Cuba launches crackdown after hunger striker's death

Cuba launches crackdown after hunger striker's death

Cuban security agents have detained dissidents across the country to
prevent protests at the funeral of a leading dissident who died on a
prison hunger strike.

Cuban president Raul Castro says he regrets the death of Orlando Zapata
and denies the rights activist had been tortured.

"There were no tortured people, there was no execution," he said. "That
is what happens at Guantanamo."

But Mr Zapata's mother Reina Luisa Tamayo says her son's death was a
'premeditated murder'.

"My son was tortured the whole time he was in prison," she said.

Mr Zapata, 42, was buried in his hometown of Banes, 830 kilometres east
of Havana, after a wake at his mother's home.

"I call on the international community to demand the release of the rest
of the [political] prisoners ... so that what happened to my boy does
not happen again," Ms Tamayo said.

Mr Zapata's death 85 days into a hunger strike to protest prison
conditions drew international condemnation and calls for an
investigation and the release of all political prisoners.

But the government's initial reaction appeared to be to move swiftly
against other dissidents.

Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation spokesman
Elizardo Sanchez says security agents detained about 30 activists
Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Some also have been held in their houses, without a judicial warrant,
to prevent people from going to the wake," he said.

Mr Sanchez says dissidents have been rounded up in the provinces of
Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Las Tunas and Camaguey, all in the east,
and in the central city of Placetas.

Mr Sanchez says it was the first time in nearly 40 years that a Cuban
opposition figure has died while on a hunger strike.

"[Mr Zapata's death] is bad news for the human rights movement and for
the government as well," Mr Sanchez said.

A Havana Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital spokesman says Mr Zapata died at
1:00 pm (local time) on Tuesday after a nearly three month protest
against prison conditions.

He had been in jailed since 2003 and blamed his already deteriorating
health on harsh conditions inside Cuba's jails.

Mr Zapata was transferred from a local clinic in the eastern province of
Camaguey, near his prison, to the capital's largest hospital on Monday.

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley says Mr Zapata's death
'highlights the injustice of Cuba's holding more than 200 political
prisoners who should be released without delay'.

-AFP

Cuba launches crackdown after hunger striker's death - ABC News
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (25 February 2010)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/25/2829645.htm?section=justin