Cuban dissidents complete fast for rights
From Herald Wire Services
HAVANA -- Chanting ``Freedom! Freedom!'' six Cuban dissidents
on Friday ended
a 40-day fast they began as a plea for ``respect for human rights
and the release
of political prisoners.'' About 30 supporters joined in the chanting.
The dissidents then announced the creation of a national forum
to promote ``a
nonviolent political transition to democracy'' on the island.
In a press release, they urged the government leaders who will
attend an
Ibero-American summit in Havana in November to press President
Fidel Castro for
concessions.
``They should ask President Castro to respect the people's self-determination.
The people don't want a dictatorship,'' said Joaquin Martinez
of the National Civic
Union.
Full-time participants in the fast were members of the opposition
groups Lawton
Foundation for Human Rights, Marti Civic League, Political Prisoners'
Coordinating Unit, November 30 Democratic Party and National
Civic League.
One of the organizers, Lawton Foundation President Oscar Elias
Biscet, told
reporters that the fast's greatest achievement had been ``the
unity of opposition
groups that support civic struggle by nonviolent means.''
Participants in the protest said they had kept ``a rigorous fast,
for all to see'' since
June 7, in a small apartment in the Havana neighborhood of Santos
Suarez.
``Everyone who has come here has ascertained that we've consumed
only liquids
and vitamins for these past 40 days,'' Biscet said. The number
of days is the
same as the number of years Castro has been in power.
Many supporters
A report drafted by the dissidents said 2,093 people visited the
apartment ``to join
in the fast or offer their support.'' The report also said 42
opposition groups in
other cities staged sympathy fasts.
The purpose of the fast, Biscet said, ``was not to lose weight
or to chat. It was a
fast to protest against the violation of human rights in Cuba
and to demand the
release of political prisoners.''
According to the Political Prisoners' Coordinating Unit, 425 people
are held in
Cuban prisons for political reasons; 192 of them are also conscientious
objectors
who refuse to carry out military service.
Biscet said Cuban authorities ``did not assault us directly --
they only cut off the
electricity in this building -- but they did mistreat many of
our visitors.''
He said he had learned that several people who had joined in the
fast ``in
solidarity'' elsewhere had been arrested.
Ongoing protests
The activists said they will fast one day every month, as a form
of protest, and
that they have called for a national forum to promote a transition
to democracy.
Biscet said the forum would be called the Single Opposition Front.
The forum already includes the dissident organizations Naturpaz,
National Civic
League, November 30 Democratic Party, Marti Civic League and
the Alternative
Option Movement, Biscet said.
According to the activists, one purpose of the fast was to create
in Cuba ``a
minimal capability of stewardship that -- in the near future
and within the
framework of civil disobedience -- will create a solid, unified
structure
encompassing all the opposition groups.''
However, they said, that task will be ``very arduous and difficult.
We think that a
minimal organization already has, in fact, been created and we
believe that we
can develop it in the future.''
They also stated that ``the mission of the [Cuban] exile groups
is to support the
decisions we make'' and added that those groups should not ``interfere
in the
decision-making processes of this forum.''
Anniversary of arrests
The end of the fast coincided with the second anniversary of the
arrest of four
prominent political dissidents: Vladimiro Roca, Martha Beatriz
Roque, Rene
Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne.
Relatives told reporters that the four were planning to fast all
day Friday to
express their solidarity with the Santos Suarez group.
The four dissidents were tried behind closed doors March 1 on
charges stemming
from their publication of a document attacking the Cuban Communist
Party's
monopoly on power, titled The Homeland Belongs to Us All.
Roca was sentenced to five years, Gomez and Bonne to four, and Roque to 3 1/2.
Albright hails dissidents
In a statement issued Friday in Washington, Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright hailed the ``sacrifice'' of the four imprisoned dissidents.
``These four Cuban patriots were detained, without being tried
for more than a
year, under subhuman conditions and sentenced early this year
to long prison
terms,'' Albright wrote in a message to the Miami offices of
the Domestic
Dissidence Working Group, the organization the four prisoners
founded.
``The world is watching their sacrifice. In March, the United
Nations Commission
on Human Rights approved a resolution to condemn the repression
of human
rights being conducted by the Cuban government,'' Albright wrote.
``That resolution gained unprecedented support from the democratic
governments
in the hemisphere. Democratic nations worldwide are increasing
their pressure on
the Cuban government to grant the people their basic freedoms,''
she wrote.
Clinton suspends implementation
Also on Friday, President Clinton again suspended the implementation
of Title III
of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows suits to be brought against
companies that
do business in Cuba using property confiscated from U.S. companies
or U.S.
citizens.
Clinton has repeatedly suspended implementation of that segment
of the
Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the U.S. embargo against Cuba
in March
1996.
``The growing international consensus on the need for concrete
steps to promote
democracy in Cuba gives us confidence that our multilateral strategy
is working,''
Clinton said in a statement. ``It is sending a strong message
to the Cuban
government that the time for change is now -- and a strong message
to the Cuban
people that we stand with them in their efforts to build a democratic
future.''