In the mid-1980s, the then British Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe paid what proved to be a rather controversial visit to the Czechoslovak capital. During discussions with representatives of Husak's communist government, a number of foreign office aides slipped away to a local pub, where they met up with several dissidents and signatories of Charter 77.

Well, Sir Geoffrey - now Lord Howe of Aberavon - returned to Prague earlier this week, and as well as meeting up once more with the same former dissidents, attended a round-table discussion on the Czech Republic and the European Union. And as Lord Howe pointed out, analogies can easily be drawn between the Czech Republic's entry negotiations and those faced by Britain back in the early 1970s..

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Lord Howe is known as a fierce Euro supporter, and in Prague yesterday was very eager to allay Czech fears over the shifting of sovereignty from Prague to Brussels.

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But once again, the head of the EU delegation here in Prague, Ralf Dreyer, warned that the Czech Republic still has familiar problems to solve before it can take its seat at the table in Brussels...

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Lord Howe himself pointed out the problems of adapting the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to accommodate the new members, although overall was optimistic that the Czech Republic's entry negotiations would ultimately prove successful.

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The miners' wives have played a key role in the dispute so far, acting as mediators for their husbands, who are incapable of carrying out such negotiations from their present location, 365 metres underground. They handed over another petition earlier this week to two government ministers who visited the mine, and their campaign continued on Tuesday when they presented their latest appeal to the head of the local authority, and the director of the local employment agency. Tuesday's petition asked the officials to come up with proposals which will alleviate the unemployment problems in the region. Unemployment levels in the district around Kohinoor have been steadily rising as demand for coal falls. Unfortunately, the problems faced by these families in Most, the nearest town to the troubled mine, are the same problems faced by families in industrial regions all around the country. The gradual collapse of heavy industry in the Czech Republic, and the increase in unemployment that it entails, has brought hardship to many Czech households.

The miners' wives voiced their fears about their children's job prospects as well. They believe that the closure of the mine will have a long-term effect on the unemployment levels in the region, and that their children will also find it difficult to get work when they leave school. The women are therefore campaigning for government assistance for this afflicted region. They are asking the government to take steps to improve the employment situation in Most, by creating new job opportunities for workers who lose their jobs as a result of ailing industry.

Radek Vitek from the agency GCI Prague, which represents Moravia Steel's mass media interests, assured Czech Radio that the production of films at the Barrandov studios will be preserved:

"The main guarantee is that the whole Barrandov compound has been used for film production for many years, and has all the relevant equipment. I seriously doubt that if a firm invests so much money into buying Barrandov, that it would not use it for its original purpose. The new owner is ready to offer guarantees that the production of films in the Barrandov studios will continue," said Mr. Vitek.

According to him, the Canadian consortium consists of several investors who can link their film making experiences with experience of obtaining funds for such an significant investment.

On the other hand, Barrandov's former general manager, Vaclav Marhoul, has a different view on the problem:

"Barrandov - there are not only film studios but also grounds and real estate. I consider that the Canadian interest in buying the studios a speculative move, where the real estate will be more important than the preservation of film production at Barrandov," Marhoul told Czech Radio.

The deal at present is the subject of negotiations, and what the eventual fate of the studios will be, is yet to be seen.

Operation K, as it was called, was carried out by the Communist secret police. During the brutal action overnight from the 13th to the 14th of April 1950, more than a hundred monasteries across the country were seized and some fifteen hundred monks arrested. And more such actions were to come.

Operation K was preceded by political and ideological preparations directed by the General Committee of the Communist Party, and its commission for religious affairs. These institutions decided that the most important part of the preparations should be a political trial of the abbots of some of the monasteries. The trial took place at the beginning of April.

The secret police worked out a detailed plan to seize the monasteries. The document is available in the Interior Ministry archives and details directions for a military raid or invasion, including concrete orders for each monastery, plus a precise timetable.

Operation K lasted several weeks. Almost 2,500 monks were moved to the so-called centralisation monasteries and many of them ended up in internment facilities with a tough regime.

The whole operation caused immense damage to Czech culture, because it destroyed many historic monuments, libraries and works of art. Many of the cleared monastery buildings were passed on to the army and quickly went into disrepair, due to a lack of proper care.

Three years after Operation K, a similar campaign took place to shut down convents.

The discussion was chaired by US Ambassador John Shattuck and taking part in it were Rose Styron, the well-known American human rights activist, and Tomas Pojar, director of the Czech NGO, People in Need. The topics dealt with covered human rights issues both in this country and in various parts of the world. It was interesting to see how those issues are inter-linked. Czech human rights organization are playing a very active roles in places like Chechnya and Kosovo, places where people are suffering most. But what about the Czech Republic itself? How does Rose Styron, who has been here a number of times, see the situation?

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