Cuban government celebrates Human Rights Day 2008
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Steve Marquardt
Dec 11, 2008, 6:58:57 PM12/11/08
to Cuba451Letters
Cuban activists say they were beaten on eve of 60th human rights
anniversary
Leading Cuban activist Belinda Salas says she and others were beaten
Wednesday after leaving the US Interests Section in Havana.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 11, 2008 edition
Mexico City - On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights Wednesday – a day when Cuban dissidents
traditionally gather for protest marches – Belinda Salas, a leading
Cuban activist, was beaten by Cuban police, she said via telephone in
Havana.
Ms. Salas, the director for the Latin American Foundation of Rural
Women (FLAMUR), says she, her husband, and another couple were leaving
the US Interests Section in Havana, where the group regularly sends e-
mails and news to Cuban activist groups based in the US and Europe,
when two police cars stopped next to them. Eight officers began to
beat them on the street, just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, and detained her
husband and the two other activists.
Salas says she does not know where they are being held, but she says
she knows the motive. "They want to sell the image that they respect
human rights, so they beat us to avoid our peaceful protests planned
for [Wednesday]," says Salas, who was interviewed by the Monitor
earlier this summer for a story on women activists in Cuba, part of a
series on change under way in the island nation since Raúl Castro took
the helm from his brother, Fidel Castro.
The incident also comes as FLAMUR presented some 10,000 signatures to
Cuba's national assembly last month to protest the country's dual-
currency system, which pays state wages in Cuban pesos but requires
payment for many goods and services in convertible pesos, which are
worth more than 25 times more. The group turned in the first 10,000
signatures a year ago.
Sandy Acosta Cox, a spokesperson at the Cuban American National
Foundation in Miami, says it is rare for beatings, especially of
women, to occur. Women activists, such as the "Ladies in White" who
demand the release of relatives arrested in a sweep in 2003 known as
"Black Spring," have been given a certain degree of space, she says.
"They know they'll have a major problem because the world is
watching."
Long-term sentences such as those handed out during "Black Spring" are
becoming rarer, says Dan Erikson, a Cuba expert at the Inter-American
Dialogue and author of the new book "The Cuba Wars." "Generally, Cuba
has seen a reduction in arrests with people getting long sentences,
and there's been more short-term arrests and harassment," he says.
"Cuba recognizes that having political prisoners is bad for its image
overseas."
Find this Christian Science Monitor article at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1211/p25s02-woam.html where there is
also a link to a five-minute video about “how Cubans hustle to make
ends meet.”
The following is from a December 11, 2008 e-mail from the Human Rights
Foundation:
Cuba: Rights Activists Assaulted, Beaten, and Detained by Castro
Government
NEW YORK (December 11, 2008)—At least 20 activists were detained in
Cuba this week for planning to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). According to independent
and verifiable sources inside Cuba, detainees, some of whom were taken
by force and beaten, include former political prisoners, human rights
activists, opposition political leaders, and independent journalists.
“The government of Raul Castro is arresting human rights advocates for
wanting to celebrate a declaration of human rights—it’s business as
usual, the new boss is the same as the old boss,” said Sarah
Wasserman, Chief Operating Officer of the Human Rights Foundation.
“For a country that denies violating human rights, this is the epitome
of hypocrisy; it’s evident that the Cuban government’s signing of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to notable pomp,
circumstance, and self-congratulation earlier this year was just
window-dressing.”
Civil society leaders around the island planned a number of peaceful
activities to commemorate International Human Rights Day, including
street marches, congregations in public and private spaces, and the
distribution of copies of the UDHR text. In an attempt to prevent
these activities, officials from Cuba’s security apparatus arrested
likely participants from around the country.
Human rights activist and former political prisoner Lazaro Alonso was
detained this Tuesday while walking home with his wife Belinda Salas,
president of FLAMUR (Latin American Federation of Rural Women) and
leader of the campaign “Con la Misma Moneda.” Eight policemen
intercepted Salas and her husband at around 1 p.m. and physically beat
them, arresting Alonso and leaving Salas unconscious on the street.
She has not heard from her husband since then, and Cuban authorities
refuse to disclose his whereabouts. Last week, award-winning blogger
Yoani Sanchez was forbidden from participating in a bloggers’ meeting
she had spent six months organizing.
“These are not isolated incidents but part of the continuing decades-
long campaign of harassment and intimidation perpetrated by the Cuban
state against citizens that aspire to enjoy the individual rights the
Cuban government claims to respect,” said Wasserman.
Such repression is in clear violation of the right to peaceful
assembly enshrined in Article 20 of the UDHR and Article 21 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Cuba
signed the latter in February of this year. What many observers hailed
as a symbol of positive change in Cuba, however, has meant little for
those living there. A formal request by 13 civil society groups,
spearheaded by the National Cuban Liberal Party (PLNC), asking the
government to publicize the ICCPR and discuss its contents in a public
forum has received only government intimidation as a response.
“If the Cuban government wants to start improving its human rights
record, it should start by honoring its international commitments and
respecting the right of its citizens to celebrate Human Rights Day,”
concluded Wasserman.
HRF is an international nonpartisan organization devoted to defending
human rights in the Americas. It centers its work on the twin concepts
of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These
ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to
speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and
enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded
equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the
opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
HRF’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human
beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile
and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. HRF does
not support nor condone violence. HRF’s International Council includes
former prisoners of conscience Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso,
Armando Valladares, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.
