Special Report on the
ALA & Cuban Repression of Librarians
Betrayal of Core Values:
A Four Year Saga
June 19th 2007
By Steve
Marquardt, Co-Chair, Freadom
The American Library
Association loves books,
intellectual freedom, the freedom of expression and the freedom to
read, not
only in the USA but also "throughout the world," according to ALA
policy
53.1.12: "The American Library
Association
believes that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right,
necessary to
self-government, vital to the resistance of oppression, and crucial to
the
cause of justice, and further, that the principles of freedom of
expression
should be applied by libraries and librarians throughout the world. [Emphasis added] Adopted 1989."
However, ALA book lovers have jilted one group that has appealed to them for solidarity in the face of repression. This abandonment has been condemned by the writers Nat Hentoff, Ray Bradbury, Andre Codrescu, Madeleine Albright, Carlos Eire, and many more. (See Burned Book Campaign for a long list of writers.)
Many ALA members join in these writers in their great disappointed at the actions or inaction of ALA on the following two issues, the second of which – book burning – is the more troubling.
1. Prison time for setting up a library.
Eighteen individuals who had created independent lending libraries were arrested and sentenced by Cuban provincial courts to double-decade prison sentences as part of the March 2003 crackdown on dissidents.
Major human rights organizations, political groups, governments, library associations, writers and other intellectuals responded by calling for the release of the prisoners, as shown in the next two sections. Over the last four years, however, the ALA has remained aloof and noncommital to these violations of human rights and core ALA values: such that major newspaper editorials and even invited speakers have spoken out about this betrayal of the principles of intellectual freedom. Looking at the extensive list of international organizations represented below, the question which ALA officials need to address is: Why hasn't the ALA joined their voice with these groups?
Organizations
Calling for Release of the Cuban Library Workers
as of 15
March
2007:
Campaign for Peace and Democracy (March
2003)
http://hnn.us/comments/11516.html
and at www.cpdweb.org.
Presidency of
the European
Union (26 March 2003
and 5 June
2003) http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/cfsp/75232.pdf
and http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/cfsp/76075.pdf
French
Communist Party (8 April 2003)
http://www.pcf.fr/?iddoc=2565
and http://www.pcf.fr/?iddoc=2567
Italian legislature
(29 April 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/2986897.stm
Amnesty
International
(beginning 3 June 2003, then in 2004 and again in 2005)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003?open&of=ENG-CUB
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR250052004
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR250022005
UN High
Commissioner for
Human Rights (27 June 2003)
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2003/db062703.doc.htm
http://www.hri.org/news/world/undh/2003/03-06-27.undh.html
German
Bundestag
Commission of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (11 Nov. 2003) http://www.netforcuba.org/News-EN/2003/Nov/News277.htm
179 American leftists, in a Letter to
the Editors
of New York Review of Books,
vol. L, no. 19 (December 4, 2003), p. 62.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0420-10.htm
International
PEN (5
December 2003 and during its campaign of 6-12 September 2004)
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.php?pid=33&aid=36&query=cuba
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/dev/viewArticles.asp?findID_=191
International
Society for
Human Rights (Germany) (early 2004)
http://www.ishr.org/activities/countries/cuba/hrcuba2003.htm#5
Human
Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Freedom House, et al (17 March 2004) http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/03/17/cuba8126_txt.htm
Freedom House
International
League for
Human Rights
Jacob
Blaustein Institute
for the Advancement of Human Rights
Minnesota
Advocates for
Human Rights,
Physicians for Human Rights,
Human Rights
First (called
renewed 31 March 2007 at http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/CubaFourYears/8bd5d7brrt555e8?),
and
Human Rights Watch (2004 March 17)
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=52
Council of the
European
Union (14 June 2004)
http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/gena/80951.pdf
Presidium of the Executive Committee of
the
Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech
Republic (2005
January 18)
Committee to
Protect
Journalists (16 March 2005 and 14 March 2007)
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/cuba_crackdown_05/cuba_crackdown_main.html
http://www.cpj.org/protests/07ltrs/americas/cuba14mar07pl.html
Human Rights First (21
March 2005)
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/2005_alerts/hrd_0321_cuba.htm
National
Congress of
Delegates of the Polish Librarians Association (2005 June 5)
http://ebib.oss.wroc.pl/sbp/interwen10_6.html
President of the Estonian
Librarians
Association (2005 August
4)
Letter to Robert
Kent
French Foreign
Minister
Philippe Douste-Blazy (2005 October 12)
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-bin/GPrint2002.pl?file=2005/10/12.release.shtml
Library
Association of
Latvia (2006 February 28)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/Cuba-Resolution2006.pdf
Pax Christi of
the
Netherlands (which has
also adopted
individual prisoners) (18 March 2006)
http://www.paxchristi.nl/ons_werk_campagnes_campagne_open_de_wereld_voor_cuba_adoptieactie.htm
People In Need
(Czechoslovakia) (undated)
http://www.clovekvtisni.cz/english/humanitarnipomoc/cuba/international.php.
Organization
of American
States, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(21
October 2006) http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2006eng/CUBA.12476eng.htm
Expressions of "deep concern," etc.,
falling short
of calls for release:
American
Library
Association
American
Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org/humanrights/docs/rule_cuba.pdf
International
Federation
of Library Associations
<http://www.ifla.org/V/press/faife-cuba03pr.htm>
The Vatican
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB071FFF39590C748EDDAD0894DB404482. Pope John Paul II É sent a letter to
Mr. Castro expressing deep pain and sorrow É
UNESCO
Director General
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8979&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Amnesty International adopted all 75 dissidents as "prisoners of conscience" three months after their summary trials. The French Communist Party demanded their release no more than two weeks after their arrests. But not the American Library Association.
The
ALA still
has not called for the release of the independent library organizers. An expression of "deep concern" was the
best that the ALA has ventured in the defense of these prisoners. Here
is the
entire text of the "conclusions" from ALA's January 2004 report on the
crackdown on independent libraries. It should be noted that the
officials in charge of this "investigation" which led to this report ignored
offers from Amnesty International to document the destruction of
libraries and book burning in Cuba.
CONCLUSIONS
Since
the commitment to intellectual freedom is a core value of the library
and
information profession worldwide, ALA joins IFLA in support and
assistance to
the Cuban library community in safeguarding free access to print and
electronic
information, including the Internet. IFLA has also called on Cuba's
librarians
to implement a code of ethics for its library profession developed by
ASCUBI.
At
the IFLA General Conference and Council in August 2001, ALA and ASCUBI
presidents signed "A Protocol to Cooperate" that included plans for
exchanges of materials, professional exchanges between American and
Cuban
librarians, attendance at conferences, and many other cooperative
activities. Work continues on these initiatives intended to build
mutual
respect and trust among librarians and library workers in the two
nations.
ALA
supports IFLA in its call for the elimination of the U.S. embargo that
restricts access to information in Cuba and for lifting travel
restrictions
that limit professional exchanges. ALA also supports IFLA's call
for the
U.S. government to share information widely in Cuba.
ALA
joins IFLA in its deep concern over the arrest and long prison terms of political dissidents in Cuba in spring
2003 and
urges the Cuban Government to respect, defend and promote the basic
human
rights defined in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights. [Emphasis added.]
ALA
supports IFLA in urging the Cuban government to eliminate obstacles to
access
to information imposed by its policies, and IFLA's support for an
investigative
visit by a special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights
with special attention given to freedom of access to information and
freedom of
expression, especially in the cases of those individuals recently
imprisoned
and that the reasons for and conditions of their detention be fully
investigated.
Proclaiming
the fundamental right of all human beings to access information without
restriction, ALA joins with IFLA in urging the Cuban library community
to
monitor violations of freedom of access to information and freedom of
expression and to take a leading role in actively promoting these basic
rights
for all Cubans.
