Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 13, 1980, Winnipeg, Manitoba Whoa pet free armst focus Havana visit can be a trip to hell by Marilyn Goldstein a Grey pall hangs thick like a Blanket of us Flitner humidity Over the Tropic Ana Tours chartered dg3 As it lifts off from Miami International Airport Des tined for there is no sense of impending Holiday in that no spark of the group of americans in the rear sit in silence throughout the they have ail taken this fou Day package Many times to is always hell their baggage is the fabric suitcases hold Only minimal one woman wears two layers of clothes to save weight in her most of the space is reserved for the travellers had pored Over camping catalogues and studied supermarket shelves to find non Fri nutritious items dehydrated camping dried and tinned instant plastic jars or Peanut boxes of cookies and idiosyncratic treats like Rye bread or m 6 m their suitcases carry human also crazy electrical tape and Bic these flying to will not join the halfday tour of historical colonial Havana that comes with the package the Only method by which Ordinary americans can get into that they wont visit the Ernest Hemingway haunts or Sun them selves on Santa Marta one destination they will visit Only one spot com bin ado Del a medium Security prison South of where their american relatives Are serving terms of up to 24 the families and the prisoners Are convinced their main crime is being there Are approximately 44 Ameri can born citizens and about 18 cuban born americans incarcerated in the paste painted Concrete buildings about a half hour from according to the state no information on the Cuba born americans is they Are considered cuban citizens by that government and have been denied Access by the United states interest Section in which serves in place of an of the 44 american born six were charged As High Ackers three admit Ted to their families that they were trafficking in marijuana called the Bible bombers by their fellow admitted dropping religious but claim the message was not anti cuban As the cubans but Only there Are also at least 12 prisoners who maintain they Are innocent of any the charges on which they were convicted penetrating cuban air or sea space Andor trafficking in All say they trespassed into cuban territory acc Dently because of mechanical failures or were forced in by cuban migs or yet they Are being held under a cuban Law designed to punish intentional trespassing for counterrevolutionary among the prisoners is 25yearold Michael Seitler of Glen convicted of penetrating cuban Waters and trafficking in on the plane with the other americans is his advertising executive Isolde sunny who has surfaced As the Leader of the prisoners families in their efforts to have their men sunny Seitler says that the prisoners and their families firmly believe the american government would rather ignore them than Deal with the complications their cases add to the already contorted foreign relations Between the two the for whatever seem to be stepping up the capture of americans and have not offered to bargain for their Odd sunny is a tall and Power full oking dressed and groomed in a manner befitting an executive in the Beauty she is a study in perpetual she talks walks lights one of the Little Brown cigarettes she is addicted to before she has finished the one she is As an executive Vic Epresi Dent of advertising for Seligman and which owns most of the hair salons in department stores around the country and the Adrien Appel cosmetics her Trade is in the pleasant Ries of on her personal Seitler finds herself entangled in the rather unpleasant web of american and cuban and foreign and Domestic poli she sometimes finds herself being buffeted in the internecine warfare Between governmental especially the state department and yet within eight months of leading the prisoners families which she named she Learned to lobby Congress with the competence of an emissary from general motors or sunny Seitler is known by her first name to scores of state depart ment senators and their some of them would like her to that she does not intend to instead she looks for new people to hear the stories of the 44 americans known to be in combi Nado Del her sons Odyssey began after his discharge from the Michael Seitler left his Long Home for Florida in the Spring of last to find himself a fishing boat and Start a he went to he to Purchase a 60foot fishing Bravo and had called his Mother before he left to ask about a he swears smuggling colombian marijuana was not his if you like the buy Seitler told the next time she spoke to him was four months in the visiting room of combi Nado Del Este Mike Seitler claimed he was sailing As a passenger on Bravo i to ascertain the vessels seaworthiness when it had mechanical problems in the Straits of he said the coast guard re fused to come to their claiming they were in cuban while Seitler claimed he was in a coast guard spokesman said the Bravo i was under surveillance at the time because it had been used to carry marijuana in the but was not being the spokesman said the boat had deliberately sailed into cuban Waters and had not contacted a Cutter until the next after the cubans had fired on Bravo i with tracer at settlers according to an american consular the cubans claimed that Bravo i had carried a cargo of marijuana that was thrown overboard when the coast guard gave and that several Bales of the marijuana had washed up on the cuban coast a few Days after the Cap stories coincide the other prisoners stories Are Simi Lar to Michael William Dawson of fort Lauder a retired Navy was arrested july while delivering a shrimp velvet from key West to Venezuela the wrong direction for someone to be