Memories of the Communist past motivate Czechs to support human rights in Cuba

Exactly a year ago, dozens of homes of Cuban human rights activists and independent journalists were raided under the direct order of Cuba's Dictator Fidel Castro. Most of their belongings, including radios, typewriters, and family photos were confiscated and the operation culminated with the arrest of seventy-five men and women. All were later sentenced to serve between fifteen and twenty-nine years in prisons, some of them hundreds of kilometres away from their families.

Freddy Valverde, photo: Radio Prague

In their support, the Czech humanitarian organisation People in Need held a four-day campaign last week against repression in Cuba. On Monday, a mock prison cell was erected on Prague's Wenceslas Square in which seventy-five people, mostly politicians, artists, and journalists each volunteered to spend an hour. Among them was Freddy Valverde from Radio Prague's Spanish service:

"People in Need has been active for seven years now. It sends humanitarian aid to the families and relatives of the prisoners as well as to the internal opposition that's resisting the Castro regime. This campaign on Wenceslas Square was very important. The cell was a replica of a Cuban cell. For seventy-five hours, Czech political and cultural personalities took turns to stay in the cell for an hour each in the name of every Cuban prisoner. I was the journalist Horacio Julio Pina, sentenced to 24 years. This shows that the Czech people have chosen to express their solidarity with the fates of the Cuban prisoners in a very clear and decisive way."

The Czech MP for the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, Petr Bratsky, recently returned from a trip to Cuba where he met with the prisoners' families. He was the last person in the symbolic cell:

"The cell is now empty. It is a symbol of what we hope will soon be the fate of our friends who have been jailed in Cuba."

"My name is Bohumila Ranglova and I'm from People in Need. We are here today to protest against the imprisonment of seventy-five Cuban human rights activists and independent journalists. It has been exactly a year since the wave of arrests. The arrested people are prisoners of conscience. They were arrested because the regime is afraid of the Varela Project, which calls onto the Cuban government to respect its own laws."

Campaign against repression in Cuba, photo: Radio Prague

On Thursday, People in Need called on Czech citizens to join in a demonstration in front of the Cuban embassy in Prague. A declaration, written by one of the most prominent Cuban human rights activists Oswaldo Paya Sardinas was read before a crowd but the protestors did not succeed in their attempt to hand over a petition to embassy officials.

"We are calling on all Cubans anywhere in the world to take part in events similar to this one in Prague. Have no fear because it is for a good cause. What is happening in Cuba is not just a political move; it is a violation of our basic human rights. Our two small children are being detained in Cuba!"

Liuver Saborit and his wife Mayda Arguelles are a couple who fled from Cuba and were granted asylum in the Czech Republic seven months ago. Their two young children had to stay on the island. Fidel Castro has forbidden them to join their parents:

Del Totalitarismo a la Democracia or From Totalitarianism to Democracy is a new feature produced by Radio Prague's Spanish service. Radio Prague's Freddy Valverde describes the project:

"This new feature in Spanish tries to describe the transformation processes in the Czech Republic by explaining to listeners how privatisation was carried out, how laws were changed, how the constitution was amended - all these steps contributed in the last ten years to this country's transformation from a Communist state to a democratic one. The goal of our feature is first and foremost to be heard in Cuba by the Cubans because the transformation will very soon reach their country. We know from past experiences that Radio Prague's Spanish broadcasts can be heard in Cuba very clearly. That's why the idea came about to broadcast this special programme on Radio Prague via shortwave. Of course there's also the Internet, but we know that the Cuban government has forbidden its citizens to use the Internet, so we have to have faith in our shortwave transmissions."

Campaign against repression in Cuba, photo: Radio Prague

How can you be sure that Cubans are listening?

"It is difficult to tell exactly how many Cubans listen to our broadcasts because the Cuban government jams radio transmissions primarily from Miami but also other parts of the world. Judging from past experiences, our broadcast reaches many. Just look at the example of Radio Free Europe here in Central Europe. It was uncertain how many people listened to it and now we know that many Czechs and Slovaks tuned in. But we are also convinced that many people in Cuba listen to Radio Prague because we receive numerous entries from Cubans when we hold listeners' competitions. This, keeping in mind that it is difficult for Cubans to send letters abroad - not just because of the government censorship but also because of the difficult economic situation they find themselves in."

The Czech Republic's foreign policy towards Cuba is clearly defined; calling on countries to put human rights before their business interests. Czechs themselves went through forty years of totalitarian rule, and many - including the current Foreign Minister, Cyril Svoboda - feel a sense of duty to speak out over human rights violations in Cuba. In response, at the 60th annual session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque last week called the Czech Republic a 'contemptible lackey' of the United States and Washington.