Havana, Feb 18 (Prensa Latina) Nobel laureate for literature in 1991, Nadine Gordimer, praised education of the Cuban people and its reading habit of world literature.

 The South African writer expressed admiration of the 19th International Book Fair 2010 in which she presented her novel, Un capricho de la naturaleza, edited by the Arte y Literatura seal in Cuba.

 This last weekend I observed thousands of Cubans giving great importance to books, words, and ideas, said Gordimer who will soon be 87.

 Previously the Nobel laureate author demanded US President Barack Obama to immediately free the five Cuban anti terrorists who have already spent 11 years in jail.

 She sent a message to all world citizens to end the torment suffered by Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, and their families.

 She referred to meetings with the mothers and wives of the anti terrorists and was able to listen to testimonies of psychological torture they suffer and also their dignity in resisting.

 She qualified as cruelty the refusal of the US administration to grant visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez to visit their husbands, Rene and Gerardo, respectively.

 According to specialists Gordimer narrative is an example of steel technique, sober, lacking in flowering and sentimentalisms and exquisite care of formal perfection.

 The writer is convinced that  ó an artist is also a political being constantly aware of what occurs in the world, be it bitter or sweet and cannot prevent being affected by these events.

Nobel Literature Laureate Writes to Obama demanding Release of Five Cuban Heroes

Havana, February 18 (RHC/Granma)--South African Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, read out a letter to President Obama calling for the release of the five Cuban heroes at a press conference in Havana yesterday. The writer is in Cuba as an invited guest to the 19th Havana Book Fair.

In the statement, Gordimer, who had a prior interview with family members of the Five, condemned the torture and psychological mistreatment to which the mothers and wives have been subjected for more than 11 years since September 12, 1998, when Gerardo, René, Ramón, Antonio and Fernando were unjustly imprisoned. "Such cruelty is unacceptable," the writer stated, affirming that she had witnessed first-hand the drama that these families, full of dignity and fortitude, are going through.

"I ask the Obama administration for their immediate release and also call on all citizens of the world. Its now time to end the torment that these five Cubans are experiencing," she emphasized after detailing in the missive the arbitrariness of the sentences, and the infamies committed during their trials and appeal processes.

Rask Morakabe, a political prisoner in apartheid South Africa, also added his voice to the declaration. He confided to having a special sensitivity for the case of the Five and stated that "in South Africa, we place a great importance on it because we suffered on account of Mandela’s imprisonment for so many decades and, in the same way that we engaged in a campaign for his release, we believe that we are going to achieve the release of the Five."