By Vanessa Bauza
HAVANA BUREAU
 

HAVANA · A month before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights convenes in Geneva, a U.N. envoy filed her first report on Cuba, calling the imprisonment of 75 dissidents an "unprecedented wave of repression" and condemning their prison conditions.

The commission, which will meet from March 15 to April 23, has censured Cuba almost every year for the past decade. The vote is generally preceded by weeks of lobbying from American and Cuban diplomats and is one of the most politicized items on the commission's agenda.

Although the vote carries no punitive action and has passed by narrow margins in the past, Cuba's dissidents and rights activists welcome the measure as a show of international solidarity.

Fidel Castro's government every year accuses the United States of strong-arming other nations into voting against Cuba.

French magistrate Christine Chanet was appointed by the commission to report on Cuba's human rights situation. Castro's government has not allowed her to visit
the island, nor has he responded to her request to pardon the jailed dissidents.

Chanet, who lives in Paris, could not be reached for comment.

The report was based in part on meetings with human rights activists. In addition to criticizing prison conditions in Cuba and the April executions of three ferry
hijackers, Chanet said U.S. financial support for a democratic transition in Cuba makes "political opponents on the island look like sympathizers with foreigners."

"The extreme tension between Cuba and the United States creates a climate that is unfavorable to the development of freedom of expression and assembly," she
wrote in the report filed last week.

The Cuban government's conviction last April of 75 dissidents sentenced to up to 28 years was met with condemnation by the European Union, some leftist
intellectuals and American anti-embargo advocates.

In letters and meetings with their relatives and wives,the prisoners have complained of unsanitary cells with putrid toilets, rotten food and contaminated water. Some
are kept in solitary confinement while others are housed in large halls with men convicted of common crimes. Many have lost weight and some are sick with high
blood pressure, liver problems, diarrhea and other illnesses. According to a local human rights organization, at least 10 are so sick they should be allowed to serve
out their sentences at home.

Gisela Delgado said her husband, Hector Palacios, a well-known dissident sentenced to 25 years, was admitted to the prison ward of a provincial hospital on
Monday because of gallstones.

"It could be the stress he was under for the five months he was in a closed cell, the food, the water, and he is 60 years old," she said.

Like other wives, Delgado is allowed a family visit every three months and a three-hour conjugal visit every five months.

Julia Nuñez said her husband, Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, 54, an independent journalist sentenced to 15 years, was beaten up recently by another prisoner in the cell
he shares with almost 50 other men.

Nuñez called the U.N. Human Rights Commission vote "a window to make things public."

"It shows that someone in the world knows human rights are violated in Cuba," Delgado said.

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report. Vanessa Bauza can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com.

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