Havel Sends a Negotiator to Cuba

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

[Havel sends a negotiator to Cuba, who claims the "stupid" Czechs aren't 
Yanqui agents... and that they don't represent the Czech Government or 
the country, either. yeah, that's it!]


Tuesday January 30 (via Yahoo)

Czech Senate President in Cuba 

By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer 

HAVANA (AP) - Saying he hopes to ease tensions between Havana and Prague,
the president of the Czech senate arrived in Cuba for talks with
Fidel Castro about the arrest of two prominent Czechs who were jailed after
meeting with Cuban dissidents.

Shortly after his Monday evening arrival at a Havana hotel, Petr Pithart
told reporters that he did not know what the two men - one of them a
lawmaker who once served as finance minister - were doing in Cuba when they
were arrested on Jan. 12.

But whatever the motive of their trip, they were representing "neither the
Czech people nor our country," Pithart said.

"I hope (the talks) will help relax that tension that has been produced,"
Pithart said through a Spanish interpreter. "That's the main purpose of our
visit."

Cuban authorities have charged Czech Parliament member Ivan Pilip, 37, and
Jan Bubenik, 32, with acting against the island nation's security and
inciting a rebellion. If convicted, they could face sentences of up to 20
years in prison.

Cuban authorities have claimed the two detainees acted on behalf of American
interests, gathering information and providing instructions to
anti-communist dissidents.

Pithart said he planned to tell Castro that the men "are two private people
who came on their own accord."

Castro had invited Pithart to meet with him in Havana to discuss the case,
both governments said Monday.

Pithart sent Castro a letter Jan. 18, requesting the prisoners' release and
offering personal guarantees that the two were not American agents, the
Czech senate said in a statement.

Czech President Vaclav Havel welcomed the speaker's initiative. "In my
opinion, he is the best possible negotiator," Havel told Czech radio.

The Cubans have suggested that the Czechs apologize for the men's reactions.
Havel has refused.

The U.S. State Department has condemned the detention several times, calling
the Cuban allegations "ludicrous." 
 
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