I would echo this comment. This is not the only list to which messages have
been posted. It's been going on for quite a while now.


Alison Hall, Head of Cataloguing, Carleton University Library
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa Ontario K1S 5B6 Canada
Ph: +613 520-2600 Ext. 8150 Fx: +613 520-3583 email:
[log in to unmask]


> ----------
> From: David Little[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 11:34 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: re: Librarian Beseiged and Threatened
>
> Dear lis-linkers
>
> I would like to enquire of other list members as to whether they
> links this is an appropriate posting (Robert Kent, Friends of Cuban
> Libraries update (15/11/00) - text pasted below).
>
> While I personally believe it is of paramount importance to debate
> big issues on this list (in addition to asking to borrow videos etc), it
> seems to me this report is very partisan and biased and Mr Kent is
> seeking very much to push his own personal agenda (which it has
> been *alleged* is the agenda of the US government which has
> adopted an agressively hostile policy towards Cuba for the last 40
> years).
>
> Would it not be more appropriate to send an email with a link to a
> site where this kind of report can be read rather than bombarding
> list members with the full-text?
>
> If people would be interested to hear *both* sides of the story about
> Cuban libraries, a good place to look is at the Library Juice
> Website ( http://www.libr.org/Juice/ ) which produces digests of
> news items and has given good coverage to the Cuba debate and
> is not just the propaganda of one organisation.
>
> David Little
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:35:36 EST
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Librarian Beseiged and Threatened
> Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> News Bulletin
> The Friends of Cuban Libraries
> Date: November 15, 2000
>
> LIBRARIAN BESIEGED AND THREATENED
>
> Recent news reports indicate an intensification of government
> efforts
> to halt the expansion of Cuba's independent library movement,
> especially in
> the eastern provinces of the island. In an innovative challenge to a
> government monopoly on sources of information, more than sixty
> independent,
> uncensored libraries have now opened their doors throughout Cuba,
> offering
> public access to reading materials which reflect all points of view,
> not just
> the officially-approved ideology. The government's persecution of
> Cuba's
> beleaguered independent librarians has been condemned by the
> International
> Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), Amnesty International,
> and a
> growing number of library associations and human rights groups
> throughout the
> world. This news bulletin will focus on events in the eastern city of
> Santiago, where the security forces have been especially active in
> recent
> weeks.
>
> On Thursday, November 9, the independent Antonio Maceo
> Grajales
> Library, located at 14 Escudero Street in Santiago, was scheduled
> to be the
> site of a seminar conducted by a non-government teachers'
> organization. The
> theme of the seminar was "Pre-University Education and a Point of
> Departure
> for Democratic Education in Cuba." Before the event could took
> place,
> however, a detachment of State Security police blocked off nearby
> streets and
> banned public access to the library, forcing a cancelation of the
> seminar.
> This news is contained in report filed by Ricardo Gonzales and
> published in
> the Nov. 13 issue of the CubaNet database (www.cubanet.org).
>
> Later the same day, at about nine o'clock at night, the director
> of the
> Antonio Maceo Grajales Library, Marcia Perez Castillo, was
> accosted by an
> unidentified man while walking in a street near the library. The
> man,
> dressed in civilian clothes, reportedly threatened Ms. Perez
> Castillo,
> telling her: "If you continue using your house and telephone to
> carry out
> counterrevolutionary activities, you're going to have big problems."
> This
> news is contained in a report filed by Milagros Beaton of the APLO
> press
> agency (CubaNet, Nov. 15, 2000). This incident is not the first
> time
> independent librarians have been threatened in Santiago. As
> confirmed in a
> landmark report published by IFLA in Septmber, 1999, a
> children's
> librarian, Alfredo Dennis Camps, was the target of death threats by
> unidentified persons. On two occasions, also confirmed by IFLA,
> Santiago's
> Eduardo Rene Chibas Library was surrounded by groups of
> uniformed men who
> fired volleys of gunfire into the air as an act of intimidation.
>
> In other recent events, the director of Santiago's independent
> Jose
> Mayia Rodriguez Library, Zocima Simoneau Vidal, was questioned
> by the State
> Security police on November 7. After an interrogation recorded on
> videotape,
> she was released with a warning that she could be charged with
> "defamation."
> In September two other independent librarians were arrested in
> Santiago.
> Edel Jimenez was fined after being convicted of "disobedience,"
> while unknown
> charges are still pending against Rolando Bestart. In in early 1999
> Mr.
> Bestart was arrested for allegedly "selling illegal drugs," although
> he was
> not prosecuted. On December 24, 1999, Mr. Bestart was removed
> from Christmas
> Eve mass in Santiago's cathedral and beaten by agents of the State
> Security
> police.
>
> ACTION TO BE TAKEN: The Friends of Cuban Libraries ask you to send
> courteous e-mail messages to Cuban officials requesting an end to the
> persecution of the independent librarians. Judging from an unprecedented
> flurry of responses from government officials, your message WILL have an
> impact. President Fidel Castro may be contacted via the following e-mail
> address:
> [log in to unmask]
> . Please send any responses received to the
> Friends of Cuban Libraries.
>
> MEDIA COVERAGE: The government is showing a heightened
> sensitivity to
> negative publicity by the international mass media. For example,
> please read
> a new Associated Press article ("Independent Libraries Crop Up in
> Communist
> Cuba") published on CNN.COM at
> (www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/11/12/reading.freedom.ap/in
> dex.html).
>
> BACKGROUND: The Friends of Cuban Libraries, founded in
> June, 1999, is an
> independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit support group for the
> independent
> librarians. We are concerned exclusively with intellectual freedom
> issues,
> as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
> regardless of
> whatever government may be in office in Cuba. We are funded
> entirely be our
> members and do not seek or accept funding from other sources.
> For more
> information, contact us by e-mail ([log in to unmask] or
> telephone (USA)
> 718-340-8494. Mailing address: Robert Kent, 4-74 48th Avenue, #3-
> C, Long
> Island City, NY 11109 USA.
>


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