U.S. Praises Cuban Opposition's Call for Democracy in Cuba
Jailing of Cuban journalist draws global condemnation
By Eric Green
Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States has praised a statement from
representatives of the Cuban opposition movement calling for peaceful
democratic change in Cuba.
In its statement, released April 16 in Spanish, members of most of
Cuba's leading opposition groups said they were united in their call for
Cuba to change peacefully from communist rule to democracy, freedom,
social justice and human rights for all the Cuban people.
The statement added that the task of achieving democratic change in
Cuban society is up to "Cubans and only Cubans."
The Bush administration's Cuba transition coordinator, Caleb McCarry,
told USINFO April 20 that the statement is an "important message to the
Cuban people and the outside world from Cuba's peaceful democratic
opposition."
The United States, said McCarry, "supports the right of the Cuban people
to define a democratic future for their country."
McCarry oversees day-to-day operations of the U.S. Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba. The commission, co-chaired by Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, was
created in 2003 to ensure that the U.S. government is prepared to assist
Cuba's peaceful transition to democracy. (See related article.)
Michael Parmly, chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana, added that U.S. policy "has been to give the Cuban people the
lead in deciding their country's future." Parmly told USINFO that the
statement from the opposition Cuban group, dubbed "United for Freedom,"
represents the "views of many Cubans who have been advocating for human
rights and democratic change for a long time."
The Cuban opposition's statement also urged the release of all political
prisoners from Cuban prisons who have been "imprisoned unjustly for
defending, promoting, and peacefully exercising universally recognized
human rights."
More than 20 members of Cuba's opposition movement have signed the
statement.
Signatories include prominent dissident leaders Oswaldo Payá of the
Christian Liberation Movement; Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission
for Human Rights and National Reconciliation; Martha Beatriz Roque and
Rene Gomez Manzano of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society; and members
of the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) opposition movement, which
consists of wives and other close female relatives of imprisoned Cuban
dissidents. Among its many honors, this last group was named one of the
three winners of the 2005 Sakharov Prize for the promotion of freedom of
thought. (See related article.)
U.S. CONDEMNS JAILING OF CUBAN JOURNALIST
The United States has joined two global press freedom advocacy groups in
condemning a four-year prison sentence given to Cuban independent
journalist Oscar Sánchez Madan after a one-day trial April 13.
Cuban authorities arrested Sánchez, a reporter for the Miami-based news
Web site CubaNet, that same day at his home in the province of Matanzas
for being a "pre-criminal social danger." The Cuban regime is said
often to use the vague charge to jail its critics, even if no crime has
been committed.
Robert Blau, a political and economic counselor at the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, said the United States "associates" itself with the
criticism given by the press groups of Sánchez's arrest.
Blau told USINFO that Sánchez was "an independent journalist just doing
his job. We note that Sanchez's reporting frequently covered issues
such as human rights abuses and economic mismanagement in Matanzas
province."
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Sánchez "was even denied
the right to an attorney, so his conviction was entirely arbitrary."
The group said the press freedom situation in Cuba has not improved
since Raúl Castro was named Cuba's acting president on July 31, 2006.
Joel Simon, executive director for the New York-based Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ), said "it is outrageous that Cuba has once
again thrown a journalist in jail after a summary trial on a trumped up
charge. We call on Cuban authorities to release Sánchez immediately, as
well as the other 24 independent journalists unjustly imprisoned on the
island today."
The 25 journalists in Cuban prisons make Cuba the world's second leading
jailer of journalists after China, said the CPJ. Cuba imprisoned 22 of
those journalists in a March 2003 crackdown on press freedom in Cuba
that has been dubbed "Black Spring." (See related article.)
The State Department said in a human rights report released April 5 that
Cuba had at least 283 political prisoners and detainees at the end of 2006.
The section of the human rights report dealing with Cuba is available on
the State Department Web site.
More information about the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is
available on the commission's Web site.
The statements by Reporters Without Borders and CPJ are available on the
groups' Web sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment