A Cuban Hero
by Mary Anastasia O'Grady 翻译 鲁克
Cuban physician Oscar Elías Biscet and seven others will be awarded the presidential medal of freedom by George W. Bush in a White House ceremony today. But Dr. Biscet will not be there to accept his honor in person. Today, like most days for the better part of the past eight years, he is locked away in a dungeon on Fidel Castro's island paradise.
今天，古巴医生奥斯卡·埃利亚斯·比塞特（Oscar Elías Biscet）和其他7位人士将要在白宫盛典上接受布什授予的总统自由勋章（总统自由勋章奖是全美最大的平民奖项，用以表彰那些在科学、艺术、文学、自由和和平事业上做出贡献的人）。可是，比塞特先生医生无法亲自到场来接受这项殊荣。就如过去的八年中大部分的岁月，今天的比塞特医生仍然被深锁在卡斯楚的“桃花岛”的地牢里。
Tales of totalitarian gulags may strike some readers as ancient history, something that happened during Europe's 20th-century experiments in fascism, communism and Nazism. Yet in Cuba, the gulag and its suffering have not ended. Dr. Biscet's medal serves to remind us of this fact. By raising the profile of his struggle for a free Cuba, the award also highlights what Castro's regime fears most. It is not the guns and tanks of some imperial invader, but rather the faith, courage and nonconformity of the country's own people.
对一些读者来说，极权政权下古拉格的故事听起来就像古老的故事，发生在20世纪欧洲的法西斯主义、共产主义和纳粹主义的试验。然而在古巴，古拉格监狱及其苦难故事并没有结束。比塞特医生的自由勋章提醒我们，古拉格监狱是活生生的现实。荣获自由勋章不但提高了为自由抗争的比赛特医生的声望，同时也暴露了卡斯楚政权的最害怕的是什么。不是帝国主义的入侵者的枪炮坦克，而是国内人民的信仰，勇气和反抗。
Dr. Biscet, 46, is a renowned pacifist and devout Christian. He has said that he is inspired by the examples of Martin Luther King, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. We know this and much more about his life thanks to the Coalition of Cuban-American Women, which says it documents all the facts it publishes about political prisoners through live testimonies from Cuba.
比塞特医生今年46岁，是著名的和平人士，虔诚的基督徒。他说，他从马丁路德金，甘地，达赖喇嘛的故事得到精神上的鼓舞。我们从古巴美国妇女联合组织了解到他和他的感人故事。（这个组织出版的刊物通过一个个的亲身证据，记录了有关古巴政治犯真实情况）
While practicing medicine in Cuban hospitals for more than a decade, Dr. Biscet became increasingly concerned about the government's abortion practices. In 1998, at a Havana hospital, he took the risk of engaging in a clandestine study on the administration of a drug called rivanol to abort advanced pregnancies. The drug was being widely used, particularly on girls as young as 12, who, having been forced to leave their parents and work in rural areas as part of their schooling, found themselves "in trouble."
比塞特医生在古巴医院行医了十多年，在药剂调试中逐渐关注政府的堕胎措施。在1988年，在哈瓦那的一所医院，比塞特医生冒着生命危险，秘密投入一项针对一种名叫rivanol(羊膜腔内引产药物)官方的药物研究（这种药物据称可以停止孕期发展）。这种药物在古巴已经广泛的被食用，尤其是给12岁的小女孩食用。（这些女孩子被强迫离开父母下乡务农作为必须接受的教育一部分）。他发现这种药物其实有很大的问题。
The study concluded that rivanol resulted in viable fetuses being born alive. What often happened next horrified Dr. Biscet, who later wrote that, "the umbilical cord was cut and they were allowed to bleed to death or they were wrapped in paper and asphyxiated."
研究得出结论，利凡诺(rivanol)这种药物造成未发育成熟（发育中）的胎儿会被活着引产下来。而且，接下来发生的事情更让比塞特医生害怕，“幼婴的脐带被割断，然后任他们活活失血而死，或者用纸包起来，把他们活活闷死”。
As a result of his vocal opposition to these abortion practices he lost his job, his family lost their home and Castro's goons were sent to beat him up. But the bullying didn't work. By now he was actively engaged in resistance against the regime and, as he has written, his conscience would not allow him to back down. Those familiar with Dr. Biscet's work say that he was instrumental in building -- at the grassroots level -- on the impact of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in January 1998. The regime took notice. Dr. Biscet became one of the few dissidents that Castro has ever attacked by name in a speech to the nation. As a proponent of Cuban democracy told me, "It proves that Biscet really got under Castro's skin."
他强烈的反对政府的堕胎措施使得失去了他的工作，接着他全家被赶出了住所，卡斯楚雇佣的打手把他打的遍体鳞伤。但是，这些恶霸行径并不能打倒比塞特医生。到目前为止，他仍然还在积极反抗这个暴政，正如他所写的“他的良心决不让他有一点退缩”。那些熟悉比塞特医生事迹的人说，在1998年1月保罗二世访问古巴的影响下，他为推动草根阶层反抗暴政发挥了很大的作用。于是，这个政权盯紧了比塞特医生。在卡斯楚的国家演说中，比塞特医生是少数几个被他点名斥责异见者之一。一个支持古巴民主运动的人告诉我，“这证明比塞特医生的确激怒了卡斯楚”。
From July 1998 until November 1999, Dr. Biscet was jailed 26 times. During those detentions, he was held for days in windowless cells or thrown in with populations of violent criminals and the mentally ill. In February 2000, he was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for holding a press conference to announce a peaceful march during the 1999 Ibero-American Summit in Havana. The backdrop at the press conference was two Cuban flags hung upside down to protest the state's violations of human rights. He was convicted for "dishonoring national symbols, public disorder and inciting delinquent behavior" and sent to a maximum security prison 450 miles east of Havana, making family visits difficult.
从1998年7月到1999年11月，比塞特医生被监禁了26次。在拘留期间，他被关在没有窗户的地牢，或是扔进暴力犯人和精神病患当中。2000年2月，他被收审并判三年囚期，理由是在1999年哈瓦那举行伊比利亚美洲国家首脑会议（Ibero-American summit） 期间，他召开了记者会宣布举行和平游行。记者会上，两面古巴的旗帜倒挂着，表示对政府违反人权的抗议。他因为“污辱国家的象征，危害社会秩序，鼓动违法行为“，而获罪，被押送到里哈瓦那以东450里一个最大的安全监狱，使得家属无法探监。
Cuba's political prison system is structured not only to punish dissent, but also to force the "rehabilitation" of the prisoner. Captives who give in, admit the error of their political ways and beg forgiveness sometimes can get out of jail. But Dr. Biscet is no such prisoner. While serving his three-year sentence, he increased his resistance, carrying out fasts and pushing for the release of political prisoners. The regime responded by putting him again in a squalid, solitary confinement cell or among dangerous inmates. He was denied visitors and medical treatment, and his Bible was confiscated.
古巴的政治监狱系统不仅是为处罚异见人士而设计，而且还要强制改造囚犯。被抓进去的人，如果承认自己犯了政治的错误，乞求宽恕，可以获得释放。但是比塞特医生不是这样的人。在他服刑的三年期间，他更加顽强的反抗，他在狱中绝食，要求释放其他的政治犯。于是独裁政权把他再扔进污秽禁闭室或是把他和危险的狱囚关在一起。不准接待探访者，不准接受医疗护理，圣经被没收。
In late October 2002, Dr. Biscet was released from prison only to be arrested 36 days later as he was preparing to meet with fellow Cuban human-rights advocates. In April 2003, he was convicted, as were 75 others who had been rounded up in the now-infamous March 2003 crackdown on dissent. He received a 25-year sentence for "serving as a mercenary to a foreign state." The Coalition of Cuban-American Women reports that, from November 2003-January 2004, he was held in "an underground dungeon with a common criminal and lost 40 pounds."
