Police faced to useless risk

ODS: Police intervention should have been much stronger

Police faced to useless risk

The senior opposition right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS) called on the police to stronger action against globalisation opponents protesting against the IMF and World Bank meetings in Prague and to use the all available equipment.
Prague, Pardubice (čtk)
The police was rather temperate, they should have intervened earlier and more resolutely, said ODS chairman Vaclav Klaus at a meeting with public in Pardubice.
He does not consider the those participated on brutal demonstrations being present on Prague's streets on Tuesday, dispalying their violence and vandalism, as globalisation opponents but as anarchists. And, he was firmly convinced that such people should be denied entry to the Czech Republic under no circumstances.
ODS deputy chairman Ivan Langer announced that it was clear long before the IMF and World Bank meetings started that several protesters groups did not attended the Czech Republic to express their personal globalisation opinion and refusement of the IMF and World Bank policies peacefully.
They enter the republic to damage the property, make brutal riots with police and break Czech laws.
He stressed that the police and special armoured squads duty are to take action against such people uncrompromisingly. They should understand that they will not make such violence in the Czech Republic.
The ODS statement says that they were shocked by violent actions made on Tuesday and outrage of the IMF/World Bank meetings to damage and destroy property.
According to the statement, ODS sharply refused any tolerance to the organised violence which makes it the legal one, in fact.
The ODS highly praised police work and voiced deep respect for the police officers' bravery.
Obviously, the Interior Ministry and police headquarters failed in organisation, according to Langer. The police only have about 1,300 officers armed with shields and helmets, while the rest have to work in usual uniforms.
The police have to risk uselessly when they have to face demonstrators throwing the stones, said Langer.
The issue should be reopened after the event ends, he added.
Langer said that with the available equipment the police were coping well with the situation. The demonstrators' numbers were much higher.
ODS deputy Miroslav Ouzky, attending a meeting of the right-wing deputies' group of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Wednesday, informed about the Italian Senator Giuseppe Turini's speech.
The Italian-speaking protesters, being among the most radical demonstrators in Prague, are financed by the Italian Communist party, Turini said. The communist youths are trained in this at the party's training centres, he added.