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Amnesty International.
Press Release. 3 June 2003.
Amnesty International is extremely concerned at the unprecedented crackdown
on human rights which has taken place in Cuba in recent months. A new report
published today, Cuba:
"Essential measures"? Human rights crackdown in the name of security
details a massive increase in the number of prisoners of conscience and calls on
Cuba to immediately halt executions and resume its three-year de facto
moratorium on executions. The report also highlights the impact of the United
States embargo on human rights in Cuba and recommends that the US government
revise its policy with a view to ending its trade embargo.
In mid-March 2003, after a period of apparent movement towards a more open
and permissive approach, Cuban authorities carried out an unprecedented
clampdown on the dissident movement on the island. Over the space of a few days,
security forces rounded up over 75 dissidents in targeted sweeps. With the
exception of half a dozen well-known figures critical of the regime, most
mid-level leaders of the dissident movement, people who had been activists for a
decade or more, were detained. They were subjected to hasty and unfair trials,
and, just weeks after their initial arrest, were given long prison terms of up
to 28 years. Cuban authorities tried some of them under harsh, previously unused
legislation.
In early April 2003, the Cuban government ended a three-year de facto
moratorium on executions, killing by firing squad three men who had been
involved in a hijacking. They had been subjected to a summary trial and appeals
process, and were executed less than a week after their trial began.
"The Cuban government must immediately halt executions, and abolish
once and for all the death penalty from the Cuban legal system."
Amnesty International condemns these serious violations, and the increasing
disregard for international human rights standards that they represent. In spite
of Cuban government claims that those arrested were "foreign agents"
whose activities endangered Cuban independence and security, and having reviewed
the legal documents of many of the 75 dissidents sentenced, Amnesty
International believes that they are prisoners of conscience.
"Giving interviews to US-based media or sending information to
organizations like Amnesty International was mentioned in some of the verdicts
as arguments for the conviction of the dissidents. Those activities clearly fall
within the parameters of the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and
association and should not be punished by imprisonment."
"Amnesty International considers that the 75 dissidents are prisoners
of conscience and asks for their immediate and unconditional release."
The Cuban authorities have justified the executions as well as the crackdown
against the dissidents on the need to defend themselves against the provocations
and threats posed to its national security by the United States. While Amnesty
International believes that this cannot justify the imprisonment of prisoners of
conscience or other violations of fundamental rights, the report recognizes the
negative effect of the US embargo on the full range of human rights in Cuba.
"The economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United
States against Cuba has served as an ongoing justification for Cuban state
repression and has contributed to the climate in which human rights violations
occur, " Amnesty International said.
"The embargo provides the Cuban government with an excuse for its
repressive policies, and has had a detrimental influence on nutrition, health,
education and many other spheres of life, disproportionately harming the weakest
and most vulnerable members of society."
"Specific embargo provisions such as the allocation of significant
amounts of aid for "democracy building" have made it easier for the
Cuban government to portray political dissidents as foreign sympathisers,
ultimately weakening the prospects for a strong human rights movement in the
country," Amnesty International concluded.
Full copies of the report are available at:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003 | 
