The European Union receives more than 52,000 signatures from the "OZT: I Accuse the Cuban Government" campaign
posted on Monday, October 04, 2010.JPG)
Osvaldo Antonio Ramírez, Cuban writer; Dirk Van Den Broeck, from Arco Progresista (Progressive Arch), with Walter Vermander, who signed the petition of the #OZT campaign. The group stands at the entrance of the European Commission in Brussels, with the packet of signatures and the letter for Catherine Ashton.The more than 52,000 signatures of the "#OZT: I Accuse the Cuban Government" campaign were delivered the morning of October 4th at the European Union (EU) offices. The delivery was made by members of the Arco Progresista (Progressive Arch) Party in collaboration with this campaign. The signatures were delivered to Alexandra Knapton, the official responsible for human rights in the cabinet of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton.
Delivery of the signatures to Alexandra Knapton, the official responsible for human rights in the cabinet of Ashton.
The group in charge of delivering the signatures had a meeting with Knapton and spoke about this human rights campaign and its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all Cuban political prisoners. A letter included alongside the packet of signatures informed Ms. Ashton of the repression that continues to take place in Cuba, and asked for the support of the European Union for a future of full respect for individual liberties in Cuba.
Knapton reviews the documents of the #OZT campaign during the meeting.EU parliament president calls on the Cuban regime to free all political prisoners
posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2010The President of the European Parliament met today [yesterday, 14 September 2010] with recently released Cuban political prisoners: Antonio Díaz, Ricardo González, Normando Hernández and Omar Rodríguez whom are all exiled in Spain.
Following the meeting the President said: "There is no half freedom. Freedom cannot be handed out in small rations. Cuban peoples should enjoy their basic human rights, freedoms and solidarity in their own country, not in exile.
I have the highest respect for these brave people here and their families. They stand as an example to all those who care about freedom, human rights and democracy.
The release of the prisoners is a positive step.
However, the European Parliament calls again for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba.
The Cuban government must respect fundamental freedoms, especially the freedom of expression and political association. I wrote this summer to President Castro to allow the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) to leave the island so that they can accept Parliament's invitation to collect the 2005 Sakharov Prize in person.
We voice again our profound solidarity with the entire Cuban people and support them in their progress towards democracy and respect and promotion of fundamental freedoms."
Original here.
ISHR: New arrests and repressions against civil rights activists and independent journalists after the announced release of 52 political prisoners
Frankfurt am Main (23 August 2010) – One month after the announced release of 52 political prisoners new violations against civil rights activists and independent journalists minimize the hope that the Castro regime could move in the direction of respect for human rights and more democracy. The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) in Frankfurt, Germany, today criticized that the releases go on very slowly and in tiny rates. Until August 23 just 23 political prisoners who could or were forced to leave the Castro state had been released. Most of them would have rather stayed on the island to continue their commitment for a free and civil society. In the light of this fact the EU-Cuba NGO Network appeals to the European Union.
In Germany, this NGO Network is represented by the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) in Frankfurt am Main. The coalition’s aim is to convince the European Union to maintain on its Common Position on Cuba and not to negotiate a bilateral agreement on its fall revision.
The political prisoners who had been released into Spanish exile also ask the EU to maintain on its Cuban human rights policy and to support democracy and human rights on Cuba. Further on the NGO Network calls for the review of the developments in Cuba every six months and for not rescheduling the reviews as it happened in June 2010.
Despite some positive developments it is necessary to add that Cuba is still far away from democracy and constitutional legality. The released Cubans were inevitably forced to leave the country and, thus, their families and had to go into exile in Spain – a part of the agreement with the Cuban authorities. Thus, the Cuban government could legally ditch many human rights and political activists. In this way the democracy movement in Cuba lost many of its most active characters.
ISHR: Arrests and intimidation of democracy movement continue
According to the ISHR, the human rights situation on Cuba is unimproved: repressions against human rights activists go on. Several members of the Cuban democracy movement have been arrested in the last weeks, others have been exposed to aggressive assaults and have been harassed psychological. One example is Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger, the mother of the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo who died on 23 February 2010 after an 86 days lasting hunger strike. Lately she was bashed by Security Guards, authorities do not allow her attending the mass in church or visiting her son’s grave.
