Central Europe Online.
February 8, 2001
Pilip's, Bubenik's case accompanied with controversial statements
PRAGUE, Feb 8, 2001 -- (CTK - Czech News Agency) The three-week stay of Ivan
Pilip, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and Jan Bubenik, a former 1989
student leader, in a Cuban prison has attracted the attention of the public and
most politicians.
Pilip and Bubenik met Cuban dissidents, for which they were charged with
subversion. They were released on February 6. Most Czech senior officials and
the Chamber of Deputies have agreed that the Czech Republic has no reason to
apologize for what they did in Cuba. On the other hand, some politicians' view
somewhat differed from the mainstream opinion.
20 January - Miroslav Macek, the deputy chairman of the Civic Democratic
Party (ODS), says on his website: "As the Communist regime in
Czechoslovakia and elsewhere did not fall thanks to dissidents, but thanks to
the will of powers, Castro's regime in Cuba and the communist regime in Cuba
will not fall thanks to anything else.
This is why I perceive the ostensible support of dissent as a sort of
theatrical public relations affair, in the case of Pilip and Bubenik bordering
on showing off." 23 January - Communist leader KSCM Miroslav Grebenicek
says it is "more than likely that President Vaclav Havel has been informed
about the affair since its inception."
Havel's Ladislav Spacek rejects the allegation: "It's nonsense. It's
not true in the least." Spacek says that Havel only learnt about the trip
from the papers. Grebenicek says: "According to various information the
motivation of the gentlemen was not quite selfless.
The so-called struggle for democracy can be a good business for some people.
If you don't understand the term I mean money." 24 January - ODS shadow
foreign minister Jan Zahradil tells the daily Pravo that last year he did not
accept an offer from the U.S. Freedom House that he should train dissidents how
to behave in a totalitarian regime. He admits that the foundation could have
addressed Pilip, too. Turning to Pilip, Zahradil says: "I know Pilip very
well.
He is very ambitious and, to put it decently, very pragmatic man. I can
hardly imagine that he would only leave for Cuba with a view to helping the
development and protection of human rights. I simply cannot put this together
with his character." 25 January - Some politicians, especially those from
the Freedom Union, Pilip's party, critically react to Zahradil's statement. "Zahradil
speaks in a way which strips him of the right to speak for the foreign policy of
the Chamber of Deputies or for the foreign policy of a democratic party,"
Jan Kasal, the leader of the Christian Democrats, says. "What Zahradil says
absolutely lacks any solidarity, political common sense and simple decency,"
Michael Zantovsky, the chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, says.
Zahradil rejects the reservations: "Instead, this seems to be an effort
to look for an excuse to politically attack the ODS." 29 January - Jan
Zahradil apologizes for his statements about Pilip: "Though it is not yet a
general rule in our country, it is true that a politician should be able to
publicly accept his/her mistakes. Last week I publicly made some statements
about deputy Pilip. With regard to his personal situation, it was undoubtedly
inappropriate and humanely insensitive at the given moment. I, therefore,
apologize for my action. I was not motivated by a malicious intention, but more
by an agitated atmosphere of the recent period." 5 February - ODS leader
Vaclav Klaus says that "although the trip had no result, it was harmless."
Klaus also expresses his opinion that Pithart's trip to Cuba had been a "non-standard
approach". Klaus added that he believed people should not place "exaggerated
hopes" on such "non-standard approaches." "The state should
worry about our citizens detained anywhere in the world, but rather, however, by
using standard approaches," says Klaus.
7 February - Klaus apologizes for his assessment of Pithart's trip: "I
would like in this way to apologize for my Monday statement about the results of
Senate head Petr Pithart's mission to Cuba. I made it on the basis of
information at the time, and it proved to be wrong." Pithart accepts the
apology.
((c) 2001 CTK - Czech News Agency)
U.s. human rights mission in Cuba will suffer
PRAGUE, Feb 7, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A Czech deputy recently
expelled from Cuba accused of subversion said on Wednesday that his detention
had undermined the likelihood of future visits by a U.S. human rights
organization.
The former finance minister, Ivan Pilip, was held by Cuban authorities for
three weeks with former student leader Jan Bubenik, both accused by Havana of
contacting dissident Cuban groups on behalf of the US-based Freedom House.
Pilip said that the detention had "dealt a severe blow" to the
human rights organization's program aimed at supporting the dissident Cuban
opposition opposed to the regime of the formidable Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
In a press conference here, the former minister said that the US non
governmental organization would find recruiting volunteers for future missions "from
now on unfeasible".
Pilip and Bubenik returned to the Czech Republic on Tuesday after spending
over three weeks in Cuban confinement.
The two were arrested on January 12 in Ciego de Avila province, 600
kilometers (375 miles) east of Havana, on charges of consorting with Cuban
political dissidents.
Pilip said on Wednesday that he had visited Cuba on a similar trip in the
past, meeting Cuban opposition members, but that this time "we were
arrested before our first meeting."
The Czech deputy refused to give details of the visit, but said he and
Bubenik were visiting as volunteers to show Freedom House's support for Cuban
dissidents. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
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