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Mayors of municipalities in the surroundings of the Brdy military grounds formed an association Friday to oppose the planned construction of the U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic, the
mayors told CTK. The radar base may be built near Misov, west Bohemia, some 90 km southwest of Prague, on the Brdy military training grounds. The mayors' association is to negotiate with the
government. Its constituent document was signed by 31 of 34 municipal representatives present, 27 of whom were from central Bohemia.
Only the mayors of Strasice, Hradek and Spalene Porici, all west Bohemia, refused to join the association. "We want to formulate our demands at the working meeting in Pribram next week and
submit them to a government meeting in Spalene Porici on September 5," said Josef Rihak (opposition Social Democrats, CSSD), Mayor of Pribram, central Bohemia, who has become the
association's coordinator.
Rihak, along with some other mayors, admitted that Wednesday's meeting with government coordinator for defence policy Tomas Klvana had divided the mayors from the Brdy locality.
Nine of the 16 invited mayors took part in the meeting with Klvana in Spalene Porici. They all agreed that the presented study assessing the radar's health risks had turned the originally
emotional negotiations into rational ones. The mayors initiating today's meeting do not agree with the results of the Defence Ministry's study saying that the radar's impact is harmless, and
they at the same time reject a possible state compensation for the radar base.
"We will not invite only 16 municipalities to our discussions with experts and politicians like Mr Klvana did on Wednesday, but all over 45 in the military grounds' surroundings," Rihak
said.
Strasice deputy mayor Frantisek Nerad, who refused to join the association, reiterated that talks with Klvana and other politicians are important for the surrounding municipalities as they
can help them gain financial compensation for having been limited by the nearby military grounds for more than 80 years.
Trokavec mayor Jan Neoral (independent) and Jince Mayor Josef Hala (Communists, KSCM), on the contrary, stressed that Mr Klvana is no partner for them as he is "a lobbyist." They said they
would like to have discussions only with ministers, the government and experts.
Neoral noted he had recently addressed 737 mayors from the whole of the Czech Republic and that 64 had offered them cooperation.
"I have also prepared a letter to U.S. senators and to the Green parties in Europe," Neoral said, adding that the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, also called on municipalities to cooperate in the
fight against the radar base. The USA plans to station elements of its missile defence shield in Central Europe - a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland.
The U.S.-Czech negotiations on the base are to continue until the end of the year. U.S. representatives want to hear the final position of the Czech government at the beginning of 2008.
The centre-right government of Mirek Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) supports the idea of the base, while the opposition Social Democrats demand that a referendum be held on it. A majority
of Czech inhabitants are against the base, according to polls.
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