"CRUELTY AGAINST THE POLITICAL PRISONERS THAT THE SUMMIT DID NOT WANT TO SEE"

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CRUELTY AGAINST THE POLITICAL PRISONERS THAT THE SUMMIT DID NOT WANT TO SEE


Havana , September 18 - We could make, on the basis of the facts, of many facts, a detailed description of the infernal life that Cuban prisoners must endure, both the political as well as common prisoners, and also of the permanent state of violation of civil rights to which all Cubans are victims. But this time, given the urgency of the grave danger that one of these political prisoners faces, we narrate the ordinary cruelty bestowed upon an extraordinary man and with this story make it possible to see a human face that is a sign of the permanent suffering of many Cuban prisoners.

Luís Enrique Ferrer García, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and of the Varela Project in the Province of Las Tunas , was condemned to 28 years of prison in April 2003 for his civic and peaceful work at the head of the Varela Project. His mother, his sister, his wife and his small daughter Maria Libertad, who is three years old, face many difficulties to be present at the visitations every two months, because the State Security has threatened all the chauffeurs who rent their cars, so that they will not transport them. This is just one example of the harassment and restrictions that these helpless women suffer at the hands of this most powerful machinery of repression. Let us remember that his brother José Daniel Ferrer is condemned to 25 years of prison for the same cause and confined in another very distant prison.

Upon arriving for the visit at the prison, these women were seized and made the objects of mockery and humiliation on the part of the guards, who later placed a policewoman to accompany them throughout the whole visit. In the prison of Mar Verde, where Luís Enrique is carrying out his sentence, a very dangerous common Cuban prisoner is imprisoned, who was repatriated from the United States and goes by the name "machete," and who enjoys easy mobility within the prison, special advantages and also authority granted by the heads of the jail. This prisoner is utilized by the authorities to constantly harass and provoke Luís Enrique and he is usually accompanied by other common prisoners who carry around sharp objects. Some common prisoners have admitted that the guards and the State Security have offered them special benefits if they agree to harass and provoke Luís Enrique, but the majority has refused.

It has been several weeks that there is no running water in the prison and this prisoner named "machete" sells water inside the prison. The prisoners only receive a minimal ration of drinking water, with the flavor of oxide, once a day. That water is stored in a dirty tank. The food is like that of concentration camps and sometimes they serve them rotten fish that the prisoners refuse. The prisoners have to defecate in nylon bags that they acquire in exchange for cigarettes and after using them, they must throw them to the basement of the building, so that rats and the smell of excrement is unbearable for twenty-four hours a day.

Due to this desperate situation, on the 14th of this month a prisoner tried to commit suicide, but his companions prevented it. On the following day another prisoner also tried to commit suicide and the guards applied a torture tactic on him of confining him to a punishment cell, handcuffing him to the upper part of the cell bars, so that he would be forced to remain standing and in a position that caused a horrible pain throughout his whole body. After hearing his screams as well as those of other prisoners during many hours, the guards responded by handcuffing him to the lower part of the cell bars, so that he was then forced to remain crouched next to the floor the whole time. Punishment is bestowed upon those who want to live and even those who want to die.

The facts reflect for themselves the systematic cruelty and sadistic manner in which the prisoners are treated. Luís Enrique Ferrer is under serious threat and imminent danger of being annihilated by the prisoner mentioned above or by other prisoners who are incited by the guards. The authorities of the Mar Verde prison and the State Security are responsible for this cruel treatment and abuses, but the Government of Cuba is also complicit, and is itself accountable for the physical integrity and life of Luís Enrique Ferrer García.

This treatment does not require classification and if it had one, it would fall under the classification of cruel and degrading treatment and also of torture. This is what the Honorable Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, avoided hearing when during his recent visit to Cuba he refused to meet with us, the representatives of organizations that defend Human Rights, nor with the relatives of the political prisoners.

Are these the rights that were proclaimed by all the representatives of states that were present in our country for the Summit of the so-called Non-Aligned Movement? They certainly demonstrated that they are misaligned with truth, freedom and justice and very well aligned to make an agreement that justifies, for not a few of the member countries of this Movement, the capacity to squash their own people and to cruelly suppress those who raise their voices to defend Human Rights. Is that what the Non-Aligned Countries call the right to Self-determination and State Sovereignty? It seems that to these governments people do not count, but only those who have the power and are governments. We ask ourselves if in the middle of so much discourse by the participants in the Summit, in which they proclaim values and noble objectives, upon having justified and silenced these cruel realities that many of the inhabitants of their own societies suffer, if what they actually created, here in Havana, is a scandalous Pact of Silencing and Justification of Oppression and Against the Human Rights of the People Dominated by Tyrannies?

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Christian Liberation Movement
Havana , September 18, 2006

For more information or to obtain a copy of the release, please
contact: Francisco De Armas, International Representative at (305)
285-7970 or fdamcl@cs.com.

Given for distribution to the Information Bridge Cuba Miami by the Christian Liberation Movement on the 20th day of September of 2006.