IPU logoThe Journal of the IPU
MONTHLY WEB PUBLICATION19 February 2001, Number 18
  Event of the month

IPU mission accomplished:
Cuban Authorities release Czech MP Ivan Pilip and compatriot Ian Bubenik

Cuba Mission
Photo by AP Photo/José Goitia, as published in the media. From left to right: IPU Secretary General, Anders B. Johnsson, Czech Ian Bubenik, Cuban Foreign Ministry representative, Angel Reigosa, Czech MP Ivan Pilip and Chilean MP Juan Pablo Letelier.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union mission to Havana following the arrest of Czech MP Ivan Pilip and his compatriot Ian Bubenik has ended successfully. The two Czech citizens, detained since 12 January, were released by the Cuban authorities on 5 February, after mediation by the IPU Secretary General Anders B. Johnsson, and the President of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, Chilean MP Juan Pablo Letelier.

The two emissaries of IPU, dispatched to Cuba for a fact-finding mission, helped bring about a solution which made it possible for the two Czech citizens to return home. Ivan Pilip and Ian Bubenik signed a statement in which they "recognize that they violated Cuban law … and apologize to the people of Cuba if their behavior offended them".

Chilean MP Juan Pablo Letelier satisfied

"I am very satisfied that parliamentary diplomacy made it possible to resolve the case of the two Czech citizens detained in Havana for having broken the laws of Cuba", said Chilean MP Juan Pablo Letelier. "The prestige of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the cooperation offered by the National Assembly of Cuba, under the presidency of Ricardo Alarcon, were essential in finding a solution to a case which, in its complexity required both the generosity of the Cuban authorities and the sincerity of the Czech citizens involved" he added.

"It was an honour for me to lead a mission of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. The outcome is that not only MP Ivan Pilip has been able to return to his country and resume the duties for which he was elected, but we have seen evidence of the prestige enjoyed by the IPU in the eyes of the highest Cuban authorities", concluded Mr Letelier.

Mission applauded by the Czech Parliament

"On behalf of the Czech Inter-Parliamentary Group" that he heads, Czech MP Milan Ekert addressed his "sincere thanks" and his "appreciation for the immediate action undertaken in order to help in solving the problem of the Czech citizens detained in Cuba."

"The IPU mission proved to be one of the crucial steps leading to their release… We appreciate the action taken by the Inter-Parliamentary Union that was prompt, timely and well prepared. We also have a great regard for the sensitive and sophisticated conduct of the negotiations that contributed to turning your fact-finding mission into a mediating one and to finding a solution acceptable for all parties involved", declared Mr Ekert.

  Other News of the IPU

IPU will hold a Parliamentary meeting on International Trade in Geneva

The Inter-Parliamentary Union will be holding a parliamentary meeting on international trade in Geneva in June. A preparatory committee of some 20 parliamentarians, who specialize on matters of international trade within their respective parliaments, is to meet in Geneva on 23-24 February. Chaired by the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, Dr Najma Heptulla (India), the committee is responsible for preparing the parliamentary meeting in June, in the light of recent developments in multilateral trade negotiations.

Delegates from the parliaments of Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Gabon, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Russian Federation, Thailand, United States of America and Zambia will be present in Geneva, as well as a Swedish delegate representing the European Parliament.

Meeting of Committee for Sustainable Development

The IPU Committee for Sustainable Development is due to meet from 12 to 14 March 2001 at IPU Headquarters in Geneva. Created in 1995, the Committee, which meets twice yearly, is composed of seven members from different world regions:

Mr. Paul Günter (Switzerland), Mr. Kydykbek Isaev (Kyrgyzstan), Mr. Jaques Wagner (Brazil), Mr. Eléazar Siméon Nahum (Benin), Mrs. Jitka Seitlová (Czech Republic), as well as Mr. Gilbert Bukenya (Uganda) and Mr. Ferry Tinggogoy (Indonesia), both of whom are substitute members.

The agenda items to be taken up are a parliamentary input to the preparation of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, the mobilisation of parliaments for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and enhanced links between IPU and the Bretton Woods institutions.

  Read in the Press

 

… The two Czechs left the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the airport as free men, in the company of the Swede Anders Johnsson, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Chilean Juan Pablo Letelier, President of the IPU Human Rights Committee, who played a discreet role in the mediation.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, to which more than one hundred parliaments around the world belong, including the Cuban National Assembly, is to hold its 105th Conference this year in Havana.
Prensa Latina, the official Cuban news agency, confirmed last night that the two Czechs had been released and handed over to two representatives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union who had intervened on their behalf."

Agence France-Presse (AFP)
6 February 2001

According to the ex-detainees, the turning point in the affair seems to have been an exchange of letters, conveyed through the Slovak diplomatic services, between the President of the Czech Senate, Petr Pithart and Fidel Castro.
Mr Pithart traveled to Cuba where last Saturday he negotiated for 6 hours with Fidel Castro, after a wait of several days for permission to speak to the Cuban leader. Emerging from the talks without any formal promise, he returned to Prague and confidently announced an imminent solution to the crisis. Mr Pithart, who is President Vaclav Havel's favourite to succeed him, was there in person to meet the two men at Prague airport. The Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Anders B. Johnsson, and the Chilean Juan Pablo Letelier, who had been sent to Prague to negotiate the release, engineered a dignified outcome for both Havana and Prague.

Le Monde
8 February 2001

... The two men were freed after they were taken to the Foreign Ministry, where they signed a statement saying they had unwittingly violated Cuban laws when they met with dissidents here in January, sources involved in the agreement told CNN.
In addition to apologizing to the Cuban people, they acknowledged having received money from Freedom House, a non-government organization in the United States that receives money from the US government to help support the dissident movement in Cuba.
Serving as intermediaries for the Czech government, Anders Johnsson, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Juan Pablo Letelier, President of the group's human rights commission, brokered the deal after meeting with Cuban officials.

CNN.com
6 February 2001

... Former Czech finance minister Ivan Pilip, and ex-Velvet Revolution student leader Jan Bubenik, took an 11 p.m. flight to Madrid, from where they would travel to Prague to end their month-long saga...Accompanying them were leaders of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an umbrella organisation grouping 140 world legislatures, which has mediated in the case.
"They are not being expelled, they are leaving as tourists", IPU Secretary General Anders Johnsson told Reuters by telephone as he accompanied the men to Havana's José Marti international airport.

Prague Business Journal
6 February 2001

MP Ivan Pilip and the former student leader Yan Buberik were released a few hours after they signed a document in which they admitted having breached Cuban law, according to the President of the Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the IPU, Juan Pablo Letelier. The two men, who were obliged to make amends before a group of foreign diplomats meeting with the Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs, Felipe Peréz Roque, were rushed into a car and hastily left the Ministry, in the company of Mr Letelier and the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Anders Johnsson.
Associated Press (AP)
6 February 2001

Socialist MP Juan Pablo Letelier, as President of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, has managed to resolve the serious diplomatic rift dividing Cuba and the Czech Republic. Thanks to Mr Letelier's negotiations in Cuba, the Cuban Government has freed the two Czech citizens, one of whom is an MP, who had been detained for several days, accused by the Cuban authorities of a breach of security.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs (S) Heraldo Muñoz, telephoned Letelier on behalf of President Ricardo Lagos to congratulate him for his work "which made it possible to resolve a tense diplomatic situation involving two countries with which Chile has friendly relations."

La Tercera (Chile)
7 February 2001

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