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Condemnation abounds
for Cubans' jailing
By Eliza Barclay. United
Press International. The
Washington Times, March 25, 2004.
WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- Just over
a year after the Cuban government jailed
75 dissidents, the international community
is still lobbying fiercely for their release.
Accused of conspiring with U.S. diplomats
in Havana to destabilize President Fidel
Castro's government, the 74 men and one
woman were rounded up on March 18, 2003.
The accused were then convicted in hurried
trials and sentenced to prison terms of
six to 28 years.
The jailed dissidents include independent
journalists, human rights activists, opposition
party leaders, economists, and citizens
who created independent libraries inside
their homes. Ten are over the age of 60,
and Amnesty International reports that the
health of at least 15 of the prisoners has
deteriorated since the onset of their detention.
The dissidents were charged with endeavors
such as publishing articles critical of
economic, social or human rights issues
in Cuba, involvement in unofficial groups
considered by the authorities as counter-revolutionary,
or consorting with individuals deemed to
be in conflict with Cuba's interests.
Nobel laureates, including José
Saramago and Dario Fo, and human rights
groups around the world have condemned the
Cuban government for the action and appealed
for their release, but all 75 Cubans remain
imprisoned in what dissident groups say
was the most serious attack on the island's
dissidents in recent memory.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez
Roque last April defended the government's
action as a necessity to counter U.S. aggression,
accusing the dissidents of conspiring with
the United States to destabilize the country.
Pérez Roque, speaking to reporters
in Havana, said the detentions were due
to the foremost U.S. diplomat in Cuba, James
Cason, conspiring to disrupt the Cuban government
by helping organizations opposing Fidel
Castro.
The Cuban government has maintained that
some of the U.S. assistance came in the
form of financial support.
However, in the aftermath of the mass incarceration,
international governing bodies and human
rights organizations, including the European
Union and Amnesty International, have called
for an end to the dissidents' imprisonment.
An Amnesty International report released
March 16 demanded their release for second
time.
"After a detailed review of the legal
cases against them, it is clear that they
are prisoners of conscience -- detained
for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.
They should be released immediately and
unconditionally," the report stated.
The European Union's member states imposed
stern measures against the nation following
the crackdown in 2003, including suspending
high-level diplomatic visits, reviewing
the value of cultural and other exchanges,
and inviting dissident activists to diplomatic
events. When the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization awarded
dissident journalist and poet Raúl
Rivero with the annual Guillermo Cano World
Press Freedom Prize, the EU invited the
Cuban government to reflect on the significance
of the granting of the prize to Rivero.
"The European Union again calls on
the Cuban authorities to release without
delay all the imprisoned dissidents, some
of whom are reported to be suffering from
serious ill-health," the EU said in
a March 12 statement.
The press freedom watchdog group, Reporters
Without Borders, also called on the European
Union to restate its condemnation of the
repression and demanded that the Cuban authorities
release its political prisoners.
At the grassroots level, activists inaugurated
the anniversary of the crackdown with protests
and demonstrations. In Miami, 75 people
-- teachers, priests, students, librarians,
historians, entrepreneurs, artists and activists
-- gathered on Biscayne Boulevard to represent
the 75 Cuban dissidents and opposition leaders
arrested.
In the Czech Republic, another 75 people
-- politicians, human rights leaders and
others -- sat in a mock prison cell in Prague's
Wenceslas Square to observe the tribulations
of Cuba's political prisoners.
The Bush administration too has criticized
the Castro government and its imprisonment
of the 75 dissidents and has over the past
year increased its enforcement of sanctions
on Cuba that has played out in travel restrictions
on travel to and from Cuba, commercial sanctions,
and threats to take legal action against
firms that do business with Cuba.
In October 2003, President Bush established
the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a
Free Cuba, which is chaired by Secretary
of State Colin Powell.
"President Bush remains strongly committed
to supporting the efforts of Cubans to build
an independent civil society and free the
flow of ideas and information to, from and
across the island," Powell said in
a March 19 opinion piece in The Miami Herald.
"The U.S. Commission for Assistance
to a Free Cuba ... will explore ways we
can help Cubans peacefully prepare for the
inevitable democratic transition and help
them hasten its arrival."
The Committee will be submitting a report
to the president by May 1 with recommendations
on how to hasten a transition to democracy
in Cuba and plan the U.S. response for assistance
to a post-Castro Cuba.
© 2004 News World Communications,
Inc
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