carrying according to Dawson the boats steering system malfunctioned and velvet lady drifted for four hours while Dawson and his Austin of fort Lauderdale and Douglas of Boca repaired we were six hours from the in inter National we were challenged and fired upon by a cuban which ordered them to proceed to cuban where they were arrest their cuban interrogators produced an envelope containing marijuana but not and charged that they were found on the velvet said prior searches had failed to reveal these he said they were questioned about their military their participation in Vietnam and Dawson naval duties on a Polaris after four months in the three men were my total conversation with our defence attorney consisted do you have a family to which i Householder and Miklos were sentenced to 11 the senior prisoner among the 44 being held is Lance his Small plane was forced Down in after it developed mechanical arrested with Fyfe were German a and car Loa a both of whom live in the colombian govern ment had seized the plane because it had been rented from a company to smuggle a com Mercial had been hired by the company to return the plane to cuban migs forced Fyfe to land at the cubans said they found traces of marijuana in the and Fyfe said that it is not unlikely that traces of the illegal Weed had remained behind after the colombian authorities had confiscated the but we were smuggling drugs of any each was sentenced to eight but the colombian was released within six the portuguese within 14 still at combing it must be remembered that the three of us were charged with the same judged equally guilty and Given equal leaflet bombing Thomas White of and Melvin Lee Bailey of Newport who were dropping religious leaflets from an air plane Over crash landed in a storm at Camaguey after being intercepted by two cuban they were each sentenced to 24 years 12 for and another 12 for crimes against the people of Vietnam the cubans had Learned that Bailey but not White had been a helicopter Pilot the United states maintains that they Are not political Odd the american official most knowledgeable about the prisoners is Susan a Consul assigned to the interests Section in Havana until May and the american Diplomat who was responsible for protecting the prison ers rights and Lamanna at tended at least six including she is now based in washing Lamanna said she believes the cubans do not intentionally set out to pull the men in on completely fabric ated but do have what she Calls a certain disposition to nailing i think a Good proportion Are she and a Small proportion Are the cubans believe the americans Are involved in they Start from a suspicious viewpoint and May get carried alluding to the charges by the prison ers that they Are tortured and coerced into signing she in willing to lend some credence to the fact the cubans decide these people were involved in drug and if they dont have adequate they use enticement and inti Mida by the time we get to see she they have been investigated and gone through preliminary their guilt is already prisoners have told their families of trials taking from 30 minutes to a maximum of three hours of Long sentences with no possibility of Early re lease for americans of seeing their lawyer for the first time at the time of the trial of being at three questions by the defense their where they Are and Are they there is the same overture to trial weeks spent in solitary confine ment without any Contact with diplomats or a Days of Anterro physical under alternate threats of execution and promises of the americans Are asked to sign they have a Choice Cia agent or marijuana they Are promised immedi ate release and expulsion if they they Are convicted and sentenced to up to 24 years in odious comparison marijuana trafficking draws a sen tence of about 10 to 15 years by in the United the maximum sentence under Federal Law for a first offence on a charge of Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute is five years in jail and a with eligibility for parole after two sunny Seitler and other relatives of the prisoners find it ironic that when Fidel Castro was convicted by the Batista government in after castros first unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government at the Moncada Castro was Given 15 years the same sentence Mike Seitler received for the marijuana Castro was released after 20 months in a general newsway sunny Seitler leads a Campaign to free her son and 43 other americans from cuban prisons Khmer Rouge chiefs Are still going to pot by John Burgess Dangren thai cambodian Border the food was French and skilfully glasses of Beer and cola were in a tree shrouded Border Camp journalists sat Down recently to a banquet designed to portray the leaders of Cambodia ousted Khmer Rouge government As open minded and Well mannered gentlemen who had been falsely accused of brutal Nineteen months after abandoning the capital to a vietnamese invasion Khmer Rouge leaders admit to mistakes during their time in now they have replaced pol pot and rejected they and if restored to control would allow full democracy and free if it would rank among the More remarkable political transformations in modern the Khmer Rouge government reportedly killed three million people Between 1975 and 1979 in tens of thousands of cambodians fled to ploy for support the new faces and policies of the Khmer Rouge appear to be More of an Effort to win support in the War against the vietnamese than a genuine change in political pol pot and his Circle of hardened who oversaw social regimentation and mass executions during their four years in remain in pol pot is now military commander and apparently still chairman of the communist his Henchman and ally in years of to com