Klaus condemns Georgia's attack on [its separatist province] South Ossetia, the murdering of civilians in the area and the massive intervention by the Russian military. He refuses drawing parallels between the situation in Georgia and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Klaus said he is deeply worried about the developments in the Caucasus. "I unambiguously condemn Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, the murdering of civilians in the area as well as the massive intervention of the Russian military.
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Czech Senate proposes Masin brothers for state decoration ... a red-herring game being played over the tragic situation," Klaus says in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD). "In any case, for millions of people in the Caucasus this is a tragic situation. The victims are always ordinary people, not politicians," he points out. This is the first public reaction by Klaus, who is recovering from a hip surgery in June, to the Caucasian conflict. Some media recently criticised Klaus for not having commented on the Russia-Georgia conflict yet. In an interview with Czech Radio he explained this saying he cannot join the "fashionable opinion that labels Georgia nice and Russia bad." "I find this so a simplified view of the world that I would have to write a long text about it to say I don't view the things this way. That is why I'm trying not to push such statement of mine forward," he said. Klaus distanced himself from the position of the presidents of Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic countries who have said in a joint declaration that Georgia should be given a chance of NATO accession so that possible further attacks on it by Russia are prevented. "Regarding the position the four of my colleagues have taken...in their declaration, I simply do not share their view of the situation," Klaus told Czech Radio. In MfD he refuses to compare the developments in Georgia with the Warsaw Pact troops' invasion of Czechoslovakia 40 years ago. "This cannot be compared. At the time, Czechoslovakia did not attack the Subcarpathian Rus, the invasion was not a reaction to our attack. [Czechoslovak reform communist leader Alexander] Dubcek was no [incumbent Georgian President Mikhail] Saakashvili," Klaus points out. He says the current situation in Georgia has been crucially influenced by the separation of the Kosovo province from Serbia in mid-February. "In Kosovo's separation Russia gained a strong justification for its intervention and I'm afraid that we will tackle the [Kosovo] precedent's consequences for a long time to come, and not only in the Caucasus," Klaus says in MfD. Asked whether the occupation of part of Georgia by Russian troops is an argument in support of the installation of a U.S. defence radar base on Czech soil, Klaus answered: "If the Czech Republic does not consider the U.S. radar base on its soil as a military installation aimed against Russia (which is a view I share), there is no connection between the Georgian conflict and the radar base." The USA wants the planned radar southwest of Prague, along with interceptor missiles in Poland, to be part of its missile defence shield. The project has been criticised by the Czech political opposition and a majority of the public.
(Ceske Noviny)
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