On 16 August 2010, the author, journalist and blogger Luis Felipe Rojas was detained by the Cuban police in his house in the town of Holguín in the East of Cuba. The officials refused a reason for the arrest. It is assumed that the employee of the independent newspaper "Diario de Cuba" (Diary of Cuba) was arrested because of a report about human rights abuses in the East of the island. He was allowed to leave the police station after a questioning which lasted 19 hours.
On 15 August 2010, three supporters of Ms Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger have been arrested by the Cuban State Security. On 16 August 2010, five Cuban students were detained by police while holding a demonstration in front of Havana University. They called their fellow students to campaign for human rights on Cuba.
The ISHR demands from the Cuban government to release the more than 170 political prisoners who are still in prison, to release the recently arrested students and civil rights activists immediately and to stop the policy of intimidation against civil rights activists and journalists. “As long as these people are still in Cuban prisons, the European Union needs to maintain on its Common Position on Cuba and may not engage in a bilateral agreement“, the spokesman of the ISHR, Martin Lessenthin, declared.
STATEMENT BY THE EUROPE-CUBA NGO NETWORK IN SUPPORT OF EU COMMON POSITION ON CUBA
August, 2010
The Europe-Cuba NGO Network welcomes the recent steps by the Cuban government which show some progress in the area of human rights and democracy. We also appreciate that the Cuban government has acknowledged the existence of political prisoners on the island by releasing a significant number of them. The international community, however, should make sure that the release of these prisoners is unconditional, their exile only optional, and their living and working conditions are adequate. In relation to this, we call on the Cuban government to immediately release Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and other prisoners who have expressed their desire to stay in Cuba.
In September, the European Union will decide on the future of its Common Position on Cuba, as the revision was postponed in June until the autumn months. In light of the efforts of Spanish government to replace the Common Position with a bilateral agreement, we call on the EU to maintain its Common Position as a sign of support for democracy and human rights in Cuba. It is important to stress here that the maintaining of the Common Position was recently officially supported by the released political prisoners exiled in Spain.
As a document, the Common Position does not represent an obstacle to progress in EU-Cuba relations. In paragraph 4, the Common Position states that the European Union will support progress towards democracy in Cuba by, apart from other means, intensification of political dialog and economic cooperation. In this light, the EU can apply additional interim measures that will reflect recent developments on the island - such as fostering of people to people dialog through diplomatic and academic visits, and the deepening of dialog with the Cuban authorities. It is also necessary to reinforce, to extend and to intensify at an institutional level the dialog with the democratic opposition and independent civil society.
If the Cuban government continues and reinforces respect for human rights and democracy with further positive steps, the EU should consider official lifting of the diplomatic measures introduced in 2003.
However, if taking any steps that would lead to closer cooperation between the EU and Cuba, the EU must set criteria which reflect overall progress in the area of human rights and democracy. These criteria might include patterns of documented harassment and acts of repression against political prisoners, political dissidents and independent civil society in general, as well as ratification and implementation of the ICCPR and ICESCR, etc.
Progress should then be revised in the current semiannual cycle, without using additional instruments, as was the case in June, when the EU decided to provide extra three-month period before reviewing the Common Position on Cuba.
The Europe-Cuba NGO Network would hereby like to express its hope that these steps of the Cuban government mark the beginning of its opening a dialog on human rights and democracy, becoming thus a partner for the EU and its members.
(Source: The International Society for Human Rights.)
Video from Al-Jazeera:
Petition from the former prisoners of conscience exiled by Cuba to Spain, to the foreign ministers of the European Union about the "Common Position on Cuba"
posted on Monday, July 19, 2010BY PAUL WEBSTER HARE
PAULHARE@BU.EDU
Cuban political prisoners are being released because of dialogue, Spanish Minister Moratinos is telling the European Union. He is claiming the Spanish government's approach is vindicated and that the EU Common Position on Cuba should now be abandoned. There is a ``new era'' in Cuba.
