Dissidents mark third anniversary of crackdown on rights

Posted on Sat, Mar. 18, 2006

CUBA
Dissidents mark third anniversary of crackdown on rights

Cuban dissidents made a plea to the world not to forget the crackdown
three years ago that led to the arrest of 75 opponents of Fidel Castro's
government.
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - Cuban dissidents and their supporters on Friday commemorated
the crackdown that jailed 75 opponents of the government three years
ago, asking the world not to forget them.

Saturday marks three years since the March 18, 2003, crackdown was
launched, prompting governments and rights groups around the world to
condemn Fidel Castro's communist government. Cuban officials said the
roundup was needed to protect the nation from ''mercenaries'' paid from
abroad to undermine the socialist system.

''This isn't just any anniversary,'' veteran Cuban rights activist
Elizardo Sanchez said Friday. ``This marks the third year after the most
intense wave of repression against political prisoners in many years --
not only in Cuba but in this hemisphere.''

In Prague, Czech politicians joined human-rights activists in a
makeshift cell at Prague's downtown Wenceslas Square on Friday to serve
symbolic prison terms to mark the anniversary.

Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda and Information Minister Dana
Berova, together with the main opposition Civic Democratic Party leader
Mirek Topolanek and others, shared the cell for a time Friday.

Cuba later tried and sentenced the 75 to long prison terms. They were
accused of working with the United States to undermine Castro's
government -- charges the activists and Washington deny.

Since then, 15 of the original 75 have been released on medical parole,
and of those, three have left Cuba.

The 60 still behind bars were among 333 known political prisoners in
Cuba at the end of 2005, the U.S. State Department said in its recent
world human-rights report.

They include independent journalist Juan Carlos Herrera, who reportedly
has gone without food for 13 days in prison. Herrera is serving a
20-year sentence.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/14127800.htm