Editorial. Published Wednesday, February 7, 2001, in the
Miami Herald
Czechs are free, but Cuban repression remains.
Prominent Czechs Jan Bubenik and Ivan Pilip got to see Cuba like natives.
Cuba's police state accused the two visitors of making "subversive
contacts,'' jailed them 24 days and released them on Monday only after they
admitted breaking a law that criminalizes ordinary actions.
The lesson the rest of the world should take from this is clear: The normal
exercise of human rights in any free country is illegal in Cuba. Cuban law is an
oxymoron.
And while we celebrate the Czech's release, what must be remembered is that
the Cuban regime continues to violate the rights of its own citizens every day.
This incident makes the case for the United Nations Human Rights Commission to
condemn Cuba's regime yet again in upcoming annual meetings in Geneva. The more
that Fidel Castro rails at the world that condemns repression in Cuba, the more
he shows himself deserving of international censure.
The two Czechs did absolutely nothing that would be considered wrong in any
free country. Mr. Pilip, a member of the Czech Republic Parliament and former
finance minister, and Mr. Bubenik, a student leader of the 1989 Velvet
Revolution and president of the Czech Pro-Democracy Foundation, simply met with
Cubans opposed to Cuba's one-party state. Here, that's like visitors going to
see Ralph Nader.
Yet under Cuba's Alice-in-Wonderland criminal code, Cuban dissident groups,
unsanctioned meetings and criticism of the government are illegal threats to
national security. The totalitarian state considers legitimate human-rights
groups such as Freedom House to be "counterrevolutionary.''
Messrs. Pilip and Bubenik were detained, accused of being Freedom House
emissaries and threatened with charges under a never-before applied 1999 law
that carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison. To win their freedom, the
pair signed a letter of coerced contrition. But the men were hardly chastened.
"For us, it's normal to collaborate with this type of [group], and we
much value the people who try to de- nounce in Cuba its violations of human
rights and the country's policies,'' said Mr. Pilip after leaving Cuba
yesterday.
That's the statement the world should remember.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 