LITERATURE-HUMAN RIGHTS: The P.E.N. Proves Mightier Than The Sword

PRAGUE, Nov 11 (IPS) - As recently as five years ago, many persecuted Czech writers looked to their colleagues from P.E.N. International for much-needed encouragement and support.

Today, with one of their own sitting as the Czech head of state and artistic freedom in their homeland guaranteed, those same Czech authors and intellectuals are finally able to thank P.E.N. for helping them through darker times.

"Several times in my life I have had the honour of being invited" to a P.E.N. congress, Czech President Vaclav Havel -- himself a noted playwright and essayist -- said as he addressed members of the literary organisation at their 61st weeklong annual meeting, which ends here Saturday.

"But the regime always made it impossible for me to attend," Havel said. "I had to live to the age of 58, go through a revolution in my country, become the nation's president and see the World Congress held in Prague to be able to participate in this important event for the first time in my life."

P.E.N. stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists." The group, which was founded in 1921 to promote world peace through international contact among writers, for many years championed the cause of authors in the Soviet Bloc.

The irony of meeting in Prague -- where the local chapter was banned before the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew the country's communist regime, and where many writers, including Havel, were in dire need of P.E.N.'s support -- has not been lost on the delegates.

"Five years ago, in this book the key cases were those of Vaclav Havel and other Czech writers," said Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, chair of P.E.N.'s Writers in Prison Committee, thumbing through a pamphlet that outlines the cases of more than 500 hundred writers around the world who have been imprisoned, detained, attacked or threatened.

"Now, today they are running the country and the P.E.N. congress."

Most delegates say they are delighted with the work their organisation did to help writers such as Havel during communist rule here and in other Soviet Bloc countries, and are pleased that P.E.N. contributed to the end of totalitarianism in the region. Now, however, they say it is time to move on and continue similar work elsewhere.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service