Written Answers - Human Rights Abuses.
Michael Ring
Question:
248
Mr. Ring
asked the
Minister for Foreign Affairs
his views on the conduct of the recent elections (details supplied) in Cuba; his views on the campaign of the Varela Project calling for a referendum on civil rights, an amnesty for political prisoners, free enterprise and political reform in Cuba; and if he will raise this with the Cuban authorities.
[7909/03]
Finian McGrath
Question:
249
Mr. F. McGrath
asked the
Minister for Foreign Affairs
if he will raise once again the case of persons (details supplied) with the US authorities; and if his attention has been drawn to the deteriorating prison conditions.
[8058/03]
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:
252
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
asked the
Minister for Foreign Affairs
if his attention has been drawn to the arbitrary decision of 28 February 2003 of the US Federal Prisons Bureau to send to solitary confinement five persons (details supplied) unjustly convicted in the USA, thus depriving these persons of all outside contact including consular and legal representation, at a time when their appeal at the Atlanta District Court is due to begin on 7 April 2003; if he has expressed concern regarding this decision to the US authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[8161/03]
Joe Costello
Question:
253
Mr. Costello
asked the
Minister for Foreign Affairs
the reason the Government co-sponsored a US drafted resolution against Cuba during the last session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[8162/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 248, 249, 252 and 253 together.
The National and Provincial Assembly elections which took place in Cuba on 19 January last did not correspond to Irish or European definitions of free and fair elections in a pluralist democracy. Under Cuba's one-party system, 609 candidates were nominated for 609 National Assembly seats, and 1,119 candidates were put forward for 1,119 seats in the provincial assemblies. The distinguished Cuban advocate of democracy and recipient of the 2003 European Parliament Sakharov award for freedom of expression, Mr. Oswaldo Paya, described the elections as, "an imposition, not an election." I agree with Mr. Paya.
Ireland and its EU partners have repeatedly urged the Cuban authorities to respond positively to Mr. Paya's constructive initiative for the development of pluralist democracy in Cuba, known as the Varela project. It is disappointing that the Havana Government has instead chosen to react negatively to the proposal. This disappointment is shared by former United States President, Jimmy Carter, who commended the project to President Castro during his visit to Cuba in May 2002. Last week, Mr. Carter again appealed to the Cuban National Assembly not to dismiss the project out of hand, but to at least agree to place it on its agenda for consideration and debate. I endorse former President Carter's appeal. Mr. Paya has also been working hard to bridge the gap between those living on the island of Cuba and those in exile. There are encouraging indications that his recent visit to south Florida has had considerable success in this respect, particularly among the younger generation of Cuban-Americans.
The whole thrust of Irish and EU policy towards Cuba is to encourage an easing of tensions, both within the island itself and between the Cuban Government and the large exile community in south Florida, so that the long-standing state of mutual hostility which gave rise to the sort of incidents for which the five Cuban citizens in question were convicted in the United States would become a thing of the past. It will be recalled that the five Cubans were found guilty on charges ranging from espionage to first degree murder, following an investigation into the deaths of two young Cuban-Americans when the planes they were piloting were shot down on their way to drop leaflets over Havana in support of a human rights demonstration in the city. As it is essential that the appeal of the convictions, due to be heard next month, should be conducted in a fair and impartial manner free of political considerations, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the trial. I can, however, say that I understand the US authorities have emphatically rejected as quite unfounded the allegation that the prisoners have been denied access to their lawyers.
As I have mentioned, this kind of incident grew out of the extreme tensions which have existed between the Castro Government and the exile community since the overthrow of the Batista regime more than four decades ago. This long-standing state of mutual hostility has in effect been a kind of cold civil war characterised by constant verbal violence, sometimes erupting into actual physical violence but mainly conducted by means of an unrelenting exchange of polemic between Havana and Miami. Ireland, together with its EU partners, is endeavouring to encourage both sides to transcend the divisions of the past. That is also the reason Ireland and the European Union, while acknowledging and admiring the immense idealism which inspired the Cuban revolution and also respecting its undoubted social achievements, nevertheless strongly believe that it is high time to match those egalitarian accomplishments with similar advances in the sphere of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It was in that spirit that when, for the first time, a number of Latin American countries sponsored a radically different kind of resolution on human rights in Cuba at last year's session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Government saw this as a constructive and non-confrontational opportunity and decided that Ireland would co-sponsor the resolution. Instead of the adversarial indictments of previous years, the resolution took account of Cuba's remarkable achievements in terms of social rights such as health and education – maintained as far as possible in spite of the unilateral economic embargo against it – and invited the Cuban authorities to emulate their own achievements in the field of social rights by efforts towards matching advances in the sphere of civil and political rights by, for example, adhering to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It is with considerable disappointment and concern, therefore, that just one year later and within weeks of the opening of the first fully-fledged delegation office of the EU Commission in Havana, I have learnt of the mass arrests in Cuba, over recent days, of more than 50 critics of the Havana Government, some of them close associates of Mr. Oswaldo Paya, apparently because they had simply exercised freedom of expression. The EU Presidency is approaching the Cuban authorities to express the Union's deep concern, and to seek an explanation.
