Prague to resume “Raise a Flag for Tibet” campaign, fly Tibetan National flag at City Hall
DHARAMSALA, March 2: Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic has decided to resume hoisting Tibetan National flag at its city hall in a show of support for an independent Tibet and to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day.
In stark contrast with political attitudes of just a few years ago, the city of Prague will once again show its symbolic support for an independent Tibet next month and fly the Tibetan flag in memory of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising on March 10, which will mark its 60th anniversary this year, reports expats.cz, the largest English-language portal of the Czech Republic.
Prague’s City Hall at Skoda Palace will now hoist the Tibetan National Flag while some 700 local councils from the country will follow suit from March 8-11, the report added.
The report further described hoisting the Tibetan National flag as part of the “Raise a Flag for Tibet” campaign that began in Germany in 1996 and has since spread internationally.
Though Prague flew a Tibetan flag at City Hall during the campaign for ten years in the early 2000s, the report said that the practice was stopped in 2014 under the city government of then-Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová.
The decision to resume “Raise a Flag for Tibet” campaign, the report says is due to the country’s new government which it said has ‘different ideas’ than its predecessors.
“Previous city leadership favoured a good political relationship with the People’s Republic of China and ignored the reality of human rights violations and freedoms over the desire for the economic advantages [promised by] a good relationship,” the Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib was quoted as saying in the report.
Meanwhile, a Czech documentary titled ‘The Road Leads to Tibet’ has returned to cinemas more than 60 years after its premiere earlier last month.
The Road Leads to Tibet premiered in 1955 and won awards at Venice and Karlovy Vary film festivals, only to be banned by communist authorities years later after its Czech premiere in 1956.
