Press release of the Humanist Movement in the Czech Republic. Prague, September 17, 2009

Members of the Humanist movement welcome the decision of US president Barack Obama to cancel the missile defense enlargement previously planned for the Czech Republic and Poland.

“We have been active more than three years in the struggle to prevent this plan from materializing. We are very happy that finally the position of the US administration is in line with the will of majority of Czechs”, said Jan Tamas, spokesman of the Nonviolence movement referring to the two thirds of Czech citizens who disagreed with the project. “We will continue to support Barack Obama in his plan for nuclear disarmament, because clearly nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction that exist today.”

In the past three years members of the movement have held talks with members of the Czech Parliament, European Parliament, national parliaments of other European countries as well as the US Congress.

They have also organized many demonstrations in different European cities as well as several international conferences debating this issue in Europe and the United States. Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar went on a 21 day hunger strike against the plan last June.
Overall, the anti-base movement is considered to be one of the biggest civic movements of Czech recent history.

There will be a big celebration of all the groups involved in the struggle today at 6:30 pm in Prague, Tyrsova 1. Members of the groups will have a champagne toast and give short statements for the media.

The Humanist movement is a worldwide movement of volunteers working together for a nonviolent change towards a more just world. It originated in the late 1960s in Argentina and since that time has spread across the world.

Its Czech members have for the past three years nonviolently opposed the US missile defense base planned to be installed there. They gained wider recognition with the hunger strike of two of its members Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar in May 2008, the following sequential hunger strike with 300 participants, as well as several international conferences about the topics of US Missile Defense and disarmament.

Contact information:
Tyršova 1, Prague. Open to public every day from 9am to 5pm

www.nonviolence.cz

Jan Tamáš, Ph.D.,
tel. 776 785 839,
email: jan.tamas@humanisti.cz

Jan Bednář,
tel. 608 731 162,
email: jan.bednar@nenasili.cz