Part 1
Rene Franken
This is a story of my memories during my nearly six year
stint in Czechoslovakia, from 1991 to 1997. During this time remarkable events
took place in Central Europe. It proved to be one of the most interesting parts
of my diplomatic career, but also at the same time a difficult one, as it
entailed the process of the opening of two Embassies.
BACKGROUND:
For some time in recent history Czechoslovakia had a
turbulent past, being wedged between the Germanic world and the Polish and
Russian Slavic world. It was also constantly under influence from them.
The modern state of Czechoslovakia only came into existence
in 1919, after the end of the First World War. The principle of the right to self-determination
of nations, led to the Czechs in the territory called Bohemia and Moravia,
which was until then under the Habsburg rule from Vienna, and the Slovaks,
which were partly under the Habsburg and Hungarian rule, to decide in a
referendum to come together as a new state called formally “The Czech and
Slovak Federal Republic”.
The Czechs and Slovaks are closely related with two
different languages, but the difference is not that great. They are both Slavic
languages. The difference between the two arose because of historical reasons.
The Czechs were governed from Vienna before 1919 and for a
long time it was part of the Habsburg Empire – the most wealthy and prized part
of the Habsburg Empire, with the capital city of Prague. This part was only independent
for a short time from 1919 to 1938, before it was annexed to Germany as part of
Hitler’s new German Empire. The last gunshots of the Second World War fell
silent only on 9 May 1945 when the German Army occupying Bohemia laid done
their arms to the Russian army. A plaque, a short distance from Prague, marks
the place where the last shots were fired. After 1948 the Soviet Communist
influence prevailed in Prague until November 1989.
Present day Slovakia was partly occupied and governed from
Vienna, for some time till 1919, but another part was part of the Hungarian
Empire and governed from Budapest till 1919. This was the wealthy part of
Hungary as important factories were situated in this part of Slovakia as well
as important trade routes crossed through Slovakia. This was the envy of its
neighbours for many centuries. What was strange is that Hitler granted
independence to Slovakia and this was the first time they were on their own,
until April 1945, when the Russians occupied it. The Germans had built large
ammunition factories in the mountains of Slovakia which the Russians expanded
and these factories are still there to the present day. It then fell under
Soviet influence and was again incorporated into the former Czechoslovakia,
until it became independent on 1 January 1993, on the break-up of
Czechoslovakia which ceased to exist after this date.
OPENING OF OUR MISSION IN PRAGUE, MAY 1991
After the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, the whole
of Central and Eastern Europe was open to us and it was decided to open
Embassies in many of these countries. Minister Pik Botha had visited a number
of those countries in November 1990. A number of Heads of Mission were
subsequently identified and sent out in February 1991 to their respective
countries to make the initial introductions and make some practical
arrangements re: search for suitable office space and residences for Heads of
Mission. The following countries were earmarked, Hungary, Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Rumania and the Soviet Union.
Always a cautions nation, the Czechs only permitted us to
initially open as a Consulate General. I remember arriving early in May 1991 in
Prague, with no visa and nobody to meet me on arrival. So, I had a lot of
explaining to do, but the Immigration Official was very courteous and helpful.
After this, I had to take a taxi to a small hotel on the outskirts of Prague as
all hotel accommodation in town was fully booked due to the annual Prague
spring music festivals, with concerts every day and evening somewhere in town.
Our Head of Mission was Nico du Bois, who had arrived some
days earlier. He had arranged with the Czechoslovakian Foreign Ministry that I
would receive my visa on arrival, but he could not meet me on arrival from
Munich because he had an important meeting with the Czechoslovak Minister of Trade and Industry. Once at the
hotel (it was more of a Pension), but a neat place with the owner being very
helpful and friendly, and speaking fluent German. She explained to me how to
get to the nearest subway station and what lines to take to the
Intercontinental Hotel in town were du Bois was staying. She also explained
what machine at the subway station to use, which button to press and which
coins to enter to get a ticket. I mention all of this as signs were only in
Czech, so this experience was definitely not for beginners.
