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other related news items.Prague (CTK) - Most Czechs want a possible placing of a U.S. anti-
missile site in the Czech Republic to be decided on in a referendum, a flash poll the STEM agency conducted for public Czech Television has shown.
According to the poll, most Czechs reject the idea of the Czech Republic hosting the base.
A total of 61 percent of those polled supported a referendum on the issue. Twenty-six percent said they are against it and 13 percent said they are undecided on the issue.
The building of a U.S. site in the Czech Republic is unacceptable to 51 percent of Czechs, while 32 percent consider it acceptable and the remaining 17 percent said they do not know, the
poll showed.
Two-thirds of the respondents said they do not know how the anti-missile site would work. One-third said they know this.
People´s resistance to a possible placing of the base in the Czech Republic also surfaced in the Median agency´s poll for the daily Mlada fronta Dnes in July.
Only 17 percent of the respondents then agreed with the project, the rest were against.
Median found out that Czechs reject the presence of U.S. missiles mainly out of fear that this would impair the country´s security. Many also explain their resistance by the Czech nation´s
bad experience with the presence of foreign troops, Mlada fronta Dnes wrote.
Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said on Czech Television on Sunday that it is almost sure that the US will ask the Czech Republic to join its anti-missile defence programme.
According to the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, William Cabaniss, however, the US is yet to decide whether to build the site in the Czech Republic or in Poland. It is reportedly to
decide by end of August.
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