Czech village votes in referendum on US radar proposal

Inhabitants of a small Czech village began voting yesterday in a local referendum on a US proposal to construct a radar forming part of its anti-missile defence system on a nearby army base.

A total of 90 residents in Trokavec are eligible to vote on the proposed site selected by US military experts at the base, 2km from the village.

Trokavec's mayor Jan Neoral, an independent, who is vehemently opposed to the proposal, said: "We want to appeal to the government so that it knows the inhabitants are strongly against" the siting of the radar, which is being championed by the country's liberal Prime Minister Mirek Topanek.

According to Neoral, six villagers had cast their ballots in the first 15 minutes of polling."

"Everyone has promised to turn out. One of them is actually in hospital, so there should be 89 [voters] in my opinion," he said.

Voters are being asked to react in the affirmative or negative to the following text: "I agree that the mayor's office in Trokavec should undertake the necessary legal proceedings to prevent the construction of the radar station of the United States of America on the military terrain at Brdy."

Whatever the outcome, the vote will only have a "symbolic value" as the government has resolutely refused to hold a national referendum on the matter and instead chosen to seek parliamentary approval of Washington's request.

But neighboring villages in the forested, hilly countryside around 60km from Prague, also intend to hold their own referendums over the next weeks, Neoral said.

"If the other villages rally behind us, the government's task will be much more difficult," he said.

According to a survey by the CVVM institute in March, around 6 out of 10 Czechs are opposed to hosting the X-band radar, which would detect a missile attack. Ten interceptor missiles based in Poland would shoot it out of the sky.

On the political level, the country's strong Communist Party has led attacks on the proposed radar.

The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, is demanding a referendum, and the Green Party, which forms part of the centre-right governing coalition, wants the base integrated in EU and NATO defense plans.

The proposed rollout of the US missile shield in Central Europe has split European countries.

But a hostile Germany has failed to open a debate about it within NATO, which considers the decision a purely bilateral issue between the US and its staunch allies, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Moscow has protested against the construction of a defence system installed on its doorstep and threatened possible military counter measures.

The US for its part has offered assurances that the Czech and Polish bases are aimed at completing coverage from installations already in place in the US, Britain and Greenland and that they are only aimed at preventing long range missile attacks from the Middle East.