Trokavec proti radaru

The vote, an informal referendum that is not legally binding, was hardly close - 71 voted against and only one voted in favour.
Jan Neoral, mayor of Trokavec, and himself trained in radar systems, comments of the poll:
“The main reason is health and the negative effect of radiation from the radar facilities on the inhabitants of Trokavec and other villages.”
The Brdy hills are dotted with small settlements - Trokavec has a population of only 100 - and the area is a restricted military zone used by the Czech army for target practice and manoeuvres.
Neoral continues, saying there are also “political reasons” for the no vote.
“Building this radar station will help to create a new arms race, new mutual suspicions and will violate agreements that existed when the Czech Republic joined NATO, in particular the agreement on short and medium range missiles.
“In other words, it’s craziness and we can’t see a reason for it.”
George W Bush and his cronies - funnily enough, known as the ‘crazies’ - can see a reason, however.
The Missile Defence Shield is necessary, they claim, to prevent attacks on the US by ‘rogue nations’ such as Iran and North Korea.
But in truth, Son of Star Wars (Star Wars being the original pipe dream of Ronald Reagan) is an apparatus that, once established, will enable the biggest rogue state of them all to nuke its enemies without comeback, in what is euphemistically referred to as ‘limited nuclear war’.
The vehemence of Trokavec’s opposition is reflected across the CzechRepublic, where some two thirds of the population are opposed to US military expansionism in Eastern Europe.
While villagers voted, protesters marched through Prague, gathering in the Old Town Square to form a giant peace symbol using flaming torches.
But, according to film director Vaclav Marhoul, who is a big fan of American nuclear missiles apparently, the peaceniks just don’t know what they’re talking about, and have listened to too much “gossip”.
Only “scientists and technicians” can hope to understand radar - people like Jan Neoral, perhaps?
Although the centre-right Czech government has agreed in principle to the US proposals, it is not a done deal by any means.
For one, the Czech parliament has to agree, as the proposal would mean having a military base manned by foreign personnel on Czech soil.
The government’s majority within parliament is far from assured.
Secondly, US Congress, who would release the money for the project, have to agree - and so far, they haven’t even discussed it.
Miroslav Hrabacka, a Trokavec resident, told a local radio station:
“If anything happens, we will be the first to be wiped off the map.
“If gentleman (Prime Minister Mirek) Topolanke and co praise it, let them build it in Prague, and they can sunbathe in its vicinity.
“We had (Soviet) missiles here for 20 years and the Americans targeted us.
“Now Russians and mad Bin Ladens will aim at us?”
Concerns have been raised about suspected cancer clusters around similar radar stations, notably at Cape Cod, in the US, where a base identical to that at RAF Fylingdales, on the North York Moors, is sited.
Around the Cape Cod area, approximately 70 miles from Boston, incidence of breast cancer and lung cancer has risen sharply amongst young women.
Radiation emissions are within legal limits, but questions have been raised over whether the complex waves of electro-magnetic radiation should be subject to tighter regulation.
Dr Richard Albanese, a scientist with the US Air Force and a member of the team which first established the link between the use of agent orange in the Vietnam war and cancers in Vietnam veterans, says radar emissions could have carcinogenic properties.
Asked if, were he buying a house in North Yorks, he would be happy to live near Fylingdales, he admitted, “I would prefer to live outside the beam.”
The people of Trokavec, however, have no such choice.

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