The World - News from Jan. 24, 1989

Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, Czechoslovakia’s Roman Catholic primate, and the human rights group Charter 77 condemned what they said was a move by the government toward political confrontation growing out of last week’s anti-government demonstrations. “The justified yearning of citizens to live in a free environment, something which has become a matter of course in the 20th Century, cannot be stifled by crude violence,” the cardinal said in a letter to Premier Ladislav Adamec. Charter 77 called for direct political dialogue with the government. Charter activists said 16 demonstrators have been told they will be put on trial for hooliganism, which carries a two-year prison term.