When the above language came before the full governing Council of the Association, Councilor Karen Schneider moved and Council DEFEATED, A motion to add the following words: ".... and calls for their immediate release. ALA.... to ALA CD#18.1, International Relations Committee and Intellectual Freedom Committee's Report on Cuba, Page 4, 4th paragraph." (From http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councilminutes/ac2003.htm)
Judith
Krug,
Director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, in her letter of
February
6, 2007 to me, said of the January 2004 report – despite the
Association's governing Council
having voting down a call to release the prisoners – that "We
believe this is a strong and meaningful statement of support for these
individuals."
The leadership of the ALA remains satisfied to this day with the above response to the crackdown on the attempt to create independent libraries in Cuba – libraries intended to be ideology-free spaces free from the control of the communist government.
Why
such a
timid response, in marked contrast to so many other voices demanding
release of
the prisoners? The most plausible
rationale for this timidity was provided by the then ALA President
Michael Gorman,
in his discussion of the issue with Andrei Codrescu in January 2006: "
we
do not want to get involved with the kind of politics which grows up
around the
Cuban exile community, the Republican Party, and the Cuban government." In
other words –
Anti-anticommunism, Si!
Freedom to
read, É well, maybe next time.
The
ALA's
traditional defense of the freedom to read is trumped in this
circumstance by
the ALA's tradition of anti-anticommunism. (For more on this subject,
see Stephen Karetzky's Not Seeing Red: American librarianship and
the Soviet
Union,
1917-1960. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2002.)
Other
ALA
members have expressed the belief that the independent librarians were
in the
pay of the U.S. government, as part of a program to achieve regime
change in
Cuba, apparently by bringing the government down under a fusillade of
books.
The
facts are seen from a compendium of Cuban court documentation of the
quite less
than
exorbitant funds received and in the possession of the library
activists
– amounts that are no more than remittances sent to Cuba by friends and
relatives, or sent by immigrant workers in the USA to other Central
American
and Caribbean nations.
In his
"Savage Justice: An Indictment of
Fidel Castro," in the April 18-24, 2003 issue of LA Weekly, Marc Cooper wrote the
following:
The Bush
administration's top diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, has indeed been
quite
assertive. Publicly challenging Castro, he had made a point of visiting
the homes
of many of these dissidents and had also brought many of them to his
own
residence. He freely admits to giving them newspapers, books and
Internet
access as part of his "normal duties." Whether he actually gave them
money or
not — who knows?
No one knows, because the
"trials" of these unfortunate folks were
also sealed and secret. And conducted on greased rails. Within a few
weeks of
their arrests, all six dozen had been given prison sentences of six to
28
years. [from http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0420-10.htm]
Secret no longer, the
following amounts are citied in the sentencing documents of the Cuban
provincial courts,
available on the Web http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/.
Summary
of Funds Received by wire or transfer from U.S. shores:
Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya:
Received
$500 in 2001, $2400 in 2002 and $200 in 2003, from antirevolutionary
Angel
DÕFana.
Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez:
No
dollar amount stated, but accused of receiving Òdollars and
other goods.Ó
Carmelo Augustin Diaz Fernandez
No
funds mentioned.
Felix Navarro Rodriguez and
ÒÉ
through supposed friends and family
Ivan
Hernandez Carrillo:
members
É receiving É $3352 between
November
2001 and March [2003].Ó
Fidel Suarez Cruz:
No
funds mentioned.
Hector Palacios Ruiz:
Wrote
articles Òin exchange for $15 to $100 ... magazines, newspapers
and web pages É
paid him between $15 and $25.Ó
JosŽ Gabriel Ramon Castillo:
$7,000
during 2002 and forward.
JosŽ Luis Garcia Paneque
receipt of a bank transfer in the
branch office 6411, Las
Tunas in the amount of $300
JosŽ Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernandez:
$2,000.
Julio Antonio Valdes Guevara:
No
funds mentioned.
Leonel de Peralta Almenares:
No
funds mentioned.
Luis Milan Fernandez:
No
funds mentioned.
Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos:
$1,300.
Ricardo Severino Gonzalez Alfonso:
No
funds mentioned.
Raul Ramon Rivero Casta–eda:
No
dollar amount stated, but accused of receiving Òpayment for his
harmful
writings.Ó
Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona:
Deposited
$315.03 (USD) in a Cuban bank. Received 2001 through 2003 a total of
$2070.10.
NOTE:
"Remittances are an important part of Cuba's wealth; between
one-third and
two-thirds of the island's 11m inhabitants are believed to receive
money from
abroad." -- from ÒCuba:
SpellboundÓ on page 32 of the January 6, 2007 (vol. 382, no.
8510) print
edition of The Economist.
Repeated appeals to release the prisoners have been issued by human rights organizations and others, but ALA has issued only the above cited report of January 13, 2004, and one subsequent official statement in response to an appeal from the Director of the Independent Library Project of Cuba. On June 4, 2003, Gisela Delgado Sablon wrote to Michael Dowling, Director of the ALA Office of International Relations, concluding her appeal with these words:
What we are
asking, sir, is that your
association show solidarity with our project and with the innocent
persons who
are now in prison. We would like
you to ask the Cuban authorities to immediately release these detained
persons.
The
ALA took its time to carefully craft its
response. Senora Delgado, having heard nothing from ALA for one year,
sent a
second letter on June 18, 2004, "to urgently request the
international
solidarity that your organization has come to demonstrate in so many
cases
throughout your long history."
Fully
thirteen months after receiving Senora Delgado's
first appeal for solidarity, John W. Berry, Chair of the ALA
International
Relations Committee, responded on July 27, 2004, by 1) sending Senora
Delgado
the January 2004 ALA report and 2) by writing to the Cuban Minister of
Foreign
Affairs – not to call for the release of the prisoners or to ask for
the
return of confiscated books, but instead saying "ALA also joins
IFLA in
its "deep concern over the arrest and long prison terms of 75 political
dissidents in Cuba in spring 2003. We thank you very much for your
attention
and assistance to ensure the health and welfare of these detained
individuals."
In other words, his message to
prisoners such as GiselaÕs husband, Hector Palacios Ruiz,
amounted to ÒHave a
nice twenty years in prison."
(See
the complete text of all four letters in the following sections.)
Appeal
from Gisela
Delgado to Michael Dowling
Director
of the
ALA International Relations Office
Michael Dowling, Director
mdowling@ala.org International
Relations
Office
Phone: (312) 280-3200
Fax: (312) 280-4392
Havana, June 4, 2003
Sir,
I send you this recorded message due to the fact that my fax was seized during a raid on my home, during which my husband Hector Palacios was arrested. They also seized materials related to the Independent Libraries Project. Sir, I would like to send this message seeking your solidarity with this library project and because of the repression to which we have been subjected. Many Cubans have been arrested because of their manner of thinking and for their promotion of culture within Cuba.
Sir, I greet you and other members of the ALA on behalf of the members of the Independent Library Project of Cuba. Our project was founded on March 3, 1998, due to four decades of literary censorship to which our nation has been subjected. Our library movement was founded with the goal of offering the Cuban people access to uncensored reading beyond the limits imposed by a required ideology. We have now established 103 libraries throughout the country [in addition to about 100 independent libraries founded by other groups - editor's note]. I append an annual report that was completed at the end of the year 2002 in which we explain the varied activities that we carry out and the achievements of this project in favor of a civil society in Cuba.
Since March 18th of this year numerous Cubans were detained, including about a dozen librarians and dozens of human rights defenders, independent journalists and dissidents.