The promised release (or exile) of 52 political prisoners is welcome news, but how really did it happen and how should the international community now engage with Cuba?
Dialogue with Cuba is nothing new to the EU. Since the Common Position was agreed upon in 1996, scores of EU ministers from member countries have visited Cuba, and many Cuban government officials have visited Europe. The EU has sponsored major cooperation programs with Cuba and exchanges in science, education, sport and culture. EU tourists and foreign investment have followed. The objective is to promote greater political and economic openness from within Cuba.
This EU dialogue and engagement with Cuba has been achieved with a Common Position. Indeed such instruments are widely used to coordinate EU foreign policy. The EU and Cuba opened a formal EU Commission office in Havana in March 2003 and the Cuban government was delighted.
However, five days later, when the eyes of the rest of the world were on Iraq, the EU reacted to Cuba's crackdown and jailing of the 75, whose releases we see now. The EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on Cuba and invited the dissidents and their families to their parties, alongside members of the government. Fidel Castro was furious, staging massive rallies against the Spanish and Italian embassies and freezing diplomatic contacts. The British embassy received a bomb threat. The solidarity which the EU fostered helped the formation of the Damas de Blanco group. They and Oswaldo Paya have both won EU Parliament prizes. All this was under the Common Position.
Moratinos came to office in 2004 and proposed a radical shift in EU policy. He questioned the purpose of the sanctions, arguing the Common Position stood in the way of "a serene and confident relationship'' between the EU and Cuba. Moratinos set about negotiating the sanctions away.
Fourteen prisoners were released by December 2004 (while the EU sanctions were still in place) including prominent figures like Raul Rivero, Martha Beatriz Roque and Oscar Espinosa Chepe. Since the dropping of the EU sanctions there were no other mass releases of prisoners -- until July 2010.
Moratinos' diplomacy has involved regular contact with the Cuban government. Yet when in Havana he has refused to meet opposition figures and did not question the Cuban government's record on human rights. In 2009 Moratinos said that the scrapping of the Common Position on Cuba would be a centerpiece of the Spanish EU presidency in the first half of 2010.
Why? Because it was disrespectful to the Cuban government and stood in the way of a "normal'' relationship between Cuba and the EU.
As often in Cuba policy, events have intervened. Five years after the EU dropped its sanctions, Yoani Sánchez was being attacked, the Damas de Blanco were being harassed and threatened and Orlando Zapata Tamayo had died for the cause of the dissident prisoners. On March 11, the European Parliament condemned the Cuban government for Zapata's death and called for renewed EU attention to human rights. On March 24, President Obama echoed the same sentiments. In April 2010, Cardinal Jaime Ortega gave his now famous, forthright interview to the Catholic Church's Palabra Nueva, and respected Cubans like Silvio Rodríguez and Carlos Varela criticized repression in Cuba.
The prisoner releases are not then simply attributable to "dialogue.'' The EU has had to play a more versatile role as Cubans themselves have been emboldened. The church's assertiveness followed EU and international outrage and showed what many suspected -- that the church had long underused it potential for political influence.
The church has now embraced the dissidents' cause and wider frustrations. Combined with the opposition's own courage they have forged an effective alliance. But the EU has also continued to focus on Cuba. Its tourists, investment and cooperation are still there. But it refused to abandon the Common Position in June 2010 as Moratinos wanted, postponing their review until September. We see the results today.
Moratinos can claim credit for keeping the EU's attention on Cuba but the firmness of the collective EU in denouncing Cuban repression has surely proved more valuable since 1996. It has helped to produce more than dialogue for its own sake. The EU should heed these lessons when it reviews Cuba policy -- and the continued lack of basic freedoms on the island -- in September.
Paul Webster Hare was British ambassador to Cuba from 2001-04 and was in Havana at the time of the jailing of the 75 political prisoners in 2003.
Released political prisoners vow to fight on for the freedom of Cuba
posted on Friday, July 16, 2010
The article quotes them describing the conditions on which they were kept, the abuses they suffered in prison, and the lasting consequences of their unjust imprisonment:
[…]here in Spain, the former prisoners have been giving disturbing details of their years behind bars.
