World

When playwright Vaclav Havel arrived at a restaurant for a meeting of the Helsinki Human Rights Monitoring Committee last week, other members shouted at him to flee. Havel, who was released from prison in May after a conviction for inciting antistate activities, obeyed the warning and thus avoided becoming the 16th committee member arrested by security police for unspecified reasons. In a continuing crackdown underscoring its resistance to reform, the government of Milos Jakes last week also briefly arrested five human rights activists meeting in a private apartment.

Still facing charges of inciting antistate activities was the most prominent victim of the crackdown so far: Jiri Ruml, 64, editor of the independent monthly newspaper Lidove Noviny (People's News). He and co-editor Rudolf Zeman, 50, were arrested two weeks ago and taken to Prague's infamous Ruzyne prison. They face jail terms of up to five years if convicted under Czechoslovakia's Article 100 law banning most forms of dissident expression. Their continued detention may be the regime's way of closing down the feisty Lidove Noviny (circ. 5,000) as well as of warning protesters to stay off the streets this week as the country celebrates its 71st anniversary.