This was accompanied by raids on the homes of these persons and the seizure of books, typewriters, cameras, radios, computers, etc. These raids have impacted more than thirty libraries, and other librarians were taken to detention centers by the political police and warned that if they if they continued their work to promote independent cultural activities they would be imprisoned.
What we are asking, sir, is that your association show solidarity with our project and with the innocent persons who are now in prison. We would like you to ask the Cuban authorities to immediately release these detained persons.
Sincerely,
Gisela Delgado Sablon
Director Independent Library Project of Cuba
BIBLIOTECAS INDEPENDIENTES DE CUBA
Calle
25 #866, Apt. 3, entre A y B, Vedado, Ciudad Habana, Cuba
June 18, 2004
Mr. John
W. Berry
Chairman
International
Relations
Committee
American
Library Association
50 E. Huron
Chicago,
IL 60611
Dear Mr.
Berry,
I extend my congratulations and
best wishes for
success on the ocassion of your upcoming annual meetings.
It is, indeed, a proud moment for the
American people and librarians worldwide when your organization meets
to openly
address issues affecting the profession charged with preserving the
historic
memory of every society and of disseminating information within it.
Unfortunately,
that type of meeting is not possible a mere 90 miles from the shores of
the
state in which your gathering is to be held. Such
is the case in my own country of Cuba, where the Cuban
people, having learned to read, are not able to freely exercise their
right to
do so. Hence the value of projects
such as ours, the Independent Libraries of Cuba. This
project, which
I am honored to direct, promotes reading and access to
information of
all kinds, to whomever wishes to approach it, as I have described in
prior
letters to members of your organization.
I
now find myself in the obligation to write you once again –
unfortunately
not to report on our successes, as I would like – but to urgently
request
the international solidarity that your organization has come to
demonstrate in
so many cases throughout your long history.
Since
March of 2003, the Cuban government has unjustly imprisoned, because of
their
ideological positions, members of our organization that defend
intellectual liberty. My own husband,
Hector Palacios, was
arrested when state police raided the Dulce Maria Loynaz library, of
which I am
director. He and fifteen
independent librarians, and a large number of human rights activists
find
themselves detained, in abhorrent conditions, that have been described
by the
international media and several international organizations.
Amnesty
international, which is seeking the release of the imprisoned
librarians, has
declared them to be Prisoners of Conscience. Their
report (ÒCuba:
One Year Too Many:
Prisoners of Conscience from the March 2003 Crackdown")
describes this
unconscionable reality. Alarming
details of abuses perpetrated against those who participate in our
cultural
project, many of whom are suffering serious health problems, are
contained in
this report. Thanks to
international attention, three librarians have been liberated,
including
Leonardo Bruzon Avila, Julio valdez Guevara, and Juan Carlos Gonzalez
Leiva,
all of them in serious health condition.
Still more international attention is required to bring about
the
release of those remaining.
Your
organization has an important role to play. As
a world leader among lirarians, grounding yourselves in
your principles of defending intellectual liberty, ALA could become a
catalyst
for change by shedding further light on these abuses of fundamental
human
rights. I trust and hope that it
will be so.
Sincerely,
Gisela Delgado Sablon
National Director
Biblioteca
Dulce Mar’a Loynaz
Calle
25 #866, Apt. 3, entre A y B, Vedado, Ciudad Habana, Cuba
July 27, 2004
Mrs. Gisela Delgado Sablon
Calle 25 # 866, Apt. 3 Entre A y B
Verdado Cuidad
Habana, CUBA
Dear Mrs. Delgado Sablon:
We are responding to your letter of June
18, 2004,
which was delivered by Mr. Ram—n Col‡s at the ALA Annual Conference in
Orlando,
Florida on June 28, 2004.
As you know, in January of this year, the
American
Library Association (ALA) Council, ALA's governing body, adopted the
report of
the association's International Relations Committee and Intellectual
Freedom
Committee on Cuba. This report was sent to the Cuban government and
distributed
widely as a press release. I am attaching the report with this letter.
Since 2001, ALA has supported the
International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) call for the
U.S.
government to share information resources widely in Cuba, and not
restrict its
provision to just a few individuals.
The ALA report calls for the elimination
of the
embargo by the United States government that restricts access to
information in
Cuba and for lifting travel restrictions that limit professional
exchanges.
The unfortunate political climate between
our two
countries is not cause for indifference to the fundamental rights of
all people
as defined in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human
Rights.
Therefore, ALA joined IFLA in its "deep
concern" to the Cuban government over the arrest and long prison
terms" of 75 political dissidents, including your husband.
We are again sending the report adopted by
the ALA
Governing Council to the Cuban government.
Respectfully,
John W. Berry
Chair, International Relations Committee
Past President, American Library
Association
July 27, 2004
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sr. Felipe PŽrez Roque
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
Calzada No. 360
Vedado
La Habana, CUBA
Dear Minister:
In January of this year, the American
Library
Association (ALA) Council, ALA's governing body, adopted the report of
the
association's International Relations Committee and Intellectual
Freedom
Committee on Cuba. This report was sent to the Cuban government through
the
Cuban Interests Section in the United States, and distributed widely as
a press
release. I am attaching the report with this letter.
ALA signed an agreement in 2001 to
cooperate with
the Asociaci—n Cubana de Bibliotecarios (ASCUBI) on an array of issues
including exchanges of materials and professional exchanges.
Since 2001, ALA has supported the
International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) call for the
need
for the U.S. government to share information resources widely in Cuba,
and not
restrict its provision to just a few individuals.
The ALA report calls for the elimination
of the
embargo by the United States government that restricts access to
information in
Cuba and for lifting travel restrictions that limit professional
exchanges.
The unfortunate political climate between
our two
countries is not cause for indifference to the fundamental human rights
of all
people as defined in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights. Therefore, in the report ALA also joins IFLA in its "deep
concern over the arrest and long prison terms" of 75 political
dissidents
in Cuba in spring 2003.
We thank you very much for your attention
and
assistance to ensure the health and welfare of these detained
individuals.
[Emphasis added.]
Respectfully,
John W. Berry
Chair, International Relations Committee
Past
President, American Library Association
2. Book
Burning
"Incineracion"
or destruction of the entire contents at least six of the independent
libraries
was ordered by Cuban provincial courts during the summary trials of
early April
2003. A digest of these orders, with titles of books and other
publications
listed in CubaÕs own sentencing documents, is given on the
following pages.
The
ALA of course opposes
the burning and destruction of books on the grounds of their content.
ALA
policy statement 53.7, "Destruction of Libraries," reads as follows:
The American
Library Association
deplores the destruction of libraries, library collections and
property, and
the disruption of the educational process by that act,
whether it be done by
individuals or groups of individuals and whether it be in the name of
honest
dissent, the desire to control or limit thought or ideas, or for any
other
purpose.
Accordingly, the ALA
Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)
maintains a series of Web pages that post notable examples of this
intellectual
crime, or threats to commit this crime.
Following my compendium of Cuba's burned books is a print of
ALAÕs "Book
Burning in the 21st
Century" web page,
upon which you will find seven (7) reports of three burnings of
regarding books
about Harry Potter – a fictional character – but, despite repeated
requests, no mention at all of Cuba's destruction of the entire
physical
contents of six independent libraries.
Despite
repeated appeals dating back to July 2005, the ALA OIF has refused to
post news
of Cuba's book burning. Judith Krug, Director of OIF, argues
that the facts of the
burning
are in dispute and must be verified by "independent third
party reports." (Judith
Krug's letter to me, February 6, 2007; see
our exchange of communications in the Appendix) Her
assistant, Don Wood, has steadfastly previously refused
to post this news because he says that he is "unable
to find any references to them in legitimate news sources* (e.g., New
York
Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle). Please send me such
sources
for your information."
