[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 34 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2335-S2336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




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.

[[Page S2336]]

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:

                [From the Washington Post, Mar. 2, 1999]

                            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?
                                  ____


         [From the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Mar. 2, 1999]

     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.

                          ____________________