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=> Here's a US news report on the same ...

Here's a US news report on the same ...
Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Thursday, March 25 2004, 16:56:38 (EST)
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Posted on Wed, Mar. 17, 2004

A year after crackdown, Cuban dissidents remain behind bars

By NANCY SAN MARTIN

Miami Herald

MIAMI - Laura Pollan Toledo opened the door to her home in central Havana to find her partner of 13 years surrounded by a dozen state security agents and two neighborhood snitches who hauled away books, two typewriters and a fax machine.

As she stood frozen by the door, Hector Maseda Gutierrez asked for permission to talk to his common-law wife.

"Don't be nervous," he told Pollan, as he led her to a chair in the living room. "Don't worry about anything. I've done nothing to shame you. I am willing to go as far as necessary to defend my ideas."

Maseda was among 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in crackdown that began a year ago Thursday. Despite worldwide condemnation and appeals for their release, all 75 remain behind bars in what analysts have described as the harshest attack on the island's dissidents in recent memory.

An Amnesty International report released this week again demanded their release.

"Detention of dissidents for the peaceful expression of their beliefs for even one day flouts international human rights safeguards," according to a statement issued by Amnesty.

The memory of that frightful night still makes Pollan break down in tears.

"Those moments, what I felt, I don't think I could ever put into words," Pollan said in a telephone interview from Havana Wednesday, stopping to catch her breath between sobs. "It was very painful to come home to that."

The jailed dissidents include independent journalists like Maseda, human rights activists, opposition party leaders, economists and citizens who converted their homes into independent libraries. Ten are over the age of 60, and at least 15 are reported to be suffering from deteriorating health.

Accused of working with U.S. diplomats in Havana to undermine President Fidel Castro's government, all were convicted in swift trials and sentenced to prison terms of six to 28 years.

Amnesty International has declared all 75 "prisoners of conscience," making Cuba one of the countries with the highest number of such prisoners in the world.

The crackdown dealt a crushing blow to the dissident movement, which had been growing across the island and receiving international recognition. But it has not destroyed it.

Those who escaped arrest reorganized and continue to issue press releases and give interviews to the foreign press. Wives, parents and children of the jailed dissidents have taken up their cause.

"Before this, I was a simple wife. My life was devoted to family and work," said Pollan, 56, a high school teacher. "But this situation has turned my life 180 degrees."

Maseda, 61, has been in solitary confinement at a prison in Santa Clara since he was transferred there soon after his arrest March 19, 2003. He was sentenced to 20 years.

An engineer and physicist by profession, he joined the dissident movement in the early 90s and helped organize the illegal Liberal Democratic Party of Cuba. He also wrote articles on history, the economy and culture, which were posted on various Internet sites.

Maseda had been detained previously numerous times. But Pollan knew the separation would be long this time when security agents told her to prepare a package of his personal items to be delivered to a holding cell the following day.

"I knew it was going to be difficult, but I never imagined they would give him 20 years," Pollan said.

She sees Maseda every three months in visits that are restricted to two hours. The last time she saw him was on Feb. 29 when rumors were again circulating that some of the older prisoners would soon be released.

Pollan admits that getting out of bed is difficult some days. But getting into it at night is even harder.

"When I get home and find myself all alone, I get very sad," she said. "My heart turns into a knot."

Still, she remains determined not to let the sadness stomp out the will to continue to fight for the ultimate release of Maseda and the other political prisoners.

Every month, she gets together with the wives of other prisoners, and they read letters and poems sent to them by their husbands. They also meet at church on Sundays, dressed in white, to pray for their release. And whenever there is an opportunity to speak out, Pollan does not hesitate.

"We haven't stopped suffering," Pollan said. "The agony we've been through can't be erased. But we will do everything humanely possible to fight for the liberty of our husbands.

"The jailing of those 75 prisoners has brought us together," Pollan said. "Now, we are 75 families united as one. We are the voices of those prisoners. They can put bodies behind bars but they can't lock up the mind or the spirit."


parhad wrote:
>Americans are the most brainwashed people in the world EVER.



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