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Cuban dissidents urge real power transfer to Raul Castro

HAVANA, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) - A leading dissident group Thursday called for an urgent and definitive transfer of power to Raul Castro to better deal with the transition period in Cuban politics opened by Fidel Castro's absence.

With concerns about the country's leadership heightened in the more than four months since Castro, 80, disappeared from public for an intestinal operation and turned power temporarily over to his brother Defense Minister Raul, Arco Progresista issued a written call to dialogue.

Arco "demands that the definitive transfer of power take place, with urgency," during the December 22 session of parliament, and that the body take up a 13-point reform program the dissidents drew up for the transition, the statement said.

With Castro's notable absence from the week-long celebrations of his birthday and the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution last week, speculation has grown that the venerable leader may have given up power for good, raising the possibility of major changes in the country's politics.

Cuban dissidents have begun to stir amid speculation that Castro may be dying, though some believe he will still return from power after recuperating from the late-July operation.

While Castro has not been seen in public since then, he appeared in television footage greeting visitors in the weeks after the operation. But now it has been months since he appeared.

Whether he recuperates or passes on, dissidents insist the time has come for change.

"Our country is undergoing an era change while it remains trapped at a historical crossroads: either Cuba opens up to itself -- the best way to open up to the world -- or it fizzles out as a nation amidst a spent revolution," said the Arco statement handed out to reporters.

The group urged prompt economic and political reforms, a dialogue among Cubans "that respects our differences," and that "unconstitutional restrictions to Cubans' freedom of movement (and) the silence imposed on most citizens' right to freedom of expression be lifted.

There has been no official reaction to Arco's statement, and recent comments by Raul Castro, 75, and other top Communist Party members have not doubted Castro's eventual full recovery nor that government policy would remain unchanged.

Dissidents Wednesday celebrated the release after three years in jail of Hector Palacios, a prominent member of their community, who dampened spirits somewhat by announcing to reporters that his release was due to health reasons and that he had not observed much change lately in Cuba.

"I would even say the contrary, from the news I've heard repression is on the rise. I don't see any changes," said the member of the illegal Todos Unidos (All United) opposition group.

Also on Wednesday, another dissident group, National Patriotic Front, wrote to UN chief Kofi Annan asking that he monitor a march in Havana on Human Rights Day on Sunday to see how police and authorities react.

Meanwhile, the latest news on Castro came, as often in the past, from his friend and recently re-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"The information I have from Cuba is that Fidel's recovery continues, but that it is a slow recovery," Chavez told reporters in Brasilia.

Chavez, who was re-elected by a landslide on Sunday, said he received a congratulatory message from Castro after the vote.

His signature, said Chavez, showed a "very strong hand."

Red Cross to seek access to Cuban prisons

GENEVA, Dec 7, 2006 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it would seek access to prisons in Cuba, one of the few countries to deny it permission to visit political detainees.

ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger told reporters he planned to make a new request to the government in Havana.

The ICRC has not been able to visit Cuban prisons since July 1959, seven months after President Fidel Castro came to power.

After armed Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 in a US-backed bid to overthrow the Castro government, more than 1,000 of them were captured and incarcerated.

When the ICRC asked to visit them to ensure they were receiving fair treatment under international humanitarian law, Havana said no.

In March 1962, when the Bay of Pigs prisoners were about to go on trial, the ICRC wrote to Castro saying it presumed Havana would respect Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. It repeated its request to be allowed to visit the jailed fighters.

Again the request was rebuffed. "The doors were closed to the ICRC, which did not obtain permission to send delegates to Cuba for many years to come," the ICRC says on its website.

By contrast, ICRC delegates have regularly visited detainees at the US military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and have strongly criticised the absence of a legal framework "that appropriately addresses either the detainees' status or the future of their detention".

"The ICRC believes that uncertainty about the prisoners' fate has added to the mental and emotional strain experienced by many detainees and their families," it says on its website.

US says no talks with Cuba until regime moves toward democracy

WASHINGTON, 2 dec (AFP) - The United States said that the Cuban regime must take steps toward democracy before Washington would consider any "deepening" of bilateral relations, responding to Raul Castro's invitation to come to the negotiating table.

"The dialogue that needs to take place is one between the Cuban regime and the Cuban people about the democratic future of the island," Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman, told AFP.

"As we have consistently stated, any deepening of our engagement with Cuba depends on that dialogue and the Cuban regime's willingness to take concrete steps toward a political opening and a transition to democracy," she said.

Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister and interim leader since his ailing brother Fidel underwent surgery in July, said in a speech to troops earlier Saturday: "Let me take this opportunity to express our willingness to settle the long US-Cuba disagreement at the negotiating table."

