Hopefully, Oswaldo Paya's latest campaign can somehow appeal to the world's concscience on the question of Cuban political prisoners.
Of course, this is the same world that, through the United Nations, elected Cuba to a "Human Rights Council," and just last week rejected an Australian proposal to condemn Cuba for its human rights record.
And that, I am sure, will next month gather in Havana to celebrate the dying bastard's 80th birthday, albeit four months late.
But Paya's is still an important effort, and the world must respond, and demand the release of Cuba's political prisoners.
Otherwise, the tyrant would have found refuge in its silence.
Cuban dissident tries to rally support for release of political prisonersCuba's most renowned activist launched a campaign Thursday urging that countries on the U.N. Human Rights Council demand Cuba release all of its political prisoners, a day after the world body's General Assembly defeated a similar measure.
Oswaldo Paya criticized international groups that applaud the achievements of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution without looking at what he calls deep divisions and a severe lack of freedom on the island.
"They are looking at Cuba as if it's just a revolution, or just one leader, and not paying attention to the 11 million human beings here," Paya told The Associated Press as he prepared to drop off a proposed resolution to several embassies in Havana from countries on the 47-nation Human Rights Council.
"It's scandalous that this is not a scandal," he said of Cuba's imprisonment of political activists.
Rights groups say more than 300 political activists are imprisoned in Cuba, including 60 activists put behind bars in the spring of 2003. The Cuban government denies holding prisoners of conscience, characterizing them as common criminals or "mercenaries" paid by the U.S. government to try and topple Castro's system.
Read the whole story below the fold.
Cuban dissident tries to rally support for release of political prisoners
The Associated Press
Cuba's most renowned activist launched a campaign Thursday urging that countries on the U.N. Human Rights Council demand Cuba release all of its political prisoners, a day after the world body's General Assembly defeated a similar measure.
Oswaldo Paya criticized international groups that applaud the achievements of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution without looking at what he calls deep divisions and a severe lack of freedom on the island.
"They are looking at Cuba as if it's just a revolution, or just one leader, and not paying attention to the 11 million human beings here," Paya told The Associated Press as he prepared to drop off a proposed resolution to several embassies in Havana from countries on the 47-nation Human Rights Council.
"It's scandalous that this is not a scandal," he said of Cuba's imprisonment of political activists.
Rights groups say more than 300 political activists are imprisoned in Cuba, including 60 activists put behind bars in the spring of 2003. The Cuban government denies holding prisoners of conscience, characterizing them as common criminals or "mercenaries" paid by the U.S. government to try and topple Castro's system.
On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to urge the United States to end its 45-year-old trade embargo against the communist government after defeating an Australian amendment calling on Cuba to free political prisoners and respect human rights.
Paya said his Christian Liberation Movement is against the trade embargo, and glad the world is pressuring the United States to lift it. But just as important for Cubans, he said, are freedom of expression and the right to choose their political and economic systems.
"They are denying Cubans the right to have rights," he said of countries who fail to recognize this need. "We need international solidarity, and moral support. We need them to help the Cuban state open its eyes."
Paya, a pro-democracy activist, became internationally known in 2002 with his Varela Project, under which he collected thousands of signatures from Cubans seeking a rights referendum, marking the most extensive homegrown, nonviolent effort to push for reforms in Cuba's one-party system since Castro took power in 1959.
The Cuban government responded with a petition drive of its own to declare socialism an "irrevocable" part of the constitution. Signatures from the majority of registered voters were collected and lawmakers voted unanimously for the change in the constitution.
For his current campaign, Paya said he wants to focus on the release of the political prisoners, whose situation he says is increasingly grave.
"They are enduring a deterioration of physical and psychological health, and they are subjected to constant stress and uncertainty," he said, adding that prison guards humiliate and mistreat them, and solitary cells are filled with rats and urine.
"They committed no violent acts — they only presented their ideas," he said.
Groups like Paya's have been calling on the government to release the prisoners for years. But the lack of international pressure hurts the efforts, the activist said.
"We are also calling on civil society, non-governmental organizations, parliaments, religious groups and all citizens of all countries to demand that their governments support this resolution," he said.
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