Police Club Protesters as Czech Unrest Persists

Riot police beat protesters with clubs Thursday and formed human cordons to drive 2,000 people from Wenceslas Square, where activists demanding more human rights have rallied five straight days.

More than a dozen protesters were beaten badly and at least 10 were dragged away by police during a melee that broke out after authorities shouted through loudspeakers that the rally was unauthorized.

It was the most violent clash between protesters and police since the gatherings began Sunday.

The crowd had been chanting slogans demanding broader freedoms in the Communist-ruled nation, but those slogans changed to “Gestapo! Gestapo!” when the baton-wielding wave of riot police swept through, lashing out indiscriminately.

Officers linked arms to form human chains and push the protesters out of the square.

Mayor’s Television Appeal

Mayor Vdenek Horcik appealed for the “provocations” to stop. Speaking on national television, Horcik urged parents and teachers to keep young people off the streets and said the police action was necessary to maintain order.

The crowd assembled shortly after 5 p.m., when many Prague residents were on their way home after work. They shouted “Free Havel!” and “Let them go!” referring to human rights activist Vaclav Havel and 14 others jailed for taking part in earlier protests.

Hundreds of officers poured into the half-mile-long square from side streets when the protesters refused to leave, charging the crowd and pushing them along the boulevard.

Police vans and ambulances with sirens blaring arrived to help force away the demonstrators. Water cannon were brought onto the square but not used.

The demonstrations began Sunday when about 5,000 people gathered at Wenceslas Square for a memorial to Jan Palach, who burned himself to death 20 years ago to protest the presence of Soviet troops after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.

Gorbachev’s Name Invoked

Troops and tanks sent in by the Kremlin in August, 1968, crushed the Prague Spring reforms, which now are likened to the social and economic changes championed by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Some protesters yelled “Gorbachev sees this!” when police moved in Thursday.

In another development, former Foreign Minister Jiri Hajek, a member of the Charter 77 human rights group, was denied permission to visit West Germany for the 75th birthday of his friend, former Chancellor Willy Brandt.

Hajek, who was allowed to visit Austria last month, said Prague authorities deemed it against state interests for him to travel abroad.