EUROPEAN UNION CONDEMNS CUBA FOR RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Source: The Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011317258_apeueucuba.html

STRASBOURG, France —
The European Parliament voted Thursday to condemn Cuba for the "avoidable and cruel" death of a dissident hunger striker, earning a stinging response from Havana, which said it did not appreciate the lecture and would not respond to international pressure.

The European assembly called on Cuba to immediately release its political prisoners and urged Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign and security affairs chief, to push the totalitarian, Communist-run island toward a peaceful transition to multiparty democracy.

The vote, adopted 509-30 with 14 abstentions, follows the Feb. 23 death of jailed Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who succumbed after an 83-day hunger strike.

Another opposition member, freelance journalist Guillermo Farinas, has been on his own hunger strike since Feb. 24.

Farinas lost consciousness Thursday and was rushed to the hospital in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara on Thursday, his second trip to the hospital since he began the fast.

Licet Zamora said Farinas passed out just after midday. On the seventh day of his fast, Farinas also passed out and was taken to the hospital, where doctors hooked him up to an IV and administered eight liters of fluids and nutrients.

Farinas says he will continue the protest until his death unless Cuban President Raul Castro's government agrees to release 26 ailing political prisoners.

The EU parliament said it was particularly concerned about Farinas, calling his condition "alarming."

"We cannot afford another death in Cuba. We call for the immediate release of all political prisoners," Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European assembly, said.

Buzek said Cuba has ignored appeals for increased democracy from around the world.
The Caribbean island has been ruled by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro since they ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. There are some 200 political prisoners in Cuban jails, according to human rights groups.

"We need action," said Buzek. "The Cuban government must respect fundamental freedoms, especially the freedom of expression and political association. Freedom of movement must also be respected."

Cuba, which had hoped for improved relations with Europe following Spain's ascension to the EU presidency in January, blasted the EU vote as hypocritical and wrong.

"Following a sullied debate, the European Parliament has just passed a condemnation resolution against our country, manipulating sentiments, distorting facts, deceiving people and obscuring reality," Cuba's National Parliament declared in a statement later Thursday.

"Cubans find it offensive this attempt at teaching us lessons," the parliamentary declaration continued.

It said Europe was in no position to judge Cuba given Europe's poor treatment of immigrants and the unemployed and its alleged complicity with America's treatment of al-Qaida terror suspects.
Cuba "rejects impositions, intolerance and pressure" from abroad, the Cuban parliament statement said.

The Cuban government considers the dissidents to be paid stooges of Washington, and says most - including both Zapata Tamayo and Farinas - are common criminals.

In Brazil, presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said Thursday the government had received a letter from imprisoned Cuban dissidents asking President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to intercede with Raul Castro to revise their sentences.

Baumbach said Silva had not read the letter. It was unclear when the letter arrived.
The five-page letter was signed by 50 Cuban dissidents who asked for Silva's help in get their sentences reduced.

Baumbach confirmed receipt of the letter two days after Silva told the AP: "I don't think a hunger strike can be used as a pretext for human rights to free people. Imagine if all the criminals in Sao Paulo entered into hunger strikes to demand freedom."
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Associated Press writer Paul Haven in Havana contributed to this report.

DISSIDENT'S DEATH SPURS NEW PROTESTS IN CUBA

(Source: USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-03-08-cuba-protest_N.htm)

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
Dissidents are going on hunger strikes in Cuba after the death of a prisoner of conscience in an attempt to bring global attention to the oppression of the Castro regime, dissidents and rights groups say.

"If they allow me to die, it will demonstrate to the world that there have been political executions here in Cuba from 1959 until the present day," said Guillermo Fariñas, referring to the more than 50 years that Cuba has been under communist control.

Fariñas, 48, went on a hunger strike Feb. 24, a day after the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Tamayo, 42, died after refusing food and water for 82 days.

Two other prisoners — Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia and Evan Hernandez Carrillos — have also announced hunger strikes, according to the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate, which tracks opposition figures in Cuba.

Fariñas, who spoke last week from his home in Santa Clara, has since been taken to a hospital by relatives. He said Tamayo's death has energized Cuba's dissident movement.

"It has really touched the opposition," Fariñas said. "Everyone wants to show support."

The movement comes as the United States and Europe have been softening their stances toward Cuba. The Obama administration lifted restrictions on travel to the island by Cuban Americans and toned down the language on Cuba in the annual State Department terrorism report.

In Congress, bills have been filed to ease restrictions further. The European Union lifted diplomatic sanctions, and Cuba's suspension from the Organization of American States has been ended as well.

Some Cuba experts see the hunger strikes as a gamble as a way of trying to prompt change.
"Once these people lose their life, it does not help the opposition movement," said Juan del Aguila, an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta who has studied the Cuban opposition. "It is clearly a sign of desperation, no question about it."

About 200 Cubans have been imprisoned for crimes such as criticizing the government's economic policies to passing out pamphlets against abortion or on the United Nations Bill of Rights.

As many as 5,000 Cubans served sentences for "dangerousness," without being charged with any specific crime, according to the State Department. Prisoners are beaten on a near-daily basis in cells infested with vermin and lacking water, according to the department's human rights report.

The International Committee of the Red Cross regularly visits prisons to check on conditions, including the U.S. facility for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay. It has been refused access to Cuba's prisons. "It's been a long time since we've been able to visit Cuban prisons," says Marçal Izard, an ICRC spokesman.

There was hope things would change when Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother Raúl, but Human Rights Watch says Raúl Castro has locked up scores of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms. The group says Raúl Castro has used the courts to silence free speech, quash labor rights and criminalize dissent. Human rights defenders, journalists and others have been given sham trials and imprisoned for lengthy terms, the group says.

Tamayo had been imprisoned since 2003 on charges that include "disrespecting authority." Government media denounced him as a "common prisoner."

Fariñas' first arrest came as a journalist for reporting on hospital corruption. He has since served 11 years for a variety of offenses. On Monday, Cuba denounced him in the Gramma newspaper and said it "will not accept pressure or blackmail."

Fariñas said he recognizes that he is in a showdown and that Raúl Castro is not likely to give in.
"I don't plan on giving up, either," Fariñas said.