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CUBA
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US wants international supervision of Cuban
prisoners
WASHINGTON, 11 (AFP) - The United States said
Cuba should allow international supervision of
its treatment of 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in
March and serving long prison sentences, claiming
that at least two of them are seriously ill from
inhumane treatment.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker asked
that organizations such as the Red Cross or Doctors
Without Frontiers be allowed to supervise the
prisoners' conditions.
"The United States once again expresses
its deep concern over the ill health and poor
treatment of Cuba's political prisoners, in particular"
that of journalists Raul Rivero and Oscar Espinosa,
Reeker said.
Espinosa, 62, is suffering from liver disease,
edema, gastrointestinal bleeding, and other symptoms
indicating a serious medical condition, he said.
Rivero, 57, has serious circulatory problems and
has lost much weight since his imprisonment.
Both men have been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment
on various charges including dissemination of
false information and "trumped-up" treason
charges, according to Reeker.
And all 75 prisoners are being held in "appalling
conditions with very poor sanitation, contaminated
water, and nearly inedible food," the spokesman
said.
"The Cuban government appears to be going
out of its way to treat these prisoners inhumanely.
It should immediately cease this practice,"
he said.
Cuba Starts Trial for 6 Repatriated Men
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA - Six men sent back to Cuba by U.S. authorities
after allegedly hijacking a government boat and
trying to reach Florida went on trial in their
homeland Monday, despite exile leaders' claims
the men's lives were in danger.
Honoring a promise to the U.S. government, Cuban
prosecutors asked for between seven and 10 years
in prison for each of the men, who the U.S. Coast
Guard (news - web sites) intercepted July 16 in
the Florida Straits. The trial is being held in
the central-eastern provincial capital of Camaguey.
Cuban exiles protested the U.S. decision to
return the men to the communist island, fearing
they would face harsh penalties or even death
for commandeering the boat and trying to reach
the United States. Even Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
criticized the decision by the administration
of his brother, President Bush (news - web sites).
U.S. officials said the Cubans were ineligible
to be allowed to remain in the country because
they committed acts of violence in Cuba by hijacking
the vessel and by confronting Coast Guard personnel
who boarded the 36-foot boat.
Under U.S. policy, most Cuban migrants intercepted
at sea are repatriated, while those who reach
land are generally allowed to stay and apply for
American residency after a year.
The United States also returned three security
guards from the boat and six other men who were
on board but were released by Cuban authorities.
The men and the prison sentences sought for
them were: Adel Napoles Rodriguez, seven years;
Yosvel Chavez Novo, eight years; Angel David Velasquez
Roldan and Mijail Suarez, nine years; and Antonio
Carrion Pena and Noelvis Martinez Carrion, 10
years.
The men are from the central-eastern town of
Nuevitas in Camaguey province, about 340 miles
east of Havana. Their ages were not immediately
available.
U.S. officials initially worried about the men's
safety after the Cuban government in April quickly
executed three hijackers who commandeered a passenger
ferry and tried to reach the United States.
But Cuba assured the U.S. government that they
would not execute the men who allegedly seized
the boat owned by Geocuba, a state-owned company
that does geological exploration and mapping.
US firm on Cuba sanctions, on returning Cubans
found at sea: diplomat
WASHINGTON, 8(AFP) - The United States will not
change its policy of repatriating Cubans picked
up at sea and of trying hijackers of airplanes
or boats, the top US diplomat for the region told
AFP.
Roger Noriega said the policies, which upset
many staunchly anti-Castro Cuban-Americans and
which in one recent case was opposed by President
George W. Bush's brother, Florida Governor Jeb
Bush, would stay in place.
"We do know that, because of the stepped-up
repression in Cuba, some are wondering about that
policy, but we have to be very careful not to
say or do anything that would encourage a massive
outflow of people from Cuba, where people would
throw themselves into the sea and risk a dangerous
crossing, or encourage hijackings that are equally
dangerous and illegal too," Noriega said.
"We have demonstrated through our courts
that we will prosecute people that do hijackings,"
he added.
Yet Cubans who reach US soil illegally are allowed
to stay for good. Havana has complained that this
"wet-foot, dry-foot policy" encourages
risky illegal emigration attempts.
"You have to be responsible about this.
We don't want to do anything that will make Cubans'
lives more tragic than they already are. So we
want to focus in a pro-life strategy so that everybody
can live and prosper in a free Cuba and that is
a Cuba without Fidel."
Bush came to the White House thanks to a razor-thin
win in Florida and hopes to be reelected in 2004.
He has come under increasing fire from many in
Florida's Cuban-American community for repatriating
fleeing Cubans while at the same time Cuba has
taken an increasingly hard line against dissidents.
In Miami, many were outraged the United States
shipped a group back after having secured assurances
from Havana that they would not be sentenced to
more than 10 years in jail.
