In its report Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) concludes that prison authorities "regularly deny political prisoners the right to religious literature including Bibles" and, "The right to meet with a pastor or priest or to meet together with other prisoners for religious study, prayer or worship."
CSW released its findings on the fifth anniversary of a massive government crackdown on dissidents, now referred to by activists as ‘Cuba’s Black Spring.’
Some 75 members of Cuban civil society, Christian human right defenders, independent librarians, pro-democracy activists and independent journalists, were detained, subjected to summary trials, and handed down lengthy prison sentences.
MONTHS OF INTERVIEWS
CSW told BosNewsLife that its report is partly based on eight months of interviews with families of prisoners and former detainees. The report also highlights individual cases, including that of Christian Alfredo Rodolfo DomÃnguez Batista who is serving a fourteen-year sentence in the HolguÃn Provincial Prison on charges that include "harming the independence of the Cuban state or its territorial integrity" in the interest of a foreign state.
DomÃnguez Batista’s wife was quoted as saying that his Bible and all religious materials were confiscated in the summer of 2007 and have yet to be returned. "He has also had to repeatedly request access to a priest, a right which has only been granted every four to six months and most recently was denied outright," CSW said.
Another "prisoner of conscience, Normando Hernández González has been denied the right to pastoral visits altogether," according to the CSW report. "The interviews indicate that similar abuses take place on a regular basis in high security prisons across the island, suggesting that it is state policy aiming to psychologically break down political prisoners," CSW said.
"The practice of denying the basic religious rights of prisoners of conscience is in direct contravention of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which specifies that the religious rights of all prisoners must be protected."
PRISON AUTHORITIES
CSW Advocacy Director Tina Lambert told BosNewsLife in s statement that although her group believes the prisoners are innocent and should be released immediately, "In the interim we call on the Cuban authorities to ensure that all prison authorities are trained in and are implementing the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners."
Lambert stressed it is "unacceptable that Cuban authorities should seek to use the religious beliefs of these men and women to attempt to manipulate them in such a cynical way." The CSW report comes less than a month after Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s nearly five decades of rule ended when Cuba’s National Assembly chose his younger brother Raul to be the country’s new president.
There have been some hopes among Western observers that the could spark a beginning of "democratic change" in the country. However in his address to the National Assembly, the 76-year-old Raul Castro proposed that "we consult Fidel" on important decisions. The 614 members of the legislative body passed that motion unanimously.
Fidel Castro, who oversaw the detentions five years ago, has consistently denied the existence of dissidents, describing them instead as “mercenaries of the United States” trying to harm his Socialist revolution. He has described reports of human rights abuses as Western propaganda.(With BosNewsLife Research).
