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“SENATE RESOLUTION 57--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CUBA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S2335-S2336 on March 4, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SENATE RESOLUTION 57--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CUBA
Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. Mack, Mr. Helms, Mr. Torricelli, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Robb, and Mr. Smith of New Hampshire) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 57
Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a forum for discussing human rights and expressing international support for improved human rights performance;
Whereas, according to the United States Department of State and international human rights organizations, the Government of Cuba continues to commit widespread and well documented human rights abuses in Cuba;
Whereas such abuses stem from a complete intolerance of dissent and the totalitarian nature of the regime controlled by Fidel Castro;
Whereas such abuses violate internationally accepted norms of conduct;
Whereas the Government of Cuba routinely restricts worker's rights, including the right to form independent unions, and employs forced labor, including that by children;
Whereas Cuba is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Whereas the Government of Cuba has detained scores of citizens associated with attempts to discuss human rights, advocate for free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and others who petitioned the government to release those arbitrarily arrested;
Whereas the Government of Cuba has recently escalated efforts to extinguish expressions of protest or criticism by passing state measures criminalizing peaceful pro-democratic activities and independent journalism;
Whereas the recent trial of peaceful dissidents Vladimiro Rica, Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne, and Rene Gomez Manzano, charged with sedition for publishing a proposal for democratic reform, is indicative of the increased efforts by the Government of Cuba to detain citizens and extinguish expressions of support for the accused;
Whereas these efforts underscore that the Government of Cuba has continued relentlessly its longstanding pattern of human rights abuses and demonstrate that it continues to systematically deny universally recognized human rights: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that at the 55th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States should make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution, including introducing such a resolution, criticizing Cuba for its human rights abuses in Cuba, and to secure the appointment of a Special Rapporteur for Cuba.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, last week, the Senate passed a resolution calling for condemnation of the human rights situation in China by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. I will send to the floor shortly a similar resolution condemning the human rights situation in Cuba which, unfortunately, is considerably worse than the situation in China.
This resolution calls on the President to make every effort to pass a resolution at the upcoming meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission criticizing Cuba for its abysmal record on human rights. It also calls for the reappointment of a special rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation in Cuba.
Last year, for the first time in many years, no resolution on the human rights situation in Cuba was passed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Perhaps this was due to the hopes that were raised, raised as a result of the Pope's visit to Cuba in January of 1998. Unfortunately, there has been a significant worsening of the human rights situation in Cuba over the last year.
Example: The independent group, Human Rights Watch, states:
As 1998 drew to a close, Cuba's stepped up persecutions and harassment of dissidents, along with its refusal to grant amnesty to hundreds of remaining political prisoners or reform its criminal code, marked a disheartening return to heavy-handed repression.
Example: The Cuban Government recently passed a measure known as Law 80 which criminalizes peaceful prodemocratic activities and independent journalism, with penalties, Mr. President, of up to 20 years of imprisonment.
Example: The State Department, in its recent report on human rights dated February 26, 1999, notes that the Government of Cuba continues to systematically violate the fundamental civil and political rights of its citizens. Human rights advocates and members of independent professional associations, including journalists, economists, doctors and lawyers, are routinely harassed, threatened, arrested, detained, imprisoned and defamed by the Government. All fundamental freedoms are denied to the citizens. In addition, the Cuban Government severely restricts worker rights, including the right to form independent trade unions, and employs forced labor, including child labor.
Example, and the most recent and continuing example of the horrible repression in Cuba, is the trial of four prominent dissidents--
Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne, and Rene Gomez Manzano. These prominent dissidents are now at trial on charges of sedition. After being detained for over 18 months for the peaceful voicing of their opinions, the trial of these four brave individuals has drawn international condemnation.
To demonstrate the hideous nature of the Castro regime, Marta Beatriz Roque has been ill, believed to be suffering from cancer, but has been denied medical attention during her detention.
During the trial, authorities have rounded up scores of other individuals, including journalists and dissidents, and jailed them for the duration of the trial. The trial was conducted in complete secrecy, with photographers prevented from even photographing the streets around the courthouse in which the trial was held.
