Embassy protesters decry harassment

The article was published on 12th August 2009 on web pages The Prague Post and you can read it here.

 Amnesty International (AI) and local activists have accused the police of harassment and issuing threats after protesting outside the Iranian Embassy.

For the past two months, activists having been gathering at the embassy at least four days a week to write in chalk on the pavement the names of those imprisoned in Iran on charges related to that country's disputed presidential election.

When Hana Štefečková picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the name of an imprisoned Iranian on the sidewalk, five faces appeared at the Iranian Embassy windows, watching. Some were taking photos.

Štefečková, 21, tried to leave, and the police stopped her and charged her with misdemeanor for dirtying the streets. The waitress was charged 1,000 Kč ($55.50) and threatened with court action with a possible fine of 30,000 Kč.

Štefečková came to the embassy at the invitation of AI, which said it has also been threatened by the police.

The Iranian Embassy and Prague 6 police authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

Klára Kalibová, an independent lawyer providing legal counseling to the group, said there is a problem with the authorities.

"After every protest in front of the Iranian Embassy, the local authority of Prague 6 has to clean up, and it says Amnesty International will be asked [to reimburse them for the cost] of this extra cleaning," she told The Prague Post. The police won't file suit, she added, but they are threatening Amnesty International with a special invoice for the cleaning.

AI representative Lenka Pitronola said, "We wrote things on the pavement at 3 p.m., and, by 7, it had been cleaned."

Activists said the police have repeatedly attempted to break up gatherings by citing security concerns. A representative from City Hall told Pitronola the embassy had called and complained.

On Aug. 4, the police told Pitronola that "nobody can be in this space in front of the embassy because it's a special security space" and "it can be dangerous for the embassy." They were three activists, one lawyer and three journalists to four or five police cars, Pitronola said. The police eventually relented.

"On Wednesday, it was a bit funny," she said. "Two police cars were parked at exactly the spot where we had been writing on the pavement." The reason, she said, was "to make less space for us to write" even though they had used chalk.

"Writing names of prisoners of consience in chalk on the sidewalk cannot be considered an offense under Czech law," League of Human Rights lawyer Zuzana Candigliota said.

"In theory, writing in chalk could be considered 'pollution of public space,' for example, if somebody is writing or drawing something ugly," she said.

"However, it is clear police do not fine parents of children who draw with chalk on the street. Which interest of society would be breached or threatened? Society has more interest in the opposite; the diffusion and promotion of democratic values.''

Writing with chalk is not illegal, Kalibová agreed, but her real concern is that "we are not sure how the police will act under certain circumstances," she said. "If we were not there, if AI wasn't there, it could have been different. And that's the problem, because the police act how they like, not how they are supposed to."

Matouš Erban, founder of the 700-member Facebook group "Není mi jedno, co se děje v Iránu / I care about what's going on in Iran," said the sidewalk is the city's property, and "We have dealt with them, and they have agreed that we'll be writing on the sidewalk." He said other activists have seen embassy staff come with water to remove the chalk instead of waiting for the city's cleaning services.

Štefečková said the revolutionary fervor of Iran's protesters struck a chord with their Czech counterparts. When a policeman asked her why she bothered protesting, "He said to me, why do you do this, you don't know these people," she had no problem explaining her reason for being there.

"I said to him, 'We are here for human rights, right?' " she said. "We had a totalitarian system here" in the Czech Republic, and even though "now it's democracy," most people are only "thinking about themselves."

Erban also relates the uprisings in Iran to his country's Velvet Revolution of 1989.

"I remember my parents telling me about how it was in '68, that they really felt very uncomfortable about not hearing" from the outside world, he said.

Erban spoke with the police Aug. 7 about the problems facing protesters, and said their explanation was, "It's politics," Erban recounted. "Either it's really politics, meaning the government's involved, or there is some kind of agreement between people from the embassy and people from City Hall."

Whatever the reason for giving demonstrators problems, "It's nasty politics," he said.