[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2496-E2497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    IN CELEBRATION OF THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VELVET REVOLUTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SAM GEJDENSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the tenth 
anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.
  In 1989, the people of Czechoslovakia ended 41 years of dictatorship 
in a non-violent effort of civil disobedience. The moral authority of 
the Czech and Slovak peoples overwhelmed the discredited regime 
clinging to power after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
  After World War II, the communist dictatorship installed in Prague 
sought to stamp out the rich tradition of democracy and intellectual 
debate in Czechoslovakia by imprisoning tens of thousands of dissidents 
and resistance

[[Page E2497]]

fighters. Thousands of others were killed while serving in jails and 
labor camps or while attempting to flee the country. Asphyxiating 
central economic planning stifled the entrepreneurial spirit of the 
Czech people.
  As revolutionary ideas swept across the continent in 1968, the 
flowers of the Prague Spring emerged from the cracks in the Iron 
Curtain. Alexander Dubcek's vision of ``socialism with a human face'' 
gained currency with the Czech population only to be crushed by Soviet 
tanks--sent by anxious leaders in Moscow.
  When the people of Czechoslovakia marked the first anniversary of the 
Soviet crackdown in August 1969, it demonstrated that the resistance of 
that fatal Spring would not soon be forgotten. Nonetheless, resistance 
against the regime lost momentum for a number of years until the 
eighties when the dissident movement percolated once again in the 
churches and cafes of Czechoslovakian society.
  The man who became the symbol of this movement would become one of 
the defining individuals of the last 20th century, Vaclav Havel. The 
famous playright who mocked communist duplicity, conformity, and 
bureaucracy was jailed soon after he helped draft and distribute 
Charter 77, an anti-Communist manifesto originally signed by 242 
people. Havel emerged as a dissident who trumpeted that ``truth and 
love must prevail over lies and hatred.''
  Ten years ago this month in Czechoslovakia, the temperature of 
dissent reached the boiling point. Police brutally dispersed public 
rallies in Bratislava and Prague on November 16 and 17. Daily mass 
gatherings produced a national general strike on November 27 rallied by 
the motto ``End of Governance for One Party and Free Elections.'' 
Forced to negotiate with this powerful opposition, the ruling 
leadership of Czechoslovakia yielded to the formation of the Government 
of National Understanding with Alexander Dubcek elected as Chairman of 
the National Parliament and Vaclav Havel as President of the Republic. 
In a remarkable month, Havel had gone from the theater stage to moving 
into Prague's Castle as president of a new Republic.
  Just as few predicted the breakneck pace of Eastern Bloc dissolution 
after the fall of the Berlin Wall, few envisioned the ``Velvet 
Divorce'' between the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993. 
It was a tribute to the peoples of both sovereign nations that the 
split was non-violent, a sharp contrast to the violence which 
accompanied transition in a number of other post-communist societies in 
Europe.
  I had the honor of sitting down with Vaclav Havel when I accompanied 
President Clinton to the NATO Madrid Summit in July of 1997 when the 
Alliance invited the Czech Republic, along with Hungary and Poland to 
apply for membership. We reflected on the changes that had transpired 
in this society, a subject which lends itself to further discussion on 
this tenth anniversary as well.
  Inevitably, some of the idealism of those heady days of ten years ago 
has dissipated, as Czechs and Slovaks grapple with the day to day 
challenges of a democracy and a free market. After opting for 
separation, the Slovaks chose a repressive leader, Vladamir Meciar, who 
promptly took the fledgling nation on a u-turn away from democratic 
pluralism and economic reform.
  Nonetheless, the Slovaks changed direction again and are back on a 
positive course. Relations between the neighboring Czechs and Slovaks 
have also markedly improved in recent months. In this sequence of 
events, I believe there are lessons to be learned. With freedom comes 
the ability to make good and bad choices--and bad decisions will be 
made time to time in any democracy. It is nonetheless eminently 
preferable to having decisions forced on a populace by a discredited, 
installed regime.
  What the vibrant Czech and Slovak communities in the United States 
remind us each day is never to take our freedom for granted because it 
can be taken away or it can deteriorate into a unrecognizable state. 
They help us understand the pain that their friends, relatives, and 
brethern endured when they lost this gift. And they help us recall the 
remarkable achievement the Czech and Slovak people accomplished 
together during a remarkable month, one decade ago.

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