Civic Democrats to call meeting of Defense committee

The opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats say they will try and call a special meeting of Parliament's Defense Committee to look into steps taken by police at CzechTek - and will look for a chance to question Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan and the Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek in Parliament. There have already been repeated calls from some Civic Democrats for the interior minister to resign, calls he has rejected. On Monday Mr Bublan said if anyone was to blame it was the organisers of the event themselves, who, in his view, had refused to communicate with police.

Deputy to the police president Vladislav Husak, meanwhile admitted that riot police at CzechTek were caught off guard by what he described as the "brutality of the crowds".

Author: Jan Velinger