CZECH NGO, PEOPLE IN NEED, LAUNCHES NEW PROGRAM

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 001198 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/11/2015 TAGS: CU EAID IZ PREL SUBJECT: CZECH NGO, PEOPLE IN NEED, LAUNCHES NEW PROGRAM FOR IRAQ, CONTINUES PRO-DEMOCRACY WORK IN CUBA AND ELSEWHERE. REF: A. PRAGUE 832 ¶B. PRAGUE 814 Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Mark Canning for reasons 1.4 (a) (b). 1.(U) Simon Panek, the Director of the Czech NGO, People In Need (PIN),briefed Embassy officials 8/11 on a new initiative for Iraq, the establishment of a center to promote democracy in the Middle East, and explained the non-governmental organization's ongoing ties with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2.(U) PIN has been in Iraq for years, though primarily providing humanitarian assistance. In 2004, PIN pulled all of its expats out of Iraq and relocated many of them in Jordan. This month, PIN began a new program in Jordan, based on the Czech experience in the transition from a totalitarian regime to democracy. An Institute has been set up in Amman, with the working title, The Democracy and Transition Center for the Middle East. In this month's initial program, Iraqi journalists will receive training from August 4 to August 26. Jan Urban, former dissident, human rights activist, one-time chairman of the Civic Forum and still practicing journalist, will lead the training. Panek says he can see the program growing to include journalists from Palestine and Syria one day. Panek believes the center could also be used to train NGO leaders. 3.(U) Panek expects the center to need USD500,000 per year in its early stages. The Center has received an initial allocation of funds from the National Endowment for Democracy in the US, and 15 million Czech Crowns (USD 650,000) from an office within the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That office, called the Section for Cooperation on Transitions (Reftel A),was conceived last year by three Czechs: Deputy Foreign Minister Petr Kolar, who is expected to be the next Ambassador to the US; Tomas Pojar, then Director of PIN, now scheduled to succeed Kolar as Deputy FM; and Simon Panek. The office is run by Gabriela Dlouha, who along with Kolar, once worked for former President, Vaclav Havel. The MFA's Section for Cooperation on Transitions is itself very active in Iraq, Cuba, Belarus and elsewhere, and also supports PIN activities in each of these places. The MFA's support for democracy in these countries is largely the result of the personal ties between Kolar, Pojar, and Panek, but also due to the support given by FM Svoboda and former President Havel. ¶4. (C) PIN is the secretariat for the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba. PIN uses volunteers, mostly non-Czech Europeans, to smuggle digital cameras and laptops into Cuba, where they are given to journalists and others documenting conditions there. In May, PIN organized a trip for Senator Karel Scwarzenberg and other parliamentarians. Three editing decks were smuggled in on that trip, which ended one-day early when the parliamentarians were detained by Cuban officials (Reftel B) PIN also works with other European states to get cash to the families of political prisoners in Cuba. 5.(U) Finally on North Korea, Panek said PIN made some initial efforts to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea, but was told that North Korea only provides entry to humanitarian projects worth at least half a million Euros and he wasn't able to provide that much assistance . 6.(U) COMMENT: This message doesn't give a thorough description of all of PIN's activities, only developments in certain countries over the last few months. In addition to the places mentioned above, PIN is active in Belarus, Burma, the Balkans, and is considering projects in Zambia. PIN is led by dedicated individuals with excellent ties to the current leadership at the MFA, and among other politicians, such as Senator Schwarzenberg, who is 67 (current term 2004-2010),and Vice President of the Senate Petr Pithart, who is expected to retire when his term runs out next year. The Czech Republic will have parliamentary elections next year and there is no guarantee the next government will make the promotion of human rights, or the toppling of dictatorial regimes, such a high priority. Panek agrees that a victory by a left-of-center coalition between the Social Democrats and the Communists, an outcome that can't be ruled out at this stage, would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to continue government-funded programs against regimes in Cuba and Belarus. MUNTER