In
October 2005, the ALA OIF received Associated Press news articles from
Orlando
and Tallahassee newspapers, announcing the September 2003 establishment
of
Florida State
University's "Rule of Law and Cuba"
web site that
displays the sentencing documents. The following articles were sent to
ALA OIF:
"Rationality
Needed," editorial in South Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 3, 2003;
"Web
site looks at Cuba Trials: Documents on imprisoned dissidents
provided,"
by Aetna Smith, Tallahassee Democrat,
September 30, 2003; and
"Cuban
documents show dissidents received no justice," by John Pain,
Associated
Press Writer, September 2, 2003.
* NOTE: In
contrast to the high national standard of major "legitimate news
sources" required to verify book burning in
Cuba, this ALA OIF "Book Burning" web page includes stories from the Butler (Pennsylvania) Eagle,
the Lewiston (Maine) Sun
Journal and The Courier of
Montgomery County (Texas).
Books
Ordered Burned or Destroyed by Cuban Courts, April 2003
As verified in the sentencing documents posted by
the "Rule of Law in Cuba" web site at the
Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights,
at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/
Trial of Ariel and Guido
Sigler Amaya, General
Pedro Betancourt Library, in
Matanzas, 5 April 2003 [Sentence number 9], available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm.
" the
handwritten, typed, printed, signed and recorder [sic]
documents which are also detailed in prior paragraphs É will be
immediately
destroyed by incineration."
From the original court record:
". . . excepto
los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados, impresos y firmados y
grabados los
cuales tambiŽn se detallan con antelaci—n ser‡n destruido mediante su incineracion oportuna."
These include the
following:
"several copies of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." One
hardcover edition of the UDHR is published by Applewood
Books (November 1, 2000). 32 pages. ISBN: 1557094551.
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com
El
resurgimiento global de la democracia.
Unknown
Binding:
341 pages. Publisher: Insituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM; 1. ed
edition
(1996) Language: Spanish.
ISBN: 9683649904. Source for
bibliographic description:
Amazon.com
Vista del
amanecer en el tr—pico,
by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Paperback) Publisher: Penguin Books
(March 1,
1997).ISBN: 0140262865. Source for
bibliographic description: Amazon.com
[English
translation: View of Dawn in the Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill
Levine.
(London: Faber, 1988) First U.K. Edition. Source
for bibliographic description: Alibris.com]
Hacia la gran naci—n, by Orlando Gutierrez Boronat (Miami, Fl :
D'Fana
Editions, 1995), 32 p. ; 21 cm. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC
WorldCat
Letters
from Burma, by George Orwell.
Trial of Julio
Antonio
ValdŽs Guevara, autodenominada
Biblioteca Independiente
[from
sentencing document] of the Uni—n de
Activistas y
Opositores "Golfo de Guacanayabo" [from
Amnesty International, June 2003], in Santiago de Cuba, 5 April
2003.
Case no. 5 of 2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-6e.cfm.
" books, magazines, brochures and the rest of
the documents to proceed to
destruction by means of incineration
for lacking utility; É"
From the original court record:
Se dispone que sobre el
negativo fotogr‡fico, el cassete de audio,
las medicinas, los libros, revistas, folletos y el resto de los documentos
procŽdase a
su destruccion mediante incineracion por carecer de utilidad; . . ."
These
include the following:
TIME (magazine)
El
Disidente (magazine)
Fragura (Ònews serial É edited in the
United States")
Por
Cuba (Ònews serial
É edited in the
United States")
Palestra (Òjournal É edited in the
United States")
Hispano
Cubana (magazine
Òpublished in
Spain")
Jose Mart’: la invenci—n de
Cuba, by Rafael
Rojas. (Paperback) Editorial
Colibri (November 20, 2000), 145 pages. ISBN: 8492355069
Source for bibliographic
description:
Amazon.com
Cuba's Repressive Machinery:
Human Rights Forty Years After the
Revolution, by
Human
Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, July 20, 1999). Paperback, 263
pages). ISBN:
1564322343. Source for
bibliographic description: Amazon.com
Buscando
un modelo econ—mico en AmŽrica Latina : mercado, socialista o mixta? :
Chile,
Cuba y Costa Rica, by Carmelo
Mesa-Lago; Alberto Arenas; Malena Barro (Caracas, Venezuela
: Nueva
Sociedad ; [Miami?, Fla.] : Universidad Internacional de la Florida, 2002 1. ed. en castellano. 681 p. ;
ISBN: 9803171836
23 cm.
Source for
bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat
Trial of Blas
Giraldo
Reyes Rodriguez, 20th of May
Library,
in Sancti Spiritus (Case number 4), 5 April 2003. Available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm.
"Also the destruction is had [of]... "
"sixteen books Encounter of the
Culture Cuban [etc.]"
Book
titles are machine translated from the Spanish as follows:
Encounter
of Cuban Culture
Plowing
in the Sea
Heating
of the Planet
Uses
and Abuses of Gasoline
World
without Winter
Visual
Atlas [of the] Ocean
Destruction
of Nature and the Ecology
System
of Environmental Average Management
Conquering Nature: The
Environmental Legacy of Socialism in
Cuba, by Sergio
Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez.
(Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press
(April 1,
2000) (Paperback, 328 pages). ISBN: 0822957213
Source for bibliographic
description: Amazon.com
The Power of the
Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (M. E. Sharpe;
Paperback
Reprint edition, June 1, 1990). ISBN: 0873327616. Source
for bibliographic description: Amazon.com
Reporters
Without Borders, Mission report in Cuba. Probably this
is the
September 2000 report found at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3213.
Trial of Felix
Navarro
Rodriguez and Ivan
Hernandez
Carrillo, Juan Gualberto
G—mez
Library (Branch II, Matanzas), in Matanzas, 4 April 2003. Sentence
number 2 of
2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm.
"printed material and other that have films
and recording will be
immediately
destroy [sic] by incineration,
which it will also be done with the handwritten and typed documents "
From the original court record:
ÒLos materiales impresos
y otros que tienen filmaciones y
grabaciones ser‡n destruidos mediante su incineraci—n oportuna."
These
include the following:
81
pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
El
Proyecto Varela by Alberto
Muller
[and] Oswaldo Pay‡ (Miami, FL : Ediciones Universal, 2002 1st
ed.). Spanish. Book
110 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
ISBN:
0897299981. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC
WorldCat
Trial of Pedro Argelles Moran, whose personal and
private
collection contained "a
considerable number of bibliographical volumes of subversive content
É to urge
the civil disobedience and the disrepute of the revolutionary
government," and
Pablo Pacheco Avila,
whose personal and private collection contained
the Ònumerous bibliography of noticeable
aggressive and harmful
character against our country, Literature that was given to him
personally by
Civil employees of the Office of Interests of the United States of
America in
City of Havana," in Ciego de
Avila, 4
April 2003, available
at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm.
". . . en el
domicilio del acusado de referencia, ocup‡ndole un considerable nœmero
de
volœmenes bibliogr‡ficos de contenido subversivo, que de forma general
llevan
el mensaje de incitar a la desobediencia civil y el descrŽdito del
gobierno
revolucionario . . ."
ÒÉ
all the publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department of the Interior for its destruction."
From the original court record:
"instrumental
estomatol—gico, entregarse al Sectorial
Provincial de Salud de CamagŸey, as’ como los medicamentos; todas las
publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos, entregar al Ministerio del
Interior para
su destrucci—n. Todos
los equipos y medios electr—nicos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior,
ya que
su complejidad [sic] tŽcnica no hace que sea prudente su empleo en
ninguna otra
actividad."
