The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 6

OVERSEAS NEWS THE GUARDIAN Monday August 20 1979 From Prague Spring to Salzburg summer Thatcher hacks Czech rebels haps because she steered carefully clear of political comment, she was again allowed out in 1969 to compete in Vienna, and was able to accept a two-year contract which the Vienna State Opera offered in 1970. Not only that, her husband and her mother received permission an uncommon gesture to visit her in Vienna and simply did not return. Gruberova herself also failed to return at the end of her first two years in Vienna, even though she was under contract to the Czechoslovak opera. Far from delighting in her triumphs in Vienna, the Czech authorities heaped invective on her for deserting her country. But they allowed her to bail herself and her highly controversial production of Verdi's Aida.

Though he did not import the elephants which were initially discussed, the stage sets include two huge pyramids on which he has placed the chorus that celebrates the return of the victorious army in the second act of the opera. Standing high up on the narrow ledges, some Egyptian slaves visibly fainted. It would not have diverted the attention of the audience so much had the programme notes said that they were chained to the pyramids for their safety Even so, it seems that the chorus was being paid danger money for its endurance on the pyramids. Just one more item that adds to the high cost singing the two roles that have made her just about the hottest property that the Vienna State Opera now possesses. She became an overnight star when she first sang the Queen of the Night, one of the hardest coloratura soprano roles written, in Mozart's Magic Flute.

But it is Zerbinetta, in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, that reveals the great lyrical qualities of her voice, as well as a charm and vivaciousness, that accompany her in life too. Now securely anchored in her career, as well as in a contented private life, she seems to be relaxed about her success. The other day in Salzburg she sang her one hundredth Queen of the Night, 24 hours Letter from Salzburg: Hella Pick after doing the equally taxing Zerbinetta role. Both nights she received huge ovations. So, how did she celebrate her first "By collapsing into bed." But there are other records, marked at this year's Salzburg Festival, which are not being allowed to pass without fanfare.

Karl Boehm, the conductor who has been intimately connected with the Festival since 1938, will be given a huge party there next week to celebrate his eighty-fifth birthday with many of the artists serenading him. AND HERBERT von Karajan has marked the fiftieth anniversary of his conductor's career with a spectacular, family out by paying for the cost of their education in Czechoslovakia. Since 1974, Edita Gruberova has been an Austrian citizen, and it was as an Austrian that she went back to her own country in April to perform there again for the first time in many years. Initially the Czechs had refused to have her come with the Vienna State opera. But Karl Boehm, the conductor, said that he would not go without her.

and Austria's President Kirchschlager intervened. Now the Czechs have asked her to come for next spring's Prague Festival. AT THE Salzburg Festival this month, Gruberova has been Edita Gruberova: Toast of the 'elite' Court will hear of alleged plan to overthrow President Eyadema Drunken plotters spoilt Togo coup Every seat is sold out months in advance, even though the better ones cost as much as 60, and even standing places are dear. On the flourishing black market, largely in the hands of local hotel porters, prices this year for the opening night of Aida, were reported to have reached 250. Inevitably, there is endless debate whether the high box-office prices are justified since they allow only the world's super-rich to enjoy productions that have to be heavily subsidised by the city of Salzburg as well as by the Austrian State.

Every year, at the opening, there are cries of anguish from the local citizens who watch the invasion of festival-goers and are unable themselves to see the productions. This time the outcry has been strident. Josef Kraut, the Festival president and a local politician, says all this is nonsense. Some tickets, he insists, are sold locally, and some dignitaries even get to be invited and the visitors spend fortunes in the hotels and the shops and add to the city's prosperity. But it is embarrassingly easy for the opera-goer to be taken in by the claim that many locals are in the audiences.

