Around 2,000 people took part in the protest against the planned stationing of a U.S. radar base on Czech soil in Misov near the Brdy military grounds where the base is to be built, local media reported on Saturday.
People arrived in Misov in some 20 buses and hundreds of cars in the rainy day. The protesters, carrying banners and flags, then marched about one kilometer to the border of the military grounds in a forest.
The organizer, Communists party (KSCM) from west Bohemia and Central Bohemia regional branch, originally planned to march to the exact place where the radar is to be built, but the military banned it, saying the law does not allow for political demonstrations on military grounds.
The KSCM representatives at least placed a symbolical black cross and a mourning wreath in the forest at the military grounds border.
The demonstrators delivered speeches against the radar and in support of a referendum on the issue.
"People have not been discouraged either by the approach of the government, military and the Brdy military training grounds office or by the weather. It manifests their resoluteness not to allow for being sold to anyone abroad," said Stanislav Grospic, head of the KSCM Central Bohemia regional branch.
"In spite of bad weather, it has turned out that Czech citizens have not changed their opinion that no military base should be on our territory, but they rather strengthened it," KSCM chairman Vojtech Filip said.
The party members said that they would continue to organize their anti-radar protests.
Washington initiated the plan to deploy an anti-missile radar base in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor base in Poland earlier this year.
The Czech government, headed by the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), advocates the plan, while the opposition Social Democrats and the Communists (KSCM) demand a referendum be held on the issue.
A recent opinion poll showed that most of the Czechs oppose the establishment of the base, which is to be built on the Brdy military grounds some 90 kilometers southwest of Prague.
Source:Xinhua
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