Friday, January 19, 2001.
NewsMax.com
With Czechoslovakia preparing to seek United Nations condemnation of Fidel
Castro's human-rights record, Communist Cuba has arrested two Prague
parliamentary leaders as "subversive" agents.
According to the Washington Times:
The Czech ambassador to the United States, Alexandr Vondra, construed it as
the Cuban president's warning for Prague to back off. He called it "blackmail."
In 1999 and 2000, the Czech Republic, once under domination of the old
Soviet Union until it gained its democratic independence in what became known as
"the Velvet Revolution," successfully sponsored resolutions at the
U.N. Commission for Human Rights in Geneva that condemned human-rights
violations in Cuba.
This infuriated Castro.
Now, Prague is known to be seeking similar denunciation of the communist
regime from the U.N. General Assembly when it convenes in the spring.
One week ago, Castro's operatives arrested Ivan Philip, a member of the
Czech parliament since 1996, and Jan Bubenik, a student leader during the Velvet
Revolution and himself a former parliamentarian.
In Cuba on tourist visas, they were arrested in the central province of
Ciego de Avila for "attempting to establish subversive contacts with
counter-revolutionary residents."
The Cuban government said Tuesday the two men would be tried before a "revolutionary
tribunal" for violating immigration law forbidding foreign nations to meet
with dissidents.
This is the first time anyone with the rank of parliamentarian has been
tried on such a charge. Ordinarily, Cuba simply expels unwanted foreigners.
An editorial in Cuba's communist organ Granma branded as "agents in the
service of the United States" the two Czechs, who are being held in Villa
Marista, a Havana prison known for incarcerating Cuban dissidents.
The Czechs are accused of acting in behalf of Freedom House, an American
organization that says it "encourages person-to-person contact in all
societies."
Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., who is the incoming chairman of the House of
Representatives International Relations Committee, said, "This only serves
to underscore the brutal and arbitrary nature of the regime in Havana."
The State Department, which has objected to the arrests, said the Czech
visitors' only offense "was to meet with Cuban activists who seek peaceful
change of Cuba's totalitarian government."
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