Mr. President, this is not the type of conduct that we have come to expect in our hemisphere, where Cuba remains the only nondemocratic government. This level of repression and complete disregard for international norms cannot be ignored. The human rights situation in Cuba calls out for action by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
I am going to ask, Mr. President, to have printed in the Record two editorials on this subject. But let me read one from the Washington Post of this week, March 2, 1999. This editorial says, in part:
Many of the counties engaged in these contacts with Cuba do so on the basis that by their policy of ``constructive engagement'' they are opening up the regime more effectively to democratic and free-market currents than is the United States by its harder-line policy.
The trial of the four provides a good test of this proposition. The four are in the vanguard of Cuba's small nonviolent political opposition. Acquittal would indicate that in this case anyway the authorities are listening to the international appeals for greater political freedom. But if the four are convicted and sentenced, it will show that the regime won't permit any opposition at all. What then will the international crowd have to say about the society-transforming power of their investments?
Mr. President, last month we voted unanimously to support a similar resolution on human rights in Cuba. Unfortunately, as I indicated, the situation in Cuba is worse than in China. The situation in Cuba deserves the full effort of our Government to assure that this situation is not ignored by the international community.
Mr. President, I send to the desk a resolution which is cosponsored by Senators Mack, Helms, Torricelli, and DeWine. I also ask unanimous consent, to have printed in the Record the editorial I referenced from the Washington Post of March 2, and an editorial from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel of March 2.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
The Havana Four
Vladimiro Roca, Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne, Rene Gomez: Note those names. They are dissidents in Communist-ruled Cuba who went on trial in Havana yesterday. These brave people were jailed a year and a half ago for holding news conferences for foreign journalists and diplomats, urging voters to boycott Cuba's one-party elections, warning foreigners that their investments would contribute to Cuban suffering and criticizing President Fidel Castro's grip on power. For these `offenses' the four face prison sentences of five or six years.
Castro Cuba has typically Communist notions of justice. By official doctrine, there are no political prisoners, only common criminals. President Castro rejects the designation of the four, in the international appeals for their freedom, as
`prisoners of conscience.' Their trial is closed to the foreign press. Some of their colleagues were reportedly arrested to keep them from demonstrating during the trial.
Fidel Castro is now making an energetic effort to recruit foreign businessmen to help him compensate for the trade and investment lost by the continuing American embargo and by withdrawal of the old Soviet subsidies. He is scoring some successes: British Airways, for instance, says it is opening a Havana service. Many of the countries engaged in these contacts with Cuba do so on the basis that by their policy of
`constructive engagement' they are opening up the regime more effectively to democratic and free-market currents than is the United States by its harder-line policy.
The trial of the four provides a good test of this proposition. The four are in the vanguard of Cuba's small nonviolent political opposition. Acquittal would indicate that in this case anyway the authorities are listening to the international appeals for greater political freedom. But if the four are convicted and sentenced, it will show that the regime won't permit any opposition at all. What then will the international crowd have to say about the society-transforming power of their investments?
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World is Watching Havana Trial of Cubans Who Criticized System
The trial of four prominent dissidents in Cuba, which started on Monday, promises to be a major international headache for the government of Fidel Castro. It should be.
Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Rogue, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano, spent more than a year in prison before they were charged with a crime. After 19 months of detention, they stand accused of sedition, a stretch even by communist Cuba's standards.
The four human rights activitists have done nothing seditious. They did attack the political platform of the Fifth Cuban Communist Party Congress.
They called the platform out of touch with reality and said it offered no real solutions--to any of Cuba's complex problems. They volunteered one solution--ditching Cuba's one-party system.
For their unsolicited advice in July 1997, the four dissidents found themselves promptly behind bars. They had committed the ``seditious''--not to mention courageous--act of distributing their written criticism to foreign journalists. For their ``crimes,'' prosecutors are asking for six years for Roca, who is the son of well-known communist leader Blas Roca, and five years for the others.
The case is one of the most important human rights tests for Cuba in years. On the other hand, Cuba has become more flexible on religious and some economic matters. On the other hand, it has just passed repressive laws for many so-called political crimes.
This past weekend, Cuban security forces also rounded up more than half a dozen political dissidents in an apparent attempt to prevent public demonstrations during the trial. Last year, a small group of activists clashed with pro-government forces in Havana during the trial of several lesser-known dissidents.
In this latest human rights case, Pope John Paul II, King Juan Carlos of Spain and other world leaders are pressing for the dissidents' release.
Even if there are no protest signs outside the courthouse in Havana this week, the world is watching the outcome of this trial.
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