Dissident forms new group that will push for rights

Cuba: Dissident forms new group that will push for rights
November 23, 2007

ROSTOV-ON-DON SEOUL SAO PAULO HAVANA - Internationally renowned
dissident Oswaldo Paya on Thursday announced a new group with more than
300 members to promote reconciliation and push for laws that allow
Cubans more individual liberties.

Paya said the Citizen Committee for Reconciliation and Dialogue seeks to
get average Cubans involved in efforts to change laws to "guarantee the
exercise of fundamental rights of all Cubans, whether they live inside
or outside" the communist-run island.

It builds on Paya's Varela Project, which amassed more than 25,000
signatures asking for a referendum to change Cuba's electoral law and to
guarantee freedoms of speech, assembly and private business ownership.

The European Union honored that project in 2002 by awarding Paya its top
human rights prize.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flaintdig11224sbnov23,0,7774927.story