News Bulletin
                  From the Friends of Cuban Libraries
                              Date: April 30, 2000 

               BELGIAN ACTIVIST ARRESTED  IN CUBA

      Dirk van den Broeck, a Belgian political activist traveling in Cuba on 
a tourist visa, was arrested on March 31 in the city of Santiago after he met 
with dissidents and visited several independent libraries.   This information 
was reported in a story filed by Santiago Santana of the independent APLO 
press agency and published in the April 21 edition of the CubaNet database 
(http://www.cubanet.org).  Mr. van den Broeck is a member of the Flemish 
branch of Belgium's Socialist Party and is a candidate for office in upcoming 
municipal elections.  He is also the founder of an anti-racist organization 
that works on behalf of North African immigrants in Belgium. 

      The independent librarians whom Mr. van den Broeck visited in Santiago 
are members of a movement founded in 1998 with the goal of offering the Cuban 
people access to uncensored books.  Because they reject the censorship 
imposed on official Cuban libraries, the government is subjecting the 
independent librarians to what IFLA's intellectual freedom committee has 
condemned as a "campaign of threats, intimidation, harassment, eviction, 
short-term arrests and the confiscation of incoming book donations or book 
collections." (http://www.faife.dk, in the "news and events" section).  In 
November, 1999, Amnesty International named the co-founder of the independent 
library movement, Ramon Colas, as a a Prisoner of Conscience 
(http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y99/nov99/15e25.htm).  For Amnesty's most 
recent report on Cuba, which contains some updated information on the 
campaign being directed against the independent librarians, refer to 
(http://www.amnesty.org/news/2000/22500900.htm).

      After his arrest by the State Security police, Mr. van den Broeck was 
taken to an office of the Ministry of the Interior where he was interrogated 
about his activities.   According  to the account of the journalist Santiago 
Santana, Mr. van den Broeck was informed by his interrogators that the 
independent librarians and dissidents whom he met in Santiago are the paid 
agents of a Miami-based exile organization, the Cuban American National 
Foundation, in addition to being members of religious cults, homosexuals 
and/or drug addicts.  The State Security police also informed Mr. van den 
Broeck that at least one of the dissidents whom he met in Santiago is a pimp.

      Although Mr. van den Broeck was threatened with prosecution for 
"collaboration with the enemy," he was eventually released without charge and 
permitted to leave the island.  Before his departure for Belgium, however,  
the authorities confiscated notes and videotapes he had made during his visit 
to Cuba. 

      BACKGROUND:  The Friends of Cuban Libraries, founded in June 1999, is 
an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit support group for Cuba's independent 
libraries.  The Friends oppose censorship and all other violations of 
intellectual freedom, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, regardless of whatever administration may be in office in Cuba.  We 
are funded by our members and do not seek or accept contributions from other 
sources.  For more information about the Friends, e-mail Robert Kent at: 
[log in to unmask] or telephone (USA) 718-340-8494.  Address: 474 48th Avenue, 
Apt. 3-C, Long Island City, NY 11109 USA. 

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