Czech war correspondent Jaromír Štětina becomes Senator (Prague Watchdog) - Czech war correspondent Jaromír Štětina, who had extensively covered the first and second wars in Chechnya, was recently elected to the Czech Senate.
Štětina said that as Senator, he would like to focus on two areas that interest him the most, namely human rights and security.
Although a very experienced war correspondent, he is also known as a TV documentary maker and writer. In recent years he has been commenting on the conflict in Chechnya, pointing to its real origins, and trying to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict.
In October 2000, Václav Havel, the then Czech President, gave Štětina and his colleague Petra Procházková an award for their reports on armed conflicts in the territories of the former Soviet Union.
Along with Procházková, Štětina produced a documentary called,” The Dark Side of the World,” which was filmed in late 1999 in Grozny and in the village of Samashki despite the Russian military throwing up numerous obstacles to prevent the journalists from entering these places. The film received an award from Johns Hopkins University in Washington in 2001. When shown on Czech public television, it was denounced by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who considered it to be ”supporting Chechen terrorists.” In reaction to the ministry’s accusations, Štětina said, ”As producers of this film, we’ve denounced Chechen terrorism in Moscow[’s Dubrovka Theatre] and now believe it is time for decent people to denounce the Russian troops use of terror and torment on the civilian population of Chechnya.”
At present, Štětina is primarily involved in trying to free Miriam Jevíková, a Slovak aid worker and student of Prague’s Charles University, who was kidnapped in the Caucasus nearly half a year ago.
The Senate elections took place in November and Štětina won on the Green Party ticket, a party that until now has been unsuccessful in gaining a seat in parliament. He will replace Zuzana Roithová of the Christian Democrats who resigned in order to become a member of the European Parliament. (E/T)
DISCUSSION FORUM
|
