No human rights progress under Raul Castro, say dissidents
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| Published on Friday, July 6, 2007 |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Almost a year after Raul Castro took over as communist Cuba's interim leader, blanket human rights violations remain the rule, dissidents said Thursday.
"It cannot be disputed: the systematic and institutionalized violation of each and every civil, political, economic and even cultural right remains" since Raul Castro, 76, was handed the reins of power last July when his brother and president, Fidel Castro, now 80, underwent intestinal surgery, the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in a report.
Though the number of political prisoners decreased to 246 from 283 in the first half of the year, committee chief Elizardo Sanchez said the drop was all but irrelevant given what he called the "alarming" percentage of the Cuban population of 11 million that it represents.
"Under this provisional government" led by Raul Castro, also defense chief in the Americas' only one-party communist regime, "not a single step has been taken to modernize the legal system, including the decriminalization of ... all civil, political, economic and cultural rights," Sanchez stressed.
The Cuban government maintains it has no political prisoners, but does acknowledge jailing people it deems US-paid "mercenaries," who it says "have sought to undermine order" or engage in terrorism.
Sanchez slammed what he called Cuba's overcrowded prison system "made up of some 200 prisons and labor camps ... completely free from the scrutiny of the International Red Cross and other organizations." Cuba does not allow international monitors in its correctional facilities.
Sanchez also complained about the government's tight control of access to the Internet, and its repression of people's outlawed efforts to get access to information freely.
Fidel Castro, who took power in Cuba in January 1959, is still on the mend from major intestinal surgery, penning regular editorials in state news media.
Castro turns 81 on August 13 and has not appeared in public since his July 26 operation for intestinal trouble. Raul Castro took Cuba's helm last July 31.
On June 18, Fidel Castro wrote that his communist regime would continue building and buying weapons to fend off any attack from the United States.
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