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Hunger
strike by Cuban political prisoners over 'cruelty'
Herald
Tribune, September 4,
2003.
HAVANA (AP) -- Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya on
Wednesday publicly denounced a "system of
cruelty" against political prisoners on the
island while family members announced that six
detainees had begun a hunger strike.
Guards are limiting medicines, withholding food
brought by family members, and abusing both prisoners
and visiting relatives at the "Kilo 8"
prison in the central-eastern province of Camaguey,
Paya said in a statement issued to the foreign
news media.
The abuse and deplorable living conditions -
a combination of unbearable heat, plagues of mosquitoes,
lack of ventilation and bad hygiene - are part
of a "system of cruelty" against detainees,
Paya said.
The conditions "have no other objective
but to provoke suffering among those who already
have been unjustly convicted ... and that of intimidating
the Cuban community so that it doesn't demand
the rights and changes that we will achieve anyway,"
he said.
Seventy-five independent reporters, political
activists and other dissidents were rounded up
in March, accused of working with U.S. officials
to undermine Fidel Castro's government, and sentenced
to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years.
The opponents and the American government have
denied the charges.
Detained journalist Manuel Vazquez Portal and
five other prisoners at the Boniatillo prison
in the eastern city of Santiago stopped eating
on Sunday "to obtain freedom for the prisoners
and to protest the conditions of their imprisonment,"
Vazquez Portal's wife, Yolanda Huerga, said in
a telephone interview this week.
Huerga's claim could not be independently confirmed.
Reporters Without Borders issued a statement on
Wednesday claiming that three imprisoned journalists,
including Vazquez Portal, had begun a hunger strike
Sunday and that as a result they were transferred
to another prison in an unknown location.
"This is the second hunger strike in the
space of a month by journalists jailed in Cuba,"
the Paris-based advocacy group said. "They
are being held in very bad conditions."
The group called on Cuban authorities to inform
families of the prisoners' whereabouts and to
allow them visitation rights.
Also Wednesday, the European Parliament introduced
a joint resolution calling on Cuba to "take
all necessary steps to ensure the immediate release"
of political prisoners. The 626-member EU assembly
is expected to pass the resolution on Thursday.
The EU previously decided to reduce high-level
governmental visits and participation in cultural
events in Cuba after the roundup of the dissidents
and the firing squad executions of three ferry
boat hijackers last spring.
The Cuban government has not responded to the
family's specific complaints about poor hygiene
and substandard medical treatment for their jailed
loved ones, but authorities insist the prisoners'
human rights and health are being respected.
Last year, Paya was awarded the "Sakharov
Prize for Freedom of Thought," the European
Parliament's top human rights prize awarded to
defenders of human rights and democracy.
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