PRAGUE — In the city of Kafka, hundreds of international visitors have been left wondering about the precise name of their crime, after the Czech police began a policy of random arrest following the global day of action against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on September 26.
As a result of the arrests, visitors have however become much clearer about the status of human and civil rights in the Czech Republic. In a country sure of gaining membership of the European Union, the police campaign has involved gross violations of human rights.
The arrests began at around 10pm on the night of September 26. The vast majority of those arrested were engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever. Most were on their way to dinner or entertainment.
The police had made very few arrests during the demonstrations, even when circumstances isolated the purportedly dangerous elements from the main mass of protesters as, for instance, during the anarchist-led stone throwing near Muzeum. Instead police waited until well after these incidents were over and then targeted people walking about the streets of Prague.
The spree of attacks appeared to be aimed at producing terror and intimidation. Typical arrests included no explanation of the arrest in any language, and the deployment of excessive force.
Police violence ranged from the merely stupid, such as hair-pulling, finger-twisting, shoving, to the criminal, including beating and kicking unresisting prisoners, slamming them against walls, severe constriction using plastic cuffs, and the sexual harassment of female arrestees.
Police abuses escalated once prison was reached. Paul Rosenthal, from Seattle in the US, who was detained for 40 hours told the protest organising coalition, INPEG, "What is happening inside the Czech jails is more than frightening. People have no rights, they are being beaten severely, they are disappearing. Women are being forced to strip in front of male guards and perform exercises. People with serious medical problems have been denied help."
Czech jailers forced prisoners, held in processing rooms in groups of 40 to 60, to stand with legs spread wide and heads pressed against the wall, often for up to three hours. Some women were "searched" by male officers whilst in this position, while many detainees report being physically harassed and beaten.
Beatings in many cases seem to have been racially motivated — Czech nationals, Jews and blacks were all subjected to the worst treatment. One black arrestee was hog-tied for several minutes and struck on the head and back by police with truncheons.
One woman being interrogated by police "fell" from an upper floor window, breaking her spine. Severe torture has alleged to have occurred in at least one case.
Up to 20 prisoners were kept in holding cells measuring three by three metres. Thirty people, detained at the Olsanska jail, were held in an outdoor courtyard overnight with no blankets or food.
People with diabetes were not allowed insulin; others were denied medical attention. The British Embassy had to intervene in at least one case to get medication into the jail.
Detainees' legal rights were systematically denied. The telephone calls mandated by Czech law were denied to protesters although, in at least one prison, a group of fascists were immediately granted access to the telephone. They were released after a few hours, their weapons returned to them.
Uncharged detainees were photographed, possibly for use in international databases. Prisoners were denied food, blankets and medical attention. Many were kept without charge well beyond the 24-hour deadline.
Even in the absence of charges or explanation, detainees were given 24 hours to leave the Czech Republic upon release.
The protesters' legal team reported that more than 892 prisoners were arrested and detained, 364 of them internationals. Only 20 have so far been charged. Most have been released but police refuse to give the full numbers of those who remain in custody.
An INPEG survey of 88 detainees released on September 29 and 30 revealed that 62% were beaten and, of those, 69% were beaten in prison; 45% surveyed were strip searched; 96% surveyed were not allowed phone calls; 21% surveyed were not allowed any water.
After the first spree of arrests, a group of 50 detainees issued a statement, which said the policing practises "point unambiguously to a deliberate campaign to deny protesters their rights on both an individual and collective level ... The current abuses are only one more piece of evidence the World Bank and IMF promote systematic political repression against their opponents to fulfil their objectives."
Harassment also extended to those seeking to assist detainees. On September 30, Czech police raided the press offices of INPEG and have since targeted independent journalists and supporters of the Prague Indymedia Centre.
Nevertheless, supporters have maintained pressure for the release of all those remaining in custody, staging daily rallies in Prague and around the world.
Detainees also maintained strong jail solidarity. The Prague Indymedia Centre reported on September 29 that a group of detained Italians had sang and fasted until embassy representatives came to release them, at which point they refused to leave until all other nationalities were released.
You can support those still imprisoned, and protest the treatment of detainees, by writing to: Czech President Vaclav Havel, fax +4202 2437 3196, e-mail <president@hrad.cz>; the Ministry of the Interior, fax +4202 6143 3552; or the Czech Embassy in Canberra, fax (02) 6290 0006.
BY TIM EDWARDS
& CHELSEA MOZEN