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Karel Freund: Round 2 at Olsanska 2 The Foreigners' Police chief rejects rank By Alan Levy Upstairs, I waited more than an hour until Freund -- wearing a checkered shirt and casual pants -- wandered in, looking harried and not at all happy to see me. He had been to the ministry and would be going back to the ministry: a prospect that filled him with no relish. He spent the first 15 minutes of an hour-long interview, which started out sourly, looking at his wristwatch more than he looked at me and responding with bureaucratic answers or repeated replies of "I've already answered that" or "It's on our Web page." After our earlier encounter that had me straddling the thin line between expulsion in August 1998 and permanent residence in May 1999, Freund had asked for two "clarifications" of my Sept. 15-21, 1999 Prague Profile column relating the roller-coaster ride and concluding with his willingness to answer up to 20 questions selected and submitted by me from our staff and readers. (See Q&A, this page.) With Freund's first request, I was glad to oblige. With the second, he proved willing to oblige. Thrice in my column, I'd called him "Colonel Freund," based on a 1996 reference to "Plukovnik Freund" by one of his aides and a similar reference in 1999 by one of his intermediaries. (I'd also recently congratulated Freund's most helpful deputy on his promotion from major to lieutenant colonel.) But Freund -- a dissident courier in communist times -- is a 50-year-old civilian appointed in 1990 to head the Foreigners' Police. He is proud that earlier, in his compulsory military service, he "never rose above the rank of private." I stand corrected. A photo finish Freund also objected to the way a silhouette was presented in lieu of a photo of him. Titled "My faceless Freund at the Foreigner Police," my article had merely noted that "he wouldn't allow himself to be photographed," but its caption had implied risk to Freund if his face was publicized. It was a cheap shot, he told me: "I said to you last year that I wasn't a photogenic person and I wasn't important enough to be pictured in a newspaper. So I was very surprised to read something different in your paper." I took Freund up on that by asking if The Prague Post could photograph him now. He still insisted he wasn't worth a photographer's time and trouble, but offered to supply me with a portrait photo he had on hand. When he couldn't find it in his briefcase or drawers, he agreed to a visit from a photographer. Although virtually all the questions resulting from my September column were about how to obtain a "permanent" (five-year) residence permit, Freund and the general public were more preoccupied with the immediate perils to "long-term" (one year or less) permits and renewals as well as short-term visas, all of which were plunged into confusion by hasty implementation of the new law. Passed on Dec. 23, 1999, the last working day before the Christmas holiday, the voluminous 40-page law hadn't reached Olsanska until Dec. 28 and not only had to go on the Web site that same day, but had to be enforced four days later -- before hardly anybody had time to study it. (An English version of the Web page appeared in late January at www.mvcr.cz.) A new curtain The result was confusion on all frontiers -- with sudden demands that visitors to the Czech Republic bring two photos to the border and proof of health insurance, among other surprises. The expat community here was thrown into turmoil. Some long-term residents who hadn't renewed their dlouho-doby permits two weeks before expiration were told they would have to apply anew from outside the country. And abroad, Patrick D. Hazard, my American friend in Weimar, canceled his visit to Prague because of the headline hysteria, even though Western tourists on EuroCity trains from Germany ran virtually no risk. Visitors from the east, however, were receiving what Freund called "higher attention." And he said the law will be revised again "in a year or so" to fit European Union standards. He was optimistic that the difficulties would soon be sorted out and promised that his people would "show some tolerance." Our session, which had started so coldly, warmed up by the time we touched the topics of xenophobia and marriages of convenience. (See Q&A.) He said that sometimes what foreigners see as xenophobia is merely that "there are civil servants who aren't xenophobic, but don't think they're here to serve people." I came away speaking from experience with advice to my fellow expatriates: One of Levy's Laws, which carried me through 31 years of freelancing, was When the ground crumbles beneath you, try to leap to a higher plateau. Translated into Czech reality: Once you get through the hassle of renewing or obtaining your "long-term" permit, look again into the possibility of "permanent residency" under the new law. Alan Levy's e-mail address is alevy@praguepost.cz
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