After unpacking, I proceeded to the subway station with a
suitcase full of stationery which I purchased in Munich, the day before, on
request of du Bois. Being completely disorientated, I did as I was told and
drew the metro ticket at the right machine and took the underground, with a
change in line, and finally I arrived at the correct metro station nearest the
Intercontinental Hotel. My arms were already getting stiff as the suitcase was
heavy, but luckily du Bois was already back from his meeting and I was relieved
to see him. I had to take a Czech Beverovka ( “regmaaker”) but did not realise
that this was such a strong alcoholic drink.
This first contact with Czechs did leave some impressions on
me. They appeared to be a very closed people, not always open to discussion
with strangers and very much on their own. On my first arrival at the metro
station, I could not see them talking to each other. On waiting for the metro
most were reading something. Once travelling in the metro, they were again
reading and it was remarkably quiet. I soon learned that they must be the most
literary people I have ever seen. They were neat people with fine facial
features. However, I later also found them very reliable and once they weighed
you up, they would opened up completely. For example, Mr du Bois was even
invited to President Havel’s weekend house for a visit, where his wife Olga did
most of the talking as her English was good and President Havel prepared some
snacks in the small kitchen. There was only one other person amongst them and I
presume that this was his private secretary. I mention this as not many other
Heads of Mission in Prague had this privilege in that time.
Apart from Nico du Bois as Consul General, there was myself
as Consul and Betsie Smith as Vice Consul, being the three line function
officials. A few days after my arrival Betsie came and also had to stay at the
Pension outside town till the end of May 1991.
Now, the fun really started. We were all working out of a du
Bois’s bedroom which only had a round table and four chairs. It was decided by
du Bois that I should purchase a broom, vacuum cleaner, a table with six chairs
and take it to the Chancery so we could get started there as soon as possible
as we could not meet anybody in such circumstances as what we had in the hotel.
On his previous visit to Prague in February 1991 the
Czechoslovakian Foreign Ministry offered du Bois a four floor villa for our
Mission. The villa was renovated with new wall to wall carpets, etc., and would
suit our purposes quite well. They also offered him another villa, likewise
renovated and only one house away from our Mission, as an official residence.
This was originally offered to the Australian Government, but they turned it
down. So the next day I went to the Villa by subway with the key and looked
inside. Everything was OK, but a bit dusty. I ventured into the surroundings
looking for a broom, a waste bin, if possible a vacuum cleaner and other small
cleaning materials and detergents. This process took me half a day – there were
hardly any shops there and you had to order what you wanted, then pay for them
and collect the goods at the exit of the store and this all in Czech with body
language from my side.
Anyway, I completed the assigned task and started the next
day to look for a table and six chairs. Now this was a real challenge as shops
in town did not keep such pieces of furniture on their premises – you had to
order and they would deliver them, but this could take some time. In despair I
checked the taxi drivers stationed at the Intercontinental Hotel and found one
who could speak a reasonable English and who was prepared to take me to a place
outside Prague were such furniture was made. It took some time and with a lot
of luck we found a suitable table with the six chairs, which they offered to
deliver the next day. The next day they delivered them, so now we were getting
somewhere.
News quickly spread
that we were in the Intercontinental Hotel and because South Africa had Czech and Slovak communities, people turned
up to see us. Du Bois and Betsie had to receive visitors in the hotel lobby.
Among those was a Czech lady, Mrs Olga Batskova, who had lived many years in
South Africa and had recently returned to Prague with her two sons. She was in
all respects suitable as a secretary for du Bois and she had just started when
I arrived. I must say she also had to improvise a lot to get the Mission
moving. Apart from working for du Bois, she also had to help me and Betsie. So
it was really tough going and to give du Bois the credit he deserved, he was a
strategist by nature, very well motivated and goal orientated, and a real go
getter. He was also somewhat impatient and not the savvy type of diplomat.
We clearly remember the day he had an appointment with the
Czechoslovakian Minister of Trade and Industry and he arrived at Ministry, in
Grasshopper (veldskoene) shoes, 20 minutes late. Nevertheless, the Czechs and
Slovaks respected his straight forwardness and integrity. I have to mention
here that he was a political appointee and had served in this role before as
Consul General in Munich. I had also served in Munich, but as number two, but
just before his tour of duty.
