Friday, March 21, 2003

Everyone was wailing that Israel would crackdown on the Palestinians oncethe war in Iraq started, instead it is el Jefe doing the crushing of dissent.

Cuban state agents rounded up more dissidents Friday in a campaign to root out growing opposition on the communist island. A non-governmental human rights group said 72 dissidents had been arrested.

The detainees included more than a dozen independent journalists, owners of lending libraries, leaders of opposition political parties and pro-democracy activists who gathered signatures for a reform effort known as the Varela Project.

Jimmy throws insults and tries to undermine the President of the United States, but when it comes to Castro he is a little more restrained.

The crackdown alarmed international rights and press advocates, including former President Jimmy Carter, who called on Cuban authorities to respect human rights and "refrain from detaining or harassing citizens who are expressing their views peacefully."

Somehow, apparently, Reporters sans Frontiers thought human rights existed in Cuba before this week.

"Human rights in Cuba can therefore be viewed as one of the first cases of collateral damage in the second Gulf war," said Robert Menard, the group's secretary general. "Human rights in other countries could also soon suffer the same fate."

Of course the AP digs deep and finds ot it is all America's fault.

The independent journalists also grew bolder in recent months, launching a new general interest magazine in a nation where virtually all media is state-controlled.

But American diplomats also grew more active, offering Internet access to journalists at the U.S. Interests Section here, inviting dissidents to receptions, and giving them radios, pamphlets and other material the government considered subversive.

Cuban authorities became increasingly incensed in recent months as the mission's new chief, James Cason, began meeting publicly with the opposition and criticizing Castro's government to international journalists here.

Such assistance often does Cuban opponents more harm than good by giving the communist government an excuse to accuse them of collaborating with the enemy, said Manuel Cuesta Morrua of the opposition party Socialist Democratic Current.

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