Police Break Up March in Prague : Protest Also Held in Moscow on ’68 Invasion Anniversary

Riot police, using dogs and tear gas, broke up a march here Sunday by about 10,000 people chanting “Freedom!” and “Russians go home!” on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion that crushed the 1968 “Prague Spring” reform movement.

In Moscow, a similar demonstration protesting the invasion was held by about 500 people who chanted “Prague! Prague! Prague!” That demonstration was also broken up by police.

Waving Czechoslovak flags, the protesters in Prague began a spontaneous march from Wenceslas Square after an impromptu rally where hundreds signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, free elections, the abolition of censorship, democracy and human rights.

Many chanted the name of Alexander Dubcek, who as Czechoslovak Communist Party leader instituted the “Prague Spring” reforms before Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces invaded on Aug. 20-21, 1968. He was later deposed and sent into internal exile.

In the largest anniversary protest since 1969, the crowd roared “Freedom, freedom,” clapping and chanting as they marched from the square. Thousands of onlookers joined them.

‘We Want Freedom’

Chants of “Dubcek, Dubcek,” “Long live freedom,” “We want freedom,” “We want the truth,” “Russians go home” and “Occupiers go home” rang out as the crowd proceeded through Prague.

Initially, police made no attempt to interfere, but then they waded in with swinging batons about two hours after the chanting crowd had begun marching through the city streets. At least two of the protesters were beaten, and others in the crowd were dragged away, witnesses said. Several people were arrested at the Moscow protest, held in Pushkin Square, and at least five people were detained at different sites in Prague on Sunday.

A group calling itself Independent Peace Initiative held discussions for hours on the square and drew up a 10-point petition. Peace campaigner Tomas Dvorak read it as hundreds loudly applauded each point and cheered especially a call for an end to censorship.

Dvorak said the petition will be sent to Czechoslovak state, government and party leaders and the state-run media.

Crowd Yells ‘Shame’

At one point, a policeman passed through the tightly packed crowd and garbled signatures to the petition. The crowd jeered and yelled “Shame!” Reporters saw police spraying Mace into the face of at least one citizen.

The Moscow protest was called by the Democratic Union, an unsanctioned political party that Soviet officials have denounced as illegal.

About 100 of the demonstrators staged a second rally later Sunday along the Arbat shopping mall, said Democratic Union member Alexander Chuyev. He said police chased them and arrested an unspecified number who resisted.

Tass, the official news agency, termed the first demonstration a “planned provocative gathering” and denounced the Democratic Union as a group of anti-socialist agitators. Tass said the activists were given a written warning from Moscow city authorities that they were banned from holding a public rally.

The crackdown was in keeping with the Kremlin’s steadfast defense of the Warsaw Pact’s 1968 invasion, although some Soviets have suggested the “Prague Spring” reforms crushed in Czechoslovakia resemble those now being tried in the Soviet Union.

The official Tass news agency on Friday denounced the “Prague Spring” reforms as anti-socialist activity that attempted to “tear Czechoslovakia away from the socialist community.”

Tass dismissed comparisons between the liberalization attempted by Dubcek and those now championed by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The news agency called such comparisons the result of Western propaganda and defended the Warsaw Pact invasion as the correct action of concerned friends and neighbors.