The Czech government launched a charm offensive Wednesday aimed at winning round local opponents of its plans to site a controversial US radar in the centre of the country.
Washington wants the radar, twinned with interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland, to boost the defence of the US and its allies against attack from "rogue" states such as Iran.
The centre-right government pledged "hundred of millions of koruna" of aid as well as health and environmental assurances to mayors of localities bordering the site selected for the missile defence radar. It was the most public push so far to win round hostile local residents.
"It is clear that the government approves this course for the development of the Brdy regions' southern and western parts," Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told reporters.
He was speaking after presiding over a cabinet meeting held at one of the biggest towns, Spalene Porici, bordering the radar site.
The government package, which includes fast-track access to regional, structural and other funds, was outlined followed an extraordinary meeting with mayors faced with the prospect of the radar on their doorsteps.
The government had not come to negotiate about the radar but to offer "basic guarantees and certainty about the quality of life," Topolanek said.
As well as development aid, more studies of the radar's health and environmental impact and ongoing monitoring would take place, he added.
The government's assurances appeared to only partially win over some of the mayors.
"We welcome the fact that talks about possible access to the military area have been opened," said host mayor Pavel Cizek. Cizek has been pushing for the closed area, long used for military exercises, to be opened up to give a boost to local tourism.
A small demonstration by opponents of the plan, including activists from the environmental campaigning group Greenpeace, greeted the ministers as they arrived in buses at the central Czech town.
Some protesters dressed as footballers waved a banner proclaiming that government plans would turn the region into the "The world champion site for armaments."
Before the meeting, other mayors insisted that they would not be bought out by government offers of cash or development aid. "Money for the region, yes -- but not at the price of the radar," the mayor of Skorice, Miloslav Suchy told the CTK news agency.
A fresh round of talks between Czech and US negotiators over the radar base was scheduled on Wednesday in Prague. One of the biggest issues for Prague is what access it will be given to the information gleaned by the radar, a top foreign ministry official said in August.
Opinion polls continue to suggest that around two thirds of Czechs oppose the plans. Moscow too has objected strongly to Washington's plan to site anti-missile defences in two former Soviet-bloc countries.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070905171626.3mhlg5lh&show_article=1
No comments:
Post a Comment