Cuba protests against Czech Foreign Ministry's grants

Cuba protests against Czech Foreign Ministry's grants

PRAGUE, Feb 2 (CTK) - Cuban charge d'affaires to the Czech Republic
Aymee Hernandez today handed over a protest note to the Czech Foreign
Ministry, criticising that the ministry's grants include support for
opponents of Fidel Castro's regime.

The ministry will allot the grants within its tender for NGOs' projects
in 2006.

The Cuban note says that the tender is just a new provocation of the
Czech government and an example of Czech interference in Cuban internal
affairs. These activities actually aim to "subvert the institutional
order of another country," claims the Cuban Embassy's note, released to CTK.

In reaction to the Cuban note, the Czech Foreign Ministry issued a
statement, stressing that support for democracy and the protection of
human rights are among the major priorities of Czech foreign policy.

"Launching the tender for NGOs' projects of cooperation in
transformation is in harmony with these priorities. The tender is to
select Czech NGOs' projects in support of civic society and a peaceful
and democratic development in the target countries," Richard Krpac from
the Foreign Ministry's press section told CTK.

The protest of the Cuban Embassy has only confirmed the tense
Czech-Cuban relations.

The latest incident occurred last week when Cuban authorities detained
two Czech women, supermodel Helena Houdova and psychologist Mariana
Kroftova, when they were taking photographs of a slum in Havana.

The Czech Foreign Ministry then invited Hernandez to explain the
incident, but Czech diplomats did not find her arguments satisfactory
and asked for additional information.

The Cuban Embassy in Prague called the visit of both Czech women to Cuba
and their planned cooperation with the People in Need humanitarian
organisation "another provocation."

Today's Cuban protest also reiterates sharp objections to the
establishment of the Foreign Ministry's section in summer 2004 to focus
on the fight against totalitarian regimes in cooperation with NGOs.

Hernandez said that this section, which decides on the above mentioned
grants as well, is "a department for subversive activities and dirty
work in the Third World countries."

hol/dr/ms

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