December 7, 1999

The People in Need Foundation. Press Release, 7 December 1999, 11:00 GMT

Award recognizes "quiet but effective" work of reformist community organizer

PRAGUE - The People in Need Foundation, a prominent Czech humanitarian aid and human rights agency, has selected Oswaldo Paya Sardinas of Cuba as recipient of its 1999 "Homo Homini" award for his courageous work in promoting civic and religious freedoms and democratic reform in the island nation, it was announced in Prague today.

Mr. Paya Sardinas, a biomedical engineer, Catholic layworker and father of three children, is founder and president of the Movimiento Cristiano de Liberacion (Christian Liberation Movement - MCL), which seeks a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba through community-based action. In March of this year he was expelled from his teaching position in Havana s Instituto Superior Jose Antonio Echeverria because of his activism, and has been repeatedly victimized by arbitrary arrests, "actos de repudio" and other instruments of official repression.

The award was personally presented to Mr. Paya Sardinas at his home in Havana on behalf of the Foundation by Michael Zantovsky, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Senate, during a private visit to Cuba on December 6. As with most Cuban dissidents, Mr. Paya Sardinas is routinely denied exit permits by Cuban authorities to travel abroad, and so did not visit the Czech Republic to receive the award as per usual custom.

Speaking in Prague on the occasion, People in Need Chairman Simon Panek, a student leader of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia, compared Mr. Paya to hundreds of Czechoslovak dissidents who labored for decades in isolation to preserve freedom of thought and expression under the former communist regime.

"Ten years after our Velvet Revolution, Czechs still remember all too well the bogus, mind-deadening and morally bankrupt character of communism, a system of endless lies and contradictions that common citizens came to call 'Absurdistan,'" Panek said. "Just as the world did not forget us in our darkest hours, so the Czech people do not forget that others around the world continue to live under similar forms of totalitarian repression. Mr. Paya Sardinas is perhaps not so well known as some of his fellow dissidents, but he is among the most dedicated and effective leaders for democratic change in Cuba today, one who quietly organizes at the grassroots level to achieve concrete results. His values are our values, his struggle is our struggle, and we are very pleased to recognize his work with this award."

Challenging the Political Monopoly

The MCL is engaged in a broad range of civic organizing and consciousness-raising activities, but potentially its most important initiative is the "Varela Project," an attempt to challenge the monopoly of the Communist Party of Cuba to appoint candidates for political elections. Mr. Paya Sardinas has written court briefs, supported by a public campaign by MCL, for residents of Varela who are nonparty members to be able to compete as independents in local elections, on the basis that a strict reading of the Cuban constitution allows for such participation in the political process. The MCL also vigorously lobbies on behalf of Cuban political prisoners and participates in joint actions with independent media and human rights defenders.

A singular characteristic of the MCL is that its work is grounded in church doctrine and enjoys the backing and protective umbrella of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II opened vital space for the church to pursue its spiritual mission in Cuba, and Mr. Paya Sardinas has capitalized on this with a cautious but determined strategy to expand public dialogue on the sanctity of the individual rather than ideology as the organizing principle for society.

A New Kind of Solidarity

The selection of Mr. Paya Sardinas for this year s Homo Homini award was made against an ironic background of shared history between the Czech Republic and Cuba. The "Prague Spring" of 1968, when progressive elements attempted to peacefully reform the communist regime of Czechoslovakia and give it a "human face," was crushed with Soviet tanks backed by forces of the Warsaw Pact. President Fidel Castro staunchly defended the invasion, which condemned Czechoslovakia to two decades of suffocating Stalinist rule, and during which time effectively stood still. The period was marked by increased "solidarity" between the two countries, as expressed by large flows of Czech armaments to Cuba, an influx of Cuban guest workers into Czechoslovakia who in reality were more akin to indentured servants, and "cultural exchanges" that were nothing more than droll celebrations of Leninist thought.

Nevertheless, there remains an abiding affinity between Czechs and Cubans, as witnessed in several visits by Foundation representatives to Cuba over the past year. Everywhere they travelled on the island, common people displayed warmth, hospitality and dignity that was all the more impressive given the harsh economic conditions in which they live. Many dissidents were well-versed in the writings of President Vaclav Havel, especially "The Power of the Powerless," and found in them a powerful moral compass which guides their everyday lives. In the post-Cold War world, it is this kind of solidarity which the Homo Homini award expresses, a human-to-human solidarity unbound by the stale nostrums of yesterday and which reflects the universal ideals of truth, freedom and compassion.

About the Foundation

The People in Need Foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization which provides aid to countries in crisis and advocates for human rights and democratic freedoms worldwide. Since its establishment in 1992, the Foundation has provided nearly $14 million in direct emergency relief and humanitarian assistance to 20 countries, including $7.5 million to victims of war and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Its work is funded by private donations from Czech citizens and corporations, government ministries and grants from international institutions. In 1997 the Foundation received the first "Gratias Agit" award from the Czech Foreign Ministry for outstanding contributions to the image of the Czech Republic abroad, and in 1998 received the "Democracy and Civil Society" award from the United States and European Union.

About the Award

The Homo Homini award was established in 1995 to recognize outstanding courage and fortitude in the service of humanity. Past winners include Sergei Kovoljov, a member of Russian Duma who mobilized international opinion against the war in Chechnya; Szeto Wah, a popular Hong Kong councilman who defended the island s Basic Law leading up to the handover to China; and Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the nonviolent Democratic League of Kosovo which organized the "parallel system" of government after the revocation of Kosovo s autonomy by Yugoslavia in 1989.

For more information, you may Michael Luhan at this e-mail address, at telephone ++4202.6113.4435 or 4629, or by fax message at ++4202.6113.4137.

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