[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 119 (Thursday, September 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1798-E1799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FREEDOM FOR OSCAR ELIAS BISCET

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 21, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
remind my colleagues about Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a Cuban hero who is 
a political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.
  Dr. Biscet is a leading pro-democracy activist in totalitarian Cuba 
and one of the leaders of the democratic Cuba of tomorrow. Dr. Biscet 
is a medical doctor and the founder of the Lawton Foundation for Human 
Rights. He has dedicated his life to freedom and democracy and is a 
follower of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Biscet is a 
man who has constantly opposed the tyranny in Cuba, and who has paid a 
tremendous price for his belief in freedom.
  In 1998, he was sentenced to 3 years in the gulag because he flew the 
Cuban flag upside down to protest the subhuman treatment of the Cuban 
people at the hands of the Castro tyranny. When he was ``released'' in 
October of 2002, he was out of prison only a few weeks when he was 
rounded up again and sentenced this time for ``association with enemies 
of the State,'' and he was sentenced, along with over 75 other peaceful 
pro-democracy leaders and independent journalists, to 25 years in the 
Cuban gulag.
  For the vast majority of the last 8 years, Dr. Biscet has lived in a 
gulag that can only be described as a living hell. Dr. Biscet has been 
placed in what is called ``the tomb.'' He is underground in solitary 
confinement, in a punishment cell. And so that he fully understood the 
dimension of his punishment, a serial killer was placed along with him 
in ``the tomb.''
  Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet recently spoke by telephone with Mr. Amado 
Gil, a journalist in Miami, FL. The Coalition of Cuban-American Women 
transcribed, edited and translated this interview from Spanish to 
English.

                           Prison Conditions

       The government of Cuba has tortured me during eight years; 
     they have done so trying to drive me insane, though, thank 
     God, I have been able to preserve my sanity . . . in reality, 
     they continue torturing me because I live in a box with no 
     windows or natural light, no water . . . with a mattress that 
     feels as if one were sleeping on a plank, a stone . . . unfit 
     for a human being . . . surrounded by criminals and under the 
     threat, as it has happened on previous occasions, of being 
     attacked by the government who instigates these dangerous 
     prisoners . . .
       I believe that what the government is doing is torturing me 
     to humiliate me so that I abandon the struggle on behalf of 
     the freedom of my country but, thank God, I have been able to 
     keep up my stance and will continue doing so with God's help 
     . . .

                   Symbolic Fast as of July 13, 2006

       I began this fast (in prison) because I believe we should 
     pray to God and demand our rights before the government, the 
     right to be free which belongs to every person just for

[[Page E1799]]

     being a citizen. Our country has lived so long without any 
     rights, under a dictatorship . . . I believe that we must 
     demand rights that belong to us and, in everyone's 
     interest, these liberties must be observed . . . In order 
     to live a full life, it is essential to live in freedom 
     and the Cuban people are denied these rights . . . that is 
     why I'm initiating a fast along with other brothers (in 
     prison) to demand that the government sign the 
     international covenants of civil, political, economic, 
     cultural and social rights--the Cuban regime must sign 
     them and abide by them so that the Cuban people may live 
     in freedom at last. . . .

                      Message to the Cuban People

       The Cuban people must do their utmost in their struggle to 
     win their freedom and succeed in obtaining the international 
     support of all free and democratic countries. I trust that 
     the Cuban people will prove their dignity as they have done 
     so on other occasions, so that we may enjoy FREEDOM. . . .

  My colleagues, despite the hell that has been described, Dr. Biscet 
is unrelenting in his resolve for freedom for the people of Cuba. Dr. 
Biscet is a great patriot, a man of peace, and an apostle of freedom 
for Cuba. Dr. Biscet is a hero in the tradition of the great figures of 
Cuba's long struggle for liberty. Quintin Banderas, Carlos Manuel de 
Cespedes, Ignacio Agramonte, Antonio Maceo, and thousands of other 
Cuban heroes established a tradition of heroism that today is being 
continued by countless men and women who have given their best years 
and often their lives for the freedom of Cuba. Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet 
is a hero in that same admirable tradition.
  Mr. Speaker, it is completely unacceptable that, while the world 
stands by in silence and acquiescence, Dr. Biscet languishes in the 
gulag because of his belief in freedom, democracy, human rights and the 
rule of law. We cannot permit the brutal treatment by a demented and 
murderous tyrant of a man of peace like Dr. Biscet for simply 
supporting freedom for his people. My colleagues, we must demand the 
immediate and unconditional release of Oscar Elias Biscet and every 
political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________