Free Iran's 800 jailed union activists
OutRage! NEws Service | 07.02.2006 10:20 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London | World
Protest: Friday 10 February, 12 noon to 2pm, ILO offices, London
London – 7 February 2006
"We support the striking Tehran bus workers and call for the release of the 800 trade unionists jailed in Iran," said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!.
"Over 1,000 workers were arrested in late January. Although 200 have been released following protests by their families outside the National Assembly building, 800 remain behind bars," said Mr Tatchell.
"The mass arrest of union activists is the latest wave of repression by Iran's hardline, fundamentalist President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"OutRage! backs the struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran, including the freedom struggle of Iranian gays, women, students and trade unionists
"The right to sexual self-determination and the right to strike and protest are part of the same battle for universal human rights. Whether it is the hanging of two gay teenagers last July or the mass arrests of trade unionists in January, an injustice to one is an injustice to all.
"While opposing any western attempt to impose regime change on Iran, we support the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the clerical dictatorship.
"We urge our friends and supporters to show solidarity with the striking bus workers in Tehran, who are spearheading the labour movement's heroic resistance to the tyranny of the Ayatollahs.
"Join the solidarity protest this Friday, 10 February, in London," said Mr Tatchell.
See below the testimonies from the families of the striking and jailed bus workers.
*************
Support the Tehran bus workers strike
Stop the repression of Iranian trade unions
Free the jailed labour activists
Workers of Iran need your support!
Iranian government out of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
JOIN US
When: Friday 10 February, 12 noon to 2:00pm
Where: ILO, 21-24 Millbank Tower, London, SWP
Nearest tube station: Westminster (bus 77A, 88) & Pimlico, Victoria (bus 507)
Organised by the Worker-Communist Party of Iran - UK Organisation, with the support of left-wing, pro-democracy and human rights activists in the UK
Condemn the Islamic regime of Iran for attacking workers
Demand the immediate release of arrested workers
Call for the exclusion of the Islamic Republic and its Islamic councils from the ILO
**************
Tehran Bus Workers' Protest - Update 14, Friday 3 February 2006
The following is the letter (translated) from the families of the arrested bus workers, who held a protest rally on Wednesday, 1st February, outside the National Assembly (Majles). A second rally has been called for 10am this Saturday (4 February), when the families will be joined by bus workers at the end of their night shift. Also, as previously announced, the bus workers are due to take part in an all-out stoppage today, Friday (3 February).
* * *
To Amnesty International, all human rights organisations, all labour organisations and all conscientious people of the world
Our children want their fathers. Support them. Do it today.
You are certainly aware of Tehran’s bus workers’ strike on Saturday 28 January and how it was crushed. You have certainly heard that more than 500 of our husbands are in jail for wanting their rights, for going on strike, for building a union to defend their rights. You have certainly heard that they even took away and beat up the workers’ kids. We expect that you will support us, if you haven’t done so already; and if you have supported us, to do so even more vigorously so that those in charge feel even greater pressure and release our husbands immediately.
Our husbands have not committed a crime. They say they cannot live with wages three times below the official poverty line and are asking higher pay. Those have committed a crime who beat up our children and threw them in jail; those who do not recognise the slightest rights for us.
Our husbands say we have to organise so as to put an end to dispersion and fight unitedly against the poverty and deprivation that has been imposed on us.
Our husbands say we need a collective agreement to be able to stand up to employers and the state collectively, to sign contracts collectively, enter negotiations and take strike action collectively, and discuss long hours and work hazards collectively.
Our husbands rightly took strike action because none of their demands had been met. They decided to strike to win the release of Mr Mansoor Ossanlou who is in prison and gravely ill. May be in your country you have such rights. We don’t.
Our husbands have been in prison for several days. They were badly beaten up when they were being arrested. The wife and two daughters of Yaghoub Salimi, an activist of our union, were beaten up. You can imagine what they have probably done to our husbands in prison. They are not allowing any visits and the bus company has stopped our wages. Our children want their fathers. We expect the whole world to stand up in our support and put pressure on the authorities to immediately release our husbands so that they may come back to work. Your pressure is important. Please put in all your efforts right now for the sake of humanity, justice and the struggle against injustice, oppression and unfairness.
