By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Leaders of a prominent U.S. church group on Monday met with the Cuban family of 6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez in an effort to resolve an international custody dispute over the boy.
``We believe that Elian Gonzalez should be returned to his family,'' said Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, a leader of the U.S. National Council of Churches, which represents 35 Protestant and Orthodox denominations with 52 million members.
Brown Campbell, accompanied by another leader of the New York- based council, the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, visited Elian's father and grandparents in the dusty coastal town of Cardenas two hours east of Havana.
The father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded the boy's return since Elian was rescued at sea Nov. 25. He had been in a boat crammed with illegal Cuban migrants that had capsized. Elian's mother, who was divorced from the father, died in the incident along with 10 others.
The boy, who spent two days and nights clinging to an inner-tube, has been staying with paternal relatives in Miami, triggering a highly politicized custody battle across the Florida Straits.
Also at Monday's meeting at the father's modest house in Cardenas was Rev. Oden Marichal, head of Cuba's Council of Churches, which backs the paternal claim.
GROUP MET WITH ALARCON
As the meeting took place, scores of neighbours waited in the street amid Cuban flags and placards saying ``Free Elian!'' or ``Return Elian to his school-desk!''
``We keep the hope alive that the boy will return ... . My message to him is 'stay calm,''' Juana Hurtado de Mendoza, 60, who heads the local neighbourhood group or Committee for the Defence of the Revolution, told Reuters.
On Sunday the council delegation met with senior Cuban official Ricardo Alarcon, head of the island's National Assembly and President Fidel Castro's point man on U.S. affairs.
``We know that the position of the council reflects the opinion of the immense majority of Americans,'' Alarcon told reporters. ``This visit goes beyond symbolic support. We know the council is doing all it can to help resolve the matter.''
In addition to lending moral support to Havana's case by visiting, the council believes it can help by offering itself as a vehicle to return Elian and acting as a spokesman in the United States for Elian's family in Cuba.
``It has all become very political. We need to make sure the family's voice will be heard in the U.S.,'' Brown Campbell said.
She referred to a possible hearing in the U.S. Congress on a proposal to grant Elian U.S. citizenship. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) is due to hold a hearing in the matter on Jan. 21.
Reflecting Cold War-era hostilities, Castro's government and the Miami Cuban-American exile community have been at each other's throats for a month over Elian's case.
HARSH WORDS FROM HAVANA
Havana says the boy has been ``kidnapped'' and is being ``tortured'' psychologically as well as ``bribed'' with toys and U.S.-style comforts.
The U.S. relatives, and Cuban-American politicians, say it would be a travesty to send Elian back to the country his mother died trying to help him escape.
More support for Cuba's demand came Monday from a U.S. parents' rights expert, who argued there was no legal precedent for Elian to remain with cousins in Miami.
Daniel Tong concluded after analysing thousands of court cases in the United States that the Miami relatives were not recognising basic law. The child was kidnapped by his mother, in direct violation of a joint custody arrangement with her ex- husband, he said.
``Florida and the United States are exacerbating that kidnapping,'' Tong said in a statement from Tampa, Florida. If it was a domestic case, the father would receive automatic custody, he added.
12:39 01-03-00
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