Noriega said "there is no president of the
US that has been more committed to a free Cuba
than George W. Bush, and he and secretary (of
State Colin) Powell have made very specific commitments
to help and increase our efforts to bring and
to hasten a democratic change in Cuba.
"My job, as I see it, is to present a plan
and to work in a plan for meeting that commitment,
and that is something we are going to work on
very intensely."
But if changes are in the works for US policy
toward Cuba, Noriega was short on hints. He insisted
there would be no change on illegal immigration
attempts, or on US restrictions on travel by US
nationals to Cuba.
The United States has had a full economic embargo
on Cuba for more than 40 years, and US nationals
are not allowed to spend money in Cuba without
government permission.
Asked if the Senate might vote to end the travel
restrictions, as the lower House has done three
times, Noriega stressed "it will not happen.
"The Congress has every right of course
to consider that issue and we will participate
in the debate with them if they ask, to make the
case that that is a bad decision, that it will
resuscitate the Cuban dictatorship, that is the
single biggest obstacle to real change in Cuba."
Bush would veto any such legislation, he said.
For Havana, illegal immigration "forms part
of a comprehensive plan aimed at destabilizing
the state, bringing about a migratory crisis and
provoking an escalation in the tensions between
Cuba and the United States that puts the security
of Cuba and the whole region at risk," a
recent government report says.
In early April, when several armed men seized
a ferry in Havana Bay with about 40 passengers
aboard and demanded to be taken to the United
States, Cuban forces stormed the ferry and rescued
the passengers.
Nine days later, three of the hijackers were
tried, convicted and summarily executed.
U.S. Seeks Ideas for Cuban Democracy
By George Gedda. Fri Aug 8, 2:27 AM ET/
WASHINGTON - Ruling out tighter sanctions against
Cuba, the Bush administration is pushing for a
democratic transition on the island through increased
international pressure and more robust support
for Cuba's dissidents.
The administration dispatched three officials
to Miami this week in hopes of coming up with
fresh ideas for bringing about a democratic Cuba.
They have been consulting with elected leaders
of the Cuban-American community.
Roger Noriega, newly installed as assistant secretary
of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said
in an interview with The Associated Press that
the administration's evolving policy on Cuba will
feature a "plan with concrete measures and
with a timetable."
He said a tightening of sanctions against the
island is not an option.
Noriega said it was a "great tragedy"
that U.S. policy over the years has been focused
on U.S. economic pressures on the island instead
of looking to the dissidents themselves as the
most effective agents of change.
It was the most explicit repudiation by the administration
of the utility of sanctions as a pro-democracy
tool.
Other officials said existing restrictions on
travel to Cuba and other economic measures will
remain in place as long as there is no progress
toward democratic rule.
Noriega said the international community has
been unwilling to support the American policy
of economic denial over the years - a point demonstrated
annually in the virtually unanimous U.N. General
Assembly votes in opposition to the U.S. embargo
against Cuba.
He said the U.S. goal of "reaching out in
solidarity to dissidents" will be a lot more
effective if it has the support of the international
community.
European and Latin American governments have
signaled support for this approach in recent months,
he said.
Noriega, a former ambassador to the Organization
of American States and a one-time aide to former
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said the administration
will seek ways of overcoming Cuba's jamming U.S.
government television and radio broadcasts tailored
for Cuban audiences.
Another key goal, he said, is to increase support
for independent libraries and human rights groups
on the island which have persisted despite a major
anti-dissident crackdown last March and April.
Seventy-five dissidents were rounded up and sentenced
to long prison terms for alleged ties to the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Cuba.
To the extent that independent libraries and
rights groups continue to exist, Noriega said
they need U.S. and other international support
"so that they have a little more reach, so
they can get the word out about what's happening
on the island."
Wayne Smith, a former U.S. diplomat who has long
favored a U.S. accommodation with Cuba, said Noriega's
ideas could undermine the dissidents.
"The more the United States talks about
backing the internal dissidents, the more it undercuts
their position by making them appear to be agents
of the U.S," Smith said.
The U.S. delegation dispatched to Miami consists
of Otto Reich, White House special envoy for Latin
America; Dan Fisk, a top State Department Cuba
specialist; and Adolfo Franco, an assistant administrator
at the Agency for International Development.
Franco oversees AID's Cuba program, which provides
assistance to 12 U.S. non-governmental organizations
that help Cuba's human rights groups, independent
journalists and autonomous pro-civil society organizations.
Frank Calzon, director of the Center for a Free
Cuba, said he strongly supports the appointment
of Noriega but that he has doubts about the bureaucratic
will to carry out Bush's policies.
Calzon urged the administration to employ tough
measures that, he said, have been available for
years. He cited the absence of an indictment of
the Cubans responsible for the deaths of four
Cuban-Americans in 1996.
They were aboard two Miami-based private plane
that were shot down north of Cuba by MiG jet fighters.
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