Poland Diary 2

7th July 2010

Hillary sets up new US fund for NGOs fighting for democratic rights; Cuban Padre awarded for questioning Castro brothers


FROM John Dayal
Krakow, Poland:

The Holy Roman Catholic Church and the current Pope may be on the receiving end of public and media criticism in Europe and the United States, but Washington and its European allies have used a Catholic priest from a small Cuban parish, and the memory of Pope John Paul II. to focus on human rights violations and demand early democratisation in Havana, Iran and Burma.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and one of her predecessors, Madeline Albright, “named and shamed’ Cuban President Raul Castro, the Islamic leaders in Teheran and the Yangon junta as they watched Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez receive the second Bronislav Geremek democracy promotion award in the key function of the High Level Democracy Meeting in Krakow, the cultural capital of Poland, earlier this week.

Nelson Mandela was the first recipient of the award founded ten years ago by Albright and Geremek, the then Polish Foreign minister, to “support legitimacy and authority of people form around the world working in promoting democracy and human liberty.” To add substance to the award, Hillary Clinton in her speech announced the formation of an international fund with a seed capital donation of US Dollars Five Million to assist NGOs and groups engaged in freedoms struggles. She did not name any particular country which would be the target of this effort.

Fr Rodriguez, of the Friars Minor Order, is from the province of Santiago de Cuba and has earned acclaim in the Americas for his sharply worded reprimands to President Fidel Castro. The Pastor wrote a letter again to Fidel’s brother and successor General Raul Castro, protesting that police had beaten up his parishioners inside his church. The letter went on to say “We have spent our lives blaming the enemy, and even our friends, for our situation. The collapse of the bloc of communist countries and the US trade embargo has become the scapegoat that bears all our sins. It is not enough, General, to solve the problems, certainly serious and urgent, of food, and of the homes that so many of our countrymen – “with their meagre belongings: fears, sorrows” - have just lost in the recent hurricanes. We are at such a critical moment that we must undertake a thorough examination of our beliefs and our practices, of our aspirations and our objectives. As the great Jose Marti said, You do not found a nation, General, the way you run a military camp.”

Fr Rodriguez, who got a thunderous ovation in the Krakow Opera House together with his statuette, does have an indirect connection with Krakow – when Krakow’s favourite son and former Cardinal, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in a history-making tour in 1998, among those receiving him was the fiery Parish priest from Santa Teresita del Nino Jesus. Joining him on stage this time was the current Cardinal of Krakow and ministers from Indonesia, the European parliament, Lithuania, South Korea, Canada, and Kenya. India had a low key presence 2-4 July meeting, its delegation headed by an additional secretary from the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi. Polish foreign minister Radoslav Sikorski played the host.

Though called the Community of Democracies and held in Poland, the show piece of democratic transition from the Soviet era, the Krakow meet was dominated by the US presence, the speeches of the former and present Secretaries of State remaining the dominant voices. Mrs. Clinton was particularly sharp after her concurrent tour of Eastern European countries. In Krakow and in the neighbouring countries Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, she questioned Moscow, decried the Caucasian habit of coveting other’s lands and the still continuing restrictions on civil rights in some countries. “We seek a community of nations working together to strengthen democracy, and transparency of government processes, sound electoral systems, respect for human rights and the rule of law, active civic education, prevention of official corruption and related core values basic to democratic governance.”

Stressing the importance of democracy both as a central organizing principle of official government foreign policy and as the basis of international alliances of NGOs, she said “We are convinced the time has arrived for the democracies of the world to build upon the experience of the UN and NATO, a new institutional framework for global cooperation among democratic nations.”

She focussed on the "crisis" of governments “around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit." She named Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Congo, Zimbabwe, Burma, North Korea and China.

As she announced a US fund to assist NGOs and civil society, presumably working in threes and other countries, Mrs Clinton said the United Nations Human Rights Council needs to do more to protect civil society. “Freedom of association is the only freedom defined in the United Nations declaration of human rights that does not enjoy specific attention from the UN human rights machinery. That must change. She spoke of US pressure on organizations, such as the OAS, the EU, the OIC, the African Union, and the Arab League, others, to do more to defend the freedom of association. “We need to make sure words are matched by actions,” said, calling for coordinated diplomatic pressure by allied governments.

An interesting aspect of the meeting was a series of side discussions on the use of the Internet and emerging communication technologies to assist NGOs and Civil society groups in their struggle for democracy. Also discussed was the role of parliamentarians, and women’s groups and civil society participation in economic development. The concluding documents of the group discussions spoke of “developing mechanisms to ensure that the voice of NGOs, Think tanks and other actors is heard is essential to foster the democratic ideal.” At present time, there is a need to give priority to economic and social development and to fight unemployment; both of those have implications for democratic governance,” the documents said.