Czech opponents welcome US decision to abandon anti-missile radar
The US has decided that it will not now site an anti-missile radar in the Czech Republic as part of its plans for a Central European extension of its shield against rocket attacks. The decision has been greeted with enthusiasm by some of the leading local opponents of the controversial radar, even if they have almost given up on the government cash bonanza promised to accompany it.
Czech Prime Minister Jan Fisher confirmed on Thursday media reports reflecting mounting suspicions over the last months that US President Barack Obama has decided to ditch the Central European radar plans of his predecessor.
The original idea was that a radar in the Czech Republic would be twinned with interceptor missiles sited in Poland to shoot enemy rockets out of the sky. The Central European extension was justified on the grounds that Europe was faced with a growing threat from Iranian long-range rockets.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that President Obama’s team evaluating the radar defence project have concluded that the Iranian threat was overstated and the long-range rockets capable of hitting Europe are not developing as fast as first believed.
A US decision to abandon the radar heightens fears among some in the Czech Republic and Central Europe that Washington is ready to cut its commitments in the region as the price for improving relations with Russia, an outspoken critic of the radar plans.
Former Civic Democrat Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, a forceful backer of the US radar, said the turnaround was bad news for Central Europe and said that the Czech Republic had not made up its mind where it stood almost 20 years after the fall of Communism.
But the news has been welcomed by opponents of the radar. The plans proved deeply divisive in the Czech Republic and sparked many protests. One of the leading opponents was local mayor Jan Neoral.
“It is really good and positive news. It proves our point that when citizens unite and oppose something they can achieve something and get a result.”
The planned US radar would have been a few kilometres from his village and its 87 inhabitants who were almost unanimously in the anti-radar camp.
Mr Neoral says villages in the Brdy area of central Bohemia have in any case more or less given up on the promised billions of aid for the radar region promised by the Czech government.
“They promised 1.25 billion crowns for the radar region. But here and up till now we have not received hardly anything. Some councils have got 13.5 million crowns for work on some projects but these projects will not get anywhere. As I said to the former prime minister, the whole action has been shown to be a big media bubble and big lie. These last two years have proved that everyone lied.”
The mayor plans a celebration, but only when he has been given the official news that the US radar is definitely not on the screen any more.
