Miroslav Tomek

"And it culminated on the last day of October 1967, when [we], spontaneously and completely unorganized, set off to Prague [centre]. We went to Prague around the back, through Pohořelec to Nerudova Street, shouting 'We want light!' But the problem was that at the time the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was meeting in the Spanish Hall [at the Prague Castle, trans.] and they understood it in their own way, that we wanted light into politics. At the bottom at Malostranské Square, the police were already waiting, because someone had reported it on the way. Reprimanding started and not only with truncheons, but we were also pushed out by cars. This kind of driving into feet is not pleasant matter. So we retreated to Strahov, few boys were arrested and thrown into the cars. And that's where Public Security emergency regiment came in. They were a bunch of people who thrived on other people's pain. They were beating people up - young, old, student, it didn't matter. Beating, hitting, battering, kicking. They even went to the girls' rooms and were beating them with batons while they were lying in bed. Lots of people injured. Lots of people battered."

"For me, that time is linked to one thing. I was in Prague with my wife, walking along Wenceslas Square, and we were just passing the passage of the house where Zajíc burned himself. Even now, it makes my hair stand on end because I recall the inhuman roar of that man. I get chills down my spine every time I think of it. It was horrible. The worst memory I have after 1968 is this one. It was such a terrifying thing when I heard that sound from that passageway, it was something insane."