"I spent 18 months in solitary confinement," Lester Gonzalez told the BBC, showing a court paper which detailed his 20-year prison sentence.
"[I was] in the dark, with my hands tied; with rats and cockroaches and excrement everywhere. That was all I could smell."
[…]they've described crowded and filthy prison cells where they were denied drinking water for days; often, the only food was "giraffe soup" - so watery, the prisoner stretched his neck searching for some kind of nutritional content.
"I went into prison weighing 86kg, now I'm 48kg," said Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, one of several men now suffering serious medical complaints.
"That's the effect of my prison time: chronic illness for rest of my life," explained Mr Garcia Paneque, now a shrunken figure with hollow cheeks.
[…]The men, who were held with ordinary Cuban criminals, recounted how prisoners routinely inflicted serious injuries upon themselves to get even basic medical attention from prison staff.
In one case, they said a man jabbed needles in his eyes but was left unattended for two days.
They denounced their forced exile, and that although released from jail, their sentences are still in effect, and they could be imprisoned should they ever be able to return to Cuba (something for which the regime has said they will need a permit):
"The Cuban government has been categorical: we have to get permission to return to the place we were born in," said Julio Cesar Galvez, who describes his arrival in Spain as deportation.
"We are not free. We are not immigrants here. Quite simply, we are refugees."
Cuban Church officials say 20 prisoners have agreed to come to Spain. As their criminal convictions have not been overturned, they say exile was the only option.
"If I leave prison, but I can't work to support my family, that's not freedom," explained Mr Galvez, who was sentenced to 15 years for his work as an independent journalist.
"If I'm still harassed, if they follow us, listen to our phone calls and want to know where we're going and what we're doing - we're not free," he said.
The opposition activists warned the EU and the rest of the international community against being too optimistic and seeing the move by the regime as a sign of change:
[…]the former prisoners say it would be "unacceptable" to see their release as proof that the Cuban government's approach to human rights has improved.
"Real improvement would mean new laws, no more repression or arrests of human rights activists," one said, adding that included his own right to return home without fear of prison again.
Another mentioned freedom of speech, and a third called the government's move a "smoke-screen" ahead of an EU review of its common position on Cuba this autumn.
Entire article with more pictures at the link.
It was not Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s name, however, what the headlines highlighted yesterday, after the announcement of the release, but the “mediation of the Church,” and the visit of Spain’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, to the island. Without trying to diminish their roles in this process, it is necessary to remember that Spain’s policies toward Cuba have not changed at all during the past several years. Neither have changed the positions and attitudes of the Cuban top hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church, nor, for that matter, those of the regime itself that keeps in place a draconian, illegitimate and arbitrary penal code that allows the imprisonment of Cubans for their opinions. The only truly new element with any political repercussion this year within the Cuban reality has been Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s death on February 23rd, with the intense wave of solidarity with our political prisoners and of strong condemnation of the Castro regime that it generated. It is impossible to forget and to allow that this fact be hidden from the world’s view.
Zapata’s sacrifice inspired Guillermo Fariñas’ hunger strike, gave new meaning to the marches of the Ladies in White, and moved the European Union and other democratic governments and parliaments to condemn the Cuban regime. It united, reactivated and renewed the internal opposition. It mobilized thousands of Cuban exiles who organized marches and protests for their country’s freedom around the world. It generated intense campaigns of local or global reach, like our own #OZT: I accuse the Cuban government, where dozens of thousands of people from more than a hundred countries and from all over the political and ideological spectrum, including distinguished personalities, have openly demanded the release of all Cuban political prisoners, and respect for human rights in Cuba.
The unity of the Cuban democrats around a common purpose and the firm and consistent support of the international community for the release of the political prisoners and the respect for human rights in Cuba have been the decisive factors leading to the releases announced yesterday. The actual reach and nature of these releases will also depend on our ability to preserve and reinforce that unity, and the solidarity from civil societies and democratic governments from around the world.
