In Memory of Jiri Krizan

October 18, 2010
According to AP:

Czech screenwriter and dissident Jiri Krizan dies age 68

Jiri Krizan was expelled from high school and blocked from attending college, all because the Communists who once ran Czechoslovakia didn't like his father's politics.

The Czech screenwriter overcame those hurdles to help Vaclav Havel draft demands for basic human rights -- manifesto that helped bring down the communist regime in 1989 -- before becoming a trusted presidential adviser when Havel took power.

Krizan, 68, died of a heart attack Wednesday in the eastern village of Branky.

Born Oct. 26, 1941, Krizan's childhood was dominated by his family's persecution by the Communist regime. His father was executed following a political trial in 1951.

Despite being blacklisted from college for years, Krizan wrote screenplays to more than a dozen movies, including "Shadows of a Hot Summer," directed by Frantisek Vlacil and won the top award at the 1978 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that features movies from eastern Europe.

In 1989, he helped Havel draft a petition known as "A Few Sentences" that called on communist authorities to release political prisoners and recognize basic human rights such as freedom of speech. The petition was signed by tens of thousands of ordinary Czechs and contributed to the fall of communism in November that year.

"A Few Sentences," which served as a base for the formation of opposition consciousness, listed seven specific recommendations:

The release of political prisoners, freedom of assembly, the legalization of independent initiatives, freedom of the press and public expression, recognition of the rights of churchgoing citizens, the immediate resolution of the catastrophic ecological situation and free discussions on the history of Czechoslovakia after 1948.

"A Few Sentences" - Text of the Petition
The first months of 1989 have once again clearly shown that even if the current
Czechoslovak leadership very frequently incants the words "rebuilding" and
"democratisation," in reality they quite hopelessly resist all that creates democracy or at
least distantly suggests it. Citizens' petitions and initiatives that the leadership did not
organise themselves are refused as the events of pressure groups. They break up people's
peaceful assemblies and do not allow the public to have a say in the preparation of new
laws. The same months, however, have shown at the same time that the public is now
liberating itself from its lethargy, and more and more people have the courage to express
in public their desire for societal change. Motion in society is starting to ever more
seriously clash with the motionlessness of power, societal tension is growing and the
danger of an open crisis is starting to be a threat. None of us wishes for such a crisis. For
this reason we call on the leadership of our country to understand that the time has come
for real and thorough systemic change and that this change is in free and democratic
discussion. The first step toward any kind of meaningful change starts with a new
constitution and ends with economic reform, and must therefore be a change in the
societal climate in our country, into which the spirit of freedom, trust, tolerance and

plurality must return.

In our opinion, what is necessary is:

1. The immediate release of all political prisoners.

2. That freedom of assembly ceases to be limited.

3. That various independent initiatives cease to be criminalised and persecuted and begin
to finally be understood by the government as being what they have long since been in
the eyes of the public, which is as a natural part of public life and a legitimate expression
of its diversity. At the same time, obstacles should not be placed on the creation of new
civic movements, including independent labour unions, alliances and federations.

4. That the media and all cultural activity be relieved of all forms of political
manipulation, as well as hidden censorship both before and after the fact, that it be open
to a free exchange of ideas and that the media independent of official structures that have
thus far been active be legalised.

5. That the justified demands of all religious citizens be respected.

6. That all planned and implemented projects which are to permanently change our
country's environment and thus preordain the lives of future generations be immediately
presented for general evaluation by experts and the public.

7. That free discussion begins not only about the 1950s, but also about the Prague Spring,
the invasion by 5 states of the Warsaw Pact and the subsequent normalisation. It is sad
that certain countries whose armies once interfered in Czechoslovakia's development are
now starting to dispassionately discuss this topic, while in Czechoslovakia it is still a
major taboo, only so that those people from political and state leadership responsible for
20 years of decline in all areas of societal life will not have to step down.
Everyone who agrees with this standpoint can support it with their signature.
We call on the government to not treat it in the way they have been accustomed to
treating uncomfortable opinions until now. It would strike a fatal blow to the hope with
which we are led, and that is a hope for real societal dialogue as the only possible way
out of the dead-end street Czechoslovakia is in today.