|
A chorus of Fidel Castro
defenders
Nat Hentoff. Jewish
World Review April 5, 2005.
http://www.NewsandOpinion.com | Some 200
intellectuals and artists worldwide are
urging the United Nations' so-called Human
Rights Commission - some of whose members
regularly trample human rights - to defeat
an American-backed resolution challenging
Fidel Castro's regime. This is the same
regime that has thrown dissenters into gulags
for decades under conditions so vile that
Castro has refused to let the International
Committee of the Red Cross visit them.
Among these defenders of Fidel - who claim
the United States does not have the moral
authority to indict Castro in view of America's
record of treating detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan
and other countries - are actor Danny Glover,
novelist Alice Walker and historian Howard
Zinn (who last year criticized Fidel for
locking up dissenters). Also on board are
Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nadine Gordimer
of South Africa and Jose Saramago of Portugal.
While I, too, have frequently written about
how American treatment of detainees violates
both our laws and international treaties,
that doesn't stop me from praising Amnesty
International for its powerful recent report
"Cuba: Prisoners of conscience: 71
longing for freedom." Wherever there
is injustice, sunlight - as Justice Louis
Brandeis once said - should be used as a
disinfectant.
In Cuba, as Amnesty International emphasizes:
"Those who attempt to express views
or organize meetings or form organizations
that conflict with government policy and/or
the aims of the socialist state are likely
to be subjected to punitive measures including
loss of employment, harassment and intimidation,
and often imprisonment."
In America, there are many who criticize
the Bush administration's war on civil liberties
as it continues to fight a war on terrorism;
but we are free to speak, publish and organize
without fear of a late-night knock on the
door by authorities signifying the end of
our liberty.
During Castro's March 2003 crackdown on
dissenting Cuban human rights workers, journalists
and independent librarians (who opened their
homes as libraries to books censored in
official libraries) they were sentenced
to 20 years and more. Described accurately
as "prisoners of conscience" by
Amnesty International, many of them are
held in savage conditions.
"Some," reports Amnesty International,
are in confinement for infractions of prison
rules in "celdas tapiadas, 'walled-in
cells' ... said to be very small with no
light and no furniture; they lack sanitary
provisions including drinking water, and
are often infested with rats, mice and cockroaches;
the prisoners are not allowed out, not allowed
visitors and are not allowed to take exercise
and sometimes are not permitted to wear
any clothing nor given any bedding."
In the interest of accuracy, Amnesty International
does point out that "during 2004 and
early 2005 a total of 19 prisoners of conscience
were released, 14 of whom were only granted
"licencia extrapenal," "conditional
release" permitting them to carry out
the rest of their sentences outside prison
for health reasons, in the knowledge they
could be detained again" by their vigilant
jailer, Dictator Castro.
There are two new prisoners of conscience,
notes Amnesty International, including Raul
Arencibia Fajardo, 41. His crime? He was
a member of the Lawton Foundation for Human
Rights and the Human Rights' Friends Club.
What do the Nobel laureates protecting Fidel
think of that? Amnesty is also investigating
seven more cases of imprisoned dissidents.
Fidel's supporters condemn America's embargo
on Cuba, but fail to make a corollary point,
which Amnesty International underscores.
It "recognizes that the imposition
by the United States of a trade embargo
undermines Cuba's ability to provide appropriate
nutrition and proper medical care to prisoners.
However, it has also been reported that
in some cases where the prisoners' relatives
provided medicines, these were withheld
by prison authorities without any reasonable
motive."
Amnesty International "calls on the
Cuban government to order the immediate
and unconditional release of all prisoners
of conscience, and to ensure that an independent
and impartial inquiry is held into allegations
of ill-treatment by prison guards and, that
the officials implicated in these allegations
are immediately suspended from duty and
those responsible brought to justice."
Don't hold your breath.
Maybe, however, if those distinguished
Nobel laureates, artists and intellectuals
petitioning on behalf of Fidel would also
directly make these requests by Amnesty
International to the Maximum Leader of Cuba,
where, his protectors say, "there is
not a single case of missing persons, torture
or extra-judicial killing" - Fidel
might actually show a concern, however fleeting,
for human rights. Will they?
Maybe Nadine Gordimer and Danny Glover
would consider initiating such a petition.
The prisoners in the "walled-in cells"
would surely be grateful to these internationally
renowned protectors of Fidel - and allegedly
of human rights.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes
what many in Washington and in the media
consider "must reading." Sign
up for the daily JWR update. It's free.
Just click here.
Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority
on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights
and author of several books, including his
current work, "The War on the Bill
of Rights and the Gathering Resistance".
Comment by clicking here.
© 2005,
NEA
| 