The forced exile of imprisoned opponents, just as it has been announced by the Spanish Foreign Minister, is a clear step backward in “the transition process toward a pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and basic liberties” established as a main objective on the European Union’s Common Position on Cuba. This massive banishment of opposition activists will deprive the transition of their main actors. Only a release without banishment, accomplished without fanfare, and with firm guarantees to exercise and defend human rights, would merit a reassessment of the Common Position or any other significant change on policy by any democratic government toward Cuba.
Our campaign strongly condemns and rejects the link established between the release of political prisoners and their forced exile, the bait and switch deal offered to the Cuban democratic movement, a ploy for which we will not fall. We also demand that the releases include all Cuban political prisoners, all those imprisoned in Cuba for their peaceful opposition to the Cuban regime or simply for exercising their inalienable rights: freedom of press, of expression, of gathering, of association and of movement, systematically violated and punished by the practices and laws of the Cuban dictatorship. As long as this is not accomplished, our campaign is going to continue.
The invitation to sign the Declaration of #OZT is still open to all. Our first delivery of the signatures will occur without delay on July 23rd, 2010.
Still unknown are the identities of the first five prisoners of conscience that will board a plane bound for Spain. Moratinos explained that the Archdiocese of La Habana will be “in charge of selecting them”, according to the conditions of their health, and their “wishes to travel to Spain.”
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that Cuban authorities have promised that the personal belongings and properties of those who travel to Spain will not be confiscated, and that their relatives will be able to return whenever they wish. “It [has not been] ruled out that [the political prisoners] can [return] although they would need a permit” published [in Spanish] the Spanish newspaper El País.
There are no doubts about the Black Spring prisoners
Mr. Moratinos, is now convinced that there are no more excuses to modify the EU Common Position on Cuba, and that Raúl Castro is willing to release all political prisoners on whose actual number there is no consensus, but that the internal opposition says amounts to 167. That is why he decided to advocate for the release of those prisoners sent to jail during Cuba’s Black Spring in 2003 whose nature as political prisoners “is uncontestable by all parties.”
“If I have to retake on my hunger strike, I am ready to go to the death, and thus continue the struggle of Guillermo Fariñas and Orlando Zapata Tamayo” remarked Del Sol. “It is not a capricious personal [thing], the release of those political prisoners who are ill is a just and dignified demand” he added.
He also asked the international community for help: “I want to ask the international community, especially those persons and governments that have shown [us] their good will, to hold the Cuban dictatorship accountable. It is time to clamor for Fariñas. The EU and those wonderful countries that form it, like Spain, can help a lot on this issue.”
You can read the rest of the interview [in Spanish] at the link.
Almost four months have passed since the beginning of the ongoing hunger strike by opposition activist Guillermo Fariñas protesting the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and demanding the release of 26 gravelly ill political prisoners.
A few weeks have gone by since the beginning of the negotiations between the Catholic Church, and the higher echelons of the regime —negotiations that have excluded and ignored the members of the opposition and civil society, and whose only tangible results until now have been a revocable “extra-penal license” [parole] for political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya, and the transfer of 12 others to penitentiaries closer to their places of residence.
Almost four months have passed since we launched the #OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign that now has more than 49,000 signatures —from more than one hundred countries—in support of the immediate and unconditional release of all Cuban prisoners of conscience, including prestigious personalities from the arts, sciences, and politics who represent a wide ideological spectrum. Nevertheless, the Cuban regime —that has had a hold on absolute power for more than half a century— has not taken any significant steps toward the release of the political prisoners, and insists on violating the rights of the entire Cuban people.
None of these results justifies a pause in our campaign. On the contrary, our campaign begins today a second offensive to double the support received in the form of signatures demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Cuban political prisoners. We will put this support to work by bringing it before democratic governments, international organizations and the Cuban regime diplomatic representations around the world.
We call on all of the signatories of our Declaration, and to those who intend to do so, to participate in demonstrations at Cuban embassies and consulates worldwide. These demonstrations will mark the first delivery of signatures this coming 23 July 2010, on the fifth month of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
We extend the invitation to political parties and organizations from every nation, as well those in Cuba and the Cuban exile, without exclusion. The lack of freedoms and individual rights affects people from every single political current equally.
