CNN. From staff and wire reports. May 16, 2000. Web posted at: 11:01 p.m. EDT (0601 GMT)
HAVANA -- Dissidents in Cuba said on Tuesday that the release of a second leading opponent of the Castro government in four days did not signal an easing of pressure on critics by Havana.
Hector Palacios, director of the Solidarity Democratic Party in Cuba, said that as dissident Marta Beatriz Roque was being released from prison on Monday, she and about 20 others were put under house arrest to prevent a meeting of dissidents due to be held at his Havana home.
Roque is the second of the so-called "group of four" to be released. The four were arrested and imprisoned in 1997 for inciting sedition in a move that sparked fierce international criticism of Cuba and a worldwide campaign for their release.
Roque, Felix Bonne and two other colleagues were given prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to five years. Bonne was freed on Friday.
The two still jailed are lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca, a former military fighter pilot and son of a Communist Party leader.
Government making concessions
Roque believes that the Communist government is making concessions.
"If it is not a concession for us to continue to practice our opposition, then they'll have to imprison us again because everyone knows that we'll continue to oppose the government," she said.
But Palacios disagrees with Roque's assessment. "The problems of human rights are much worse than they were at this time last year," he said.
"I am happy that Marta Beatriz Roque and Bonne have been freed, but it hurts that other Cubans are still in prison and others are about to be put on trial," Palacios added.
The release of the dissidents has not been mentioned in the official media.
But other members of the opposition point to a furious attack in the Communist daily newspaper on Poland for supporting and allegedly inciting local dissidents as a clearer reflection of the government's position.
"Counterrevolutionary adventure by the government of Poland in Cuba," declared the headline on the top story in the Communist Party daily Granma, giving details of a recent visit to Cuba by Polish senator Zbigniew Romaszewski, who heads a human rights commission in his country.
'Ringleaders of the counterrevolution'
The article accused Romaszewski of meeting with "ringleaders of the counterrevolution" and also explained his role in the Solidarity movement, which helped bring down the communist government in Poland.
The lengthy article made it clear that Castro's government is still angry that a vote censuring Cuba for its human rights record was passed at last month's U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.
The vote had the active support of Poland and the Czech Republic, former Cuban allies in the days of the Soviet Union.
"There is no new flexibility by the Cuban government," said Palacios, who met with the Polish senator and was named in the article. "Cuba is currently in a fight with all of Europe."
Cuban officials were especially angered because Poland and the Czech Republic introduced the motion.
The Polish Embassy in Havana did not return phone calls seeking comment about the Granma article.
Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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