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Testimony of another high-school student
(The Národní massacre, #2)

When my girlfriend and I arrived to Narodni Avenue, we were requested to leave about four times. It was a pure nonsense, though, because about 3-4 thousand people were squeezed into the area and if someone wanted to leave, there was just no way. I don’t know what happened to those people who didn’t get into the Avenue from the river bank, but I guess they weren’t hurt.

When demonstrators weren’t leaving, the police started squeezing quickly into the crowd in order to have a better access for later beatings. Suddenly, we were divided into a few groups. Every group was circled by the police who started beating us a few moments later. We had a pretty good luck to be in the center of our group, so the police could not reach us. The paratroopers with bayonets at their belts were beating at times, too. At some places, the people sat down. However, the police beat them brutally on their heads and backs, too.

It was terrible. We were scared to death. We saw the police running after those who wanted to escape and kicking them everywhere. The worst hell began when a tank started to drive into the people. We had nowhere to escape,  there was a shop window behind our backs, so we could just stand as close to it as possible and to hope that the tank wouldn’t reach us. The fat was in the fire and panic and horror were everywhere.

Eventually, we managed to escape in the instinct of self-preservation. On our way, we saw people with stretched out hands and open legs standing pushed to a side of a police van. The police with clubs were behind them. I saw this situation last time in TV shots from Chile...

 

Narodni, cont'd...