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Eastern
Europe: The Crusade against Cuba Continues
Francisco
Brown Infante
Center for European Studies
Once
again, a diplomatic and ideological battle whose core betrays
attempts by the Bush administration to impose sanctions on Cuba
for alleged human rights violations is waged at the heart of the
United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights. A number of Eastern
European countries have been participating in this campaign for
some time now, lending their unconditional and servile support to
these aggressive political maneuvers against our country.
Judging
from the most recent reports, a number of governments and
“anachronistic” figures who are anxious to re-insert
themselves into politics in Eastern European countries continue to
actively participate in different anti-Cuba initiatives hatched in
the old continent, in all but evident harmony with the designs of
Washington.
If
characters such as ex-presidents Lech Walesa (Poland), Vaclav
Havel (Czech Republic) and Arpad Goncz (Hungary) yesterday
promoted the creation of a so-called International Committee for
the Promotion of Human Rights in Cuba, today it was the turn of
Poland’s ex-minister of foreign relations and renowned anti-socialist
Bronislaw Geremek, who had a leading role in the recent press
conference titled “Europe says no to repression in Cuba”,
organized by the French organization Reporters without Borders.
Becoming
a new anti-Cuba publicity show, the event was held this past 18th
of March in the European Parliament; the Polish ex-dissident was
accompanied by a group of politicians of the most varied politico-ideological
make-up, united by the common hostility and hatred toward the
Cuban revolution.
A
so-called “Brussels Declaration” was signed by deputies from
the Verdes/Ale (Free European Alliance, presided over by the
French Danial Cohn-Bendit), the Italian Emma Bonino from the
radical group of the non-registered (NI), the French Pervenche Berés,
Vice-president of the European Socialist Party (PSE), the Scottish
Graham Watson, President of the European Party of Liberals,
Democrats and Reformists (ELDR), the Portuguese José Ribeiro e
Castro, from the group of the Union for the Europe of Nations (UEN)
and the Belgian Gérard Deprez, from the European Popular Party (PPE).
In
contrast with other anti-Cuban “initiatives” that these
figures have sought to implement, the “main course” of the
mentioned declaration is the commitment of the signatories to
“tirelessly demand that the government of Cuba free [the 75
dissidents]” and to call on “the European Commission and the
European Council to adopt a policy congruous with this objective”.
This
initiative is supplemented by the imminent launching a poster
campaign aimed at “making tourists aware of the situation in
Cuba”, the presentation of a subversive work titled “Cuba: the
black book” which contains, among other documents, a description
of what is referred to as “the Cuban totalitarian system” and
diverse manifestos published by internal counterrevolutionary
agents which expound on a strategy for a “peaceful transition”
in our country.
In
addition to this, in inaugurating the press conference, Geremek
expressed the desire to have the eight former socialist nations to
be admitted into the European Union on May 1, 2004 work at the
heart of this body to keep the question of human rights in Cuba at
the center of their relations with Cuba.
It
is well worth emphasizing the coincidence of this new offensive
against Cuba with the holding of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva, which is once again transformed in to a
diplomatic battlefield as a result of the Bush administration’s
repeated attempts at having our nation condemned by the Commission.
This
initiative, ultimately a new link in the chain of US anti-Cuban
designs, was preceded by diverse activities of the same ilk and
aim in a number of Eastern European countries, concentrating
primarily in Poland and the Czech Republic.
In
the first case, a systematic campaign aimed to discredit Cuba has
been pursued since the middle of the past year in diverse regions
within Poland; this campaign was launched following the legal
conviction of internal counterrevolutionary figures, working to
implement destabilization plans promoted by Washington.
In
connection with this, a number of exhibitions of photographs taken
by Cuban counterrevolutionaries have been held in various Polish
cities; these exhibitions also saw the gathering of signatures
from the public in attendance, “as a symbol” – so claim the
organizers – “of protest against the inhuman conditions to
which the 75 convicted Cubans are today subjected to”. This
initiative sees the active participation of renowned ex-dissidents
such as Wadyslaw Frasyniuk, Zbigniew Bujak and Piotr Niemczyk,
members of the anti-communist political platform Solidarity
Electoral Action (AWS), which disappeared following its electoral
defeat in 2001.
In
the Czech Republic, parallel to the hostile posture of today’s
social-democratic government, who has played a leading a role in
the promotion of a resolution condemning Cuba in the Commission on
Human Rights held in Geneva and now hastens to offer its approval
for a new resolution promoted by Washington, anti-Cuban activities
have also been coordinated, following the mentioned conviction of
representatives of internal counterrevolutionary movements; in
this case, these have taken the form of protest against the
presence of diplomatic representatives of the Cuban government in
Prague and of a propaganda show staged in the famous Wenceslao
plaza in Prague.
These
demonstrations, characterized by the scant number of participants,
have met, in every occasion, with the resounding opposition of
wide sectors of Czech society who sympathize with the Cuban
revolution, including a recent message sent out by the Czech
Friendship Association, signed by representatives of the 23
branches making up this group, expressing their solidarity and
support, at a time when the United States lobbies in Geneva to
have Cuba condemned on the matter of human rights, and repudiating
the servile posture of their government, yielding to Washington in
its anti-Cuba policy.
To
all this we must add the existence of an organization devoted
exclusively to the promotion of anti-Cuban activities, the funding
sources of which are unknown to the Czech public opinion.
Baptized as “A Man in Deep Waters”, this organization
is responsible for the abovementioned initiative and for
distributing leaflets with distorted and false information about
our country in the Czech territory.
According to the confessions made by some of its leaders,
this organization was also responsible for sending --last year
only-- ten groups of
alleged tourist to Cuba who introduced photo cameras, dictaphones,
literature and radios to back the activities of the
counterrevolutionary groups.
All
these activities enjoy the approval and support, even the personal
participation of Czech political leaders such as Prime Minister
Vladimir Spidla, Foreign Ministers Ciryl Svoboda, the Speaker of
Parliament Lubomir Zaoralek, members of Parliament and Senators,
as well as low officials united by their hatred against the Cuban
Revolution.
The
causes for the hostility against Cuba in Polish and Czech ruling
circles are of a political and ideological nature.
In both countries, governments are led by persons that must
be defined as ideologically converted taking into account their
political background, that reject tooth-and-nail anything related
to socialism or the materialization of its theoretical postulates.
On
the other hand, the foreign policies of both countries have as a
distinctive feature their unconditional orientation towards and
submission to Washington’s policy, as United States is perceived
as a guarantee for an irreversible transition towards capitalism
in their respective countries and their membership –already
obtained—in NATO and their role in this political and military
alliance.
April/2004
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