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Amnesty International.
20 May 2002.
Amnesty International today released a report reviewing the human rights
situation in the country, where a number of fundamental rights continue to be
denied against the backdrop of the United States' economic embargo.
After the release of dissident Vladimiro Roca on 5 May, Amnesty
International reports that there are currently six "prisoners of
conscience" in Cuba, imprisoned solely for the non-violent expression of
their beliefs.
"Although the number of 'prisoners of conscience' has decreased
significantly from past years, dissidents are still being targeted both by
state officials and government supporters," Amnesty International said.
The organization continues to record a shift from long term prison
sentences to other forms of punishment and harassment including: short term
detentions; interrogations; summonses; official warnings; threats;
intimidation; eviction; loss of employment; restrictions on travel; house
searches; house arrests; telephone bugging; and physical and verbal acts of
abuse.
"This harassment is used not just against specific individuals known
for their dissident activities, but to suppress larger protests and pro-change
movements," Amnesty International said.
An unofficial moratorium has been declared on executions. Although this is
a welcome step, legislation allowing the use of the death penalty is still in
place and some 50 people are still on death row. Amnesty International has
received reports that death row prisoners have at times been subjected to poor
conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
"It is high time the government of Cub stopped stifling non-violent
dissent," Amnesty International said, asking for all "prisoners of
conscience" to be released, for the laws that allowed their detention to
be amended and for all forms of harassment of political dissidents and human
rights activists to cease.
"At a time when more and more countries around the world are turning
their back on the death penalty, we welcome the de facto moratorium on
executions and urge the Cuban authorities to go one step further, by
abolishing this cruel and irrevocable form of punishment and commuting all
existing death sentences to prison terms ," the organization added.
The report: Cuba: the situation of human rights will be available on the
web at: http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/AMR250022002
Public Document
For more information please call Amnesty
International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566. Amnesty
International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org | 
