To the Council of the SMRG
Dear Sirs,
I speak to you on behalf of the organizers of the traditional Commemoration events of the Battle of Austerlitz, the participants of these events and also on behalf of the board of directors of the Mohyla miru – Austerlitz, o. p. s. (Peace Monument – Austerlitz, o. p. s.). Maybe you have already learned about the material, which claims the interest of the Ministry of Defence to build in the region administered by you the core radar site of the NATO defence system. It is without doubt a very necessary construction and we all are aware of its importance. However the problem is that the radar, 28 m high (whole the building 32 m high including the concrete base), is supposed to stand technically next to the Peace Monument on the Pratzen Heights in the area of the Austerlitz Battlefield preserved by the regulation of the Ministry of Culture Nr. 475/1992 digests from September 10th 1992. We consider this intent as the desecration of the place of piety and as the brute interference with the character of the landscape if there is the 28 m high and wide silver sphere supposed to be erected on the horizon. The Department of Culture and Preservation of Monuments of the authorized community of Austerlitz, which – in accordance with the statement of the National Heritage Institute, expert bureau Brno – has issued the negative references concerning the construction, have reflected this fact. Unfortunately the Department of Culture and Preservation of Monuments of the SMRG has suppressed these references with total ignorance of the facts and approved the construction without any other conditions. It is a total nonsense – the argument put by the body of the SMRG is hardly understandable and it denies not only the ministerial regulation itself but also a basic function of its own sc. the cultural and hereditary preservation.
On behalf of the abovementioned institutions and individuals I appealed to the supreme representative of the region who technically had ignored my letter and made the false and personal responsibility refusing comment for the daily paper Pravo (see issue of the August 21st 2003, article “Regional President refuses the radar at the Peace Monument”) saying apart from other things the following: “It wasn’t in any case the decision of the regional autonomy. The Department of Culture progressed exactly according to the law and favoured the state’s interest…” I hereby claim that it’s not the State’s interest to build the radar site in the area protected by the regulation of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, which proclaims the Austerlitz Battlefield area for the hereditary zone. Our interest is – and should be identical also for the State – to build the radar in our country but it can’t be the State’s interest to build it directly in the Austerlitz Battlefield zone. I have appealed to Mr. President for the reason that both in the press and personally at the Peace Monument I observed his assertions both about this excellent monument and phenomenal Austerlitz Battlefield, as he always called it, and counted them among the priorities of the Southern Moravian Region. Unfortunately his support stopped at words only. We expected his support and help at least regarding the Proclamation of Austerlitz (see attachment) of the Central European Napoleonic Society addressing all the supporters of tradition and history around the Europe. We haven’t received anything from him.
I appeal to you, the body of the Southern Moravian Region, with a request for the support of the Proclamation of Austerlitz but primarily for help. I’m aware of the fact that the Council can’t reverse the decision of the Department of Culture – although the Department is incompetent – but together with us you can influence the investor and force him to choose some other and equally proper locality for his construction. Of course we will continue using all the instruments available – e.g. legal – to defend the Monument. Our current campaign against the radar has already gained very wide public support, both the lay and the expert. We are also in touch with embassies of the countries that’s dead rest there. It concerns 18 European countries. Please, unite your powers and consider the situation – we can be the first in the Europe but for what price? Nobody in the world would dare to build a construction of this kind at Wagram, Borodino or Leipzig… I believe, Dear Sirs, that our country has no such concern whatsoever. I think that it’s about the time for the regional autonomy to express its clear statement.
Dear Sirs, the decision lays most certainly upon you. We would be very glad if you come to help us in our activity whose main goal is to prevent the Monument from another amateurish interference and to strain the relationships between the public and the authorities. Please, consider that each single citizen or company, which wants to start a construction inside the preserved area of the Austerlitz Battlefield, must face several restrictions, which are given and must be respected. The citizen can’t use e.g. plastic windows, must have a colour of the roofing, declination of the roof etc. approved in order not to corrupt the character of this preserved area. Should the army have an exception? A particular individual at the Ministry of Defence who estimated this solution as the most advantageous caused current situation. Other responsible ones of the same institution allowed irresponsible investments of tens of millions of crowns into the location and later announced their intention to build the radar just “incidentally” in order to make these already used finances as the main argument for the start of the construction. The radar can be placed anywhere else, only the army and the Ministry of Defence have to find another location and resources invested by them so improperly on the Pratzen Heights. Of course it is also necessary for them to draw the conclusions. Maybe it would be worth for the autonomy to get informed in advance about the planned decisions concerning controversial or important buildings and other irreversible processes in the preserved areas of the region. It is the concern of our heritage and the commitment for the future, which we must look after, and it shouldn’t be only the exclusive matter of clerks who are maybe not even able to estimate the importance and the impact of their decisions. To ask if I’m not sure or if I don’t know doesn’t have to be necessarily the demonstration of weakness.
Dear Sirs! I’m sure you have many important points in your schedules nevertheless be aware that the importance of the Austerlitz Battlefield and its tradition – very unique in such a scale in Europe – for which the tourism and the supporters of history who annually come here to commemorate those thousands of dead bring the huge benefit to the region.