By Daniel Rubin . Knight Ridder News Service. .Published
Wednesday, February 7, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
PRAGUE -- Two prominent Czech campaigners for democracy arrived home here
Tuesday, warning that their more than three-week ordeal in a Cuban prison was a
message pointedly aimed at the new Bush administration in Washington.
The two men, former Velvet Revolution student leader Jan Bubenik and member
of parliament Ivan Pilip, won their release from a Cuban jail after admitting
they had violated Cuba's subversion laws by meeting with dissidents. Their
release came after an escalating outcry from mostly European leaders about the
arrests.
In an afternoon stop in Madrid, Bubenik said their detention "was a
signal directed at Washington to tell them how far they can go,'' and set
against the backdrop of the new Bush administration "when a political
stiffening was expected.''
Pilip also warned that with their arrests, "the Cuban government sent a
clear warning to human rights defenders around the world that in Cuba they
shouldn't become involved in these types of questions.''
The Czech government signaled its relief with the release, and the two are
scheduled to meet with President Vaclav Havel today.
On his arrival, an unshaven but relieved Bubenik said "the worst
thing'' about being jailed 24 days in Cuba was that for the first week, "we
were completely isolated from the world around us. We had no contact with
anybody. We didn't even know if someone knew where we were.''
Bubenik and Pilip, a former finance minister of the Czech Republic, arrived
in Cuba on Jan. 8, bringing gifts of vitamins, aspirin, a computer and 20 pens.
They knew there was a risk meeting dissidents in rural Cuba, but believed they
were breaking no laws.
Instead, the two Czechs wound up in six-by-10 foot cells with three other
political prisoners. The lights stayed on all night. They had to use holes in
the floor for the toilet. The water ran only 20 minutes a day.
MET WITH DISSIDENTS
Cuban authorities arrested the two on Jan. 12 after they met with two
dissidents in the island's Ciego de Avila province. The Cuban Foreign Ministry
charged they were sowing revolution on a mission funded by Freedom House, a U.S.
pro-Democracy organization that the Cubans contended was linked to the CIA. The
U.S. government dismissed as "ludicrous'' the allegation that it had
anything to do with the visit.
After first threatening to put the men on trial, the Cuban government
demanded an apology from Prague. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said Tuesday
his government had no reason to apologize and insisted that the two men had been
freed "without haggling'' between Prague and Havana.
Bubenik and Pilip signed the statement conceding the violation of Cuban law
in front of several foreign diplomats including Anders Johnsson, the Swedish
secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Union, which had interceded on the
Czechs behalf.
During a stopover in Paris at Charles DeGaulle airport Tuesday, the two men
said that they had not gone to Cuba to violate the law and if there had been
such a violation, they offered "their excuses to the Cuban people.''
Adrian Karatnycky, president of the Freedom House, a U.S. organization that
presses for democracy, welcomed the release.
Still in question is whether the Czech Republic, which would like to improve
its ties with Havana, will continue to take such an aggressive stance on Cuba's
human rights treatment.
"I can't imagine that anything that they have learned from this case
will lead them to the conclusion that the country complies with human rights
instead of violating human rights,'' Karatnycky said.
After their arrest, the Czechs were interrogated separately, then
transferred three days later to Villa Marista, a prison for political prisoners.
Pilip speaks fluent Spanish, but Bubenik does not and was able to converse
with one inmate in English. When the man was soon moved away, Bubenik wondered
if the inmate had been planted to inform on him, his brother Jiri said.
Pilip's wife was allowed to visit on Jan. 21 and afterward told reporters
her husband had no complaints about the food. Bubenik's older brother Martin
brought medicine, magazines and books that younger brother Jiri had selected
after some deliberation. "We didn't want to send anything American, so I
bought Czech authors,'' he said.
PRISON GARB
After the initial visit, Pilip's wife could see him up to 30 minutes a day.
After the 10th day, the men were made to wear prison garb and shoes with no
laces. Five days before their release, each was moved to a larger space, with
separate toilets and only two other inmates. Despite having more room, "It
was really getting more difficult'' for Bubenik, his brother said. "He had
read all the books. He could not communicate. Already the time was running too
slowly. It was not easy.''
Bubenik's brother Jiri says Castro took personally what he saw as an attack
by a former sister nation. Czechoslovakia was the first nation to help Castro's
government after he took power and sent money, weapons and industrial
assistance, according to Miloslav Ransdorf, vice chairman of the Czech Communist
Party.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, things changed markedly. When
Czechoslovakia first signed a U.N. document assailing Cuba's human rights record
in 1990, Castro called it "mean and shameful.''
Last year and the year before, the Czech Republic co-sponsored with Poland a
U.N. joint resolution alleging human rights violations in Cuba. About 100,000
Cubans marched on the Czech Embassy in Havana. The ambassador was recalled.
Czech citizens were made to obtain visas to travel to the island.
Many human rights workers in Prague cite the U.N. resolution as the
motivation for Castro's hard line on the Czech men's activities last month.
Pepe Brito, a Cuban national who moved to Prague before the 1989 revolution,
saw Castro's move in a simpler light.
"It is not so complicated,'' said Brito, a 30-year-old restaurateur. "I
think he just got the opportunity to show to the world again that he is the man
and that Cuba is an independent country. It is a political game to show power.''
Herald staff writer Jane Bussey contributed to this report.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 