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CzechRep dissatisfied with
Cuba's explanation of Houdova's arrest
Czech
News Agency, February
1, 2006.
PRAGUE- The Czech Foreign Ministry considers
the explanation of the arrest of Czech supermodel
Helena Houdova and psychologist Mariana
Kroftova, which Cuba's Chargé d'Affaires
Aymee Hernandez presented today, incomplete
and unsatisfactory, Richard Krpac from the
ministry said.
"The Foreign Ministry expects to receive
additional information from the Cuban diplomats
as soon as possible," Krpac said.
Cuban police detained both Czech women
when they were taking photographs of a slum
in Havana.
Hernandez said they were arrested because
they deliberately waged a campaign against
Cuba in cooperation with Cuban dissidents.
Krpac said that Hernandez was not able
to say why Houdova and Kroftova had not
been allowed to contact the Czech Embassy
in Havana. He added that Hernandez said
she will require the information from the
authorities in Havana.
According to the ministry, Cuban police
"clearly violated international law."
"The ministry also strongly disagreed
that Czech citizens were arrested because
they took pictures of Havana," Krpac
said.
Houdova, Czech Miss in 1999, has lived
for a second year mainly in New York and
Los Angeles doing modelling. At the same
time she tries to raise money to help children
with social and health handicaps in nine
countries the world over.
Houdova said that she had left for Cuba
to find out how she could help children
in this communist country.
However, on Monday Houdova and Kroftova
were detained by the Cuban secret police.
Both Czech women spent 11 hours in police
custody without being able to contact the
Czech embassy.
They were released after they pledged in
writing that they would not join any "counter-revolutionary
activities" in the country, Houdova
said.
Czech-Cuban political relations have been
frozen since the fall of communism in then
Czechoslovakia in 1989. The reason is the
Czech criticism of the ruling political
regime in Cuba.
The Czech Republic has tried several times
to push through the U.N. resolutions criticising
the state of human rights in Cuba.
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