"Of course, that is, as long as they accept that we are a country that does not tolerate any reduction of its independence, and based on the principles of equality, reciprocity, non-interference and mutual respect," he told Communist Party and military leaders at Cuba's first military parade in a decade.

"Until that happens, after almost half a century, we are prepared to wait patiently for the moment when common sense takes root in the halls of power in Washington," he said.

The parade marked the 50th anniversary of the armed forces and capped belated 80th birthday celebrations for Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader since 1959.

The speech by Raul Castro, coming in the vacuum of Fidel Castro's public disappearance since his intestinal surgery in July, seemed to confirm a desire to ease the traditionally strained tensions with Washington.

The policy of willingness to talk with the United States if respected as an equal is standing Cuban policy.

But Raul Castro's timing and mention of the negotiating table -- as Cuba is consolidating its changing of the communist guard -- suggests some growing autonomy on his part.

A few weeks after taking the reins of government from his brother on July 31, Raul Castro hinted at some openness to dialogue with the United States in an interview with the Communist Party newspaper Granma, suggesting ties might be normalized on equal terms.

But the US had shot back that it was not talking to "Fidel light."

Since Fidel Castro's illness removed him from the scene, the United States has made numerous appeals for Cuba to open up to democracy.

Cuba, Latin America's only one-party communist regime, and the United States do not have full diplomatic relations. Each maintains an Interests Section, a diplomatic office, in the other's capital.

The United States has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962.

Ailing Cuban dissident sees no political link in his release

WASHINGTON, 6 (AFP) - An ailing prominent Cuban dissident freed after three years in jail, told reporters his release was unconditional, and unrelated to politics surrounding Fidel Castro's health.

"Absolutely not, nothing's happened in Cuba," Hector Palacios, 63, said at his home when asked if Castro's transfer of power to his brother Raul Castro on July 31 had brought any changes for him or the dissident movement.

"I would even say the contrary, from the news I've heard repression is on the rise. I don't see any changes," said the member of the illegal Todos Unidos (All United) opposition group.

He said his release Wednesday from jail was due to health reasons. "My health is poor, but my mind and spirit feel good," said Palacios, who was arrested in March 2003 along with 74 other people in what was considered the harshest crackdown on dissidents.

After more than 40 years in power, Fidel Castro just before his 80th birthday on August 13 underwent intestinal surgery from which he has been recovering since. Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister, is now at Cuba's helm.

Number of journalists jailed for Internet work on rise: study

By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press Writer.

Study: Journalists Jailed Around the World for Internet Work on the Rise

NEW YORK, 8 dec (AP) -- When Iranian journalist Mojtaba Saminejad was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the country's Supreme Leader, it was not for an article that appeared in a newspaper. His offending story was posted on his personal Web blog.

Nearly one-third of journalists now serving time in prisons around the world published their work on the Internet, the second-largest category behind print journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in an analysis released Thursday.

The bulk of Internet journalists in jail -- 49 in total -- shows that "authoritarian states are becoming more determined to control the Internet," said Joel Simon, the New York-based group's executive director.

"It wasn't so long ago that people were talking about the Internet as a new medium that could never be controlled," he said. "The reality is that governments are now recognizing they need to control the Internet to control information."

Other noteworthy imprisoned Internet journalists include U.S. video blogger Joshua Wolf, who refused to give a grand jury his footage of a 2005 protest against a G-8 economic summit, and China's Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year sentence for posting online instructions by the government on how to cover the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

For the second year in a row, CPJ's annual survey found the total number of journalists in jail worldwide has increased. There were 134 reporters, editors and photographers incarcerated as of Dec. 1, nine more than a year ago.

In addition to the Internet writers, the total includes 67 print journalists, eight TV reporters, eight radio reporters and two documentary filmmakers.

Among the 24 nations that have imprisoned reporters, China topped the list for the eighth consecutive year with 31 journalists behind bars -- 19 of them Internet journalists.

Cuba was second with 24 reporters in prison. Nearly all of them had filed their reports to overseas-based Web sites.

The U.S. government and military has detained three journalists, including Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who was taken into custody in Iraq nine months ago and has yet to be charged with a crime.

CPJ recorded the first jailing of an Internet reporter in its 1997 census. Since then, the number has steadily grown and now includes reporters, editors and photographers whose work appeared primarily on the Internet, in e-mails or in other electronic forms.

The increase is a testament to the increasing attention of government censors to the Internet, media experts say.

"I refer to the freedom of the press as the canary in the coal mine," said Joshua Friedman, director of international programs at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. "It's a barometer of the insecurity of the people running these governments. One of the things that makes them insecure these days is the power of the Internet."

The rise in jailings of Internet journalists is also an indication that reporters in authoritarian countries are increasingly using the Web to circumvent state controls.

