I am writing from the 44th Writers for Peace Committee meeting which takes place this week at Lake Bled in Slovenia. PEN members from around the world are gathered together to debate, discuss and develop ideas on key issues of our times. In a series of round table presentations we are hearing members’ presentations on the themes of civilisation, modernity and paths to peace. Writers from Slovenia are joinned by writers from over twenty-five PEN Centres ranging as far afield as Central Asia, Somali-speaking PEN and New Zealand.

Topics for discussion over the coming days include ‘Literature and Interculturality’, ‘The Perennial Modern’, ‘Culture, Literature and Languages’, ‘Any future for Literature?’ , ‘The Global Happiness Index’ and ‘Sharing as a Path to Peace’.

As we look to the future, Writers for Peace continue to develop new, meaningful ways of responding to, influencing and shaping key debates of our times. With the challenges of conflict across the world shifting in form yet ever prevalent, the Writers for Peace Committee provides an essential and dynamic space for shared dialogue, for challenge, for tolerance and most importantly for understanding.

Fuentes, who died on 15 May 2012 in Mexico City, aged 83, published over 60 works during his lifetime, including numerous collections of short stories, essays and plays. He will perhaps be best remembered for his novels The Death of Antonio Cruz (1962), and The Old Gringo (1985), which explored themes of death, cultural exchange and Mexican identity. He was the recipient of the Cervantes Prize in 1987 and in 1992 was appointed to France’s Legion d’Honneur.

Born in 1928 in Panama City, Fuentes lived a truely international life, which saw him educated in Washington D.C., and living in London and Paris – where he acted as Mexican Ambassador to France – before eventually settling in Mexico City.

Fuentes was also an observer at the 1966 PEN Congress, at which the PEN Charter was ratified.

He will be sadly missed.

Gloria Guardia, President of the Iberno-American PEN Foundation, writes:

Carlos Fuentes was one of the greatest writers in the Spanish language, considered an immortal not only in this region but in the United States and Europe. At one point he was a member of PEN in Mexico, like the Nobel Prize winning poet and essayist Octavio Paz. Author of twenty novels, as well as numerous essays and plays, Fuentes was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious awards granted in our language.

As a person, Fuentes embodied the principles behind PEN International. He was a fierce defender of freedom of expression and the rights of writers and journalists, not only in Mexico but in the various regions around the world where he worked and lived. He was his country’s ambassador in France, during which time he spoke out against totalitarian dictatorships and defended exiled writers from Franco’s regime living in the country.

His work, translated into over more than forty languages, is an indispensable reference in Latin American literature.

For more information on the life and work of Carlos Fuentes please see here and here.

Open letter in support of the Pussy Riot band members who staged the ‘punk prayer’ in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

To President D. A. Medvedev

Cc: Advisor of the President of Russian Federation

To the Chairman Fedotov M. A.

About the development of civil society and human rights

We, the members of Russian PEN Centre, worldwide association of writers, call to stop the prosecution of the arrested members of the band Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, Hadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samusevich, who now are in jail and charged under the article 213 of Russian Criminal Code of hooliganism, sentence for which the maximum penalty is seven years in prison. Close examination to the lyrics of the songs did not find that the girls’ motives were hatred and enmity which confirms the absence of evidence against them. Experts have confirmed that there was evidence of possible insult to the feelings of believers of the Orthodox Church. For this kind of offence administrative law has ordered a fine of 1000 roubles (approx. 21 pounds).

This arrest in itself is a violation of the constitution of the Russian Federation as it breach the Russian law and people of sound judgement. We want to see our country following the constitution, and think that these kind of actions compromise our state’s commitment to it. We regard this as yet another insult to common sense by Russian authorities.

We urgently ask you, the guarantors of the Russian constitution, to show humanity and immediately free the band members from custody.

(Translated from the original Russian text)

For further details on PEN International’s position on Pussy Riot go to http://www.pen-international.org/newsitems/russia-pen-joins-calls-for-release-of-pussy-riot-band-members/

Poetry Parnassus, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme, is an international celebration of literature, which will bring together the world’s most exciting poets, rappers, spoken word artists, singers and storytellers for the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK.

For this unique global event PEN International is teaming up with the Southbank Centre in London and English PEN to put together a special series of Free the Word! literary events on 27 June 2012.

Poets and writers from every Olympic Nation will be taking place in the event. The diverse range of writers includes such names as Seamus Heaney, Wole Soyinka, John Agard, Shailja Patel, Jack Mapange and Rafeef Ziadeh. For a full list of all participating poets and biographies of all the participants see here.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to take action on behalf of imprisoned and persecuted poets, to get involved with our ‘living’ installations, or simply to relax with a book in PEN’s reading corner.