I was surprised to see so many of the women in traditional Austrian costume," I told a grumbling Salzburger. Those are all German women who spend fortunes dressing themselves up in our Trach-tenkleider (national costume). No Salzburger would dream of going to the Festival in cos-tume. We would naturally go in evening dress." Professor arrested From George Armstrong in Rome The arrest in Paris at the weekend of Professor Franco Piperno, charged here formally with armed insurrection against the state," and with having been involved in the Aldo Moro kidnapping, is being judged here by the authorities as very important." The 36-year-old physics professor is part of the group of other professors, writers, and poets who were similarly charged last April by a public prosecutor in Padua, Mr Pietro Calogero. Professor Piperno, and the poet, Mr Nanni Bales-trieri, have successfully avoided arrest, unlike the others.

Both men have continued to grant interviews in the Italian press while in hiding." Mr Piperno was arrested in France where, it seems, he was recognised by some Italian tourists as he was sipping an aperitif in a cafe near the Madeleine. Italy has refused to extradite two people to France on the grounds that they would face the guillotine there, and the death penalty is outlawed here. Similarly, France has refused to extradite a convicted Italian murderer. Skiing Low Prices By our Foreign Staff Mrs Thatcher has Joined the growing Western protest against the imprisonment and threatened trial of a group of human rights activists in Czechoslovakia. Calling it a deplorable situation," th Prime Minister has written to the Czech Charter 77 movement, that their plight is vividly in my mind," and has promised that "the British Government will sot forget them." The letter refers to the unjustified treatment those who speak out for human rights." It was written in reply to an appeal for help addressed to the Prime Minister early in July, by Mrs Eva Kanturkova, a signatory of Charter 77 and a member of the movement which claims that the Czechosiovalc authorities have failed to observe the human rights obligations which they assumed by signing tne Helsinki declanaitdon and other human rights conventions.

Mrs Thatcher's reply, sent about a month ago, has bean circulating underground among the members at me unaner i i group, and its text only appeared at the weekend. Ten members of the group, including three women, were arrested on May 29 and face possible trial for "subversion oi tne KepuDiic ana coiiu-slon with western powers." An 11th member of the group was arrested this montn. Althoueh there have been rumours for several weeks that a show trial was imminent, the prosecutor has not. as ar as Is known in the West, handed down, the formal indict ments which must precede the trial. Western observers consider it unlikely that the Czech Government would proceed during the next few days, while the world inevitably remembers the anniversary of the events of 1968.

But. as yet. there Is no indi cation that the Czech authorities have been sufficiently impressed with Western protests to shelve the trials altogether and release the 11 under arrest. Indeed with growing popular resentment rising ijci.iij nucs emu a wave of panic food-buying in Czechoslovakia, Mr Husak mieht decide that a show trial would be a useful domestic show of strength, overriding all considerations of adverse Western reaction. Prisoners' hunger strike From Irene Beeson in Cairo Sixty political detainees arrested last week have been on hunger strike since Saturday and are refusing to reply to questions during investigation.

They are left-wing. Nasserist, and liberal political activists detained in a pre-dawn arrest in Cairo, Alexandria, and other places. Their protest is against being held in solitary confinement in the prison of the 800-year-old Cairo citadel. The Ministry of the Interior says that 56 people are involved, but political and legal sources claim that 64 were arrested. The Prosecutor General said that they had "carried on subversive activities within the framework of the banned Egyptian Communist Party." Their aim was, he said, to discredit the Government, disturb people's minds, disrupt national unity and oppose the Egyptian-Israeli peace settlement.

He said that they had been in contact with embassies of countries hostile to Egypt. The Communist party had set up a central committee, the prosecutor said. It has an organisational structure and holds regular meetings at its headquarters. Saying that the Egyptian Communist Party had branches abroad, he mentioned the National Democratic grouping in Paris, the Egyptian club in West Berlin, and the Egyptian Progressive National Movement in London. It had received funds from foreign embassies, he said.

