Honors--and Eggs--for Albright in Homeland

Czech President Vaclav Havel proposed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as his successor Monday on a bizarre day in which the Czech-born U.S. diplomat also received a university gold medal and was the target of eggs thrown by anti-American anarchists.

With Albright smiling but silent at his side, Havel said it would “serve our country well” if she brought her style back to her native land. Havel said his country had taken on a “stale, provincial environment” since it captured world attention with the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Communist rule in 1989.

Aides said later that Albright has not changed her mind since last month, when she brushed off rumors that she might seek the seat Havel will relinquish in 2003.

At that time, she said: “I am not a candidate, nor would I seek election to this high post. I will always love the country where I was born, but my loyalty belongs to the United States.”

On Monday, though, Albright looked every bit the displaced Czech patriot. She participated in a series of events marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Tomas Masaryk, the father of modern Czech democracy.

Albright, who was born in 1937, just four months before Masaryk died, praised him as a “philosopher president” who stood for truth and tolerance at a time when others were spreading lies and hate.

After a wreath-laying ceremony in front of Masaryk’s statue in the central square of this town about 170 miles southeast of Prague, the Czech capital, Albright stood at attention as the town band played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” But she sang out the lyrics in Czech when the musicians turned to the Czech national anthem.

Earlier in the day, two eggs were thrown at Albright as she was leaving a ceremony at Masaryk University in Brno, where she was given the school’s highest honorary award, a gold medal.

Albright got a few splatters of egg on her dark blue suit, but two members of her security detail took the brunt of the attack. “They took the eggs for her,” one aide said in a parody of the Secret Service credo of being prepared to take a bullet for the president.

According to aides, Albright quipped, “We left Prague too early for breakfast, and here are our eggs now.”

Two nonstudents were taken into custody. U.S. officials said later that they were members of a small anarchist group that has been blamed for throwing rocks at the U.S. Embassy and the ambassador’s residence, among other targets.

Rumors that Albright might seek the largely ceremonial Czech presidency have circulated for years. Although they were assumed to have originated with Havel, the president never made a public declaration. Last month, after Time magazine revived the reports, Albright said she was not interested.

But on Monday, Havel tipped off Czech television that he was prepared to answer the question on the record. As he and Albright emerged from a museum devoted to Masaryk, the question was asked.

“She would bring an international spirit,” Havel said. “Somebody who knows the world well would come here . . . and would be able to act here with respect to all broader world circumstances.”

Just before the gold medal ceremony at Masaryk University, Albright met with 12 students and young professionals from the Roma ethnic group, often called Gypsies. Aides said the hourlong discussion focused on the discrimination faced by the Czech Republic’s 200,000 to 300,000 Roma citizens.

One U.S. official said the discussion--conducted in Czech--often focused on the similarities between the U.S. civil rights movement and the drive for greater Roma rights.

One participant, Vojta Lavicka of the People in Need Foundation, told Albright that 80% of Roma children go to remedial schools, or facilities for slow learners, the official told reporters. Lavicka said the assignments are arbitrary and give the students no chance to win a place in the country’s mainstream.

In her speech accepting the gold medal, Albright inserted a plea for Roma rights that was not in her prepared text.

She called for “a commitment to the values of law and tolerance, education and participation of all citizens, including the Romani, in community life.”