By Yves Colon. ycolon@herald.com. Published Thursday,
January 25, 2001, in the Miami Herald
The dispute between Cuba and the Czech Republic heated up Wednesday with new
accusations by the Cuban government that Czech officials were conspiring to
undermine the Cuban regime.
At the same time, the Czech Republic won important support in Europe as the
head of the European Parliament demanded in a letter that President Fidel Castro
immediately release two Czech citizens the Cuban officials have accused of
espionage.
Lord Russell-Johnston protested against the alleged reasons for the
detention of Ivan Pilip and Jan Bubenik, whose arrest Jan. 12 has created an
increasingly strident international dispute. He also protested against the
conditions in which they are being kept.
In a statement placed on the Cuban Foreign Ministry website, Cuba maintains
Pilip and Bubenik were trying to destabilize the state as part of a larger
effort supported by their government. The statement accuses the Czech Republic
of conspiring against Cuba since 1990, after the Czechs overthrew their
communist regime. The document names specific Czech diplomats in Havana as
troublemakers who coordinate with dissidents, "Miami's Cuban Mafia'' and
the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba.
At the same time, the government hinted that the dispute could be resolved
if the Czech government appealed to Cuba's "generosity.''
"If they want an honorable way out to the incident,'' the statement
said in its concluding paragraph, "admit we are right, appeal to our
generosity, and no longer commit the mistake of questioning our truth or testing
our steadfastness.''
Pilip, a member of the Czech Parliament, and Bubenik, a former leader of
Prague's 1989 Velvet Revolution, were arrested after meeting with two dissidents
in Ciego de Avila. Cuban authorities now say Pilip and Bubenik were carrying a
computer, disks and CDs they were supposed to deliver to dissidents on behalf of
Freedom House, a pro-democracy group based in Washington, D.C.
Michael Goldfarb, a spokesman for Freedom House, would not say whether the
Czechs were carrying equipment for the U.S. based group. The organization does
not release details about who participates in their programs, he said.
"We support free exchange of information and person-to-person
contact,'' Goldfarb said. "No one is calling for the overthrow of the
Castro regime.''
Relations between Cuba and the Czech Republic have become hostile since the
Czechs began to co-sponsor a United Nations resolution condemning human rights
abuses in Cuba. When they sponsored that resolution again last year, the Cubans
reacted by holding a 100,000-strong demonstration outside the Czech Embassy.
On Monday, a Cuban prosecutor ordered that Pilip and Bubenik be held in "preventive
detention'' for up to 60 days until their case comes up for trial. If the trial
does not take place in that time, the men could be detained for six months.
Pilip's wife, Lucie Pilipova, visited the men over the weekend and said the
prisoners "are very well, they are being treated very well.''
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday added its voice to the appeals, calling on
Cuban authorities to release Pilip and Bubenik.
"The case of these Czech citizens shows just how flawed the Cuban
criminal code is,'' said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights
Watch's Americas Division. "Cuban laws provide cover for all kinds of human
rights abuse.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 