|
Cuba
can't hide truth
By Peter Smolen, www.rsf.org.
Posted on Thu, Nov. 20, 2003 in The
Miami Herald.
Last April, Cuban journalist Adolfo Fernandez
Sainz was sentenced to 15 years in Holquin
Prison, Cuba, for doing his job of speaking
freely and exercising his professional right
to inform the public. He languishes along
with hundreds like him in jails around the
world, but they are not forgotten.
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based
international organization for the defense
of press freedom, is holding a ''Sponsorship
Day'' today to draw attention to the plight
of imprisoned journalists around the world.
Sainz's arrest was part of the biggest crackdown
on dissent in a decade in Cuba; 26 journalists
and 50 political dissidents were imprisoned.
Cuba has the dubious distinction of having
the highest number of journalists behind
bars.
Last week, the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern
about the lack of information regarding
Sainz and journalists Mario Enrique Mayo
Hernández and Iván Hernández
Carrillo, who all began a hunger strike
on Oct. 18 after Hernández Carillo
was placed in a punishment cell for demanding
medication.
According to CPJ, the hunger strikers have
been dispersed and transferred elsewhere.
Family members' visitation rights have been
suspended.
A Roman Catholic, humanitarian and patriot,
Sainz wrote for foreign newspapers and web
sites about social, political and religious
issues. At the time of his arrest he was
working as a correspondent for the Russian
human-rights news agency Prima. In a June
29, 1997 article titled The Church, Politics
and Lack of Understanding he wrote:
"Fidel Castro has succeeded in exerting
his authority over our motherland, but he
still can't demand obedience of our conscience,
which is owed only to God.''
Alexander Podrabinek, editor-in-chief of
Prima, based in Moscow, is Sainz's friend
and colleague, having met him several times
in Havana.
''Looking at Adolfo Fernandez Sainz for
the first time, you would not be able to
tell that this is the classical image of
the fighter taking on evil. Intelligent,
having refined manners, well educated and
full of goodwill, he is never impolite or
bitter, but is completely confident in what
is right. Adolfo would not have engaged
in political activity if the Castro regime
had not trespassed on the values held most
preciously by him: religious belief, freedom
of creativity, freedom to speak, read and
write. The communist regime interfered with
his life because he began to live freely
in the country where civil freedom has been
strangled for 40 years,'' said Podrabinek.
Podrabinek, himself a former political
prisoner, is also coordinator of an international
committee to help free Sainz. The committee
includes dignitaries such as former Czech
president Vaclav Havel and Polish senator
Zbigniew Romaszewski.
''Adolfo's small apartment was an island
of freedom in a sea of oppression,'' said
Podrabinek. For a while after his arrest,
Sainz continued to work in prison. On Oct.
20, an article, Fidel Castro plays with
the truth was published on the web site
www.prima-news.ru after being secretly obtained
from Sainz's prison cell. An excerpt states:
"All people who love freedom and democracy
should condemn Castro for imprisoning news
reporters and peaceful defenders of human
rights and give their support to the forces
that seek a peaceful transition to democracy
in Cuba.''
According to Podrabinek this shows not
only Sainz's journalistic professionalism,
but also his great courage. ''I did not
doubt before, nor do I now, that Adolfo
has not lost his presence of mind, has not
been broken,'' he said. "Nor will the
communists likely ever be able to do so.''
Peter Smolen is a Canadian free-lance
journalist.
|
