Havel fights for human rights 17 years after fall of communism

Havel fights for human rights 17 years after fall of communism

New York, Nov 17 (CTK) - Former Czechoslovak and Czech president Vaclav
Havel, a leading figure of the struggle for human rights and against the
totalitarian regime, says he still feels it his duty to continue his
struggle on international level.

"I feel it to be my natural duty even now, when I no longer hold any
political post, to commit myself in the struggle for human rights, for
human freedom, for human dignity on international level," Havel said in
an interview for CTK.

Havel, 70, was Czechoslovak president from December 1989 to July 1992
and Czech president in 1993-2003.

He is now spending the last two months of the year in New York at the
invitation of Columbia University.

Havel has committed himself to fighting for the observance of human
rights in Burma, Belarus, Cuba and North Korea also because he knows
from his own experience how important international support for the
opposition is, he said.

Havel said it is likewise important for support for human rights and
freedoms not to be merely a formal thing that is not considered to be
much serious because "barrels of oil or something like that are more
important."

He said that imposing of economic sanctions on countries and launching
international interventions must be considered "individually in every
specific case."

The reason is that sanctions "can sometimes harm only and only the
nation and people the interests of whom are at stake," he said.

"On principle, I believe that it is possible for man to act in defence
of a suffering person, in defence of human freedom even in foreign
countries. But it does not apply universally that anyone could think
that someone is suffering here or elsewhere, and attack the country. It
is a matter that must be weighed very sensitively in any particular
case, to win international support for it, and the like," Havel said.

Havel has shielded with his name in the United Nations in New York a
report on human rights violations in North Korea.

The report which also Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel and former
Norwegian PM Kjell Magne Bondevik signed, is designed to bring the U.N.
to start dealing with the issue of human rights in North Korea.

Havel handed the report yesterday to Ban Ki-moon, new U.N. Secretary
General, who will assume his post on January 1.

"The most visible, terrible think are gulags, terrible camps, of which
there are lots," Havel said.

He said that "tens and tens of thousands of people and their relatives
are in camps, and they are not only imprisoned there, but also tortured."

Havel said that there is another, may be even worse thing in North
Korea, and it is "omniopresent fear."

People are afraid to talk freely even within families. "On the basis of
this general fear, it is possible to do anything, including to throw a
majority of the budget into armament and to let die millions of own
inhabitants of hunger," Havel said.

In Belarus, "there is a sort of new post-communist model of totalitarian
system that threatens in a big part of the former Soviet bloc," Havel said.

He said he expects Cuba to experience a kind of transformation stage
now. "Let's hope for and let's support a good development," he said.

Havel said that the world has been looking for a normal, more natural
order since the fall of the Iron Curtain 17 years ago. "It has not yet
found it in my opinion, but many important steps towards its finding
have been taken," he said.

One of such steps is the enlargement of western institutions, such as
NATO and the European Union.

"This is an important step that co-creates the new world order," Havel said.

At the same time, however, these institutions must be transformed and
their mission must be changed from what it was during the existence of
the bi-polar world, Havel said.

ms/mr

http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?story_id=w46044i20061123;story=Havel-fights-for-human-rights-17-years-after-fall-of-communism