Betsie Smith was a really hard worker, also well motivated
and concentrated on the information side of the Missions work. In du Bois’s
earlier years he also served as Information Attache at our Embassy in The
Hague. Both were like rockets, but aimed in different directions, so it was
imperative that they not share the same office and we moved from the hotel to
the Chancery premises as soon as possible.
Now, du Bois, quite rightly said he was not moving unless he had a
functioning telephone working at the office. So the next step was to arrange a
telephone connection. The Foreign Ministry advised that they had no line there
in the short term and that telephone lines were at a premium as there was such
a big demand. In the end of the day we had to purchase a connection privately
so we could install the telephone in the Mission. Within three days we got the
line and I waited for the technicians to install it in the office allocated to
du Bois.
Mrs Batskova could now move to the new Embassy and together
we ordered four more tables with matching chairs as well as six cupboards with
shelves. Whilst waiting for them, a Russian man walked in and said he wanted
political asylum. He said he was a senior person from the KGB and would not
leave the Embassy. Now luckily our phone had just been installed and I could
get hold of du Bois who was still working from the hotel. He subsequently
called Head Office who advised that we should make the gentleman comfortable
until further notice from them. I showed this person that he could not stay in
this building, there was nothing and not even hot water yet. He had to leave at
six as we would close the place if no more news was received in the meantime. I
knew that up to then South Africa did not, as a rule, provide political asylum.
Then, just before six I received a call from somebody in our Embassy in Paris
who spoke to the Russian and told him to return at a fixed date and time. With
this info the gentleman luckily left and returned a few days later at the
arranged time. The South African turned out to be from our counter-intelligence
and he spoke to the man in one of our empty offices with just a table and some
chairs.
This whole episode delayed du Bois, Betsie and the Trade
official’s (who had also arrived in the meantime) move to the Mission by some days.
It was a wonderful experience for all of us to be able to
work together from the Mission. We had space and although the offices were
still bare we had a place to put our things and get properly started.
The next issue to address was getting money to pay for our
day to day expenses. There were no credit cards or cheques yet, everything had
to be paid in cash. Luckily du Bois and I had arranged bank accounts with the
Dresdner Bank in Munich, the staff of which we both knew well from the time we
served there. Our salaries would be paid in there by our Consulate General in
German Marks. Also, all our subsequent office purchases we made in Munich, and
this was a lot, were paid for by our Mission there. As we were only a Consulate
General all our stationary was printed as such.
On arrival of our Administration Officer (Peter Bolink), we
could arrange with Head Office and a Czech Bank in Prague, to have money
deposited and drawn on a Czech account. But it took a while before cheques and
credit cards were introduced. We were becoming increasingly dependent on the
services of our Consulate General in Munich as this was also the closest to us
and a lot of commuting took place. Du Bois was in daily contact with the local
staff at the Munich office and because he had recently served there, he knew
who could do what.
This led tension with the Head of Mission, Martin van
Niekerk, whom gave instructions that no local staff member as to arrange
anything for us without our speaking to him first. This complicated things for
us, as we were getting a lot of supplies and even some furniture for our
Chancery and Residence in Prague. Furthermore, our salaries were to be paid by
the Munich office into our bank accounts there. So we had cheques and credit
cards from the Dresdner Bank in Munich, which helped us a lot.
Luckily Martin left shortly afterwards and was replaced by
Danie Fourie, whom du Bois and I both knew very well and things became a lot
easier. Once the office furniture eventually arrived from South Africa, du Bois
commented that this was not a Shebeen and he instructed Peter Bolink to organise
appropriate furniture, which he then ordered through Peter Justesen without the
approval from Head Office. Our Embassy in Bern also sent us some furniture,
which they had written off and which we could use in the meantime.
Once we had everything in place later in the year we
received a notice from the Czechoslovakian Foreign Ministry that both villas
were returned to their former owners and we had to deal with them direct
concerning any further rentals. It must be remembered that in the communist
time all private property was nationalised by the state. Luckily they agreed to
continue with the same conditions as the rental contract we had with the
Foreign Ministry.
