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RIGHTS-CUBA: Fewer Political Prisoners, More Arbitrary Arrests – Dissidents

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 18 2008 (IPS) - The number of political prisoners in Cuba fell last year, but arbitrary detentions increased, according to a report released Wednesday, by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN).

At least 325 people were arbitrarily arrested – most of them were held by the authorities for some hours or a few days. Those apprehended "for trying to exercise certain civil and political rights" were released without charge, said CCDHRN, which has worked illegally in the country since 1987, but is tolerated by the authorities.

"Our day-to-day observation leads us to think that the style of political repression has changed. The long prison terms handed down years ago have given way to short periods of detention," Elizardo Sánchez, a human rights observer and head of CCDHRN, told IPS.

"The current situation could continue in the short term, unless there are unforeseen changes in government policy," the activist said.

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the Arco Progresista dissident coalition, said that such "warnings" from the authorities are on the increase. "The limit still appears to be the street. The authorities are determined not to allow any public demonstration that might get out of hand," he told IPS.

According to the CCDHRN report, the interim government – in power since the announcement of President Fidel Castro’s illness on Jul. 31, 2006 – "has done nothing to change the dire situation of civil, political and economic rights that has existed in Cuba for more than four decades."

The Cuban government, for its part, does not recognise the legitimacy of this kind of report, nor of organisations like CCDHRN, which the authorities say have no real influence in the country and only exist because they are promoted and financed by the United States government.

When it speaks on human rights, the Cuban government stresses the social achievements of the country and the benefits its 11.2 million people enjoy in terms of education, health and employment, guaranteed by the state.

The lack of other rights are officially attributed to the country’s need to defend itself from the U.S. – which uses its U.S. Interests Section in Havana to promote internal rebellion – and has publicly declared its support for a change of government and an end to socialism on this island.

The U.S. has maintained an economic embargo against the island for over 40 years.

However, a public debate of the current problems troubling Cuban society – a debate stimulated in 2007 by the government itself – has brought up some issues that have been part of the dissident agenda, and are now being raised by broad sectors of the population.

Among the proposals being debated are the right to freely enter and leave the country, elimination of the present dual currency, extension of cooperative ownership to certain services, and access by Cubans to tourist hotels, from which they were banned 15 years ago.

The CCDHRN report was distributed to the press Wednesday. It includes a partial list of political and socio-political prisoners which the organisation publishes every six months, based on information from relatives.

On Dec. 31, there were 234 political prisoners, 12 fewer than the number reported in mid-2007. The report considers this to be of minimal significance, but it is part of a clear trend. CCDHRN reported 333 documented political prisoners at the end of 2005, and 283 at the end of 2006.

Only 72 out of the 234 listed are accepted as prisoners of conscience by human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI). Of these, 59 are serving sentences in maximum-security jails, and 13 have been granted conditional release for health reasons.

According to CCDHRN, "if the government were to apply, without discrimination on ideological grounds, the provisions of Article 58, sections 1 and 2 of the current criminal code which establish the right to conditional release, nearly a hundred political prisoners could be freed from prison immediately."

The general prison population, estimated at 80,000 in the absence of official figures, could also be reduced by applying this provision. "Every time we see someone convicted of ‘dangerousness’ we know they are technically innocent because they have committed no crime," Sánchez said.

"Dangerousness" means someone is suspected to have the potential to commit a crime. It is a category that covers thousands of men and women who have been arrested.

The report says the government’s recent announcement that it will sign the U.N. International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is "positive, if Cuba is willing to respect the letter and the spirit of both pacts."

The decision means Cuba will open its doors to regular monitoring by the newly created U.N. Human Rights Council from 2009.

According to the CCDHRN report, instead of "signing more commitments," the government should respect the laws already in force in the country, and make headway by "reform[ing] laws that criminalise the exercise of elementary civil, political, economic and cultural rights."