Cuba dissidents targeted more by mobs -commission

Cuba dissidents targeted more by mobs -commission
09 Feb 2006 17:33:35 GMT

Source: Reuters

HAVANA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The Cuban government is resorting more to mob
action to stifle dissent and at levels of violence unseen for years, the
Communist-run country's main human rights organization said on Thursday.
The illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation said that on 24 different occasions in January groups of
government supporters harassed dissidents. Five were physically
assaulted and five government opponents' homes were searched, the
commission said. "The government has unleashed a major operation against
its opponents," a report issued by the organization said, adding
incidents had taken place in eight of 14 provinces. "Particularly
worrisome is the level of physical and verbal violence used by
individuals mobilized by the government in these actions, unprecedented
in recent years," the commission said. The report described an incident
where an angry mob surrounded the home of a blind dissident in central
Cuba, another where a government opponent's home in Havana was defaced
with paint and another where a dissident was hit with iron bars in the
eastern part of the country. President Fidel Castro routinely charges
Cuban dissidents are mercenaries and agents of the United States out to
end the revolution that swept him to power in 1959. The government
denies it resorts to physical abuse of opponents. Castro, in a major
speech in 2005, warned Cubans would respond with "patriotic fervor"
every time dissidents "overstep by a millimeter ... what the people are
willing to tolerate." Human Rights Commission President Elizardo Sanchez
said the government had opted for a strategy of intimidation to quell
rising discontent over the country's economic malaise. "Popular
discontent across the country appears unstoppable. The state is aware of
the social unrest and is responding in this way," the veteran opposition
activist said. The commission report compares the mob actions to those
carried out by the Nazis against the Jews, echoing a recent statement by
the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, Michael Parmly. The commission said in
January there were 333 political prisoners on the island and that 57
people were detained during the year for political reasons. Amnesty
International says Cuba has 80 prisoners of conscience, more than any
other country in the Western Hemisphere.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09331005.htm