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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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103089
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10308900.024
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1990-09-18
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WORLD, Page 71World NotesCZECHOSLOVAKIAAnniversary Blues
When playwright Vaclav Havel arrived at a restaurant for a
meeting of the Helsinki Human Rights Monitoring Committee last
week, other members shouted at him to flee. Havel, who was released
from prison in May after a conviction for inciting antistate
activities, obeyed the warning and thus avoided becoming the 16th
committee member arrested by security police for unspecified
reasons. In a continuing crackdown underscoring its resistance to
reform, the government of Milos Jakes last week also briefly
arrested five human rights activists meeting in a private
apartment.
Still facing charges of inciting antistate activities was the
most prominent victim of the crackdown so far: Jiri Ruml, 64,
editor of the independent monthly newspaper Lidove Noviny (People's
News). He and co-editor Rudolf Zeman, 50, were arrested two weeks
ago and taken to Prague's infamous Ruzyne prison. They face jail
terms of up to five years if convicted under Czechoslovakia's
Article 100 law banning most forms of dissident expression. Their
continued detention may be the regime's way of closing down the
feisty Lidove Noviny (circ. 5,000) as well as of warning protesters
to stay off the streets this week as the country celebrates its
71st anniversary.