PEN International’s Free the Word! festivals aim to celebrate the best in contemporary literature from around the world. Each festival is rooted in its local culture, but is international in outlook, and aims to bring writers together across cultures to share experiences and explore ideas and open conversations about how literature can transform, influence and excite. For more information see here.

Free the Word! Events at Poetry Parnassus – Wednesday 27th June

10:00 – 11:00am
PEN International Breakfast – An introduction to PEN’s work worldwide
The Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer
FREE
An opportunity to learn more about PEN’s role in promoting literature and defending free expression with a chance to network and learn more about the issues that affect writers around the world.

11:30pm – 12:30pm
Free The Word!: Zones of Conflict – Poets Caught in Global Crisis
The Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer
FREE
An interactive session involving poetry readings, personal narratives and debate on the issues faced by poets caught in national and international conflicts, addressing the expectations placed on poets and writers to act as ‘spokespeople’ in times of crisis, and the tensions such expectations may create, the impact of wide scale trauma on the urge to write, the question of whether poetry can provide a suitable form of ‘resistance’, and the role of the poet in national reconciliation.
In partnership with PEN International
Chairperson – Laura McVeigh, Executive Director, PEN International

1:00pm – 2:00pm
Free The Word!: Exile and Audience
The Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer
FREE
A session bringing together a diversity of writers working in ‘dislocation’ from their native countries, either by choice or through forced exile. This session hopes to explore, through readings, spoken word and discussion, some of the issues facing poets who have relocated, both in terms of personal experience and poetic style. This session also aims to explore how the dual pressure to remain faithful to ones heritage, while embracing the present situation, influences poetry and poets.
In partnership with PEN International
Chairperson – Heather Norman Soderlind, Deputy Director of English PEN

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Free The Word!: Speechless: Minority languages, marginalised voices
2:30pm – 3:30pm
FREE
A discussion bringing together writers working in marginalised languages, as well as academics in the area of linguistic human rights, to examine issues around linguistic diversity, multilingualism and language death. Will explore whether minority literatures can continue to flourish in the face of ever increasing globalisation, and why linguistic heritage matters to writers now more than ever.
Chairperson – President of the Foundation for Endangered Languages

4pm – 5pm
TITLE: Free the Word!: I Am Not my Country: (Anti-)nationalism, borders and identity
4pm – 5pm
FREE
This debate will address the problems associated with positioning poets as ‘national laureates’. A diversity of poets and leading thinkers will discuss the impacts and potential pressures of aligning poetry and nationhood: Should poets be expected to adopt the mantle of national representation and does this make for creative freedom or limitation? How do borders inform our perspective on poetry as readers? This session also aims to probe the concepts of nationalism / antinationalism and examine the tensions between public and private in contemporary poetry.
Chairperson – Sir Andrew Motion, Poet and former National Laureate

For a full list of all events taking place during Poetry Parnassus see here.

Salama Kila

The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International welcomes the release on 13 May 2012 of writer and thinker Salam Kila. However PEN remains seriously concerned for Kila’s well-being following his deportation to Jordan, where he has no means of support. Kila was reportedly subjected to torture while in detention. PEN International urges the Syrian authorities to immediately investigate the reported torture and bring to justice those responsible. It also protests his forced exile and separation from his family, solely for the peaceful expression of his views.

According to PEN’s information, Salama Kila was deported to Jordan on 13 May 2012 after being detained for more than a week at an interrogation centre and subsequently at a hospital. Kila told PEN International that he was subjected to torture and severely beaten during his three-day detention at Al-Assad Hospital in Damascus by the Air Forces secret services. He also says he witnessed other activists being tortured in both the detention centre and the hospital.

Kila, who is of Palestinian origin, was arrested on 23 April 2012 for writing an article in the newspaper Al-Yasari (the Leftist). He had been previously detained for eight years in Syrian jails in the 1990s as a result of his writings. After his release in November 2000 he remained under threat and continuous harassment from the Syrian authorities. He had to report to interrogation centres every month and was stripped of his civil and political rights.

Since his release in 2000, Kila has published twelve books analysing the political situation the in Middle East. His publications include The Current Globalisation, published in Damascus in 2004, and his latest book The Problems of the Arab National Movement, published in Amman, Jordan in 2010. He currently writes for several Arabic newspapers and magazines.
Kila suffers from cancer and he has been receiving treatment for the last two years. His family, on whom he depends for medical care, remain in Damascus, and there are serious concerns for his well-being in Jordan.

Please send appeals:

Expressing serious concerns for Kila’s well-being following his deportation to Jordan and separation from his family;
Calling for the authorities to launch a full investigation into Kila’s reports that he was subjected to torture while in detention so those responsible are brought to justice;
Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all those currently detained in violation of Article 19 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Syria is a state party;

Given the present crisis in Syria, we suggest that letters are sent to the Syrian embassies in your country where they exist. Also, please distribute this alert as widely as possible in your media and among other interested group.A list of Syrian embassies worldwide can be found here.

