The World : 20 Czech Dissidents Seized

Czechoslovak police rounded up more than 20 dissidents in an attempt to thwart an independent historical symposium scheduled to be attended today by prominent Western writers, academics and human rights activists. Those detained included leading members of the Charter 77 human rights movement--Petr Uhl, Jiri Rumi, Milos Hajek and Vaclav Benda, among them--and former Foreign Minister Jiri Hajek, dissidents said. Playwright Vaclav Havel, chairman of the symposium, is believed to have gone into hiding. Uhl and fellow charter activist Jiri Dienstbier were detained but later released, and at least three others are said to be under house arrest.