Cuban media accuses U.S. of provoking march
Cuba promised to sign United Nations civil rights agreements, but
critics said the country's track record speaks for itself.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 11, 2007
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press
HAVANA --
Cuban state media on Tuesday justified the breakup of a protest march it
said was the product of ''frenetic subversive activity'' by U.S.
officials trying to undermine the island's communist system.
Scores of government supporters directed by men with walkie-talkies
shoved and shouted down a dozen dissidents on Monday during a march at a
park on International Human Rights Day. No injuries were reported.
About half of the marchers were seen being taken away by plainclothes
officials, though most were quickly released and it was unknown if any
had been officially arrested.
''The government of the United States incited and sponsored new
provocations against the dignity of the Cuban people,'' the Communist
Party daily Granma said, referring to the Monday march and another on
Sunday. A separate but similar story ran in the communist youth
newspaper Juventud Rebelde.
The articles charged that the participants in both demonstrations
received instructions ahead of time from an official at the U.S.
Interests Section, whom it did not name. A photo carried in both
newspapers purported to show the official's Havana home, with about a
dozen Cubans milling outside.
The press office of the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission
here, had no immediate response to the articles. U.S. authorities in the
past have denied Cuban accusations of bankrolling dissidents or
directing their activities.
On Sunday, the weekly silent march held by the Ladies in White,
comprised of female relatives of political prisoners, was joined by
eight foreign women, most of them Spaniards. They were expelled from the
island on Monday for violating their tourist visas by engaging in
political activities.
Shortly before Monday's clash, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque
announced that Cuba would sign two key international human rights
accords, including one on civil and political rights.
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