The Orange Revolution's
Message
You can help free a
Cuban prisoner of conscience from a windowless
underground cell
By Nat Hentoff. Village
Voice, December 30th, 2005.
After the fraudulent November 2004 election
in Ukraine, a mass democratic protest electrified
the world and, in a second election, made
Viktor Yushchenko-still recovering from
being poisoned, allegedly after a secret
dinner with the Ukrainian secret police-president
of an independent Ukraine. Recently, Yushchenko
said that the Orange Revolution-as it came
to be called (see Andrew Wilson's Ukraine's
Orange Revolution, Yale University Press)-"proved
that individual yearnings for freedom are
universal and that abuse of public trust
can be overcome anywhere."
From November 29 to December 3, 2005, Congressman
Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Republican of Florida)
visited Ukraine to-as he says-"begin
the process through which our south Florida
community will offer assistance to the victims
of the nuclear tragedy of Chernobyl in 1986
and other effects of the ecological destruction
caused by the communists during their decades
in power."
Meeting with President Yushchenko, the
congressman gave him a message from a Cuban
physician, Oscar Elías Biscet (see
my column "Castro's Black Prisoner,"
June 15-21, 2005). Diaz-Balart told Yushchenko:
"This Cuban physician was not able
to give me his message personally because
he is a political prisoner who at this moment
suffers in solitary confinement in a cold,
damp underground dungeon simply for believing
in democracy and human rights. I received
his message from his wife, Ms. Elsa Morejón.
Dr. Biscet sends you and all of your colleagues
of the Orange Revolution, for freedom and
democracy in Ukraine, a message of friendship
and solidarity.
He also expresses his deep gratitude, on
behalf of all the political prisoners in
Cuba, for your vote and your support at
the United Nations Human Rights Commission
in Geneva for human rights in Cuba."
As Diaz-Balart gave this message to Yushchenko,
Sylvia Iriondo, head of the Cuban American
human rights group Mothers and Women Against
Repression, presented the president of Ukraine
with a photograph of Biscet and three other
Cuban political prisoners (René Gómez
Manzano, Jorge Luis García Pérez,
and Normando Hernández).
"Thank you," said the leader
of the Orange Revolution. "I will never
forget this message, this gesture of friendship.
I will never forget the Cuban political
prisoners."
Meanwhile, as Castro's mounting crimes
against Cubans' yearnings for freedom are
seldom reported in the American media-except
for Meghan Clyne in The New York Sun and
Mary Anastasia O'Grady in The Wall Street
Journal-Human Rights First (formerly the
Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights) reported
on December 7:
"Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet is
seriously ill and suffering from chronic
gastritis and hypertension. The conditions
in which he is serving his 25-year prison
term-imposed after an unfair trial in 2003
for his nonviolent advocacy of human rights-are
deteriorating.
Throughout much of his time in prison,
Dr. Biscet has been held in substandard
punishment cells, often in solitary confinement
or with violent criminals. For long periods
of time, he has been deprived of any outside
communication, visits or vital medications
sent by his family. He is currently being
held in a windowless cell which lacks adequate
water and from which he is infrequently
taken outside."
Dr. Biscet, a disciple of Martin Luther
King Jr., has been especially tormented
by Fidel Castro-who knows who this prisoner
is and where he is-because Biscet refuses
to wear the usual prison uniform. He has
also protested the vicious treatment of
other prisoners.
Castro, while not sensitive to the sufferings
of his prisoners of conscience (as Amnesty
International designated them), is, however,
sensitive to criticism of his brutality
from abroad, especially from his supporters
in the European Union. Accordingly, 15 severely
ill prisoners have been released on medical
parole after international protests on their
behalf.
Therefore, Human Rights First-which calls
for Castro "to unconditionally release
all those imprisoned on the basis of the
peaceful expression of their beliefs and
for their nonviolent promotion of human
rights and democracy"-urges you to
send a message on behalf of Biscet to:
Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz
Presidente de los Consejos de Estados y
de Ministros
La Habana, Cuba.
This is an excerpt from the sample letter
(which you can get from Human Rights First,
333 Seventh Avenue, 13th floor, New York,
NY 10001, Attention: Elena Steiger):
"The Cuban government is obligated
by the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders- a document that Cuba was active
in drafting [emphasis added]-to protect
the rights of all individuals to freely
share information about human rights and
advance fundamental freedoms. . . . I strongly
urge the Cuban government to unconditionally
release Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet. .
. . Thank you for your attention to this
urgent matter."
Meanwhile, as reported in the December
17 issue of The Economist, "this year,
at the urging of Spain's Socialist government,
the European Union dropped the mild diplomatic
sanctions it slapped on Cuba after the [2003]
roundup of dissidents.
"An Ibero-American summit in Spain
condemned the American embargo [on Cuba]
but said nothing about Cuba's lack of political
freedom." (Emphasis added.)
I too oppose the American embargo because
it provides Castro a rationale for oppressing
dissenters as he uses the U.S.'s hostility
toward him. And I also oppose the cold and
cruel Bush administration restrictions on
Cubans here visiting their families in Cuba.
You can also say this, if you agree, in
your letters to Castro while you remind
him that you and many others around the
world-socialists, libertarian conservatives,
and plain believers in human decency-ask
the presidente to act in the very name and
spirit of human decency to release Biscet
and the other nonviolent prisoners of conscience.
Thereby we can all join Viktor Yushchenko
in his message to Fidel Castro.
Elena Steiger
Human Rights Defenders Program
Tel: (212) 845-5298
Fax: (212) 845-5299
SteigerE@HumanRightsFirst.org
www.humanrightsfirst.org
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