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EU anger at Cuban expulsions
Edwin Koopman, Radio
Netherlands, 18 October 2004.
Following the expulsion from Cuba at the
weekend of three European politicians, Cuban
exiles in Europe have strengthened their
call to abandon any form of dialogue with
the regime of Fidel Castro.
The three politicians - Jorge Moragas of
Spain and Dutch parliamentarians Boris Dittrich
and Kathleen Ferrier - were due to meet
a number of prominent members of the Cuban
opposition, including leading figure Oswaldo
Paya, to discuss the human rights situation
in Cuba. However, they never actually managed
to enter the communist nation, all of them
being detained at the airport, denied access
to help from their respective diplomatic
missions and then finally expelled.
Dutch Christian Democrat MP Kathleen Ferrier
told Edwin Koopman of Radio Netherlands
what happened upon arrival in Cuba:
"We arrived there, we were surrounded
by people, we were taken away and put in
a special room. We were guarded by people,
we were not even allowed to go to the toilet
by ourselves. So, really, our freedom was
taken away, and I never got a firm reason
as to why I was expelled out of the country."
"We were having appointments with
people, a lot of people, to talk about the
situation of human rights in Cuba. Mostly
with dissidents, people who are opposing
the government of Fidel Castro. But, you
know, we never got a chance to talk to them.
So that makes it sure for me that trying
a dialogue with Cuba is very difficult."
The Cuban government claimed, however,
that the publicly declared objectives of
the visit were a flagrant violation of Cuban
sovereignty, and the foreign ministry in
Havana went as far as to describe the visits
as gross political provocation.
Boris Dittrich, head of the Dutch centre-left
D66 Democrat parliamentary party, admitted
that the politicians had been well aware
in advance that things could go wrong:
"Well, we applied for tourist visa
because if we had applied for another [type
of] visa, they would not have let us into
the country. But, yes they knew that we
were arriving because after we boarded the
plane, they were already waiting for us.
And each one of the delegation got their
own security officer."
"It emphasizes that Cuba is really
bad for its own Cuban citizens. People don't
have freedom of speech, for instance, freedom
of assembly. There are a lot of dissidents
who are imprisoned, and we wanted to talk
to those people about human rights issues."
Relations between the EU and Cuba got dramatically
worse last year after the detention of 65
Cuban writers, journalists and human rights
activists. Europe then abandoned its flexible
position towards the isolated communist
nation in the Caribbean; a position which
had distinguished it from the United States
for so many years.
Last week, Europe's relations with Cuba
became a hot item yet again after Spain's
ambassador in Havana said he regretted the
absence of the Cuban authorities at Spain's
national day celebrations, which were attended
by Cuban dissidents and wives of political
prisoners.
Ms Ferrier believes that her experience
at the weekend shows the need for the EU
to now stick to its firm position:
"I expect from our minister for foreign
affairs that he will take a firm stand,
as president of the EU, making clear that
the Netherlands and Europe as a whole do
not accept the violation of human rights."
It appears that Ms Ferrier has already
got her way, as Dutch Foreign Minister Ben
Bot later expressed his deep indignation
about the treatment of the Dutch politicians
and summoned the Cuban ambassador to explain
the treatment meted out to the visiting
delegation from Europe.
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