OTHER ACTIONS
In this initial phase, we left Betsie Smith to attend to our
information work, which she tackled head on and soon we were having a lot of
exposure to the Czechs and the Slovaks. They were keen to know what was going
on in South Africa, which was in transition, as they had also experienced recently
a dramatic change from a communist dictatorship to a democracy. She had to draw
up an emergency distribution list for the South African main news clippings
sent to officials in the government we knew,
as well as to universities, etc. She also dealt with a Czech, Mr Kubes,
who was prepared to organise a Czechoslovakian/South African Friendship
Society, through which we could also expand our connections and information
publicity.
However, he was later exposed as a communist collaborator when his
name appeared in a local newspaper naming a list of collaborators, which was very
embarrassing for us. Betsie, furthermore identified a group of important
persons whom we would later send to South Africa as guests of our Department.
In the end she had to do all the organisational work for the newly created
Friendship Society. This was also not a task for beginners and she put a lot of
effort into her work, in difficult circumstances in the initial stages where we
had a lack of many things.
In the meantime we also had a stream of important South
Africans visiting Prague, as this was a famous world city. The first was Mrs de
Klerk, who came in July 1991 to officially open the Mission. We still had no
furniture in the Official Residence and we had to rent chandeliers, organise
curtains for the reception area, etc. Du Bois’ whole family, his wife and four
school-going children, were still residing in the hotel, which was a very
difficult time for them. Mrs du Bois had to go to Weiden, just across the
border in Germany, to buy all the canapés we needed for the reception. Du Bois
and his wife had to improvise a lot, but the function went off very well.
*
 |
| Mrs Marike De Klerk officially opening our Embassy in Prague |
On the political front du Bois wanted to have our Mission status changed from a Consulate General to an Embassy. A Consulate General was at a much lower protocol level than an Embassy. This was going to be a tough nut to crack as the Czechoslovakian Foreign Ministry was very cautions on the outcome of the negotiations between the South African Government and the ANC. The only way around this was to get their Foreign Minister who was also the Deputy Prime Minister, Jiri Dienstbier, to go to South Africa and see for himself. After numerous visits to senior Foreign Ministry officials and seeing the Minister himself, it was eventually arranged for him to go to Pretoria in October 1991. Du Bois went to South Africa a few days earlier, so he could put Pik in the picture.
Now the unimaginable happened. When Mr Dienstbier went to
see Pik, the latter convinced him to sign a diplomatic note to immediately
upgrade our relations to Embassy level. We all know that Pik could be a
difficult man, but when it came to South Africa’s interest he would move heaven
and earth. He also had a particular charm
with foreigners and I presume he used this to convince Minister Dienstbier. The
latter was very impressed when he saw Pretoria and was probably also looking
forward to opening their own Embassy in Pretoria, as soon as possible.
I was informed of this in the afternoon and urgently went to
the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry Chief of Protocol as well as the Head of the
Africa Division, to advise them of the new situation. They were already
informed of this decision by their delegation which accompanied their Foreign
Minister to South Africa, and I suppose that Minister Dienstbier spoke to
President Havel by telephone from Pik’s office. The reason that I went so soon
is that our Mission was now upgraded to an Embassy.
There was now a protocol issue in that I was now suddenly a
Counsellor and “Charge’ d’ affaires ad interim” until du Bois’ return from
South Africa.
Betsie Smith became a first secretary. With du Bois, it was
decided that he would remain behind in South Africa for some two weeks, so that
he could regularise his new position as “Charges d’affaires” and get an
endorsement to this effect in his diplomatic passport and other administration
actions related to our new Embassy. A Charge d’Affaires is accredited to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and an Ambassador is accredited to the Head of
State. We were now on equal footing as the other Embassies in Prague. It took
us five months to get to this position since we established the mission.
After du Bois’ return from SA, there was a flurry of
activities of officials and others, both ways.
The Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry decided to send Mr
Frantisek Dlhopolcek as their first Ambassador to South Africa. He was Head of
the Africa Division in their Foreign Ministry, a Slovak and former Ambassador
in Harare. So knew our part of the world well and we were very happy for his
appointment. He was particular helpful in the establishment of our mission in
Prague and we were subsequently in regular contact with him once in South
Africa.
