International Committee for Democracy in Cuba
The International Committee for Democracy in Cuba ( English : International Committee for Democracy in Cuba , shortly ICDC) is an association of eminent persons to support the Cuban opposition . It is part of the Cuba program of the Czech aid organization People in Need , based in Prague . The committee claims that it was formed in September 2003 in response to the execution of three boat hijackers and the arrest of 75 Cuban dissidents in March of that year.
The Cuba program of the People in Need u. a. from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Open Society Institute , the National Endowment for Democracy and the Center for a Free Cuba .
aims
The primary goal of the ICDC is to strengthen the inner-Cuban opposition, which expressly includes direct financial support. The aim is to create a European foundation for democracy in Cuba. In addition, the ICDC is trying to increase the presence of the dissidents in the international media. Among other things, the ICDC is trying to nominate Oswaldo Payá for the Nobel Peace Prize . The aim is to press the Cuban leadership into a direct political dialogue with the opposition.
Furthermore, the Cuban population is to be influenced in a targeted manner by the distribution of a news program that is to be broadcast over the shortwave frequencies of radio stations such as Radio Exterior de España , Radio Praha and Radio Nederland Wereldomroep . In preparation for the time after a regime change, the ICDC provides for the formation of a “Committee for Transition in Cuba”. This should consist of experts who were involved in the transition to a market economy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Members
Members of the ICDC include a number of former heads of state and government: Patricio Aylwin (Chile), José María Aznar (Spain), Armando Calderón Sol (El Salvador), Kim Campbell (Canada), Vinicio Cerezo (Guatemala), Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (Nicaragua), Chang Chun-hsiung (Taiwan), Filip Dimitrov (Bulgaria), Eduardo Frei (Chile), Árpád Göncz (Hungary), Václav Havel (Czech Republic), Toomas Hendrik Ilves (Estonia), Milan Kučan (Slovenia), Mart Laar (Estonia), Luis Alberto Lacalle (Uruguay), Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuania), Rexhep Meidani (Albania), Luis Alberto Monge Álvarez (Costa Rica). The United States is represented by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and (until her death in 2006) Jeane Kirkpatrick .
With the Slovakian EU Commissioner Ján Figeľ and the Vice-President of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott , two high-ranking EU politicians are represented. Connections to the Helsinki Federation exist through Jelena Bonner , former Soviet dissident and widow of Andrei Sakharov , and Karel Schwarzenberg , the then Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic .
German members are the council chairman of the foundation to come to terms with the SED dictatorship and SPD member of the Bundestag Markus Meckel and the deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group Arnold Vaatz .
Berlin Cuba Conference
From April 24 to 25, 2007, the ICDC and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung organized a conference in Berlin entitled “Democracy in Cuba: In Search of Joint Initiatives”. During this conference, the committee president Václav Havel and the two Cubans in exile Frank Calzón and Carlos Alberto Montaner spoke . Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's planned participation was canceled in advance due to other obligations. With Günter Nooke , the Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid , a representative of the German government took part in the event.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ People in Need: Annual Reports 2004 ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and 2005 ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_12592-1522-1-30.pdf?071212000703
- ↑ Bundestag printed paper 16/5093 (PDF; 80 kB)
