16 April 2003
Secretary of State
Powell Condemns Repression in Cuba
(Says Cuba's human rights record is "horrible" and deteriorating)
(470)
By Scott Miller
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Cuban government's arrest, summary trial and subsequent
harsh sentencing of 75 dissidents are "condemnable" actions and should spark
outrage, particularly among regional leaders and representatives of those
nations participating in the United Nations Human Rights Commission
currently convened in Geneva, says Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In what Powell previously decried as the Cuban government's "most
significant act of political repression in decades," 75 dissidents accused
of being in the pay of the United States and collaborating with Washington
to undermine the Castro regime were sentenced in early April to between 12
and 26 years in prison following trials lasting less than a day each.
Those individuals targeted by the Cuban government crackdown included
independent journalists, human rights activists, leaders of independent
labor unions and opposition political parties, and numerous pro-democracy
activists involved in the Varela project, a petition drive advocating a
referendum on political and economic reform in Cuba.
The United States has repeatedly condemned the arrests of the activists and
the summary justice meted out by what it referred to as Cuba's "kangaroo
courts." Powell noted, moreover, that the Cuban government's current
crackdown is not without precedent.
Repression "has been the pattern and history of Fidel Castro's Cuba for
many, many years," Powell said in an April 15 press conference. "And once
again, he has demonstrated vividly to us the nature of his regime."
In an April 3 statement, State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker said that
the current crackdown indicates Cuba has fallen further out of step with the
other nations of the Western Hemisphere.
"While the rest of the hemisphere has moved toward greater freedom, the
anachronistic Cuban government appears to be retreating into Stalinism,"
Reeker said.
Powell echoed this sentiment on April 15.
"With respect to Cuba, it has always had a horrible human rights record, and
rather than improving as we go into the 21st century, it is getting worse,"
he said.
Powell added that the political repression practiced by the Castro regime
should spark hemispheric and global condemnation.
"When you look at what they have done in recent weeks and recent months with
respect to stifling dissent, with respect to arresting people and sentencing
them to long years in prison, in jail, just for expressing a point of view
that is different from that of Fidel Castro, it should be an outrage to
everyone," Powell said. "It should be an outrage to every leader in this
hemisphere, every leader in this world."
Powell also expressed hope that Cuba's crackdown would be "well noted" and
that appropriate action would be taken by hemispheric leaders and those
nations currently participating in the meeting of the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in Geneva.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) |
