Czech diplomat to discuss 1989's 'Velvet Revolution'

Vratislav Janda, deputy chief of mission of the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C., will speak Nov. 4 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in a talk that will mark the 15th anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution" in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Janda's talk will focus on the past 15 years since the generally nonviolent revolution, which played a significant part in undermining communist regimes in several central and eastern European countries.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. in the Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R St. (following a reservation-only dinner).

The "Velvet Revolution" began Nov. 17, 1989, when Czech students gathered to commemorate a protest held on the same day 50 years earlier in opposition to Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The student demonstration rapidly turned into a protest against the oppressive communist regime.

Janda, the second-ranking official in the Czech Republic's Washington embassy, received his law degree from Charles University in Prague in 1989. As a journalist, he has served as the Middle East desk of the Czechoslovak News Agency, a Gulf War correspondent for the Czechoslovak News Agency in Saudi Arabia, the head of the foreign desk for Reflex Magazine in such countries as Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Bosnia. As a diplomat, he has served in Czech embassies in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and Iran; and as head of the NATO unit for the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He graduated from the Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2000, and was the deputy director of the Security Policy Department, Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

CONTACT: Cathleen M. Oslzly, Psychology, (402) 472-3121