2002年十月末，比塞特医生获释。当他正准备会见一群古巴人权卫士时，36天后他又一次被逮捕。2003年4月，他同03年3月逮捕其他75名异见人士（臭名昭著的古巴03年3月的镇压运动）一样，被判有罪。这次判了25年，理由是他被外国政府收买。古巴美国妇女联合组织报道，在2003年11月到2004年一月期间，他和一名普通刑犯一起被关进地牢，他从此瘦掉了40磅。
His time in solitary has been no less inhumane. Dr. Biscet has described his 3-foot-by-6-foot cell as having no windows or running water. It has a hole in the floor for a toilet and is infested with vermin. One of his confinement periods there lasted 42 days. Dr. Biscet says that "the Cuban government has tortured me during eight years, trying to drive me insane." Perhaps most painfully for the prisoner, his wife has been fired from her job as a nurse and is harassed by the state.
禁闭室中的岁月不止是缺乏人性，比塞特医生描述到那间3尺6寸的小间，没有窗户没有自来水，地板上只有一个洞留给他们大小便，而且上面爬满了蛆虫。有一次禁闭竟然关了他42天，他写到，“古巴的政府在这八年期间用酷刑折磨我，企图把我逼疯。“ 也许对他来说最大痛苦的莫过于，他的妻子失去了护士的工作，而且一直被政府骚扰。
Dr. Biscet says that the regime has offered to let him go if he agrees to leave Cuba. He will not. In an April letter to his wife Elsa, he explained why: "My suffering is much, much less since I began to seek after my dream of being free, but not only for me personally. If I thought only of myself, you know that I would have been free a long time ago, and I would have been rid of these unsettling anxieties. But I want to see my friend's son, my adversary's son, or any citizen laughing happily from the satisfaction in their lives and enjoying a wealth of freedom because it is the only way human talent reaches its maximum splendor. . . ."
比塞特医生说，只要他同意离开古巴，这个独裁政权给他放行的机会。他并没有接受。在4月份，他写信给他的妻子Elsa，他解释到：“自从开始追求我的自由之梦，这个自由就不仅是为了我个人，我受到的磨难也就算不得什么。如果我只考虑我自己，你知道，很早以前我就可以得到释放，我本来可以摆脱这些不安的焦虑。But I want to see my friend's son, my adversary's son, or any citizen laughing happily from the satisfaction in their lives and enjoying a wealth of freedom because it is the only way human talent reaches its maximum splendor. . . ."
但是我希望看到我朋友的孩子，我敌人的孩子，或是任何一位市民，为他们的满意生活和享受自由的福祉而感到喜乐，因为这是能够让个人自身才能发挥到最极致的唯一途径。
。。。
Tales of totalitarian gulags may strike some readers as ancient history, something that happened during Europe's 20th-century experiments in fascism, communism and Nazism. Yet in Cuba, the gulag and its suffering have not ended. Dr. Biscet's medal serves to remind us of this fact. By raising the profile of his struggle for a free Cuba, the award also highlights what Castro's regime fears most. It is not the guns and tanks of some imperial invader, but rather the faith, courage and nonconformity of the country's own people.
Dr. Biscet, 46, is a renowned pacifist and devout Christian. He has said that he is inspired by the examples of Martin Luther King, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. We know this and much more about his life thanks to the Coalition of Cuban-American Women, which says it documents all the facts it publishes about political prisoners through live testimonies from Cuba.
While practicing medicine in Cuban hospitals for more than a decade, Dr. Biscet became increasingly concerned about the government's abortion practices. In 1998, at a Havana hospital, he took the risk of engaging in a clandestine study on the administration of a drug called rivanol to abort advanced pregnancies. The drug was being widely used, particularly on girls as young as 12, who, having been forced to leave their parents and work in rural areas as part of their schooling, found themselves "in trouble."