1 February 2006
Signatures:
Gholamreza Mirzaee, member of the Management Board, Public Relations Officer and Spokesperson for the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran Vahed Bus Company
A number of partners of the arrested workers of Tehran Vahed Bus Company
----------------------
The following is the transcript of a radio interview with 12-year-old Mahdiye Salimi, daughter of arrested union activist Yaghoub Salimi. It first appeared in WPI Briefing 188-9, 30 January 2006, which we are reproducing here. Translation by Arash Sorx.
* * *
Even children are not spared!
Interview with Mahdiye Salimi, the 12 year old daughter of union member who was beaten and arrested
As reported in WPI Briefing, up to 700 workers of the Syndicate of Workers and Employees of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company have been arrested. Moreover, the wives and children of some executive members have also been arrested. They were taken out of bed and beaten up during raids on Friday 27 January night. The beatings continued in detention. Substitute member of the union’s executive board, Yaghoub Salimi's 2-year-old daughter was injured on her face in the attack, when she was thrown into a waiting patrol van. Her 12-year-old elder sister, Mahdiye, described the ordeal in detail in an interview with a radio station abroad. Below you will find a translation of the full transcript of radio “Avaye Ashena” (familiar voice) interview with 12 year old Mahdiye Salimi:
Reporter: Hello.
Mahdiye: Hello. How are you?
Reporter: Thank you. I hope you are alright. Please tell us what happened.
Mahdiye: We were asleep. They rang the doorbell of our home. They called out: Mrs. Salami, come to door for one moment” They were in such a hurry that they didn’t even allow my mom to dress properly. As soon as my mom opened the door, they poured into our home. I was asleep along with Mrs. Zia’s daughter. They pulled the blankets from our bodies and started to hit us with their “feet and hands” and told us to get into the van. Mrs. Razavi wanted to get some clothes for her daughter and they started to hit her badly. They even kicked my mom’s heart with their boots and my mom had an enormous ache in her heart. She still has some wounds on her body. They hit her with a baton and didn’t listen to my mother's appeals. They even wanted to spray something in my [2 year old] sister’s mouth.
Then they took us to detention. Where we went was not hygienic at all and it was so cold. We asked for blankets. They said “we don’t have any”. “We are just doing our duty”. They hit us so much. We asked for lunch. They brought us the leftovers of their own lunch which was nasty chicken skin mixed with some kind of sauce.
Reporter: Why did they keep hitting you and your mom?
Mahdiye: She wanted to get on the van but first wanted to take my sister to the bathroom. As soon as she started to go, they grabbed my sister from behind and pushed her into the van. My sister hit her head when she was thrown into the van and they also kept hitting my mom.
Reporter: Did they do all of this in the street? Did your neighbours see all this?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. All the neighbours came out and were watching what was going on. When they raided our home, there was at least 70-80 of them while we were only 3 women and 5 children. They rushed to the roof so no one could escape. They even went to our neighbours' homes and even arrested our neighbours' guests.
Reporter: What did they want?
Mahdiye: They wanted to know where my dad is. We didn’t know that. We didn’t have any news of my dad's whereabouts.
Reporter: Where is your mom right now?
Mahdiye: Yesterday they told us that she will be released soon. They wanted to bring her to the Ministry of Intelligence. Somebody said they might take her to Evin Prison but then they said she would be taken to the fourth base of the Ministry of Intelligence.
Reporter: how old are you?
Mahdiye: I am 12.
Reporter: Did they hit you?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. They hit all of us. Even a child from year 1. They made all the children cry.
Reporter: can I ask your name?
Mahdiye: I am Mahdiye Salimi.
Reporter: Why do you think they are doing this? Has your father done something wrong?
Mahdiye: Nothing. My father has done nothing wrong. He just has asked for his rights. The rights that they didn’t give him. For example for every 200 tomans of his wage, they have taken 100 for themselves.
Reporter: Are you going to the prison with your father again?
Mahdiye: Yes.
Reporter: Are you anxious?
Mahdiye: Of course I am. How can I not be? When they took my mother they didn’t even let us to be with her for a moment. They even didn’t let us hug her.
Reporter: I heard that your [two year old] sister was also wounded. Is that true?
Mahdiye: Yes. When they pushed her into the van, her lips hit metal and was badly hurt.
Reporter: Did they continue hitting your mom there?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. They hit her even there.
Reporter: Is your school closed?
Mahdiye: No it is not. It was supposed to be closed because of heavy snowfall but they announced that it was open.
Reporter: So you missed school too?
Mahdiye: Yes. I missed my classes.
Reporter: How many children were there?
Mahdiye: There were 5. Mrs, Zia's daughter from year 3 (10 years old). Mrs. Razavi's daughter from year 1(7 years old). And one from year 9 (15 years) and myself (I am 12 year old and from year 6) and my own sister who is 2 and a half.
Reporter: And how many women? Do you remember how many you were in total?
Mahdiye: There were 3 women.
Reporter: Are you the only children who were released?
Mahdiye: No all the children were released but our mothers (my mother and Mrs. Zia) have not been released yet.
Reporter: What do you want from people who are listening to you? What is your wish?
Mahdiye: I want them to defend us. Do something so my mother will be released soon. Now our mother is in detention and there is nobody to take care of us.
The above was translated by Arash Sorx for WPI Briefing.
------------
International Labour Solidarity Committee of the
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
Co-ordinator: Shahla Daneshfar
Public Relations:
Bahram Soroush
www.wpiran.org
www.kargaran.org
www.newchannel.tv
Shiva Mahbobi
Address: BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX
Website: www.wpiran.org
London – 7 February 2006
"We support the striking Tehran bus workers and call for the release of the 800 trade unionists jailed in Iran," said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!.
"Over 1,000 workers were arrested in late January. Although 200 have been released following protests by their families outside the National Assembly building, 800 remain behind bars," said Mr Tatchell.
"The mass arrest of union activists is the latest wave of repression by Iran's hardline, fundamentalist President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"OutRage! backs the struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran, including the freedom struggle of Iranian gays, women, students and trade unionists
"The right to sexual self-determination and the right to strike and protest are part of the same battle for universal human rights. Whether it is the hanging of two gay teenagers last July or the mass arrests of trade unionists in January, an injustice to one is an injustice to all.
"While opposing any western attempt to impose regime change on Iran, we support the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the clerical dictatorship.
"We urge our friends and supporters to show solidarity with the striking bus workers in Tehran, who are spearheading the labour movement's heroic resistance to the tyranny of the Ayatollahs.
"Join the solidarity protest this Friday, 10 February, in London," said Mr Tatchell.
See below the testimonies from the families of the striking and jailed bus workers.
*************
Support the Tehran bus workers strike
Stop the repression of Iranian trade unions
Free the jailed labour activists
Workers of Iran need your support!
Iranian government out of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
JOIN US
When: Friday 10 February, 12 noon to 2:00pm
Where: ILO, 21-24 Millbank Tower, London, SWP
Nearest tube station: Westminster (bus 77A, 88) & Pimlico, Victoria (bus 507)
Organised by the Worker-Communist Party of Iran - UK Organisation, with the support of left-wing, pro-democracy and human rights activists in the UK
Condemn the Islamic regime of Iran for attacking workers
Demand the immediate release of arrested workers
Call for the exclusion of the Islamic Republic and its Islamic councils from the ILO
**************
Tehran Bus Workers' Protest - Update 14, Friday 3 February 2006
The following is the letter (translated) from the families of the arrested bus workers, who held a protest rally on Wednesday, 1st February, outside the National Assembly (Majles). A second rally has been called for 10am this Saturday (4 February), when the families will be joined by bus workers at the end of their night shift. Also, as previously announced, the bus workers are due to take part in an all-out stoppage today, Friday (3 February).
* * *
To Amnesty International, all human rights organisations, all labour organisations and all conscientious people of the world
Our children want their fathers. Support them. Do it today.
You are certainly aware of Tehran’s bus workers’ strike on Saturday 28 January and how it was crushed. You have certainly heard that more than 500 of our husbands are in jail for wanting their rights, for going on strike, for building a union to defend their rights. You have certainly heard that they even took away and beat up the workers’ kids. We expect that you will support us, if you haven’t done so already; and if you have supported us, to do so even more vigorously so that those in charge feel even greater pressure and release our husbands immediately.
Our husbands have not committed a crime. They say they cannot live with wages three times below the official poverty line and are asking higher pay. Those have committed a crime who beat up our children and threw them in jail; those who do not recognise the slightest rights for us.
Our husbands say we have to organise so as to put an end to dispersion and fight unitedly against the poverty and deprivation that has been imposed on us.
