Promote Civil Society in Cuba, a platform of opponents of the Communist government of Fidel Castro, dissidents sources told BosNewsLife. The historic meeting in and around the home of a political dissident came just hours after Cuba expelled two European Union politicians visiting Havana to address the pro-democracy meeting. Czech Senator Karel Schwarzenberg and German Parliamentarian Arnold Vaatz were seized by police and driven to Havana airport, news reports said Friday, May 20
"This is the typical behavior of a totalitarian state," reportedly said Schwarzenberg, a chief of staff to former Czech President Vaclav Havel. "I did nothing against the law, they just didn’t like the people I was visiting." Schwarzenberg and Vaatz were among dozens of European politicians invited to appear at the Assembly.
Earlier two Polish politicians attempting to visit the gathering were reportedly refused entry to the country on Tuesday, May 17, and put back on immediate return flights home.
OVER 300 DELEGATES
Despite the setback "more than 300 delegates representing 90% of the total delegates accredited to the Assembly are already in Havana for the historic general meeting,"
noted Assembly spokesman Angel Polanco, in a statement to BosNewsLife News Center.
"Many delegates remained throughout the night at the site enthusiastically awaiting the opening of the plenary session of the Assembly," Polanco added. However organizers said
"there is a lot of activity surrounding the area where state police agents have been spotted inspecting the premises."
The European Union was reportedly keen to see whether Cuban authorities actually allow
the assembly. EU-Cuban relations have been strained since 75 people, including Christians, were arrested during a crackdown on political opponents in March 2003.
MANY IN JAIL
The EU imposed sanctions but lifted them when 14 were released last year, a move criticized by several dissident organizations. About 61 dissidents, including Christian and political activists, remain in jail and several of them are known to have been tortured and abused, human rights groups say.
Friday’s umbrella gathering of dissident groups was organized by economist Martha Beatriz Roque, a key opponent of the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. However some other Cuban dissidents decided not to attend, including Oswaldo Paya, of the Christian Liberation Movement. He has reportedly criticized the meeting "as a fraud set up with the connivance of the Cuban security forces."
Those supporting the meeting say it is another chance to put pressure on the "Castro regime" to allow democracy as well as religious freedom to flourish on the island. Castro has denied the existence of "dissidents" in his country, saying the opponents are no more than "mercenaries of the United States."
PRESIDENT BUSH SPEAKS
In a statement aimed at the delegates of Friday’s meeting, United States President George W. Bush recalled that the gathering came on the 103rd anniversary of Cuban idependence and stressed he was looking "forward to the day when Cuba is free, and my Administration supports efforts to hasten that day’s coming."
He said "the tide of freedom is spreading across the globe, and it will reach Cuban shores. No tyrant can stand forever against the power of liberty because the hope of freedom is found in every heart." Bush has also praised the efforts of Christian human righjts activist Oscar Elias Biscet and Marta Beatriz Roque who he said "are seeking freedom" for Cuba. (With BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Cuba and the United States)