These
include the following, as listed in the sentencing document:
Jose
Mart’, The Invention of Cuba
book
"Letters to Elpidio";
book
Conquista of the Nature;
book
Your Body is Yours;
book
Contemporary Universal History;
history
of the United States;
book
the Cost of the Terrorism in Human Suffering;
book
Foundations of the Media;
book
Technical of Education of the Media;
book
Journalism and Creativity;
two
books of International Human rights;
book
a More Effective and Less Expensive
Government;
book
History of the United States;
book
titled Manual for the Journalists;
book
Evidence that demands a Verdict;
titled
book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II;
two
books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
book
the Constitution of the United States;
6
declarations of the Human rights;
two
universal declarations of the Human rights;
a
pamphlet of the Project Varela.
Trial of Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos and Carmelo August’n Diaz Fernandez, Biblioteca
sindical Emilio M‡spero in Havana, 5 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm.
"As
far as documents, magazines, notes, books, agendas, photos,
invitations,
stickers, propagandas, procŽdase to their destruction."
From the original court record:
"En cuanto a los
documentos, revistas, apuntes, libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones,
pegatinas,
propagandas, procŽdase a su destrucci—n."
These
included the following:
". . . books, bulletins
magazines, agendas, booksellers of notes,
all of subversive content abundant documents, books, correspondence,
notes,
pamphlets and magazines of content in opposition to the principles of
the Cuban
Revolution . . .
"With same aim of
destruction of regime partner-political
prevailing in Cuba, defendant created library ÔEmilio
MasperoÕ which it
contained subversive Literature and contrarrevolucionaria, that was
provided by
the government and competing groups of the Cuban Revolution, also they
created
a Web site for the publication of his contrarrevolucionarios postulates
the one
that could be visited by people of different parts from the world."
From the original court record:
"Con el mismo fin de
destrucci—n del rŽgimen socio-pol’tico
imperante en Cuba, los acusados crearon la biblioteca ÒEmilio
Maspero" que
conten’a literatura subversiva y contrarrevolucionaria, que era
suministrada
por el gobierno y grupos opositores de la Revoluci—n cubana, asimismo crearon un sitio web para la
publicaci—n de sus
postulados contrarrevolucionarios
el que pod’a ser visitado por personas de diferentes partes del mundo."
Trial of Luis
Milan
Fernandez, 11th
of September Library (Santiago de Cuba) in Santiago trial number
5, on 4
April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm
"The
albums and the remaining bibliographical, consisting of documents
books,
magazines and pamphlets, destrœyase by their little value ""
From the original court record:
"Los albumes y los restantes documentos
bibliogr‡ficos, consistentes en
libros,
revistas y folletos, destrœyase por su escaso valor"
These included the following:
" the book Mart’n Luther
King against all the exclusions"
[Mart’n Luther King: Contra todas las
exclusiones, (Bilbao: Desclee
de Brouwer, 1995) ISBN-13:
978-8433011091], written by Vincent
Roussel,
whose content is based on ideas that could be used to promote the
social
disorder and the civil disobedience;"
"the Hispanic-Cuban
magazine number four of thousands nine hundred ninety and nine, coined
by the
call Christian Movement of Liberation, in which one
takes the blame to the
Cuban government and his leaders of the economic situation in Cuba and
explains
like solution to the problematic one"
the denominated Project
Varela for which it urges the town to a competing mobilization; Vitral
and Dissidents, of September and October of year two
thousands one, are of
revisionist and reformist character, in them a [distorted] analysis
becomes of
the economy of Cuba on which it is said that possibilities do not exist
to
develop the personal initiatives and proposes like via solving it, the
modernization of the State and the civil society;"
"
the pamphlet Entrate, that has an incorrect approach of
Cuba, denies its
democracy and discredits the work of the Revolutionary National Police
and the
Cuban educative system, criticizes in addition documents to the Fifth
Congress
of the Communist Party of Cuba and another pamphlet denominated
ÔWith Cuban
HumorÕ É based on jokes against the Cuban Revolution and
its leaders, giving an
image distorted of this one, in order not to make laugh but to
denigrate."
Trial of Jose
Gabriel
Ramon Castillo, known by
"Pep’n." Santiago de Cuba trial number, 3 April 2003, available at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm.
Not
an independent library, but a private collection of a "great amount
of books, magazines,
articles, pamphlets and other
publications as well as numerous cassettes of video and of audio . . .
whose
content is eminently subversive and contrarrevolucionario."
"The
incineration to . . . all
the
[books], pamphlets, magazines, bulletins, agendas, leaves of notes,
cardboards
with business cards and others; fotocopiados documents, diplomas, . . .
notebooks with annotations, and all the obrantes [workings] in folios."
ANOTHER BOOK
SEIZED FROM
INDEPENDENT LIBRARIES and not
likely
to be made available to the reading public in Cuba:
From
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-15e.cfm
(Trial of Diasdado Gonzalez Marrero, in Matanzas, 7 April 2003.
Sentence number
15.)
Como
Llego La Noche, by Huber Matos (TusQuets, April 30, 2004).
Paperback:
589 pages. ISBN:
8483109441. Source of
bibliographic citation: Amazon.com.
For more about Huber Matos, see http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/HMatos.htm.
You can Search the trial records for
yourself, using this list of
sentencing document Web pages, as detailed above, and the following key
words:
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-9e.cfm.
Search for "incineration."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-6e.cfm.
Search for "incineration."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-sancti-spiritus-4e.cfm. Search for "destruction."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-matanzas-2e.cfm. Search for "incineration."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-havana-10e.cfm.
Search for "destruction."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm.
Search for "destrœyase."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-ciegodeavila-2e.cfm. Search for "destruction."
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-1e.cfm.
Search for
"incineration."
The "independent third
party
reports" demanded by Dr. Krug already exist in the form of a report of
31,508
words issued
by Amnesty International in June 2003
and also the 39,414 word report of the Organization of American States
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued in October, 2006 (http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2006eng/CUBA.12476eng.htm).
These reports contain, respectively, 73 and 78 direct references to the
Cuban
provincial court sentencing documents. Texts of the sentencing
documents are
available on the web at the "Rule of Law and Cuba" site hosted by
Florida State
University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights (FSU CAHR) (http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/). Sample pages of footnote references
from these AI and OAS reports are shown on the next page.
These
strike
me as legitimate and "independent" verifications.
But
the ALA
Office for Intellectual Freedom is not so easily impressed and
continues its
refusal to accept the facts presented and accepted in these extensive
reports. The following bizarre
situation
results:
Primary documents are posted at the FSU
site.
Secondary documents by a respected,
legitimate and
independent human rights organization and a 34 member international
organization are available.
Yet
a tertiary piece of journalism is still
required by
the ALA because, as Judith Krug wrote to me on February 6, 2007, that
[unlike
AI and the OAS]"I cannot rely solely upon machine-translated
documents
provided by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to a website funded by
grants
from the U.S. Government.
Regarding
machine translations, court documents in the original Spanish language
are also
posted at the FSU "Rule of Law and Cuba" web site.
Regarding
federal funding, Mark Schlakman, Program Director at the FSU CAHR, has
stated
that "As to the rather colorful
conspiracy theory
that you attribute to the Office for Intellectual Freedom -- of which I
am
unfamiliar -- FSU's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights (Center)
did not
seek nor did it accept any grant funds... [sic – no deletion] from the
US
government or otherwise... [sic – no deletion] to support its Rule of
Law
and Cuba website project. We
made a tactical decision in that we would rely exclusively upon the
Center's
discretionary funding in anticipation of such claims of bias and/or
complicity.
We placed a premium upon project independence. We posted the
sentencing
documents on the Rule of Law and Cuba website because we believe them
to be
authentic... [sic – no deletion] nothing more and nothing less."