#OZT: I accuse the Cuban government Campaign renews its promise to continue pressuring the regime in Cuba until it frees all political prisoners, and guarantees all freedoms and rights as spelled in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
OUR OPINION: Another round of harassment of dissidents
Once again Cuba's 51-year-old regime gives with one hand and takes away with another - even as the European Union is poised to discuss the potential for strengthening economic ties with the communist island.
After the Cuban dictatorship, under international pressure, seemed to be considering moving 26 sick political prisoners to hospitals a couple of weeks ago, officials cracked down again. Last week, they detained 37 dissidents for several hours to prevent them from attending meetings to discuss Cuba's political and economic crisis.
Despite the harassment, dozens of dissidents managed to attend the meetings and voted in solidarity with the Ladies in White, the Cuban women who peacefully march in Havana to call attention to their loved ones' imprisonment. They also discussed the international attention that the February death of hunger-striking dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo sparked.
Prisoners are ailing
Leaders of Cuba's Catholic Church have been in talks with Raúl Castro in an effort to help the 26 ailing prisoners, among 75 who were swept up in 2003 in another crackdown in which the regime accused the dissidents of being U.S. ``mercenaries.'' Back then, there appeared to be another opening on the horizon, too, as Fidel Castro put on his ``charm'' offensive in an effort to sway Republicans in farm-belt states to press the Bush administration to drop the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Which raises the perennial question: Do the Castros really want trade and diplomatic relations to improve with the United States and the European Union?
It sure doesn't seem like it.
Even as the regime has moved a few dissidents to prisons closer to their homes, it has continued to harass, detain or arrest others. Meantime, another dissident, Guillermo Fariñas, has caught the world's attention with a hunger strike.
Cuba undercuts progress
Spain, under Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's socialist government, has been pressing the European Union to embrace the Cuban regime without using human rights as a condition for more-favorable trade agreements. But with the recent harassment of -- and regime-backed mob violence directed at -- the Ladies in White, the detention of dissidents and Cuba's snail's-pace response to treating the ailing political prisoners, that's unlikely.
The EU's ``common position,'' established 14 years ago by Spain's then-Prime Minister José María Aznar, sought more direct contact with dissidents to nudge Cuba toward democracy. That is seen as a ``unilateral'' strategy by the Zapatero government, which has proposed more talks with Cuba in a ``bilateral'' stance.
Problem is, Cuba's government has shown through its actions that it does not give any consideration to human rights, even when it claims to be in agreement with the United Nations' universal declaration on human rights. That's why it's welcome that the U.S. State Department is poised to release $15 million to international human-rights groups working in Cuba.
The EU, urged by Spain two years ago, lifted sanctions it imposed after Cuba's 2003 crackdown. Now it's Cuba's turn to act, but so far its actions speak loudly of the same old intransigence.
European politicians urged to show support for Cuban opposition activists
posted on Tuesday, May 18, 2010Spanish news agency EFE reports (in Spanish) that European Christian Democrat Union vice president, Arnold Vaatz has sent a message to the participants in the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Madrid, Spain; urging them to show solidarity with Cuban dissidents who are in danger of dying.
The former East German dissident and human rights activist, called on European politicians to speak “with one voice” on Cuba. He added that Cuban opposition activists deserve encouragement and solidarity, not discouragement with appeasement policies [towards the Cuban dictatorship].
He remarked that there are reasons for serious concern about the life of several sick opposition activists and political prisoners, especially Guillermo Fariñas, Ariel Sigler Amaya and Normando Hernández González.
The Christian Democrat Union is part of the political coalition currently in power in Germany, and it is the political party of Chancellor Angela Merkel who is attending the summit.
We invite you to send your pictures with texts like: Libertad para Cuba, Libertad para los presos políticos (Freedom for Cuba, Freedom for political prisoners)...
Just write the text (doesn't have to be in Spanish) with big letters (so they are visible in the picture) and post them on Facebook or send to info@solidarity.com.pl . All pictures will be send to Cubans who will share our gesture of solidarity with their compatriots.
Read more at Global Solidarity.