For further information please contact Ghias Aljundi at PEN International Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 0339, email: ghias.aljundi@pen-internal.org

René Orta Salgado (standing)

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is appalled by the news that another Mexican journalist has been found dead in suspicious circumstances. René Orta Salgado, a former reporter for El Sol de Cuernavaca, was found dead in the boot of his car on 13 May 2012. A scarf has been taped over his face using industrial adhesive tape. The WiPC calls on the Mexican authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into Orta’s death, and to bring those responsible to justice.

René Orta Salgado, 43, was a political activist and journalist with 20 years’ experience. He was reported missing by his family on 12 May 2012; his body was discovered in Cuernavaca, Morelos State, 24 hours later.

Early reports say that Orta’s body showed no signs of gun shot wounds and that the exact cause of his death has yet to be declared. According to the Mexican authorities, Orta had not received any death threats previously. The Morelos State Attorney’s Office will be carrying out the investigation into his death.

Orta was a vocal supporter of PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party). In December 2011 he set up Emprendedores Por la Nación (EPN), a political group supporting Enrique Peña Nieto, the PRI candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to practise journalism. Since December 2011, at least 42 print journalists and writers have been killed. Five had been murdered in the last 6 weeks. The vast majority of these crimes are investigated at state level. They are rarely investigated thoroughly and there have been very few convictions.

In March 2012, the Mexican Senate passed an amendment that would make all attacks on journalists federal crimes. This represented a crucial step towards tackling the problem of impunity in Mexico, as the federal authorities are considered less susceptible to the corruption that plagues local authorities in individual states.

The amendment needs to be ratified by 17 states for it to become law. Morelos, the state in which Orta was found dead, is one of ten states which have already ratified the amendment.

Please send appeals:

Calling for a full and impartial investigation into the death of journalist and political activist René Orta Salgado;
Urging that Orta’s work and activism be considered as possible motives for his death.

Appeals to:

President
Lic. Felipe De Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, DISTRITO FEDERAL, México
Fax: (+ 52 55) 5093 4901/ 5277 2376
Email: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx
Salutation: Señor Presidente/ Dear Mr President

Attorney General of the Republic
Lic. Marisela Morelos Ibáñez
Procuradora General de la República
Av. Paseo de Reforma No. 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Defegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 0108
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908 (if a voice answers, ask “tono de fax, por favor”)
E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Salutation: Señora Procuradora General/Dear Attorney General

Governor of the State of Morelos
Mtro. Marco Antonio Adame Castillo
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Morelos
Palacio de Gobierno, 1er. Piso,
Centro, 62000, Cuernavaca, Morelos,
gobernador@morelos.gob.mx

Please also send copies of your appeals to the Mexican Embassy in your country.
See http://www.sre.gob.mx/acerca/directorio/embajadas/dirembajadas.htm

***Please send appeals immediately. Check with International PEN if sending appeals after 12 July 2012.***

For further details please contact Cathal Sheerin at the Writers in Prison Committee London Office: PEN International, Brownlow House, 50-51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER Tel: +44 (0) 207 405 0338 Fax +44 (0) 207 405 0339 email: cathal.sheerin@pen-international.org

PEN Colombia calls on the Colombian terrorist group, FARC, to immediately and unconditionally release the French journalist Roméo Langlois.

Langlois, a French journalist and documentary-maker, was kidnapped by members of the armed group on 28 April 2012 while he was filming soldiers destroying cocaine laboratories.

A press statement signed by the President of Colombian PEN, Carlos Vásquez-Zawadzki, and by the Secretary General of the centre, Rubén Darío Flórez Arcila, describes the kidnapping of Langlois as an attack on the journalist’s universally accepted right to freedom of expression and freedom of movement.

To read the full statement in Spanish, please see the link below.

The members of the Council of the Ibero-American Foundation of PEN International call on the Colombian terrorist group, FARC, to free Roméo Langlois immediately and without conditions.

Langlois, a French journalist and documentary-maker, was kidnapped by members of the armed group on 28 April 2012 while he was filming soldiers destroying cocaine laboratories.

The statement, signed by Gloria Guardia, President of the Ibero-American Foundation and Vice President of PEN International, condemns the kidnapping of Langlois, describing it as a violation of his fundamental right to freedom of movement, freedom of expression and freedom of access to information.

To read the full statement in Spanish, please see the link below.