Regarding provision of documents from the US
Interests
Section, Mark Schlakman, Program Director at the FSU CAHR, has stated
that "the
FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights received the copies of
the
sentencing documents through the US Interests Section in Havana. In any
event,
my colleagues and I at the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights
have
every reason to believe that these sentencing documents are authentic.
For that
matter, if we had any substantial doubt or concerns relating thereto,
we would
not have posted them [sic] I am
not aware of any mainstream reporting/editorial writing that
subsequently
called the credibility of these documents into question."
Sample references page from
Cuba, "Essential measures"? Human rights
crackdown in the name of security,
© Amnesty
International, 3
June 2003,
AI INDEX: AMR 25/017/2003, available at http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003?open&of=ENG-CUB
(176)
Sentence 6/2003,
Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's Provincial Court, Havana, 6 April
2003
(case 11/2003).
(177) Sentence 6/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 6 April 2003 (case 11/2003). Unofficial
translation.
(178) Sentence 1/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, CamagŸey, 4 April 2003 (case 2/2003). Unofficial
translation.
(179) Sentence 1/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, CamagŸey, 4 April 2003 (case 2/2003).
(180) Case 12/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 31 March 2003.
(181) Sentence 7/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 4 April 2003 (case 12/2003).
(182) Amnesty International,
"CUBA: Eleven remain in
detention following government crackdown on dissent during the
Ibero-American
Summit in Havana" (AI Index: AMR 25/02/00), January 2000 and Amnesty
International, "CUBA: Prisoners of Conscience: New convictions
overshadow
releases," (AI Index: AMR 25/21/00), October 2000.
(183) Amnesty International,
"CUBA: The situation of human
rights in Cuba" (AI Index: AMR 25/002/2002), May 2002.
(184) Sentence 16/2003,
Tribunal Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 8 April 2003 (case 15/2003).
(185) Sentence 2/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Matanzas, 4 April 2003 (case 8/2003). Unofficial
translation.
(186) Ibid.
(187) Sentence 5/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 5 April 2003 (case 14/2003).
(188) Sentence 2/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Ciego de Avila, 4 April 2003 (case 1/2003).
(189) Urgent Action 296/94 (AI
Index: AMR 25/10/94), 11 August
1994.
(190) Amnesty International,
"CUBA: Prisoner of conscience -
HŽctor Palacios Ruiz" (AI Index: AMR 25/02/97), January 1997; "CUBA:
Prisoner of conscience HŽctor Palacios Ruiz sentenced to 18 months'
imprisonment" (AI Index: AMR 25/35/97), October 1997; and "Cuba: Some
releases but repression and imprisonment continue," (AI Index: AMR
25/05/99), February 1999.
(191) Sentence 6/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 6 April 2003 (case 11/2003).
(192) Case 11/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 31 March 2003.
(193) Sentence 6/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Havana, 6 April 2003 (case 11/2003). Unofficial
translation.
(194) Sentence 3/2003, Tribunal
Provincial Popular, People's
Provincial Court, Villa Clara, 7 Abril 2003 (case 1/2003).
(195) Ibid. Unofficial
translation.
Sample references page from
INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
REPORT N¼ 67/06,
CASE 12.476
PUBLICATION : OSCAR ELêAS BISCET ET
AL., CUBA
October
21st,
2006
http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2006eng/CUBA.12476eng.htm
[The CommissionÕs seven members
responsible for this
report were from member states Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina,
Brazil, El Salvador,
Paraguay, United States and Venezuela.]
[58] Verdict No. 8 delivered
by the
Santiago de Cuba PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.
[59] Verdict No. 3 delivered
by the
Villa Clara PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 7, 2003.
[60] Verdict No. 6 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 6,
2003.
[61] Verdict No. 13
delivered by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 7,
2003.
[62] Verdict No. 6 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 6,
2003.
[63] Verdict No. 1 delivered
by the
CamagŸey PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.
[64] The Payolibre Web site (http://www.payolibre.com/presos.htm)
reports that this alleged victim was granted "licencia extrapenal" [conditional
release].
However, the petitioners in this case with the IACHR have not been able
to
confirm this report.
[65] Verdict No. 5 delivered
by the
Santiago de Cuba PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.
[66] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 4,
2003.
[67] Verdict No. 16
delivered by
the PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 8,
2003.
[68] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 7, 2003.
[69] Verdict No. 2 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 4, 2003.
[70] Verdict No. 5 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 5,
2003.
[71] Verdict No. 2,
delivered by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Ciego de Avila, April 4, 2003.
[72] Verdict No. 6 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 6,
2003.
[73] Verdict No. 2 delivered
by the
Villa Clara PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003
[74] Verdict No. 3 delivered
by the
Villa Clara PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 7, 2003.
[75] Verdict No. 1 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Pinar del R’o, April 5, 2003.
[76] Verdict No. 3 delivered
by the
Isla de Juventud PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 5, 2003.
[77] Verdict No. 1 delivered
by the
CamagŸey PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 4, 2003.
[78] Verdict No. 1 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 3, 2003.
[79] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 4,
2003.
[80] Verdict No. 4 delivered
by the
Santi Sp’ritus PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 5, 2003.
[81] Verdict No. 4 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the city of Havana, April 5,
2003.
[82] Verdict No. 21
delivered by the
PeopleÕs Supreme Tribunal, May 29, 2003.
[83] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 7, 2003.
[84] Verdict No. 8 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the city of Havana, April 5,
2003.
[85] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the city of Havana, April 4,
2003.
[86] Verdict No. 3 delivered
by the
Villa Clara PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 7, 2003.
[87] Verdict No. 3 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 4, 2003.
[88] Verdict No. 9 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 5, 2003.
[89] Verdict No. 9 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Matanzas, April 5, 2003.
[90] Verdict No. 7 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba, April 7, 2003.
[91] Verdict No. 1 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of Pinar del R’o, April 5, 2003.
[92] Verdict No. 2 delivered
by the
Guant‡namo PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 3, 2003.
[93] Verdict No. 6 delivered
by the
Santiago de Cuba PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal, April 5, 2003.
[94] Verdict No.
16
delivered by the PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of
Havana, April 8,
2003.
[95] Verdict No. 12
delivered by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 7,
2003.
[96] Verdict No. 5 delivered
by the
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal of the City of Havana, April 5,
2003.
[97] The Commission has been
informed
that this person was convicted in Verdict No. 3 delivered by the Villa
Clara
PeopleÕs Provincial Tribunal on April 3, 2003. However, it
has not access
to copies of that court verdict.
[98] The Commission has not
had access
to copies of that court verdict.
[99] See http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/7/b/arb_det/ardintro.htm.
[100] Cuba is not a State
Party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Regarding
prospects of a news report in a "legitimate" national newspaper, do you
know
any reporters eager to publish "news" that is now five years old? I didn,t think so.
Responses
of Writers and Others
Carlos
Eire
wrote to the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee on 15 December 2003 as
follows: "As the winner of the 2003 National Book Award for
nonfiction, I would like
to urge the American Library Association to openly and unconditionally
censure
the repression of human rights in Cuba and to do so immediately and in
the
strongest possible terms. This
would include calling for the immediate release from prison of the
librarians
rounded up in March of this year and also for the re-stocking and
re-opening of
the libraries that were closed down and vandalized. Anything less than
this
will be a sign of utter moral failure on the part of the ALA
leadership. . . I
would also like to urge the ALA leadership to consider that their
refusal to
condemn the Castro regimeÕs crackdown on reading can be viewed
as an insidious
form of racism and an expression of elitist and colonialist thinking."
Nat
Hentoff, award winning writer on
civil
rights topics, took up the ALA-Cuba issue very early.
