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Dear Mr Kamran Mir Hazar,
May I wish your family and yourself all the best, and good luck in the
valuable and important work that you obviously have taken on your
shoulders to carry out.
Let me first introduce myself. My name is Eugene Schoulgin, and I am a
novelist and the Chair of International PEN’s Writers in Prison
Committee. I have been informed about the correspondence between you
and our Headquarters in London, since I am myself part of that
Headquarters, and I should like to answer some of the crucial points
contained in your last letter.
Your description of what you are trying to be and do, and what RAHA has
been and is today, can only be received with admiration and respect from
our side. There are no problems whatsoever connected with that – on the
contrary, there are many reasons why we should be able to establish a
fruitful dialogue in the future in our common efforts to assist, and be
of support to, our fellow writers in your part of the world.
What you seem not to be able to understand, though, is that it is
totally unacceptable that you claim to represent an organisation about
which you obviously know nothing. You accuse our International
Secretary of arrogance – but how would you describe your own behaviour,
showing as it does your lack of the most elementary insight into our
organisation and how it works?
May I inform you that we have been working closely on the problems in
Iran since the time of the Shah. Through both our Iranian PEN Centre in
Exile, which includes the majority of the Iranian writers living outside
Iran, and through our many contacts inside Iran we have been
continuously updated on what is going on in that country. Of course we
are aware of the examples you mention, and of a lot of other tragic and
alarming events as well. We help Iranian writers to get out of the
country, and we assist them when they are abroad. For example, I
personally helped Reza Baraheni and his family to get to Canada. PEN
delegations have on several occasions gone to Iran, to protest and to
show PEN’s solidarity both officially and privately, both practically
and morally.
The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN, of which I am the
Chair and which is staffed by highly professional researchers, deals
with approximately 1,000 cases annually in countries all over the
world. In addition to sending letters protesting at the treatment meted
out to writers for exercising their right to freedom of _expression, we
approach governments in the various countries involved and we see to it
that the cases are highlighted in national and international forums; we
also visit those countries in which we have cases to try to visit
imprisoned writers, see and help their families, meet with the
authorities and publicise their situation through press conferences and
interviews with the local media.
Without knowing what you are talking about, you assume that
International PEN is a Western ‘highbrow’ society which does not have
the will to engage in active help. On the contrary, I can assure you we
are most active: first of all through our network of Centres which not
only provides the Headquarters with much valuable information but also
responds actively to our requests for help in the work of PEN; and
second through the daily exchange of information between PEN and other
national and international NGOs.
Last but not least, I may inform you that I and a colleague stayed in
Afghanistan (in Kabul and Herat) from the 4th to the 22nd
of April last; we established contact with around 50 writers and
initiated work to create an Afghan PEN Centre. We are also in contact
with a number of Afghan writers living in Pakistan (Peshawar), Europe
and Canada.
May I assume that you will get in touch with Partaw Naderi or Habibullah
Rafi in Kabul for further information? Partaw Naderi’s e-mail is:
partaw@hotmail.com
I am sorry to have to write to you in this unfriendly vein. It is not
morally defensible to sail under a false flag, as you are doing. May I
inform you that even in Sweden a group of Afghan writers ‘set up’ an
Afghan PEN Centre without knowing this was not possible – but unlike
you, sir, they immediately understood their mistake when it was pointed
out to them, and there are no hard feelings from either side.
Now, instead of arguing about something so obviously indefensible, we
should be discussing how best we might assist and help each other and my
suggestion is that we bring this arguing to an end. We do not oppose
you in any other way than over your misleading use of our name.
On the contrary, we would like to co-operate with you in the future. I
am planning to lead a new delegation to Afghanistan in September this
year, and would also like to visit what I assume is your town,
Mazar-i-Sharif. Let us meet there. I have visited your country several
times since 1972 and I am a great admirer of both your country and your
people. I can assure you that we in International PEN want to do what
we can to assist the many important and brave writers in Afghanistan in
their crucial struggle to create a better future after all these years
of horror and suffering.
Respectfully yours
Eugene Schoulgin
Chair of International PEN
Writers in Prison Committee
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International PEN,
9/10 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AT, United
Kingdom
tel: + 44 (0)20 7253 4308 fax: + 44 (0)20 7253 5711
e.mail:
intpen@dircon.co.uk website:
www.internatpen.org |