Some of the party members had published articles in Arab magazines abroad, including the July 23 and AI Hakika (Truth). Among the arrested persons are 33 members of the auth-rised NPUP (National Progressive Unionists Party), including a former MP, four journalists, six lawyers, and two trade unionists. IT WAS during the Prague spring of 1968 that Edita Gruberova was given permission to leave Czechoslovakia and visit Vienna to audition for the opera. She is now the brightest star of the Vienna State Opera. But in Vienna she did not impress much in 1968, and it took another two years before they recognised her gifts.

Later in 1968, after the Rus-sian tanks had already rolled into Prague, she was still outside trying to impress with her voice, and she won a third frize at a song competition in oulouse. "They probably just felt orry for me as a Czech at that lime. They were benevolent," she says now, with the assurance of an artist who knows she no longer has to prove her ability. As the world marks the eleventh anniversary of the Soviet Invasion, on August 21 1368, to crush Alexander Dubcek's attempt to liberalise communism in Czechoslovakia, Edita Gruberova is in Salzburg singing in the Festival productions of Mozart's Magic Flute, and Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. Life has been good to her, and she is still unspoiled enough to recognise it, and to realise that it might all have been very different without that brief period when Czechoslovakia's leaders experimented with an open door policy.

It gave her the opportunity to demonstrate her voice to others, and gave her the determination to persevere. Per Former dictator captured From Bill Cemlyn-Jdnes in Madrid THE FORMER dictator of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macias, has been captured alive by the troops of the new Guinean leader, Teodoro Nguema. According to reports received here yesterday there was great rejoicing in Malabo, the capital on the island of Fernando Po, when it was learnt that Macias had been arrested. He was spotted by a woman on Saturday near the village of Mongomo, where he was born. He was alone, unarmed, and carrying a suitcase.

"Why do they want to take mc," he is reported to have said, "when I have given back all my money?" The woman reported this meeting to the military and immediately an extensive search was started, led by the naval commander, Flor-encio Maye. The former dictator is thought to have been responsible for the massacre of thousands of his compatriots. Macias was taken to Bata, the capital of the mainland province of Rio Muni, to await trial before a military and popular tribunal for his alleged crimes. Earlier it had been rumoured that Col-nel Nguema would send Macias to psychiatric centre outside the country. The Supreme Military Council, headed by Nguema, which has taken over power, is expected to meet soon and will for the first time, give a list of the names that make up this junta.

It is reported to consist of senior officers, junior officers, NCO's and soldiers, whose names were kept secret while the future of Macias was still unknown. Colonel Nguema has described the coup of August 3, which ended the Macias regime, "not as an officers' revolution but as the Army's reflection of the wishes of the entire and united people." During the dictatorship the economy of the country totally collapsed and at least a third of the population died or fled. The fall of Macias has not ended the grave troubles of this small and possibly still divided country. The immediate needs are food and medical supplies. The first EEC aeroplane, loaded with 20 tons of rice, flew into Malabo on Saturday.

Ugandans 'arrested' A FORMER deputy Government minister loyal to the former Ugandan President, Professor Yusufu Lule, and two journalists, have been arrested in Kampala on unspecified charges, their lawyers said yesterday. Mr Robert Sscbunnya was reported last month to have announced the formation of a new political party. Reuter. southern-coastal village where he lived. Father De Rego said that since August, 1977, Indonesian "search and destroy" offensives forced the population to flee from one area to another without being able to grow or harvest crops.

The decline of the resistance in 1978 was due to hunger, lack of medicine and lack of arms supplies. The resistance was still fighting with the Portuguese army weapons they were using when Indonesia had invaded. of these Salzburg productions, and used to justify the price of the tickets, now the dearest in the world. SALZBURG, Mozart's birthplace, had its first summer festival in 1920. Interrupted by the war, it quickly restored its reputation for pre-eminence, and has succeeded in maintaining it, despite a plethora of competing festivals all over Europe.

