Czech Greens score first victory

Jaromir Stetina celebrates his victory (photo: Daniela Matejkova)

Czech Greens scored their first political victory on Saturday when an independent running on the Green Party list won a seat in the Senate.

War reporter and human rights activist Jaromir Stetina attributed his victory vote to the Czech public's disillusionment with the established parties.

"Voter dissatisfaction with the existing arrogance of power certainly helped me to win," Mr Stetina told BBC Online shortly after the results were announced.

The governing Social Democrats were the main casualties of the election, failing to win a single one of the 27 seats up for grabs in the upper house.

Greens leader Jan Beranek hailed the vote as a historic success for the party, and the fulfilment of his promise to take the party to parliament.

"This is the first step on the party's course to change Czech political culture," Mr Beranek said.

Before the elections, Mr Stetina had received the endorsement of former President Vaclav Havel, who said that his espousal of Green causes was "something that especially draws me to him".

Human rights

Mr Stetina said he was looking forward to promoting the Green Party line on human rights and that he hoped to serve on the Senate's defence and security committee.

Having reported on wars in Europe, Asia and Africa, he is determined to fight against what he sees as Czech insularity.

"This will fulfil one of the Greens' aims - to see the Earth as a planet where everything is interlinked," he noted.

He aims to raise public awareness of the fact that even apparently far-away events - such as conflicts in the Caucasus leading to rising petrol prices - have an impact on everyday life.

Another issue Mr Stetina wants to highlight in the Senate is the danger that the war on terror and crime could serve as a pretext to restrict civil liberties.

He intends to continue defending human rights as a senator.

"In our little global village, human rights violations can no longer be the internal affair of any state," he argues.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.