Czech point
Sir: I am not the egghead whose advice Mr Robak (Letters, 6 January) is seeking, but as one of the 'well, Czechs', I would like to reply to his sour grapes.
I believe a quick glance at some of the well known documentary footage of the post-1968-invasion street scenes from Pra- gue, should satisfy Mr Robak that he was by no means the only hero yelling abuse at Russian troops.
It appears to me that Mr Robak has failed to differentiate between the Czechoslovak situation in 1968 and now. Then, with Brezhnev in power, the Czechs stood no chance as the bare fists pounding the Warsaw Pact tanks so painfully illus- trated.
I left Czechoslovakia shortly after that, out of sheer frustration, having twice in my lifetime seen my country occupied by
foreign armies. Therefore, I take no credit for the recent events which took place
there. However, unlike Mr Robak, I have nothing but praise for the new generation of Czechs, who, inspired by Havel, now have probably the most humane and moral president in the world.
In my mind, there can only be two explanations for the German conversation witnessed in a Prague beer cellar. Either Mr Robak ended up in an establishment packed with East German tourists (not an uncommon occurrence in Prague), or his admitted state of inebriation caused him to imagine he was in a beer cellar somewhere in Bavaria.
Mr Itobak paints a bleak picture of political witch-hunts and widespread spit- ting at pictures of Husak, which leaves me most perplexed. In view of the civilised and dignified way in which the Czechs have managed to carry out their 'upheavals', I find his comments sadly misinformed, if not offensive.
Jan Brychta
9 Links View, Dollis Road, London N3
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