By Will Weissert
The Associated Press
Posted May 8 2007
HAVANA · A leading Cuban human rights group on Monday urged governments
around the world to petition Havana to spare the lives of army deserters
who could face a firing squad for allegedly killing soldiers as they
fled military bases.
The statement by the nongovernmental Cuban Commission for Human Rights
and National Reconciliation referred to a deadly attempted hijacking at
Havana's main airport last week and a previously unreported December
shootout and escape in eastern Cuba.
Signed by veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, the statement
noted that Cuban military law calls for capital punishment for deserters
older than 20. The two cases of escaped soldiers involved six men, only
two of whom were old enough to face a death penalty.
The statement called on organizations and governments around the world
to protest capital punishment in Cuba, where several dozen prisoners are
on Death Row.
The government's swift execution of three men convicted of hijacking a
Havana passenger ferry in April 2003, a case in which no one was killed,
led to international protests that were largely ignored by Cuban
authorities.
In the most recent case of desertion, three conscripts shot their way
out of the Managua base southeast of the Cuban capital in late April,
killing at least one soldier.
They avoided capture until they allegedly commandeered a city bus before
dawn Thursday, forced it to drive to the airport and loaded eight of its
passengers aboard an empty jetliner they demanded be flown to the United
States.
Officials say they shot and killed an army officer who had been on the
bus before a gunbattle at the airport led to the capture of two of the
escaped soldiers. The third soldier was arrested earlier.
It was unclear which of the three soldiers was 21.
The earlier desertion came on Dec. 20, when three soldiers killed two
Interior Ministry officials and made off with machine guns in fleeing El
Manguito garrison near Santiago, 525 miles east of Havana, according to
the committee.
The suspects were captured a short distance away following an "intense
military operation," the committee said, adding that only one of them
was 21. Cuba's government has not reported the incident.
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