By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Cuba's ruling Communist Party on Thursday protested the "humiliating'' and "inhuman'' treatment of shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez' grandmothers during their brief reunion in Miami two months into the international custody dispute.
Havana complained that Elian's U.S. cousin, Marisleysis, violated ground rules of Wednesday's meeting by entering the reunion site with him, and that the grandmothers were later prevented from maintaining phone contact with Cuba.
The "loving and heroic'' grandmothers endured "deceits, lies, tricks, betrayals, humiliations, and an inhuman and despotic treatment,'' said a statement from the party distributed to foreign correspondents in the early hours of Thursday.
The one-hour, 40-minute meeting was the first face-to-face contact between Elian and his Cuban family since he was picked up at sea off Florida Nov. 25, sparking a highly politicized feud between relatives on both sides over the 6-year-old's future.
His mother drowned when a boat full of illegal Cuban migrants capsized, but Elian miraculously survived two days and nights clinging to an inner-tube in shark-infested waters.
DRAMA IN NEUTRAL VENUE
The ensuing family row quickly escalated into another dramatic chapter in the four-decade-old Cold War dispute between President Fidel Castro's government and its anti- communist enemies in Florida's Cuban-American exile community.
Havana's communique gave a blow-by-blow account of Wednesday's meeting from the point of view of the grandmothers, in the United States since last week to move public opinion in favour of bringing Elian back to his father in his Caribbean homeland.
After entering ``with great dignity the luxurious mansion'' of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, a Dominican nun and president of Barry University, whose home was used as a neutral venue, the grandmothers awaited Elian's arrival.
The boy jumped into paternal grandmother Mariela Quintana's arms, but maternal grandmother Raquel Rodriguez realised someone else had entered the room too, the statement added.
``It was no less than the now famous and hysterical Marisleysis, well known for her diatribes and insults against the real family of Elian who demands the boy; daughter of Lazaro, the great-uncle who in complicity with the counter-revolutionary mafia took responsibility for the monstrous and
treacherous kidnapping. It was a true provocation.''
After Marisleysis was ordered out of the house, ``something even ruder took place,'' Havana alleged.
Elian's family in Cuba called from the island to a mobile phone the grandmothers had with them, and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, began ``a paternal dialogue with his little absent son.''
But that contact was quickly broken when a nun entered the room and ordered them to stop speaking by phone. Police then confiscated two mobile units that the grandmothers had with them.
PHONE CONTACT LOST FOR GOOD
``It's not hard to imagine the bitterness and family trauma that incident produced,'' the communique said.
Despite immediate, urgent contacts between top U.S. and Cuban officials in Havana and Washington, the telephone contact could not be reestablished.
``The Dominican nun, in whose 'neutral' residence the meeting took place, and the person there from the INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service), told lie after lie and could not give a coherent and logical explanation of that uncivilized and cruel action,'' the statement said.
Havana also complained of numerous interruptions during the meeting by people bringing juices and snacks. Furthermore, O'Laughlin behaved in an overbearing manner in her house, a ``prison'' for the grandmothers, the communique said.
Despite all that, Elian left a ``deep and gratifying'' impression, kissing the grandmothers repeatedly, enjoying the photo album they brought with them, and bidding farewell with long hugs. He was delighted with drawings, crayons and books sent him by classmates and relatives in Cuba, Havana
said.
The statement was to be published later on Thursday as an editorial in Communist Party daily Granma, the mouthpiece of Castro's government.
Despite the traditional Cuban reverence for grandmothers, the two women, both 51, have been vilified by some in Miami as cowards, liars and dupes of Castro.
06:38 01-27-00
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