He also knew Paul Coetzee and John Mare, respectively Chief
Director and Deputy Director of the Central and Eastern European Desk at Head
Office, very well before we opened our Mission in Prague, so this also proved
to be helpful. Once he left we had Frantisek Hudac in the Africa Division, also
a Slovak, who went out of his way to help us where he could. By a chance of
fate, I would once again deal with both of them in Bratislava, when I was
transferred there after the break-up of Czechoslovakia and all Slovak diplomats
in Prague also had to move to Bratislava.
Another important task we set ourselves as a goal, was to
sign a bilateral “Agreement on the Protection of Investments” and a “Double
Taxation Agreement”. This moved very slowly mainly because it appeared that our
Finance and Trade officials in Pretoria were suddenly overloaded with such
requests from all the new countries which opened their doors to us. Du Bois
decided to push the matter and got hold of Mr Eltie Links, our Consul General
in Zurich, to visit us so that we could discuss these two Agreements and see
what he could do. He was the Representative in Europe of the South African
Department of Finance. He subsequently came to Prague and discussed draft
agreements on these two very important issues with his counterparts here.
Simultaneously, Betsie was very active in getting South African
cultural people to visit Prague to perform. One such a concert which she
arranged and which stood out, was the visit of the Drakensberg Boys Choir to
Prague. Czechs were very interested in culture. Iitwas an important part of
their life and especially music stood out. Betsie took care of all the
arrangements and had posters made promoting the concert, which were put in
strategic places in Prague city. She also invited all our contacts as well as
other influential personalities to the concert with a reception afterwards.
The concert was held in one of the famous Prague theatres.
The concert hall was packed to capacity and the equivalent to our Director
General of Foreign Affairs, who was a violin player, also participated in the
concert. The evening was a great success with the audience spellbound to their
singing. Even Betsie and we from the Embassy as well as Eltie Links, who was in
Prague at the time, were emotionally carried away. The Drakensberg Boys Choir
was made up of all races in South Africa. They first sang the traditional
classical songs which already had the audience expressing their admiration by
applause for some time.
After half time they sang South African songs as well as
traditional African songs which really caused the audience to applaud so much
as to make opera singers jealous. At the reception afterwards the Czechs could
not stop praising their performance and many said they found them even better
than the Vienna Boys Choir. I told Betsie that this one information action did
more for South Africa’s image in Prague than any amount of information material
published or guests visiting South Africa.
The next was Czechoslovakian Prime Minister Marian Calfa’s
official visit to South Africa. He went with the government’s own plane and
with a substantial delegation. Now interesting enough Mr Calfa was a Slovak and
the last Prime Minister in Czechoslovakia in the communist time. He just
continued in the same job only with a new President Havel. Mr Calfa first went
to Israel for a visit and then from there to Johannesburg.
They were under the
impression that they had clearance to fly over Sudan, but the plane was refused
entry over Sudan airspace. They had to make a wide detour and only arrived in
Johannesburg a few hours late which put the whole official programme in some
difficulties. Frantic telephone calls were made to find out what happened when
they did not arrive on time. Anyway they all had a good visit to South Africa
and had a lot of praise for the bold decisions which were taken by all sides.
As far as I can remember we signed some bilateral agreements as well.
Another out-of-the-normal experience we had was with the
issue of du Bois’ “ Agrement and Letters of Credence”. Once Minister
Dienstbiers’ visit to South Africa was over we had to get the approval of the
Czechoslovak Government to agree to him as South Africa’s Ambassador to
Czechoslovakia.
This process could take some time, but somehow du Bois was able
to have this process done quickly. However by the time we had the Agrement the
South African cabinet was already on their December holidays. Only our
President could sign the Letters of Credence nominating Nico du Bois as South
African Ambassador. The cabinet would only have its first meeting late in
January 1992. Du Bois had to make frantic telephone calls to our Protocol
Section to have the documents prepared and ready for submission to the Cabinet.
There was some urgency in the matter as President de Klerk was scheduled to
make a state visit to some Central European countries viz., Poland, Hungary and
Czechoslovakia in February 1992. In would indeed look very strange if du Bois
was still a Charge d’ Affaires during the visit of our President. Despite
promises it would seem that near the end of January 1992, the document was
still not signed by our President.
Now things were getting really difficult as an appointment had
to be made for du Bois to present his Credentials to President Havel within the next five days. Otherwise it would
be too late. I remember that on the end of January 1992, we had to make a
frantic late afternoon call to the President’s office and find out when the
document could be signed by President de Klerk. We were lucky to get Dr Jannie
Roux, the Director General in the Presidency, on the line and du Bois told him
of the urgency in the matter. Dr Roux said he would go to the President’s Office
and tell him to immediately sign the document and he would call us back. This
he did after some 20 minutes which seemed to us a long time.
A subsequent call was made to our Chief of Protocol to
urgently have Pik also counter sign the document the next day and to fax a copy
to us. We would think of a way to get the document in Prague quickly. It was
decided that Bestie Smith would fly to Zurich and meet Gert Nel from Head
Office in the international transit hall on his way from SA to Warsaw.
It was clear to us that we may not have the original
document in our hands before the arranged date set for the ceremony with
President Havel for presentation of the Credential. So Du Bois and I proceeded
to visit the Head of President Havel’s Protocol, Mr Egon Ditmar together. We
showed him the fax and remarkably he told us not to worry. If the original
document did not arrive in time we could put the fax in our Embassy special
envelope and just hand it over to President Havel. The latter does not open it but
at the handover, he passes it on to the Chief of Protocol who will know what is
inside. This is exactly what happened.
 |
| Prague just before Nico du Bois presented his credential as Ambassador to President Havel. The persons are from left to right Tommie Classens (Trade) then Nico , me , Betsie Smith and Peter Bolink (Admin) |
This was quite a serene experience as this took place in
Prague Castle, a striking building on top of a hill overlooking the whole of
Prague, in one of its many magnificent halls. Interesting enough the Chancellor
to President Havel, Count Karel Schwarzenberg accompanied both du Bois and
President Havel during a separate meeting where they were alone. I presume
Schwarzenberg was also the translator as President Havel could not speak
English that well.
I heard later from du
Bois that the discussions went really well in a relaxed atmosphere. They also
briefly touched on the impending visit of President de Klerk to Prague. Now
interestingly enough, I see that Count Schwarzenberg is today (2012) the Czech
Foreign Minister. He is a direct descendent of the Austrian Habsburg nobility
who reigned in Prague for centuries.
The next was President de Klerk’s visit to Prague, which
took place from 6 to 7 February 1992. It was the high point of our first two
years working in Prague. It was a proper state visit with all the ceremonies,
etc. There was a special manual on state visits which had to be meticulously
followed. Fortunately, the Czechs were fully conversant with such visits and
had everything planned to the minute with all the meetings and visits well organised.
As it was a state visit, President and Mrs de Klerk were housed in the Prague
Castle, together with their suite (personal entourage). President Havel greeted
the couple on arrival at Prague Castle’s main entrance gate.
He was there some
minutes before the cavalcade arrived and the most catching moments were
President Havel smoking a cigarette amongst the crowd gathered at the Castle
gate. Lucky for me, du Bois and I only had to follow up the programme of
President de Klerk and his direct suite which also included Pik, as well as
Paul Coetzee and John Mare from head office plus Llewellyn Crewe- Brown, our
Chief of Protocol.
Poor Betsie had to take care of the large South African
press contingent (55), which had accompanied the President in his plane and
that is usually the most difficult task of state visits. The only big problem
we had initially with this group was to arrange a 24 hour direct special
telephone line in the Hotel where they were staying, for their exclusive use.
It cost Peter Bolink a case of whisky to have the technicians install the line
urgently.
After settling down President Havel received President de
Klerk in a One-on-One meeting. In the meantime our delegation, led by Pik and
theirs, led by Dienstbier, met in one of the magnificent meeting rooms of the
Castle for talks. This was very general with Pik explaining developments in South
Africa. and Dienstbier touching on Czechoslovakian internal and external
developments – the position of the two regional governments and his view that
they should not separate as two independent states. Increasing trade and the
position of the Czechs and Slovaks living in South Africa, as well as the
question of cooperation in the weapons industry, viz., Denel and the Slovak
weapons factory were also mentioned briefly. Later on both de Klerk and Havel
joined in the discussions.
After this, a working lunch was served and in the afternoon
Count Schwarzenberg took us to President Havel’s office in the Castle. This was
a real eye opener as the office was decorated in an “avant garde” style with
the most weird furniture and decorations – there was an upside down toilet
painted purple, some tubes painted green and yellow stripes on the floor and
walls. Even the telephone was astonishing. Count Schwarzenberg commented that
this was how President Havel wanted it. He also showed us the scooter in the
corner of the office, which Havel used to commute through the passages of the
Castle so as to be able to reach all his staff. The Castle was a rectangular
building and from one end all around, could be nearly one kilometre.
The next visitors to meet de Klerk, was the Prime Minister
of Czechoslovakia, Mr Marian Calfa,
followed by the Chairman of the Czech National Council, Mrs Buresova and
the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Mr Pithart. This was followed by the
Chairman of the Slovak National Council, Mr Miklosko and Mr Carnogursky, the
Slovak Prime Minister. These last two meetings were themself controversial as
our Desk officers, Paul and John did not want these two meetings to take place
at all. We should not interfere in their internal politics was their view, but
both Pik and du Bois had a better understanding of the situation on the ground
and so both meetings took place.
These two meetings
went a bit deeper and our future relations with these two regional governments
were discussed. I could not help seeing the previous situation which we
experienced between the regional President of Madeira versus the Prime Minister
of Portugal. The Czechs said that separation was a very likely scenario.
Likewise, the Slovak Prime Minister, who was also a conservative, said he did
not think Slovakia was ready for independence yet. This was to cost him dearly
in future as he was voted out in the next regional election in Slovakia and he
never really recuperated politically. In any case President Havel said to de
Klerk that he would not accept the separation and be part of it, even if it
meant that he would resign as President.
Later in the afternoon President de Klerk and entourage went
on a walk through the Wenceslas Square, were the Soviet tanks demonstrated
their presence in 1968 during the Prague Spring uprising . The place was packed
with spectators wishing to see de Klerk. The roads were closed around the
square. Hands were shaken. A wreath was laid by President de Klerk at the
statue of St Wenceslas and flowers put down at the Jan Palach memorial site (he
burned to death during 1969 ). That evening President and Mrs Havel hosted a
state banquet in the Prague Castle for all the guests and President and Mrs de
Klerk, plus invited guests from Havel’s side.
In the meantime Betsie was having her hands full with the
press group. Vaugh Dewing was the leader of the group with Casper Venter,
President de Klerk’s press spokesman. When the Press meeting was held with
Havel and de Klerk, questions were focused on any military co-operation between
both countries. What I remember is that it was later reported in the South African
press that one journalist lost his pants during a visit by the group to a local
Cabaret club in Prague at night.
When the delegation left Prague for Warsaw there was a sigh
of relief, but with the knowledge that this state visit gave our bilateral
relations a big boost as well as our Embassy’s standing among the diplomatic missions
in Prague.
Then one day in June 1992, there was a flurry of activity
over the radio and TV. We switched on our Embassy TV and there was President
Havel announcing his resignation, with immediate effect. This, after the Slovak
Prime Minister announced just before, on TV that Slovakia would be independent
soon.
The general mood in Prague was one of disbelieve and very
sad as President Havel was enormously popular among the Czechs. This was not so
unexpected as a few days before this event the Czech Prime Minister called al Heads
of Mission together and said that the Czech government would not stand in the
way if Slovakia wished to be independent. However, it was not expected so soon.
There was no doubt in our minds that we were experiencing dramatic events in
Central Europe.
After this eventful day in June 1992, there was nothing more
in the way of the break-up of Czechoslovakia into the independent Czech
Republic and Slovak Republics on 1 January 1993, for the second time in
history.
Some years later President Havel, who became the first Czech
President after the split up, said in public that it was the biggest mistake he
made to oppose the separation of Czechoslovakia, as both states soon turned out
to be better off – politically and economically.
THE SEPARATION OF THE TWO NATIONS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
OUR EMBASSY IN BRATISLAVA - SLOVAK REPUBLIC, ON 1 JANUARY 1993 – “de facto”
versus “de jure” recognition – a headache for our Head Office.