A winner of the ALA Immroth Award,
which "honors intellectual freedom fighters in and outside the library
profession who have demonstrated remarkable personal courage in
resisting
censorship," Hentoff in his January 29, 2004, column (http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/hentoff.php), renounced the Award, saying "I now
publicly
renounce the Immroth Award and demand that the American Library
Association
remove me from the list of recipients of that honor. To me, it is no
longer an
honor."
Ray Bradbury, after
being informed of the book burning ordered by Cuban courts and the
failure of
ALA to ask for the release of the prisoners, issued the following
statement in
June 2005, following his video appearance as a keynote speaker at the
American
Library Association annual meeting: "I stand against any library or any
librarian
anywhere in the world being imprisoned or punished in any way for the
books
they circulate. I plead with
Castro and his government to immediately take their hands off the
independent librarians and release all those librarians in prison and
send them
back into Cuban culture to inform the people."
Andrei Codrescu, in
his keynote address to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio,
January 22,
2006, challenged the Association directly: "For me, the ALA has stood,
along with the
ACLU, the Helsinki Human Rights organization, and Amnesty
International, as the
guarantors of American democracy. For the more than three-and-a-half
decades I
spent in the United States, I've taken my right to read and
freedom of
expression very seriously. . . The ALA fight for the freedom to read,
against
censorship and the Patriot Act has been one of its magnificent
accomplishments.
Another has been the promotion of human rights and intellectual freedom
worldwide. To quote from the ALA policy manual, Ôfreedom of
expression is an
inalienable human right, necessary to self-government, vital to the
resistance
to oppression, crucial to the cause of justice, and further, that the
principles of freedom of expression should be applied to libraries and
librarians throughout the world."
Given these crystal-clear
positions, it
was with a great deal of dismay that I learned that the American
Library
Association has taken no action to condemn the imprisonment of
librarians, the
banning of books, the repression of expression and the torture of
dissidents
only 90 miles away from our shores, in Cuba. In March 1988, two
residents of
Las Tunas, Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, opened a private library in
their
home, dedicated to offering Cubans books not officially available. . .
From the
very beginning of their existence, the private librarians were
subjected to
threats, harassments, evictions, arrests, police raids, and the seizure
of book
collections, books that disappeared so quickly they could have only
been
burned. In November 1999 Ramon Colas was arrested. Amnesty
International
declared him a "prisoner of conscience." Hundreds of other librarians
were
arrested not long afterward, and their libraries and collections were
confiscated. The ALA's International Rights Committee looked,
rather late, into
the dire situation of the Cuban librarians. On January 13, 2001, the
Latin
American subcommitee of the IRC conducted a hearing at the ALA
Midwinter
conference in Washington where reports on the worsening situation in
Cuba were
presented by witnesses using accounts from Human Rights Watch,
Reporters Sans
Frontiers, Amnesty International, as well as press reports from the
Washington
Post and the Associated Press. People like Vaclav Havel, the hero of
the Velvet
Revolution that brought down the vicious regime of Chekoslovakia [sic], Lech Walesa, winner of
the Nobel
Prize for Peace, and former president of Poland, and Arpad Goncz,
former
President of Hungary, joined to condemn CastroÕs "imprisonment
of Cubans for "merely
for daring to express an opinion rather than the official one." Even
well-known
leftist dissidents such as Naom Chomsky, with whom I personally
disagree on
many issues, historian Howard Zinn, and philosopher Cornel West have
condemned
the arrests of librarians in Cuba and the "shockingly long prison
sentencesÉimposed
after unfair trials."
Amazingly enough, the final
report of the
ALA declined to recognize the new Cuban libraries as "libraries" and
the
librarians themselves were referred to as "individuals associated with
these
collections." Since then, those "individuals" have been subject to
brutal
imprisonment and their books have been disappeared. The ALA Councilors
have
remained silent on the issue to this day. Am I hallucinating? Is this
the same
American Library Association that stands against censorship and for
freedom of
expression everywhere? . . .
I also hope that, in keeping
with its
tradition and charter of defending the freedom to read and freedom of
expression, the American Library Association will immediately pass a
resolution
condemning the Castro regime for flagrant violations of basic human
rights. To
not do so is self-defeating and wipes out any credibility the ALA might
have in
fighting the much milder provisions of the Patriot Act. Not to speak of
the
fact that itÕs much easier to fight for freedom to read in a
country where
every book is available, while it is much more difficult to make
meaningful a
statement in a place where books are an enemy of the state."
Madeleine Albright, addressing the Opening General Session of the ALA Annual Conference on June 24, 2006, "urged Americans to oppose Cubas position that to open an independent library is a crime, to champion freedom of thought," and "what we preach abroad we should also practice at home." ("Albright and Gorman Thank ALA Members for Showing Their Belief in Libraries," ALA Cognotes, June 26, 2006, page 14)
Responses from
the ALA Membership
Seventy-six percent (76%) of
ALA members
responding to a January 25, 2006, online poll conducted by AL Direct, the online version of the
ALA flagship American
Libraries
publication,
said "Yes" to the question, "Should ALA Council pass a resolution
condemning
the Cuban government for its imprisonment of dissident
Ôindependent librarians'"?
This January 25 poll had the greatest number of responses – 609 –
of all the AL Direct polls taken in 2006. (See http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirecta/2006pollresults/2006polls.cfm.)
More than
120 U.S. librarians
populate a
list that I maintain and to which I distribute sample letters at
least four
times a year, so that they
can send
letters to Cuban officials
asking for
release of the prisoners, and end of harassment of the independent
libraries,
and restoration of the materials confiscated from the libraries.
Reactions from the state or regional
library
association meetings that I
have
addressed on this issue have been very positive regarding calls for
freedom.
Librarians in the audience are often bewildered by the insufficient
response of
the ALA to the imprisonments and book burnings. Many
have joined my list of letter writers.
In 2006, an e-mail poll of ALA Council
candidates asked, "Would you support an
ALA Council resolution calling upon the Cuban government to immediately
release persons sentenced to
20-year
prison terms for opening
independent
libraries?" The results favored a
call for release by a response of 16 to 4.
In 2007, an e-mail poll of ALA Council
candidates added the
question, "Would
you support an ALA Council resolution instructing the Office for
Intellectual
Freedom to post, on its
"Books
Burning in the 21st Century" web page, a reference to the
court-ordered
incineration and destruction of
thousands
of books, magazines and documents confiscated from independent
libraries in
Cuba?" Responses to both questions
were 17 to 1 affirmative.
CONCLUSION – What You
Can Do.
We
in the effort to defend the freedom to read in Cuba would appreciate
any
assistance, oral or written, in public or in private – before, during
or
after the June ALA conference in Washington, DC – which you can provide:
- to speak with
leaders of the ALA, encouraging them to honor the statement in their Report on Cuba, January 14, 2004, that
"intellectual freedom is a core value of the library and information
profession worldwide," and to restore ALA's integrity as a beacon of
intellectual freedom and the freedom to read,
- to support
independent minded Cubans languishing in prison, by asking ALA to join
the worldwide human rights consensus and call for release of the
prisoners;
- to those of us
endeavoring to gain their release, by joining my list of more than 120
librarians and others who write directly to Cuba four times a year,
urging freedom for these prisoners of conscience (contact me at cubaliblib@gmail.org);
- by recommending to
incoming ALA President Dr. Loreine Roy (loreine@ischool.utexas.edu) that the ALA Office for Intellectual
Freedom acknowledge
on its "Book Burning in the 21st Century" web page the
incineration or destruction of the entire collections of six
independent Cuban libraries,
- by joining the writers, librarians and
others who support the "Read a Burned Book Campaign" school and college
curriculum project (to add your name to the list posted at http://www.4freadom.org/RBBStatement.html,
please e-mail rbb@4freadom.org and include how you
would like to be identified), and
- by joining writers and librarians who are
forming an effort to "adopt" the Cuban library prisoners in the manner
of the campaign of Pax Christi of the Netherlands (see http://www.ikvpaxchristi.nl/boeken_voor_cuba_start_adoptieactie.htm),
Any
of these
actions would be greatly appreciated by us in the ALA membership at
large and
especially by Cubans endeavoring to enjoy the freedom to read.