The study concluded that rivanol resulted in viable fetuses being born alive. What often happened next horrified Dr. Biscet, who later wrote that, "the umbilical cord was cut and they were allowed to bleed to death or they were wrapped in paper and asphyxiated."
As a result of his vocal opposition to these abortion practices he lost his job, his family lost their home and Castro's goons were sent to beat him up. But the bullying didn't work. By now he was actively engaged in resistance against the regime and, as he has written, his conscience would not allow him to back down. Those familiar with Dr. Biscet's work say that he was instrumental in building -- at the grassroots level -- on the impact of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in January 1998. The regime took notice. Dr. Biscet became one of the few dissidents that Castro has ever attacked by name in a speech to the nation. As a proponent of Cuban democracy told me, "It proves that Biscet really got under Castro's skin."
From July 1998 until November 1999, Dr. Biscet was jailed 26 times. During those detentions, he was held for days in windowless cells or thrown in with populations of violent criminals and the mentally ill. In February 2000, he was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for holding a press conference to announce a peaceful march during the 1999 Ibero-American Summit in Havana. The backdrop at the press conference was two Cuban flags hung upside down to protest the state's violations of human rights. He was convicted for "dishonoring national symbols, public disorder and inciting delinquent behavior" and sent to a maximum security prison 450 miles east of Havana, making family visits difficult.
从1998年7月到1999年11月，比塞特医生被监禁了26次。在拘留期间，他被关在没有窗户的地牢，或是扔进暴力犯人和精神病患当中。2000年2月，他被收审并判三年囚期，理由是在1999年哈瓦那举行伊比利亚美洲国家首脑会议（Ibero-American summit） 期间，他召开了记者会宣布举行和平游行。记者会上，两面古巴的旗帜倒挂着，表示对政府违反人权的抗议。他因为“污辱国家的象征，危害社会秩序，鼓动违法行为“，而获罪，被押送到里哈瓦那以东450里一个最大的安全监狱，使得家属无法探监。
In late October 2002, Dr. Biscet was released from prison only to be arrested 36 days later as he was preparing to meet with fellow Cuban human-rights advocates. In April 2003, he was convicted, as were 75 others who had been rounded up in the now-infamous March 2003 crackdown on dissent. He received a 25-year sentence for "serving as a mercenary to a foreign state." The Coalition of Cuban-American Women reports that, from November 2003-January 2004, he was held in "an underground dungeon with a common criminal and lost 40 pounds."
2002年十月末，比塞特医生获释。当他正准备会见一群古巴人权卫士时，36天后他又一次被逮捕。2003年4月，他同03年3月逮捕其他75名异见人士（臭名昭著的古巴03年3月的镇压运动）一样，被判有罪。这次判了25年，理由是他被外国政府收买。古巴美国妇女联合组织报道，在2003年11月到2004年一月期间，他和一名普通刑犯一起被关进地牢，他从此瘦掉了40磅。
Dr. Biscet says that the regime has offered to let him go if he agrees to leave Cuba. He will not. In an April letter to his wife Elsa, he explained why: "My suffering is much, much less since I began to seek after my dream of being free, but not only for me personally. If I thought only of myself, you know that I would have been free a long time ago, and I would have been rid of these unsettling anxieties. But I want to see my friend's son, my adversary's son, or any citizen laughing happily from the satisfaction in their lives and enjoying a wealth of freedom because it is the only way human talent reaches its maximum splendor. . . ."
但是我希望看到我朋友的孩子，我敌人的孩子，或是任何一位市民，为他们的满意生活和享受自由的福祉而感到喜乐，因为这是能够让个人自身才能发挥到最极致的唯一途径。
。。。
Reading those words, it is difficult to think of anyone more deserving of a medal honoring those who serve the cause of freedom.
读完他上面的话，很难想象还有谁比比赛特医生更适合授予一个自由斗士奖章了.
仍被监禁的2003年3、4月间被逮捕的民间社会成员名单
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