By Gail Appleson
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark on Tuesday accused anti-Castro activists in Miami of kidnapping as he led about 50 people in a protest calling for the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba.
Eleven members of the group were arrested when they blocked the entrance to the Immigration and Naturalisation Services building after Clark had left the protest.
Stephen Somerstein, a member of the National Lawyers Guild representing the demonstrators, said protesters were charged with disorderly conduct and would be released later Tuesday.
Among those arrested was the Rev. Lucius Walker, director of Pastors for Peace, who has been a vocal opponent of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
Teresa Gutierrez of the Committee to Demand the Return of Elian to His Father in Cuba, said the event was the first of a series of protests planned throughout the United States, adding the group would hold weekly demonstrations until the boy was returned to Cuba. She was also among those
arrested.
``If we care about about family at all we will take Elian Gonzalez back immediately to Cuba,'' Clark said.
The protest came one day after a Miami judge awarded temporary custody of Gonzalez to his great-uncle pending a March 6 hearing on whether he would suffer ``serious and unnecessary emotional harm'' if he returned to Cuba.
The boy was plucked from the ocean on Nov. 25, two days after a boat carrying his mother and 11 other Cuban migrants capsized en route to Florida. Nine people drowned, including Elian's mother.
In the weeks since the rescue, the boy has been caught up in the rivalry between the Cuban government and the United States, with the father demanding his son be sent home and his Miami relatives fighting to keep him in Florida. Marches and rallies have been held in Havana and Miami.
The INS earlier ruled the boy should go back to Cuba by Jan. 14.
Clark said no harm would come to the boy if he was sent back to Cuba.
``Once again we see there is no limit to the lawlessness, the hypocrisy, and the cruelty of those who have so long opposed the Cuban people and the government of Cuba. Now they stoop to kidnapping small children,'' Clark said.
In addition to the Miami court ruling, Representative Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, had a subpoena issued seeking to have the boy remain in the United States until a Congressional hearing.
Clark said the U.S. embargo against Cuba was the reason the boy's mother was driven to flee the country and ultimately the reason she died.
``What incredible insanity is driving us to hold this child, to glorify the grossness of our materialism as if you can buy the soul of a child,'' Clark said.
Clark was attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson from 1967 to 1969. He has recently been a critic of U.S. policy on Iraq and opposed the NATO bombing of Kosovo.
19:22 01-11-00
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited |