Editorial: Persecuted writers to find refuge here

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 9:20 a.m.

You heard it right -- Las Vegas will be the first city in North America to be designated as a City of Asylum. Under this program, international writers, who are either in exile or whose lives are in jeopardy for their work, stay with a host city for one year. The program got its start in the 1990s after Iran's Islamic government placed a death sentence on Salman Rushdie for writing the novel, "The Satanic Verses."

UNLV English Professor Richard Wiley and Glenn Schaeffer, president of Mandalay Resort Group, were the driving force to make Las Vegas part of a cities of asylum network in the United States. Mandalay Resort Group will provide start-up funds to launch the program locally, which could see its first writer here sometime this fall.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, president of the International Parliament of Writers, was on hand in Las Vegas Monday for the ceremonies marking the designation. Soyinka, a Nigerian, knows firsthand government tyranny, having been imprisoned from 1967 to 1969 for his advocacy of a cease-fire during the Biafran civil war. Then, in 1997, he was charged with treason in absentia.

Freedom of expression was enshrined in our Constitution more than 200 years ago. While the United States, in many ways, has been a bulwark among nations for this basic freedom, often many of its residents take this liberty for granted. It is heartening to see Las Vegas, which often is criticized for its lack of cultural offerings, at the forefront in offering asylum for writers from around the globe who are under siege by their governments.