Contact:
Sarah Wasserman, Human Rights Foundation, (212) 246.8486,
in...@thehrf.org
anniversary
Leading Cuban activist Belinda Salas says she and others were beaten
Wednesday after leaving the US Interests Section in Havana.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 11, 2008 edition
Mexico City - On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights Wednesday – a day when Cuban dissidents
traditionally gather for protest marches – Belinda Salas, a leading
Cuban activist, was beaten by Cuban police, she said via telephone in
Havana.
Ms. Salas, the director for the Latin American Foundation of Rural
Women (FLAMUR), says she, her husband, and another couple were leaving
the US Interests Section in Havana, where the group regularly sends e-
mails and news to Cuban activist groups based in the US and Europe,
when two police cars stopped next to them. Eight officers began to
beat them on the street, just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, and detained her
husband and the two other activists.
Salas says she does not know where they are being held, but she says
she knows the motive. "They want to sell the image that they respect
human rights, so they beat us to avoid our peaceful protests planned
for [Wednesday]," says Salas, who was interviewed by the Monitor
earlier this summer for a story on women activists in Cuba, part of a
series on change under way in the island nation since Raúl Castro took
the helm from his brother, Fidel Castro.
The incident also comes as FLAMUR presented some 10,000 signatures to
Cuba's national assembly last month to protest the country's dual-
currency system, which pays state wages in Cuban pesos but requires
payment for many goods and services in convertible pesos, which are
worth more than 25 times more. The group turned in the first 10,000
signatures a year ago.
Sandy Acosta Cox, a spokesperson at the Cuban American National
Foundation in Miami, says it is rare for beatings, especially of
women, to occur. Women activists, such as the "Ladies in White" who
demand the release of relatives arrested in a sweep in 2003 known as
"Black Spring," have been given a certain degree of space, she says.
"They know they'll have a major problem because the world is
watching."
Long-term sentences such as those handed out during "Black Spring" are
becoming rarer, says Dan Erikson, a Cuba expert at the Inter-American
Dialogue and author of the new book "The Cuba Wars." "Generally, Cuba
has seen a reduction in arrests with people getting long sentences,
and there's been more short-term arrests and harassment," he says.
"Cuba recognizes that having political prisoners is bad for its image
overseas."
Find this Christian Science Monitor article at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1211/p25s02-woam.html where there is
also a link to a five-minute video about “how Cubans hustle to make
ends meet.”
The following is from a December 11, 2008 e-mail from the Human Rights
Foundation:
Cuba: Rights Activists Assaulted, Beaten, and Detained by Castro
Government
NEW YORK (December 11, 2008)—At least 20 activists were detained in
Cuba this week for planning to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). According to independent
and verifiable sources inside Cuba, detainees, some of whom were taken
by force and beaten, include former political prisoners, human rights
activists, opposition political leaders, and independent journalists.
“The government of Raul Castro is arresting human rights advocates for
wanting to celebrate a declaration of human rights—it’s business as
usual, the new boss is the same as the old boss,” said Sarah
Wasserman, Chief Operating Officer of the Human Rights Foundation.
“For a country that denies violating human rights, this is the epitome
of hypocrisy; it’s evident that the Cuban government’s signing of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to notable pomp,
circumstance, and self-congratulation earlier this year was just
window-dressing.”
Civil society leaders around the island planned a number of peaceful
activities to commemorate International Human Rights Day, including
street marches, congregations in public and private spaces, and the
distribution of copies of the UDHR text. In an attempt to prevent
these activities, officials from Cuba’s security apparatus arrested
likely participants from around the country.
Human rights activist and former political prisoner Lazaro Alonso was
detained this Tuesday while walking home with his wife Belinda Salas,
president of FLAMUR (Latin American Federation of Rural Women) and
leader of the campaign “Con la Misma Moneda.” Eight policemen
intercepted Salas and her husband at around 1 p.m. and physically beat
them, arresting Alonso and leaving Salas unconscious on the street.
She has not heard from her husband since then, and Cuban authorities
refuse to disclose his whereabouts. Last week, award-winning blogger
Yoani Sanchez was forbidden from participating in a bloggers’ meeting
she had spent six months organizing.
“These are not isolated incidents but part of the continuing decades-
long campaign of harassment and intimidation perpetrated by the Cuban
state against citizens that aspire to enjoy the individual rights the
Cuban government claims to respect,” said Wasserman.
Such repression is in clear violation of the right to peaceful
assembly enshrined in Article 20 of the UDHR and Article 21 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Cuba
signed the latter in February of this year. What many observers hailed
as a symbol of positive change in Cuba, however, has meant little for
those living there. A formal request by 13 civil society groups,
spearheaded by the National Cuban Liberal Party (PLNC), asking the
government to publicize the ICCPR and discuss its contents in a public
forum has received only government intimidation as a response.
“If the Cuban government wants to start improving its human rights
record, it should start by honoring its international commitments and
respecting the right of its citizens to celebrate Human Rights Day,”
concluded Wasserman.
HRF is an international nonpartisan organization devoted to defending
human rights in the Americas. It centers its work on the twin concepts
of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These
ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to
speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and
enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded
equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the
opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
HRF’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human
beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile
and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. HRF does
not support nor condone violence. HRF’s International Council includes
former prisoners of conscience Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso,
Armando Valladares, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.
Contact:
Sarah Wasserman, Human Rights Foundation, (212) 246.8486,
in...@thehrf.org
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