Mander of the Southwest military re seems to have retained his Post As in a recent Khieu Sam Phan said the mistakes after 1975 were mainly in implementation of poli policies defended Basic were Cor he seated at a roughly Hen wooden he declared evacuation was the Only Way to resolve conditions in phenom three million people were Only when they came to the Countryside could they find asked about the Samphan denied his government had killed to talk about systematic murder is he if we had really killed at that rate we would have no one left to fight the Vietnam the old policies were Correct for post1975 but Are not suited to a country faced with vietnamese the Khmer Rouge their government last year unveiled a new political program of Uto Pian freedoms and a United known formally As the patriotic and democratic front of great National Union of Cambodia is also called its program provides for Freedom to form political elect represent publish journals and organize Public collective Economy is cast out the cambodians would be allowed to engage in private com cultivate their own plots of land and Trade with foreign the Khmer Rouge re shuffled their bringing in new personalities and political perspex pol pot stepped Down As prime he was replaced by head of state Khieu who after 1975 had managed to maintain distance from pol in the Public Eye at pol pots influence in the party and army accelerated at this time amidst growing fear of Hanoi attacked in thoum and other educated people were evacuated from phenom penh Only hours before the first vietnamese a he argues that the Khmer Rouse and their United front offer the Only Hope of driving out the Vietnam evidence overwhelming the Khmer Rouge Point to the pro motion of educated and amicable men like thoum As proof that the govern ment has gone far beyond 1978 in but there is overwhelming evidence that pol pot and his associates continue to make All major Deci but Khieu Samphan has not Given up trying to sell his he has brought a steady Stream of Western journalists to the Camp this As Well As cambo Dian but the deposed government faces an Uphill for the time most cambodians apparently fear the return of the Khmer Rouge More than the vandals even monks left imprint on desks Anthony Doob is a professor of criminology at the University of he has just completed a study that shows that 88 per cent of High school students in that City committed acts of Vandal ism during toe past taken at face such a study would be frighten ing As with most the kind that for that six out of 10 wives Are or that nine out of 10 husbands Are a Reader has to he careful not to fall into that trap that allows researchers to stretch the truth by using if six out of 10 wives Are How come we Seldom meet a beaten wife if nine out of 10 husbands Are where do they get a the time or b the Money to finance All that Romance in the Case of professor the Fred Cleversey High rate of vandalism is achieved by calling traditional High school such As carving breaking bottles or writing Graffiti acts of or even scratching desks vandalism according to professor Doob has been traditional almost from the time that desks were nude out of Wood rather than the original there Are cases on record where the holy men who laboriously turned out the Handwritten left a More lasting imprint of their identity on the desks where they while people such As professor Doob might consider the or scratch ing of initials on desks to be and while this opinion might have been shared by the teacher at where Winston Churchill was an unspectacular it is sure that should the initials be found on an Eton and authenticated As being carved by Young they would become an instant part of the desk would be immediately transported to a place of Honor at the and the vandalism suitably preserved by the addition of protective the Carver need not have achieved As notable a place in history As Winston should a desk be discovered somewhere with John Diefenbaker initials carved in it would be Given similar All of which poses the question Are the Carvers or Are they simply Young people of High anxious to present society with an authentic relic Long before it becomes a relic Are they simply Histo rather than vandals it is difficult to understand what professor Doob is talking about when he mentions the breaking of bottles at school As an act of there was a not too Long when school of Fly contained Glass which were used As dipping pots for the pigtails of any Girt silting in front of or As appropriate missiles in any class dispute that took place when the teacher was tee breaking of bottles was an attack on school but it was punished with a Sharp rap of a ruler on the rather than finding its Way into the records of it is difficult to imagine what kind of bottles Are being and if they Are school or belong to a local brewery or soft drink As far As writing Grafitti if that is then we certainly need a much larger police Force if we expect to curb professor Doob does mention More serious acts that Are clearly such As slashing or breaking but the rates for these Inci dents of vandalism Are much 13 per cent in the Case of and a serious 19 per cent when it came to no As could be the professor has a solution to the no one should be surprised at what it it is to encourage More sports and recreation Al no matter what is found wrong with the the answer seems to be More with never a thought about those students who actually dislike if the sports include base and the game is played close enough to the the incident of broken window vandalism might statisticians face dangers when they put too much Faith in their there is always the Story about the statistician who drowned while wading across a River whose average depth was three ;