The New York
Times Editorial. February 2, 2001
When the Velvet Revolution arrived in Czechoslovakia in 1989, Jan Bubenik,
a student leader, must have been convinced he would henceforth be safe from
arrest for anti-Communist rebellion. Twelve years later, however, Mr. Bubenik
and his colleague Ivan Pilip are in jail for counterrevolutionary activities —
in Cuba. The arrests seem to be in retaliation for the Czech Republic's
criticism of Cuba's human rights abuses.
The two Czechs, arrested last month while traveling in Cuba, have not been
formally charged, but government officials accuse them of consorting with
counterrevolutionaries, fomenting an uprising and acting as agents of the United
States. What they really did was meet with Cuban dissidents.
While the government of Fidel Castro routinely jails Cubans for exercising
the basic rights of free speech and association, many people assumed that Mr.
Castro would soon release two prominent Czechs — Mr. Bubenik has been a
member of Parliament, and Mr. Pilip is a former finance minister. But Havana
seems likely to bring the two men to trial because the Czech Republic sponsored
a resolution censuring Cuba at the annual meeting of the United Nations Human
Rights Commission. It is easy to see why the resolution was justified.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | 