Politicians show support for Cuban prisoners

Politicians show support for Cuban prisoners
By ČTK / Published 19 March 2008

Prague, March 18 (CTK) - Czech politicians and actors supported Cuban
political prisoners by letting themselves be symbolically "imprisoned"
in a large cage in Prague centre Tuesday.

The event has been organised by the People in Need human rights
organisation for the fifth time.

Former interior minister Jan Ruml and government coordinator for missile
defence Tomas Klvana took part in the campaign.

"International pressure plays an immensely important role in the
democratisation of the regime in Cuba," Ruml said.

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel and French philosopher Andre
Glucksmann in the Austrian press Tuesday called for the condemnation of
human rights violations in Cuba.

Jiri Knitl, one of the organisers, said the symbolical event in Prague
should not only express solidarity with the Cuban prisoners of
conscience, but also recall the massive suppression of the opposition in
Cuba five years ago when 75 activists had been arrested and accused of
subversive activities against the communist regime. Fifty-five of them
are still in prison.

The event also highlighted the Hotel Cuba tourist campaign on

www.hotel-kuba.cz website. Its authors call on Czech tourists heading
for Cuba to take books in Spanish, films, medicines and short-wave
radios for local inhabitants.

Tuesday's event will culminate with a march in support of the wives of
the imprisoned Cuban dissidents and a mass celebrated in St Havel Church
in the Old Town.

Havel and Glucksmann Tuesday called in the Austrian daily Der Standard
for the immediate release of Cuban political prisoners. They said the EU
countries should condemn the human rights violations in Cuba.

The appeal titled "What Europe Owes Dissidents of Castro's Regime" has
also been signed by other members of the International Committee for
Democracy in Cuba, such as former Slovenian president Milan Kucan,
former Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis, former Estonian prime
minister Mart Laar, former Canadian defence minister Kim Campbell and
former Polish finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz.

The Amnesty International human rights watchdog that Tuesday published
an updated list of political prisoners has also joined the appeal.

http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/297/czech_national_news/20172/