Shi, the jailed Chinese journalist, could have published his notes on state propaganda in the Chinese magazine in Hunan province where he worked as an editorial director. He chose instead to send an e-mail from his Yahoo account to the U.S.-based editor of a Chinese language Web forum.

Cuban journalist Manuel Vasquez-Portal said he posted his articles on a Miami-based Web site for a similar reason.

"Without a doubt, the Internet provided me an avenue. It was the only way to get the truth out of Cuba," he said through an interpreter.

Vasquez-Portal, who was jailed for 15 months in 2003, said he had to call his stories in to the operator of the Web site, though, because Cubans are not allowed access to the Internet.

Fidel Castro congratulates Venezuela's Chavez on re-election

HAVANA, 5 dec (AFP) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro congratulated his ally Hugo Chavez on being re-elected president of Venezuela, but official silence about Castro's absence at celebrations in his honor cast fresh doubts on his health.

"Hugo, I will be brief so my emotions do not betray me," he said in a note published above his signature in the official dailies Granma and Juventud Rebelde.

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since late July, when he underwent intestinal surgery and temporarily handed power to his younger brother, Raul, 75, Cuba's defense minister.

"The oppressed peoples of the world will always be grateful for the strategy and courage you have shown in this tough battle of ideas," Castro said.

"Your political achievement and that of the Venezuelan people have captured the world. We Cubans are happy," he said.

Cubans had awaited some sort of message from Castro to Chavez on his success in Sunday's voting.

Castro was last seen in public on July 26, before his operation. More recent videotape shows him weak and mostly bed-ridden.

Although Castro pushed back his birthday celebration from August to December, he still was unable to attend, adding to speculation among Cubans and in US diplomatic circles that he has a terminal illness, such as cancer.

Washington should extend olive branch to Cuba: analysts

Antonio Rodriguez.

WASHINGTON, 4 dec (AFP) - The United States should bury the hatchet with Cuba and accept conciliatory overtures of its acting leader Raul Castro, who has called for an end to more than 40 years of hostile relations with Washington, some Latin American analysts said.

Raul Castro, the brother of Cuba's ailing revolutionary dictator Fidel Castro, offered Washington an olive branch last week, hoping to end decades of hostility.Fidel Castro, offered Washington an olive branch last week, hoping to end decades of hostility.

Addressing Communist Party and military leaders last week, Raul Castro said Cuba was ready for negotiations with the United States on the basis of "equality, reciprocity, non-interference and mutual respect."

Some analysts said the overture is the first step to what can be warmer bilateral relations.

"What Raul was saying in his message to Washington was that a Cuba without Castro is blank slate for everyone, and that it would be better if the two countries were to normalize relations," said Marifeli Perez-Stable, vice president of the Interamerican Dialogue, a think tank which specializes in Latin American issues.

Perez-Stable said the likely imminent end of the Fidel Castro era could propel a thaw in US-Cuban relations.

Raul Castro, 75, made an earlier conciliatory gesture to the United States shortly after taking power last July calling for better bilateral ties in an interview in the official daily Granma newspaper.

Washington's immediate response has been to brush aside the peace offer.

"The dialogue that needs to take place is one between the Cuban regime and the Cuban people about the democratic future of the island," said Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman.

"As we have consistently stated, any deepening of our engagement with Cuba depends on that dialogue and the Cuban regime's willingness to take concrete steps toward a political opening and a transition to democracy," she said.

Another State Department official Tom Shannon, dusted off a 2002 offer made by the administration to lift the trade embargo slapped on Cuba in 1962, but only on the condition that Havana offer its people greater personal freedom.

Cuba has been wracked with uncertainty since Castro's operation in late July, reportedly for intestinal problems.

Four months later the ailing leader is still convalescing, with doubts growing that he will ever fully recover and with growing uncertainty about the future of relations with Cuba's powerful northern neighbor.

In particular, Fidel Castro's absence over the weekend at his own massive 80th birthday fete heightened speculation he may be more seriously ill than previously believed.

A military parade in Revolution Square capped Castro's birthday celebrations and also commemorated the 1956 anniversary of the landing of the ship Granma, carrying 81 fighters including the Castro brothers and Argentine Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, which helped spark the Cuban revolution.

Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since July 26, the day before he underwent intestinal surgery.

Havana and Washington have had acrimonious relations from almost the day Fidel Castro took power, and relations have been frostier than ever under the George W. Bush administration.

Latin American expert Janette Habel of the French Institute for Advanced Latin American Studies, pointed out that even without relations with Washington, Cuba's fortunes have been looking up recently, with leftist governments now in charge in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela.

Rather than viewing Raul Castro's overture as a meek act of conciliation, Habel said his message strikes her as defiant.

"It's a challenge that he issued," Habel said, adding that the new Cuban leader is saying to Washington: "There, now how are you going to respond," she said.

"Now it's up to America, with respect to Latin America, to respond."

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