Czech Foreign Ministry starts new initiative to support democracy in totalitarian countries
The Czech Republic as a country with its own bitter experience of communist rule often enlists in events promoting democracy in totalitarian countries. The latest initiative has been aimed to encourage the transformation of society in Iraq. This initiative lay not only in financial investment but also in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and local partners. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now established a new department called the "Section for Transformation Promotion", which will build on this experience and evolve similar projects in different parts of the world. The head of the department Gabriela Dlouha lists countries, which should be in focus, apart from Iraq.
"We have started some important work in cooperation with other countries and with nongovernmental organizations, so we should keep our eye on our projects there and stay there. But there are also some other priorities - long term priorities - of our policy and diplomacy - so called traditional priorities, like Cuba or Burma. And there are also some other regions important for the Czech Republic as a member of the European Union from the closer parts of the world, especially: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and also the Balkans, I would say. However, this list of countries is definitely not complete."
What kind of tools are you going to use in your promotion?
"Our projects. Cooperating with particular people on particular projects, exchanging our experience with transformation of the society including all the mistakes we have made. The typical project would be a seminar, for example for lawyers that are involved in defense of political prisoners. Also support for "samizdat", for independent press and independent publishing in various countries. We should also take care of telling this experience of these countries like Belarus to the other countries of the European Union to tell them how people live in Belarus, what they need and why they suffer under Lukashenko's regime."
Is the former Czech president Vaclav Havel also involved in your plans? He has actually always stressed the importance of promoting democracy in the totalitarian countries.
"Yes, for sure. He is the famous human rights defender from our country and perhaps from Central Europe. I wouldn't say that we include him into our plans. The better way is to ask him to be supportive from time to time. To meet some people for whom we want to hold a seminar or other program or to be a patron of a conference. We would also be very glad if Mr. Havel would be interested in our activities.
