Kent writes “Following upon similar recent actions taken by organizations in Poland and
Latvia, the national association of Czech librarians has condemned the
persecution of library colleagues in Cuba. Since 1998, approximately 250 independent
libraries have been established throughout Cuba in an innovative challenge to
government control of information. Many of the uncensored libraries have been
raided by the Cuban secret police, their books have been seized or burned, and
about 15 of the independent librarians are serving lengthy prison terms. All of
the jailed librarians have been named as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty
International, which is demanding their immediate release.
Kent writes “Following upon similar recent actions taken by organizations in Poland and
Latvia, the national association of Czech librarians has condemned the
persecution of library colleagues in Cuba. Since 1998, approximately 250 independent
libraries have been established throughout Cuba in an innovative challenge to
government control of information. Many of the uncensored libraries have been
raided by the Cuban secret police, their books have been seized or burned, and
about 15 of the independent librarians are serving lengthy prison terms. All of
the jailed librarians have been named as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty
International, which is demanding their immediate release.
In a January 18 letter to the Cuban embassy in Prague, the chairperson of the
Czech librarians’ association, Vit Richter, noted that Czech librarians have
“acquainted themselves with the reports on repression of the persons in Cuba
that developed librarian activities independent of official library
structures.” Richter’s letter to the Cuban embassy stressed the need for Cuba to
respect
intellectual freedom, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The letter from the Czech organization also presented a list
of the librarians arrested in Cuba and stated: “We, together with other
members of [the] international public, ask the Government of Cuba to set free the
following persons, jailed for their librarian activities….”
The Cuban government has not yet responded to this latest sign of mounting
international revulsion against the systematic repression of Cuba’s pioneering
independent library movement. Similar recent protests by organizations of
Polish and Latvian librarians have been met with angry invective on the part of
President Fidel Castro’s government. The Polish resolution against the repression
of the independent librarians was condemned by the Cuban regime as a “vile
defamatory campaign” and an attempt to “deceive the international library
community.” A similar protest issued by the Library Association of Latvia was
denounced by the Cuban government as a maneuver of the CIA.
The full text of the Czech statement (“Czech Resolution on Cuban Independent
Librarians”) can be read in the Archive section of the FAIFE-L listserv
(http://infoserv.inist.fr/wwsympa.fcgi/arc/faife-
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