Cuba's libraries don't have our liberties

MAILBAG:
Cuba's libraries don't have our liberties

Regarding the Daily Pilot's article on a UCI library exhibit ("Art
exhibit aims to improve America, Cuba's relations," Nov. 9), efforts to
improve friendship between nations are always welcome, and the Langson
Library has a right to hold an exhibit on any subject it wants.

Sadly, this right is not respected in Cuba, where libraries are being
raided by the secret police, thousands of library books are being burned
by court order, and where Cuban library workers are enduring life prison
sentences imposed after unfair one-day trials.

Since 1998, hundreds of libraries have been opened by Cuban citizens in
a pioneering effort to challenge Cuba's harsh system of censorship, and
human rights groups such as Amnesty International have documented and
condemned the ongoing campaign of persecution being waged against these
brave people.

Even owning a computer and surfing the Internet are crimes in Cuba,
except for a small number of citizens considered trustworthy by the
government.

It is to be hoped the Langson Library exhibit will deal fairly and
frankly with these grim realities, which should not be ignored or denied.

Sadly, pyres of burning library books are not a suitable foundation for
building bridges of friendship between peoples or nations.

Complete details on book burning and library repression in Cuba can be
found on the website of the Friends of Cuban Libraries, a human rights
group of which I am co-chair.

Once again, our organization supports and defends the right of the UCI
library to hold an exhibit on any subject, and we hope the same rights
will be enjoyed by Cuba's independent librarians, who are being
persecuted for defending the freedoms we take for granted.

ROBERT KENT

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/11/17/opinion/dpt-mailbag1117.txt