Prague - Czech police on Tuesday detained 48 neo-Nazis at a rally marking the 20th anniversary of a student protest that triggered the fall of communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.
More than 300 neo-Nazis denouncing the "corrupt liberal regime" in the Czech Republic staged an illegal demonstration during a march in central Prague by 10 000 people commemorating the day 20 years ago when communist riot police brutally suppressed a student march.
Some extremists reportedly armed with clubs and throwing stones attacked the police as well as passers-by and accused immmigrants of destroying the country, said an AFP reporter. Continues Below ↓
"We don't want to be Europe's cesspit," said far-right Workers Party chairperson Tomas Vandas.
The police finally ejected the neo-Nazis from the crowd of marchers who retraced the steps of the student march on November 17, 1989, that triggered the peaceful coup dubbed the Velvet Revolution.
Young and old people mingled in the crowd under Czech flags and banners with slogans critical of the Communist Party, still the third-strongest political force in the Czech Republic.
Many in the crowd jangled their keys - a signal the 1989 protesters used to let the communists know it was time to go - while others carried banners slamming the country's President Vaclav Klaus for his eurosceptic politics.
Marchers later saw a concert in the city centre, featuring former Czech President Vaclav Havel and US folk singer Joan Baez.
Baez, whose music has inspired several anti-war, non-violence and human rights movements, performed at a concert in Czechoslovakia in 1989 attended by Havel, who later credited her with influencing the Velvet Revolution. - Sapa-AFP
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