Demonstrators protest outside Cuban embassy on third anniversary of crackdown

[17.03.2006] - Current Affairs - Linda Mastalir
Demonstrators protest outside Cuban embassy on third anniversary of
crackdown

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside the Cuban embassy in
Prague on Thursday, demanding the release of political prisoners on the
island. The protest, held on the third anniversary of the 2003 brutal
crackdown on Cuban dissidents, was organised by the Czech NGO People in
Need. Simon Panek is the head of the organisation.
Simon Panek, photo: Freddy Valverde Simon Panek, photo: Freddy Valverde
"It happened three years ago, on 18th March. Seventy-five people were
imprisoned, and most of them are still in prison. And altogether the
estimated number is at least 300 people who are, let's say, political
prisoners. This is part of a broader action which is happening in a few
other countries in Europe as well, and today's demonstration outside the
Cuban embassy was to show the Cuban embassy that the issue is still
alive in Czech."
On Friday People in Need were due to erect a mock Cuban jail cell on
Prague's Wenceslas Square. Leading personalities, dressed in prison
clothes, will take it in turns to serve a symbolic jail sentence to
raise awareness of the dissidents imprisoned in Cuba. But as Simon Panek
says, People in Need's support for Cuban dissidents is material as well
as just symbolic.
"People in Need, alongside a dozen other NGOs worldwide, are providing
through let's say confidential channels support to independent
journalists, to the families of political prisoners and to some
opposition politicians or activists in Cuba. Which means supplies of
tape recorders, cameras, laptops, cell phones - things which in a normal
country you can just go out and buy. You can't in Cuba."
And support is also extended to the families of the imprisoned
dissidents, who have to live in difficult circumstances while their
loved ones are far away.
"Families of political prisoners get a small cash donation, which is
collected among the Czech population. It's roughly 50 dollars per month,
which is for their economic troubles, as well as medicaments, or food
supplies for imprisoned husbands, because it's mainly men in prison. And
for fees to travel once every three months, because the regime is
imprisoning their husbands on purpose to the furthest possible places in
Cuba, so it means a very difficult economical problem for a woman with
kids, how to obtain enough money to travel 400 km one way and back."

For more on the organisation's Cuba campaign go to
www.clovekvtisni.cz/english/humanitarnipomoc/cuba.php

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/76949