Politicians support
Cuba protests
A well-guarded Senator
Daniel Kroupa, left, was jailed in a cell
on Wenceslas Square in a protest of Cuba's
human rights policies.
By Frantisek Bouc, staff
writer, The
Prague Post, Czech Republic, March 25,
2004.
There is nothing like a little street theater
to make a point.
That is what some high-profile protesters
against Cuba's human rights policies decided
when they erected a mock prison cell on
Prague's Wenceslas Square -- and then went
directly to jail.
Sort of.
Prague Mayor Pavel Bem opened a four-day
campaign March 15 commemorating the anniversary
of last year's imprisonment of 75 political
prisoners in Cuba by pronouncing a mock
sentence on 75 Czech political and cultural
personalities.
He sentenced Simon Panek, director of the
People in Need humanitarian organization
and 74 other volunteers to an hour's imprisonment.
"We would like to send a signal primarily
to Cuba, to those people who are trying
to do something against Castro, to let them
know that they are not alone, that someone
is thinking of them, that we are not indifferent,"
Panek told news agency CTK.
Last year, People in Need arranged an aid
program for real Cuban prisoners and their
family members. Each month the group sends
financial and material aid.
The cell on Wenceslas Square, which at
about 8 square meters (86 square feet) was
twice as large as a typical prison cell
in Cuba, held a chair, a table and a blanket.
Among those serving one-hour sentences
were volunteers recruited from human rights
circles, celebrities and leading politicians.
Senate Chairman Petr Pithart spent an hour
in the cell dressed in a striped prison
uniform. Pithart said he wanted to point
at the cruel practices of Cuban President
Fidel Castro's regime.
"I know the atmosphere of the Cuban
secret-police investigation rooms. ... Those
75 prisoners have undoubtedly passed through
them as well," Pithart said.
In January 2001 Pithart made a trip to
Cuba to force Castro to release two Czech
citizens, Jan Bubenik and former Freedom
Union Deputy Ivan Pilip, who were detained
for almost a month for alleged partisan
activities against the Castro regime.
Pilip was invited to spend an hour in the
Wenceslas Square prison, but he rejected
the invitation.
"I did support the campaign, but I
didn't write my name on any paper,"
Pilip said. "Actually, I already served
a real Cuban imprisonment and so I did not
need to fake it."
Lackey and toady
After overthrowing communism in 1989, the
Czech Republic joined the appeals against
the Castro regime in the mid-'90s. Czech
officials initiated resolutions condemning
human rights abuse in Cuba in three conferences
of the UN Commission for Human Rights in
1999, 2000 and 2001. In the most recent
conference in Geneva, Switzerland, March
17, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque denounced the Czech Republic as a
"despicable lackey of the United States
and Washington's toady."
Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda told The
Prague Post that the Czech Republic was
determined to spotlight any nondemocratic
regime anywhere in the world.
"The Czech Republic will always fight
against suppressing democracies, be it in
Cuba or Burma [Myanmar]," Svoboda said.
"From our own experience, we remember
quite well that dissidents were always strengthened
when the former communist regime in Czechoslovakia
received international criticism."
A number of political analysts, however,
have raised their eyebrows at the Czech
Republic's seemingly heavy focus on Cuba.
The Castro regime is just one of many nondemocratic
governments worldwide and the Czech state
does not have a consistent approach toward
them, some analysts say.
"It's hypocrisy to criticize Cuba
and to your close eyes in front of other
even worse regimes," said political
analyst Jiri Pehe, who heads New York University
in Prague.
Pehe said the issue of consistency in Czech
foreign policy came to the foreground after
leading government representatives welcomed
North Korean Parliament Chairman Che Te-bok
during his visit to the Czech Republic March
11.
"It's not very comprehensive to protest
against Cuba just days after welcoming a
leading representative of what is perhaps
the worst regime in the world," Pehe
said.
Svoboda, who also met with Che Te-bok,
argued that the Czech foreign policy was
balanced in treating controversial regimes
worldwide.
"There's nothing bad about meeting
with representatives of any regimes and
confronting them with our standpoints,"
Svoboda said. "We need to meet them
and speak, not to meet them and remain silent."
THE CUBAN CONNECTION
o 1999-2001: The Czech Republic initiates
resolutions condemning human rights abuse
in Cuba in three conferences of the UN Commission
for Human Rights
o January 2001: Czech citizens Jan Bubenik
and former Freedom Union Deputy Ivan Pilip
detained in Havana and kept in prison for
almost a month for alleged partisan activities
against the Castro regime.
o March 15-19, 2004: People in Need humanitarian
organization commemorates the imprisonment
of 75 political prisoners in Cuba by building
a mock cell on Wenceslas Square.
o March 17, 2004: Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque denounces the Czech Republic
as a "despicable lackey of the United
States and Washington's toady" at the
UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva,
Switzerland.
Frantisek Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com
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