensioners like Hajek and Kriegel can perhaps withstand these pressures, but younger people And unemployment an immense threat...
...Playwright Pavel Kohout was forced to move from Prague, and former National Front Chairman Frantisek Kriegel was physically threatened several times...
...The statement, though, also points up the "Charter 77" movement's greatest problem...
...In early June, Hajek and 10 others issued a statement charging that 81 Charterists had lost their jobs since January, and demanding their immediate reinstatement...
...Foreign attention mounted steadily in January and February...
...Drivers' licenses were confiscated...
...On January 17, Havel and three other signers of the document were arrested and accused of "serious crimes against the republic...
...Breaking a Charter Munich—In an ironic turn of events, just as the long-awaited meetings that are supposed to produce a meaningful review of adherence to the Helsinki accord were getting under way last month in Belgrade, the "Charter 77" movement in Czechoslovakia appeared to be running out of breath—or, more accurately, was having the breath squeezed out of it...
...The ailing Patocka was interrogated repeatedly and died soon of a cerebral hemorrhage...
...The regime's tactic of constant harassment seems to have been especially productive...
...Mlynar, after being dismissed from his post as an entomologist at the National Museum in Prague, obtained exit visas and arrived in Austria last month with his wife...
...That dealt a special blow to "Charter 77," for it removed its most eminent nonpolitical personality...
...Since the text was first published in English in this magazine (see NL, January 31), it will no doubt be recalled that the manifesto urged the Prague regime, as a signatory, to respect the human and civil rights provisions at the Helsinki agreement...
...Charter 77," with 242 signatories, was launched on January 1, after several months of secret preparation...
...One prominent spokesman has died, many supporters have been neutralized through government chicanery, and some have even emigrated rather than face further harassment...
...Rapidly gaining momentum, the movement focused international attention once again on the post-1968 situation in Czechoslovakia, and with considerably greater impact than many previous efforts to do so...
...Havel was released last May 20, but his freedom is dependent upon his not resuming an activist role...
...The effectiveness of this tactic is evidenced by the fact that by springtime some Charterists decided to emigrate after all...
...More important, they tried persuading eight of the movement's more famous participants to emigrate to Austria—a step that met with unanimous rejection...
...Three supporters—playwright Vaclav Havel, former Foreign Minister Jiri Hajek and philosopher Jan Patocka—were named spokesmen, and it was announced that back-up representatives had been designated...
...But success also sparked a counter-campaign of gradually rising intensity that has taken a heavy toll on the Czech protesters...
...Many of the signatories were regularly summoned for wearying interrogations...
...By withdrawing the job "reward" from a number of dissidents, the regime has so overwhelmed them with material cares that they find it nearly impossible to simultaneously support the Charter and a family...
...What is officially termed the "right to work," the document observed, is actually "more a reward than a right" in Czechoslovakia today...
...Writer Ivan Binar, unable to make a living, left with his family for Austria...
...The barrier of silence was thus all but complete, and, significantly, no new spokesman emerged...
...Historian Jan Tesar has stated his intention to leave, too, and it is reported than Hilan Hue-bel, former director of the Party College, might take up a position at the Italian Communist Party's Antonio Gramsci Institute in Rome...
...Departures of this kind encourage others, raising the fear among remaining dissidents that Czechoslovakia's already weakened human rights movement will be further isolated...
...Seen from the present perspective, however, this meeting marked a tuming-point in the fortunes of the "Charter 77" group, setting off a series of grave setbacks...
...The trend probably reached its peak on March 1 when, during a visit to Prague, Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel met with Patocka and expressed his government's concern for rights campaigners in Eastern Europe...
...Others, such as reformist ideologue Zdenek Mlynar, lost even the modest jobs they had held since falling from favor after the Soviet invasion...
...What began as a surprisingly effective and widely-backed drive for human rights has now been reduced by official repression to a number of individual voices issuing occasional protests...
...In addition, its strictly legal approach was found particularly attractive by dissidents in other Eastern European countries, who in some instances became imitators...
Vol. 60 • July 1977 • No. 14
