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US GOVERNMENTS REPORTS |
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06 August 2003
Imprisoned Cuban
Dissident Wins Award for Pro-Democracy Work
Roberto de Miranda one of 75 dissidents jailed in Castro crackdown
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A Cuban dissident who was among 75 people jailed by the regime
of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro earlier in 2003 has been honored with an
award for his work promoting democracy in Cuba.
Roberto de Miranda, sentenced to a 20-year prison term in Castro's March
crackdown on dissidents, was awarded August 5 the Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom
Award. The award is named for the Cuban dissident who pioneered civic
resistance against Castro. Boitel died of starvation in 1972 after a 53-day
hunger strike in prison.
Created in 2001 by a coalition of the Miami-based Cuban Democratic
Directorate, a non-profit group advocating democracy, and eastern European
non-governmental organizations, the award recognizes a Cuban pro-democracy
activist for excellent work and courage carrying out nonviolent civic
resistance to the Castro regime.
The Miami Herald reported that de Miranda collected signatures for the
Varela Project, which works for democratic reforms and the release of
political prisoners in Cuba. He is also president of the Association of
Independent Teachers, which seeks to keep political ideology out of Cuban
schools.
The Herald said de Miranda suffers from high blood pressure and pancreatic
illness and had suffered a heart attack in prison.
Non-governmental organizations from six European countries -- Romania,
Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic -- joined in the
granting of the award. Gabriel Andreescu of Romania, who helped organize the
Boitel prize and was himself a political prisoner under the regime of
Romania's late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, said those countries feel "great
affinity" with Cuban citizens' lack of political freedom "due to the past
struggle in our own countries in defense of those same human rights."
The United States joined the worldwide outcry several months ago against the
crackdown on human rights in Cuba by calling for clemency for the 75
dissidents who were jailed for alleged crimes against state security.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in May that he deplored the
jailing of people "who choose to speak their own mind."
Powell called Cuba an "anachronism" in the Western Hemisphere and on the
"face of the earth," adding that Cuba "sits there isolated, getting poorer
and broker, more irrelevant on the world stage, and sooner or later this
[Castro] regime will pass into history."
The Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations issued
their own joint statement in May, expressing "profound regret and grave
concern" at the lengthy prison sentences the dissidents received after less
than a week on trial. The two organizations said the arrests and jailings of
the dissidents "constitute a severe erosion of the right to freedom of
opinion and expression" in Cuba.
The Caribbean Community, the European Union, and global human rights
organizations such as Amnesty International also denounced Castro's
crackdown and imprisonment of dissidents.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) |
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