5,000 Czechs Defy Rally Ban, Battle Police

Police fired water cannons and hurled tear gas today to disperse about 5,000 people who defied a ban on a rally marking the 70th anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s independence.

Helmeted police wielding batons swarmed through Prague’s Wenceslas Square to break up the crowd, which chanted “Gestapo!” as the police charged.

Earlier, police arrested about 70 dissidents throughout the country in one of the biggest raids on activists in years.

At least 20 arrests were made in Wenceslas Square, and some of those detained were beaten by police or had their arms twisted by plainclothesmen as they were taken to buses and driven away.

Rally Was Banned

Authorities banned the independence rally, called a week ago by the Charter 77 human rights group and four other organizations.

But people came to Wenceslas Square at the rallying hour of 3 p.m.

Hundreds in the center of the square began singing the Czechoslovak national anthem when police gave the first order to disperse, and thousands of onlookers joined in.

Chants of “Freedom!” “Long Live Freedom!” and “Masaryk!” rang out. Thomas Garrigue Masaryk was the founder and first president of the democratic republic of Czechoslovakia, founded Oct. 28, 1918.

Struck With Batons

Police moved down the square, hitting with batons onlookers who refused to move.

A Charter 77 activist, Ladislav Lis, cried out, “In the name of the Movement for Civil Freedom, hurrah!” Thousands roared in support.

The Movement for Civil Freedom is a new civil rights organization.

Police cleared the square in about 40 minutes and then moved toward the National Museum on the square, where hundreds stood on the steps watching the action below.

Chants of “Gestapo!” went up as police trucks with water cannons began spraying spectators.

Tear gas billowed below a slogan atop the museum declaring: “Seventy (years). All power in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic belongs to the working people.”