Monday, Jan. 29, 2001. NewsMax.om
Taking a line from liberal Democrats who charge that the Bush presidency is
not a legitimate one, Fidel Castro labeled the new administration as "of a
quite irregular nature" and warned that it might target Cuba out of the "frustration,
hate and resentment, felt by the most extreme and reactionary sectors, who are
currently euphoric about the rise to power of a new government with which they
maintain wide links."
In a speech to a mob of 300,000 Havana citizens, laced with bravado, Castro
said that the Bush administration has wide links to "the most extreme and
anti-Cuban sectors" in the United States. He pledged: "Nothing will
make us give up our dream. … The Cuba of today is not the same
inexperienced and unarmed Cuba of 1959. The battle of ideas will be redoubled.
The Cuban people, who have faced extreme danger with honor and who have
heroically resisted hostility, attacks, a blockade and an economic war for 42
years, look forward to the future with calmness, serenity and confidence."
Castro promised the crowd that he would watch every step the Bush
administration takes, and that every word of its pronouncements would be
carefully observed.
"The whole nation is one large school. We have learned how to resist
and overcome in the most inconceivable of circumstances," he said.
Zeroing in on the U.S. left's favorite theme, Castro spoke about what he
termed the exhaustion of the environment, and, sounding like a militant U.S.
environmentalist, ranted about "climate change and holes in the ozone
layer."
Castro's declaration of his continued hostility to the United States was
expressed at a U.N. debate about the U.S.-based Freedom House (FH). Cuba's
alternate representative, Ambassador Rafael Dauss, denounced the group's "long
history of activities" allegedly aimed at subverting Cuba's constitutional
order.
Dauss charged that Freedom House's true goal is to foment subversion within
Cuba through sending its representatives there with large amounts of money and
anti-Cuban propaganda and alleged that FH is used as a launchpad for the U.S.
government's attacks on Cuba, which is the reason it is supplied with
considerable financial resources through the Agency for International
Development (AID) and other governmental bodies.
Among Freedom House's fundamental activities, he said, is the recruitment of
politicians, journalists and community activists from Central and Eastern Europe
with experience in so-called democratic transition, in order to send them to
Cuba, China, Sudan and other nations. China and Sudan joined the Cuban diplomat
in attacking FH.
His attack came on the heels of the Jan. 12 arrest of two prominent Czech
citizens in the central Cuban province of Ciego de Avila for "counter-revolutionary"
activity, according to Cuba's state-controlled newspaper, Granma.
Freedom House announced that it "understands that the Cuban government
has arrested the Honorable Ivan Pilip, a former finance and education minister
and current deputy in the Czech Parliament's lower house, and Jan Bubenik, a
student leader in the 1989 Velvet Revolution and former deputy. According to
press accounts, Pilip and Bubenik were arrested after meeting with Cuban
democratic activists. Two Cuban citizens were also briefly detained in
connection with the meetings."
"Freedom House condemns the arrest and stands in solidarity with Mr.
Pilip and Mr. Bubenik for their efforts to advocate for human rights, democracy,
and freedom. Freedom House calls upon the international community to roundly
condemn the arrest of these private citizens and to call upon the Cuban
government to release them immediately," the organization said.
Freedom House is a Washington-based nongovernmental organization founded in
1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie. It routinely encourages and
facilitates private and public communication and contact between citizens of all
countries to advance the interests of freedom. For 60 years it has supported
efforts to monitor human rights and to establish open communications between
citizens of different countries to promote the development of free and open
societies, although it says it does not comment on the efforts of private
citizens in totalitarian countries when it might endanger them.
"Freedom House supports and encourages person-to-person contact in all
societies," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. "The
purpose of this contact is to increase understanding between citizens everywhere
in the interest of developing free and open societies. The fundamental goal of
these efforts is to promote global democracy and respect for universally
recognized human freedoms."
According to published reports, the director of the Havana-based Cuban
Committee for Human Rights, Elizardo Sanchez, argued that the arrests were
illegal. Mr. Sanchez said the Czech citizens committed no crime in meeting with
Cuban dissidents, adding that "the Cuban government is violating civil
rights" by its behavior. Freedom House supports this statement.
Adrian Karatnycky, Freedom House President, said his organization "encourages
dialogue and discussion among all citizens, especially between citizens who have
navigated their countries through a democratic transition and those who remain
in closed societies. The exchange of experiences and information, including
information about democracy and freedom, is an international right."
The U.N. committee decided to put off investigating the allegations against
Freedom House until next May, to give the organization an opportunity to
respond. | 