A CZECH WARNING FOR CANADA

A Montreal Gazette Reporter interviewed Miroslav Galuska in 1996, a prominent Czech with some advice for Canada.

Mr Galuska speaks from experience. At 35, he was Czechoslovakia's ambassador to Britain.

A decade later, he was cheered as the driving force of his country's dazzling performance at Montreal's Expo 67.

During the 'Prague Spring' - a time of increasing liberalism of the communist regime under Alexander Dubcek - he reluctantly agreed to serve as culture minister.

He would soon become a pariah, an outcast closely watched, frequently detained and persistently interrogated by the secret police in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, in reaction to the democratic reforms.

It was only on the heels of 1989's 'Velvet Revolution' that he recovered full citizenship and his pension.

The separation of the Czech Republic & Slovakia, said Miroslav Galuska, a former journalist, "should be a lesson for Canada - a warning experience."

"What has happened is worse than a crime, it is stupidity.

"While there was no shooting in the secession in Czechoslovakia as there was in Yugoslavia, there was, and is, recrimination, hostility, and even hatred.

"Before the separation, it had been said the Czech Republic and Slovakia would share the same currency, the same passport, but this was no longer the case a few months later.

"Neither side has gained from the break. The Czech Republic's international status is less than it was and that of Slovakia has weakened greatly.

"And among the countries with which it shares a border, Slovakia's relations with the Czech Republic are the worst of all."

"Our country has had too many disappointments," he said, " ...and ... the mood of the country is dull."