Czech and Myanmar activists protest Myanmar junta at Prague ‘Festival of Embassies’

Mizzima

A group of Czech and Myanmar democracy activists took turns to protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy stall at the annual “Festival of Embassies” held in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic on Saturday.

According to an agreement with the police, a total of three activists carrying signs were allowed to stand in front of the Myanmar junta stall at one time. The Czech and Myanmar protestors took it in turns to protest.

The event ran from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm but the junta embassy staff abandoned their stall at 2.00 pm – a likely result of the protest.

Igor Blazevic, one of the Czech protestors, said they took it in turns to stand for six hours under the hot sun with the following message:

“This stall is under control of military junta which has deposed democratically-elected government and which is massacring the civilian population of the country. If you want to know more, please talk with us.”

Blazevic, a long-time pro-democracy activist with years of experience of Myanmar, said “a lot visitors to the Festival of Embassies talked with us and not many visited the junta’s stall.”

The Myanmar Embassy staff tried to get the protestors removed.

“Already in the morning they called police to remove us, but the Czech Republic is free, democratic country and police do not crack down on right of expression of citizens,” said Blazevic.

He said he was glad he and his Czech friends were able to prevent the illegitimate military junta from misusing the Festival of Embassies for their propaganda purposes.

“We have done that for our heroic Myanmar freedom fighters and for our Myanmar friends. Russia was not present at the festival, neither Belarus, nor Iran, nor North Korea. The illegitimate junta should not be there either. It was good they were forced to leave early on,” Blazevic said.

This is the seventh year of the largest international street food festival, an event where the presentations of individual countries are primarily provided by their embassies, honorary consulates, or chambers of commerce. Often, respective ambassadors and their families participate in the event. In terms of the number of participating countries, this is a completely unique event within the Czech Republic.

The Festival of Embassies is organized under the supervision of The Prague 6 Municipality, the event is managed by the registered association of Farmer’s Markets.

Individual countries will be presented through their respective stands, where original local dishes will be prepared and served, often by well-known chefs. Even the Ambassadors themselves or their families like to participate in the food preparation. The event follows the simple idea of presenting high quality local food as quality gastronomy.

As part of the wide range of the event programme, music bands and various artistic groups from the participating countries add local flavor from around the world.