I
and other colleagues in the profession would be happy to provide any
additional
information required, and to answer any questions that you may have.
We look forward to hearing your reaction to the
issues
raised in this extended documentation, and we thank you for reading
through it.
Sincerely,
Steve
Marquardt, Ph.D.
Dean of
Libraries Emeritus
ALA
Member since 1973
9383 123rd
Avenue SE
Lake
Lillian, Minnesota 56253-4700
(320)
664-4231
A
FINAL
THOUGHT
In the end we will
remember
not
the words of our enemies but the
silence of our friends.
--
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
whose
biography, Mart’n
Luther King: Contra todas las
exclusiones (Bilbao:
Desclee de Brouwer, 1995), was presented
in May 2002 by President Jimmy Carter to Gisela Delgado Sabl—n,
Director of the Independent Library Project
of Cuba,
for her Dulce Maria Loynaz Library, Havana, and later confiscated
during a
police raid. Another copy, taken from the 11th
of
September Library in Santiago de Cuba during the arrest of Luis
Mil‡n
Fernandez, was ordered by the court to be, along with "albums and the
remaining
bibliographical, consisting of documents books, magazines and
pamphlets,
destroyed because of their little value."
Source: http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm.
APPENDIX
From:
Steve Marquardt < cubaliblib@gmail.com>
Date:
Jan 23, 2007 3:21 PM
Subject:
King biography burned -- please post news
To:
Don Wood < dwood@ala.org>
Cc:
Judith Krug < jkrug@ala.org>, Loriene Roy
<loreine@ischool.utexas.edu>, Kenton Oliver <
koliver@starklibrary.org>, Pamela Klipsch <
pam@jeffersoncountylibrary.org>, Martha Goddard <
mgoddard@sfpl.org>,
Wanda Brown <brownw@wfu.edu >, "Andrew P. Jackson"
<andrew.p.jackson@queenslibrary.org>
Don
Wood, below is a paragraph that I suggest be posted on your
"Book Burning in the 21st Century" web page. It
is timely in the month in which we
celebrate Dr. King's birthday.
Some
of the leading persons in the ALA diversity and intellectual
freedom groups, copied on this message, may wish to chime in to endorse
this
suggestion.
I
noticed that your web page has five (5) references to attacks on
Harry Potter, but apparently has overlooked news of the burning of a
biography
of Dr. King, which I should think would be worthy of posting.
I
understand that you said in a meeting earlier this week that the
Burned Books web site is really a site for high school students to use
for
research material. Certainly the
material in this paragraph would be of interest to many high school
students,
especially in the African American population, as Black History Month
is
scheduled to begin on February 1, just nine days from today.
Please
let me know of your decision on this suggestion.
Cuban
court orders destruction of Martin Luther King Jr,
biography. (April 4, 2003)
The
Popular Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba concluded its
sentencing of dissident Luis Milan Fernandez to 13 years in prison for
"the public and open way in which the defendant expressed his hostility
against the Cuban Revolutionary Government" by also ordering that his
"documents
books, magazines and pamphlets shall be destroyed because of their
limited
value [por su escaso valor]."
Included among the titles specifically mentioned was "the book
Mart’n Luther King: Contra todas las exclusiones," whose content the
court
condemned as "based on ideas that could be used to promote the social
disorder and the civil disobedience."
In
the event of failure of the links imbedded in the above
paragraph, here are the links for the top line and for the
bibliographic
description of the book (from Amazon):
http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/documents-santiago-5e.cfm
(Santiago trial number 5, on 4 April 2003)
http://www.amazon.com/Martin-Luther-King-Contra-Exclusiones/dp/843301109X/sr=1-1/qid=1169509935/ref=sr_1_1/104-3128821-4267158?ie=UTF8&s=books
[Dr. Judith Krug's response, on letterhead of
the ALA
Office for Intellectual Freedom]
February 6, 2007
Steve Marquardt,
Ph.D.
9383 123rd
Avenue
SE
Lake Lillian, MN
56253
Dear Mr. Marquardt:
Don Wood has
forwarded your
January 23 email with your suggestion that the book "Martin Luther
King: Contra
todos las exclusions" be included on our "Book Burning in the 21st
Century" web page.
First of all, I
need to
clarify the misunderstanding that OIF is maintaining a comprehensive
record of
all book burnings throughout the world on its website. Each year, there
are an
overwhelming number of censorship incidents and violations of privacy
affecting
libraries and library users in the United States alone, and OIF cannot
physically catalog all of these incidents. Thus, neither the OIF nor
our Banned
Books Week Resource Guide are [sic] a comprehensive catalog of every
censorship
attempt.
Nor can OIF address
every
international incident, especially as OIF's mission does not encompass
international human rights violations. Such violations are the concern
of ALA's
International Relations Committee, which works with the International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), of which
ALA is a
member. ALA and OIF rely on IFLA to address international restrictions
on
freedom of expression through its Committee on Free Access to
Information and
Freedom of Expression (FAIFE).
When we do catalog
an
incident in our Banned Books Resource Guide or on our website, we
require that
each incident be verified. Because the
facts are
often in dispute, we must rely on independent, non-partisan news
reports from
newspapers, wire services, and broadcast news services to verify the
facts of
each case. For this reason, I must once again ask for independent news
accounts
to verify the facts in your report. Based upon our guidelines, I cannot
rely
solely upon machine-translated documents provided by the U.S. Interests
Section
in Havana to a website funded by grants from the U.S. government. If you can locate independent third
party reports that verify the facts in this case, please share them
with me.
In asking for this
verification, neither I nor ALA wish to minimize nor disparage the
suffering of
those who have been arrested and punished by the Cuban government for
expressing
dissident views. As you are aware,
the 2003, the ALA Council joined IFLA in expressing its deep concern
about the
prison terms given to the Cuban political dissidents, and urging the
Cuban
government to respect, defend and promote the basic human rights
defined in
Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. We
believe this
is a strong and meaningful support for these individuals.
In
concluding, I
want to correct a serious misconception on your part. Don Wood is an
able
webmaster, and he excels at creating and designing our web pages. He
does so at
my direction, however, and I make the final decisions concerning all
content
contained on the OIF web pages. You and others have unfairly and
scurrilously
criticized him for my decisions, and you should know that the
Intellectual
Freedom Committee has expressed its displeasure and anger about these
unwarranted attacks. In the future, please direct your criticisms and
correspondence concerning the content of our web pages to my attention.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Judith
F. Krug
Director
Garrison Keillor, "You have to learn how to admit failure," [Minneapolis] Star Tribune, April 22, 2007.
"It is invigorating to realize you've been dead wrong about something. That's why we read history. It's an antidote to smug self-righteousness, which makes us insufferable. You learn about this from books. I can't think of any movie or song that changed my mind about anything, but books of history certainly have.
. . .
it's good for an old liberal like me the read history and recognize that Eisenhower was no dolt and Adlai Stevenson was no giant. . . The big story was taking place in Russia and Eastern Europe, in China, and in Cuba, places where evil ruled with an open hand, but a great many Democrats refused to see it. This refusal was a reaction against anti-Communists such as Richard Nixon – if he said the sun rose in the east, then we would look off to the west and maybe build mirrors there so as to be able to argue the point – and this gave the Democratic Party a reputation for appeasement that has crippled us ever since."