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NEWS
Human rights group
blasts Cuba for abuses
By Pablo Bachelet / McClatchy
Newspapers
Saturday, April 5, 2008 - Added 1d 9h ago
WASHINGTON - The human rights arm of the Organization of American States
on Friday condemned Cuba for multiple violations, drawing an angry
response from its allies Venezuela and Nicaragua, which argued that
Havana had been unable to defend itself.
In its 2007 annual report, the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, a semi-autonomous unit of the OAS, said Cuba restricted
political rights and freedom of expression, lacked free elections and an
independent judiciary and "created a permanent panorama of breached
basic rights for the Cuban citizenry."
The report also faults Cuba for the lack of independent trade unions and
threats and attacks against rights activists. The commission also noted
that foreign reporters were stripped of their work permits because
"their assessment of Cuban problems is not acceptable to the Cuban
government," the report said.
It said Cuba jailed 26 journalists, more than any other country in the
hemisphere.
Cuba is also found to have violated multiple articles of international
rights treaties and was urged to free jailed dissidents. One of the
prisoners, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo, was confined to 15 months of
solitary confinement and "suffered damage to his central nervous system
and other pathologies," according to the report.
The report also mentioned Colombia, Haiti and Venezuela as countries of
concern.
Cuba rejects the jurisdiction of the commission, saying it was suspended
from the OAS in 1962. OAS officials argue that Cuba is still bound to
respect human rights treaties. Commission communications to Cuba are
usually returned unopened.
In his dissenting vote, Venezuelan representative Freddy Gutierrez
called the report "abstract" and "vague" with deeds "recounted by one
side only" with sources he considered "dubious" and "taken from media
that systematically oppose the right of the Republic of Cuba freely to
determine its own destiny."
"It is also contrary to any sound interpretation of the law to seek to
initiate, pursue, and issue a condemnation of someone who cannot defend
himself," he said.
Representatives from Venezuela and Nicaragua also criticized the report
when it was presented before an OAS judicial committee on Thursday.
(c) 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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