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Cuba is 'giant prison', says Czech ex-president
Havel
PRAGUE, 18 (AFP) - Former Czech president
Vaclav Havel described Cuba as "a giant
prison", as he called for international
mobilisation to persuade the country to
commit to a peaceful transition to democracy.
"Cuba is a giant prison. We have to
put up alarm bells around the walls,"
he said. "With every signature, every
conference we make another step towards
freedom in Cuba."
The former playwright dissident, who himself
spent five years in communist prisons, was
speaking on the second day of a summit on
Cuba attended by European and American former
heads of state and governments, parliamentarians
and human rights capaigners in Prague.
The summit was organized by the International
Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC),
founded one year ago at the initiative of
Havel with the help of former US Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright, former Polish
dissident Adam Michnik and former Russian
dissident Elena Bonner.
It was staged 18 months after the arrests
in March 2003 of 75 Cuban opponents of the
Castro regime and their sentencing to up
to 28 years imprisonment.
They included the poet and writer Raul
Rivero, who according to his wife is in
a poor state of health.
"This summit is important as the least
signature of a petition is important. All
this creates pressure," said Havel.
"It is inconceivable and unacceptable
that people continue to be imprisoned in
Cuba because of their ideas and their peaceful
politics," said a final declaration
issued at the summit, named the Prague Memorandum.
Ex-Spain PM Urges Release of Cubans
By KAREL JANICEK, Associated
Press Writer. Sat Sep 18,12:32 AM ET.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Former Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Friday
called for the release of dozens of inmates
in Cuba, charging they're political prisoners
held "simply because they have a different
opinion from the official line."
He spoke at a meeting of the International
Committee for Democracy in Cuba, which is
examining ways to support resistance to
Fidel Castro's regime.
Participants highlighted the case of Raul
Rivero, a dissident journalist and author
who was arrested in March 2003 along with
74 others in a crackdown on the opposition.
"There's nothing to justify that people
like Raul Rivero should be imprisoned just
because they wrote a critical poem against
a dictator," Aznar said.
They were sentenced to prison terms ranging
from six to 28 years on charges of working
with the U.S. government to undermine Cuba's
political system. Rivero received a 20-year
term. Both he and Washington have denied
the charges.
The Cuban government has justified the
crackdown, saying it has the right to defend
the nation from foreign attempts to change
its socialist system.
The committee was founded a year ago by
former Czech President Vaclav Havel, who
was a leading dissident during his own country's
communist times. The communist regime in
Czechoslovakia, which later split into the
Czech Republic and Slovakia, fell in 1989.
"I think that the situation in Cuba
will change quite soon," Havel told
the conference, adding that he hoped it
will happen peacefully.
Stone Documentary Gets Lukewarm Reception
By ALBERTO LETONA, Associated
Press Writer. Sun Sep 19.
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain - The world premiere
of Oliver Stone's follow-up documentary
on Cuban President Fidel Castro met timid
applause from a half-full house at the San
Sebastian International Film Festival on
Saturday.
The festival kicked off Friday, with a
warm reception for the world premiere of
Woody Allen (news)'s new movie "Melinda
and Melinda" - an urban tale of sex,
infidelity and miscommunication. Allen received
the festival's lifetime achievement award,
given by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.
Stone's documentary, titled "Looking
for Fidel," presents a more balanced
portrait of the Communist leader and life
on the Caribbean island than Stone's 2002
film "Comandante."
Despite ample publicity, the premiere attracted
fewer than 200 viewers on the second day
of the nine-day festival, where 19 films
from Iran to Argentina are vying for the
top prize, the Golden Shell. The film, by
the director of blockbusters such as "Platoon"
and "JFK," was not competing.
"It's a very spontaneous movie,"
Stone said at a news conference after the
screening. "It's not a left-wing documentary,
and I hope Americans will see it that way."
"It was made for educational reasons,
not for money, but I've had enormous difficulties
to in order to market it," he added.
Lukewarm applause marked the end of the
hourlong piece, which attempts to give voice
to all the major players in Cuba through
interviews with prisoners, dissidents and
rights advocates as well as Castro and his
supporters.
"The documentary is politically balanced,
and Oliver Stone is conscientious in his
interview" with Castro, said Radio
Televisao Portuguesa movie critic Teresa
Nicolaua.
But while the first documentary was criticized
for Stone's appearing too much on screen,
critics said the latest goes overboard on
Castro.
"Castro's answers are too long. It
gets a bit tedious at times," said
Nicolaua.
Viewers also complained about the dullness
of the settings, with much of the film shot
in Castro's office and the few outdoor scenes
showing little variety from other films
about Cuba.
Stone's first film on Castro was based
on three days Stone spent with the Cuban
leader in early 2002.
But the film faltered after the Cuban government
abruptly cracked down on its opponents,
arresting some 75 political dissidents and
executing three men convicted of hijacking
a passenger ferry in a bid to flee to the
United States.
"Comandante" was screened at
the Berlin Film Festival in 2003, but HBO
postponed its release in cinemas as the
events in Cuba were condemned worldwide.
The new documentary starts with an interview
with Castro and then proceeds to the work's
highlight: an interview, with Castro present
and participating, with eight prisoners
accused of hijacking a plane to try to enter
the United States.
"I'm not in power. I'm just the spiritual
chief for the majority of Cubans,"
Castro says.
Later, Stone talks to dissident leaders
Elizardo Sanchez and Osvaldo Paya, who denounce
the lack of liberty in the country.
"The most difficult part was interviewing
the dissidents," said Stone. "Fidel
Castro didn't wish them to be interviewed."
As expected, Castro is severe in his criticism
of President Bush.
"Bush has appointed dangerous anti-Cuban
extremists as men of confidence," Castro
says.
He also jokes about the "exactly 734"
assassination attempts the CIA has made
on his life.
Castro, 76 years old and in power for 47
years when the film was made, is shown undergoing
a medical checkup during which a doctor
tells him he has the heart rate of a 30-year-old.
Alarcon blames U.S. for instigating
illegal Cuban emigration
Berlin, Sep 19 (EFE).- The United States
is instigating illegal emigration and playing
the game of "Miami's Cuban mafia"
for electioneering purposes, Cuban National
Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said
in an interview published Sunday in Germany's
Der Spiegel weekly newspaper.
"This administration (of President
George W. Bush) encourages illegal emigration
and that is irresponsible. This administration,
therefore, is responsible for the tragedy
of many families, in addition to violating
the 1994 Migration Accord," said Alarcon
Now "they have restricted travel conditions
even further," Alarcon said. "If
someone hasn't seen his mother in three
years, they hope he will try to visit her
illegally." He said the "Cuban
mafia of Miami" was never as strong
as it is under the Bush administration,
but he said something is changing in Florida.
"We are not political morons. We see
that something is happening in Miami. Just
a small part of the exiles there went to
the United States at the beginning of the
revolution. The others went for economic
reasons," he said.
Alarcon said that since the 1994 agreement
was signed, Washington has issued 20,000
visas and close to 500,000 people have emigrated
legally to the United States.
Alarcon referred to relations with the
European Union - which have been strained
since Cuba jailed some 70 dissidents - to
urge EU members to be more independent with
regard to Cuba, saying, "European policy
in Cuba follows American policy blindly."
With respect to the "so-called dissidents,"
Alarcon said that in the last 45 years,
Havana has released many prisoners for humanitarian
reasons.
"Europeans only worry about people
who have been convicted under the law, while
in Guantanamo, which is also in Cuba, there
are hundreds of prisoners who have not even
been charged. This is a selective perception
of reality," he said.
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