Wave of Arrests

Czechoslovak Party Boss Gustav Husak could hardly have been more emphatic. In response to a question by a visiting French Communist about reprisals against onetime followers of ousted Reformer Alexander Dubcek, Husak declared: "There is and will be no trial and no arrest for political activities in 1968 and 1969, and there is and will be no trial or arrest for opinions held. Socialist legality will be scrupulously respected."

Unfortunately, Husak was lying. Even as he gave those assurances earlier this month to Roland Leroy, a member of the French Communist Politburo, the first large-scale mass arrests since Dubcek's downfall were in process. As of last week, more than 200 Czechoslovaks had been rounded up. About 40 were charged with distributing leaflets that denounced last November's national-assembly elections as a rigged farce--which, of course, they were. Many of the others were liberal intellectuals and journalists who supported Dubcek's short-lived Springtime of Freedom, which was crushed in August 1968 by a Soviet-led invasion.

Jail Terms. Among the victims of the purge were Theoretician Milan Huebl Kosik, who helped plan the reform program of the Prague Spring; Journalist Jiri Hochman, an editor of what was once a crusading magazine, Reporter; Party Historian Karel Kaplan; and Chess Player Ludek Pachman, an international grand master. Rudolf Slansky Jr. and Jan Sling, sons of the Communist leaders who were executed as "Titoist traitors" after show trials in 1952, were also arrested and then released.

In addition, scores of liberal stage directors, actors and television workers have been jailed or put under house arrest. Eight actors from a theater in the Moravian town of Ostrava have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 20 months for "crude deformation" of a play by Soviet Writer Valentin Katayev. Reportedly, the actors parodied parts of the play, which is a tribute to Russian gallantry during World War II.

Haunting Question. Husak himself during the 1950s spent eight years in prison for placing his Slovak nationalism ahead of his allegiance to Communism. Ever since he succeeded Dubcek in 1969, he has persistently claimed that he would not tolerate political trials. Apparently he has been under pressure from the Russians to crack down on would-be reformers; last month, an editorial in Pravda warned of the "mortal danger" of "counterrevolution in Czechoslovakia."

Also, Husak is engaged in a power struggle with two rivals on the Politburo, Vasil Bil`ak and Alois Indra, ultra hard-liners who immediately welcomed the Soviet invasion in 1968. In order to protect his tenuous position, Husak may have been forced to order the arrests.

There is a slight possibility that Husak will be able to release the prisoners quietly after the furor dies down. But more likely, they will be tried and convicted on trumped-up charges. The haunting question is whether the arrests are only the first stage in a broad effort to stamp out the last vestiges of Prague's Springtime of Freedom and thus complete the Soviet-dictated "normalization" of Czechoslovakia. If so, Husak will have no choice but to arrest and try Dubcek, now a minor official in the forest administration in Bratislava, and his colleague, former National Assembly Chairman Josef Smrkovsky, who is suffering from cancer in Prague.

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