Traditionally held throughout August, the Salzburg festival is a feast of operas, concerts, recitals, and plays. It still succeeds in attracting the world's greatest artists and not only because of the fees, but foremost for its high standards. Including Cross Country 1 Descendants of Samurai warriors march through Tokyo yesterday wearing 16th-century armour and the traditional Samurai sword despite temperatures which were in the 90s NowEBtteinmse 2X From Walter Schwarz in Lome, Togo An attempted coup might easily have succeeded two years ago if two British mercenaries had not got drunk on an aeroplane, a court will be told here this week, when 15 Togolese face trial for trying to kill General Eyadema, the President. The trial will be a reminder of how vulnerable some African regimes are to instant overthrow especially when, like Togo's, they occupy the nebulous borderline between progressive military rule and repression. General Eyadema's 12-year- old regime is itself on trial in a different sense, because Amnesty International's French section reported liast month on disquieting canoMions, a wave of arrests, including seven children aged under 12, harassment," and victimisation of two leading families accused of involvement fhe Olympics and the De Souzas aind torture of prisoners.

Neither the foreign mer cenaries nor their alleged Togolese paymasters will be In court because all are safely abroad, leaving behind only seven relatively minor char acters in the story. The alleged ringleaders, who will be tried in absentia, are two sons of Sylvanus Olympio, Togo's first President, who was shot dead by Eyadema, than a sergeant. in a coup in I9b3. me elder son, Gilles, is a wealthy businessman living in Paris aind the younger, also in Lives in Accra. One of the Olympic brothers' alleged local accomplices, Mr Ayite Saturnin, does not figure on tne list of accused and this has led to fears that he may have died, or been injured in captivity.

He has been accused of allowing a plame load of arms for the coup to land while he was in command of the airport control tower. Two self-confessed British mercenaries came back to Lome under safe conduct last year to tell their story to the authorities. They said that several groups of mercenaries were recruited by a Canadian who went to Lome as a tourist for detailed reconnaisance. They got into the Army bar- racks quite easily and found no serious obstacles to their plam to blow up Eyadema's car on a route he took every aay, seize the ammunitions store, aind await the arrival of a Ghanaian battalion which, the mercenaries claimed, had been promised in advance by the Government then in power, led by Colonel Achempong. The Ghanaian border with Togo is on the outskirts of Lome.

The 13 mercenaries were to have converged on Ghana, the staging post. But two of them got drunk and abusive on the first leg of the flight, between Heathrow and Geneva. Swiss police found wire cutters aind a cosh in their luggage, and sent the men back to London, where British police, after interrogation, identified all 13 members of the team. Another team was recruited but Special Branch and MI6 kept on its track all the way to Ghana, identifying target of the operation -and warned Eyadema. On the day arranged for the coup, the attackers noted unusual security on the border and called off the operation.

President Eyadema's response to the Amnesty charges last week was to invite Amnesty's lawyer, and French and British journalists to Lome to see for yourselves and witness the trial. The atmosphere before the trial is indeed tense, especially among the hundreds of members of the De Souza and Olympio clams, who fear reprisals. President Eyadema and impose its Ba'athism on it." He said the ruling Iraqi Ba'ath Party, having failed to defeat Israel, was trying to impose its Doctrine on other Arab countries with the aid of plotters and agents." He did not elaborate, President Numeiry earlier announced changes in the structure of the SSU, cutting the number of SSU politbureau members from 27 to 17 and the number of SUU secretaries from 15 of four. Reuter. sian military control of East Timor is now extensive, but that armed resistance to the occupation is continuing.

"The East Timorese will never accept the occupation, and I think the resistance will grow again. There is no area where Indonesian control is secure," he added. Father De Rego is anti-communist, and rejects claims that Fretilin is Communist. He went to the mountains in July, 1976, when Indonesian troops first occupied Soibada, the slopes, If you want to go skiing but worry about how much it's going to cost yoUj here's some good news. Enterprise with its reputation for low cost big value holidays is now in the Winter sports business.

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