The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International fears for the safety of leading writer and thinker Salama Kila, who was arrested on 23 April 2012 for his writings about the recent events taking place in Syria. He remains detained incommunicado at an unknown location, and is considered to be at serious risk of torture and ill-treatment. PEN International considers Salama Kila to be targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Syria is a signatory, and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. It urgently seeks information about his whereabouts, any charges against him and guarantees of his safety in detention.

According to PEN’s information, Salama Kila was arrested when security forces raided his home after midnight and confiscated his computer and disks. The security forces did not give any reason for his arrest. Kila, who is of Palestinian origin, had been previously detained for eight years in Syrian jails in the 1990s. He suffers from cancer, for which he is currently receiving treatment. Kila has written more than twenty books and currently writes for several Arabic newspapers and magazines.

Background

Anti-government protests were sparked in mid-March 2011 and have since spread across the country. Mass arrests have been taking place and security officers have responded to the continuing protests with excessive force, using tear gas and live bullets to disperse demonstrators, and bombarding opposition stronghold areas with mortar bombs and rockets. Thousands of civilians have been killed and many more wounded. Protestors continue to demand political reform and to call upon President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Syrian authorities continue to suppress these protests with force, often indiscriminately, despite promises to end the violence.

With the internet and media already severely curtailed in recent years, the Syrian authorities have imposed even greater restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in reaction to recent events. Most foreign reporters and correspondents have been asked to leave the country and access to any independent media is denied.

For a statement by PEN International on recent events in Syria click here

Please send appeals to:

Expressing grave concern for the well-being and whereabouts of writer and thinker Salama Kila;
Expressing concerns for his safety, and seeking assurances that he is not being tortured or ill-treated in detention which violates Article 5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR);

Urging the Syrian authorities to allow him access to immediate medical attention;

Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Salama Kila and all those currently detained in violation of Article 19 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Syria is a state party;

Given the present crisis in Syria, we suggest that letters are sent to the Syrian embassies in your country where they exist. Also, please distribute this alert as widely as possible in your media and among other interested group. A list of Syrian embassies worldwide can be found here

For further information please contact Ghias Aljundi at PEN International Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 0339, email: ghias.aljundi@pen-internal.org

Credited to Bertil Ericson: Thomas von Vegesack 1928-2012.

Chairperson of Swedish PEN Ola Larsmo writes about his memories of Thomas von Vegesack:

Just two months ago, Thomas von Vegesack and I sat and talked about his latest book in the Söderbokhandeln (South Bookstore, Stockholm). Last night I was told that he had passed away. My first reaction at the news of his death was disbelief: He was just here. He is still needed.

And he’s needed in more ways than one. Thomas von Vegesack effortlessly juggled the roles of a publisher, writer, free speech activist and expert in German literature all at once. He chaired the Swedish PEN from 1978 – 87 and went on to play a major part in establishing on of the main branches of PEN International, the Writers in Prison Committee which he chaired from 1987 – 92. He should be considered though first and foremost a writer and intellectual.

Even just a brief survey of his works demonstrates the breath of his writing. In recent years, he wrote an excellent biography of his father and A Taste of Freedom, a history of public opinion formation in Sweden. My personal favourite is The Word Became Free (2003). Perhaps he is most famous for The Tank Aristocrats or the Pen’s Servants (Tankens aristokrater eller pennans betjänter, 1986) where he wrote uncompromisingly about an intellectuals’ relationship with power and ideology. Almost nobody could say that they live up to Von Vegesack’s principles- to think for yourself, think clearly, think self-critically and to not only recognize the shortcomings of others but your own.

Actually there was probably only one person that really up to standards set out by Von Vegesack in his book and that was Albert Camus. As von Vegesack himself writes in the preface: “The people in this book that best matches the description – although nobody fits perfectly – Klaus Mann, Albert Camus and George Orwell; all deeply pessimistic people.”

He would not like it, but I would like to add his own name to the list.

Thomas’ last book was the autobiographical Days with PEN. It’s a little volume, full of life experience. Thomas talks about how during his time as Chairperson of PEN International’s WiPC he was monitored by the Stasi, searched by the KGB, and he also had to deal with Chilean PEN during the Pinochet coup. (One memorable incident was how he and Wolf Biermann managed to trick the Stasi using a tape with the Red Army men’s choir. But that’s another story. Read his book.)

These brief examples of his work as Chairperson of WiPC highlight the great qualities he had. Many today use the term ‘moral compass’ and talk of how we need to have one in order to navigate past a lot of ideological nonsense and reach the truly important questions and answers. Thomas claimed to never have one, but all who knew him would agree that one of his defining characteristics was his unerring ability to point his compass towards justice.

Writing an obituary is dark, dark task, not in least because one has to measure the void people leave behind. Thomas lived to be over eighty and left a strong legacy behind; the freedom of the Swedish press is undoubtedly greater because of his contributions.

This article was originally published in Swedish on DN.se