Our husbands say we need a collective agreement to be able to stand up to employers and the state collectively, to sign contracts collectively, enter negotiations and take strike action collectively, and discuss long hours and work hazards collectively.
Our husbands rightly took strike action because none of their demands had been met. They decided to strike to win the release of Mr Mansoor Ossanlou who is in prison and gravely ill. May be in your country you have such rights. We don’t.
Our husbands have been in prison for several days. They were badly beaten up when they were being arrested. The wife and two daughters of Yaghoub Salimi, an activist of our union, were beaten up. You can imagine what they have probably done to our husbands in prison. They are not allowing any visits and the bus company has stopped our wages. Our children want their fathers. We expect the whole world to stand up in our support and put pressure on the authorities to immediately release our husbands so that they may come back to work. Your pressure is important. Please put in all your efforts right now for the sake of humanity, justice and the struggle against injustice, oppression and unfairness.
1 February 2006
Signatures:
Gholamreza Mirzaee, member of the Management Board, Public Relations Officer and Spokesperson for the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran Vahed Bus Company
A number of partners of the arrested workers of Tehran Vahed Bus Company
----------------------
The following is the transcript of a radio interview with 12-year-old Mahdiye Salimi, daughter of arrested union activist Yaghoub Salimi. It first appeared in WPI Briefing 188-9, 30 January 2006, which we are reproducing here. Translation by Arash Sorx.
* * *
Even children are not spared!
Interview with Mahdiye Salimi, the 12 year old daughter of union member who was beaten and arrested
As reported in WPI Briefing, up to 700 workers of the Syndicate of Workers and Employees of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company have been arrested. Moreover, the wives and children of some executive members have also been arrested. They were taken out of bed and beaten up during raids on Friday 27 January night. The beatings continued in detention. Substitute member of the union’s executive board, Yaghoub Salimi's 2-year-old daughter was injured on her face in the attack, when she was thrown into a waiting patrol van. Her 12-year-old elder sister, Mahdiye, described the ordeal in detail in an interview with a radio station abroad. Below you will find a translation of the full transcript of radio “Avaye Ashena” (familiar voice) interview with 12 year old Mahdiye Salimi:
Reporter: Hello.
Mahdiye: Hello. How are you?
Reporter: Thank you. I hope you are alright. Please tell us what happened.
Mahdiye: We were asleep. They rang the doorbell of our home. They called out: Mrs. Salami, come to door for one moment” They were in such a hurry that they didn’t even allow my mom to dress properly. As soon as my mom opened the door, they poured into our home. I was asleep along with Mrs. Zia’s daughter. They pulled the blankets from our bodies and started to hit us with their “feet and hands” and told us to get into the van. Mrs. Razavi wanted to get some clothes for her daughter and they started to hit her badly. They even kicked my mom’s heart with their boots and my mom had an enormous ache in her heart. She still has some wounds on her body. They hit her with a baton and didn’t listen to my mother's appeals. They even wanted to spray something in my [2 year old] sister’s mouth.
Then they took us to detention. Where we went was not hygienic at all and it was so cold. We asked for blankets. They said “we don’t have any”. “We are just doing our duty”. They hit us so much. We asked for lunch. They brought us the leftovers of their own lunch which was nasty chicken skin mixed with some kind of sauce.
Reporter: Why did they keep hitting you and your mom?
Mahdiye: She wanted to get on the van but first wanted to take my sister to the bathroom. As soon as she started to go, they grabbed my sister from behind and pushed her into the van. My sister hit her head when she was thrown into the van and they also kept hitting my mom.
Reporter: Did they do all of this in the street? Did your neighbours see all this?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. All the neighbours came out and were watching what was going on. When they raided our home, there was at least 70-80 of them while we were only 3 women and 5 children. They rushed to the roof so no one could escape. They even went to our neighbours' homes and even arrested our neighbours' guests.
Reporter: What did they want?
Mahdiye: They wanted to know where my dad is. We didn’t know that. We didn’t have any news of my dad's whereabouts.
Reporter: Where is your mom right now?
Mahdiye: Yesterday they told us that she will be released soon. They wanted to bring her to the Ministry of Intelligence. Somebody said they might take her to Evin Prison but then they said she would be taken to the fourth base of the Ministry of Intelligence.
Reporter: how old are you?
Mahdiye: I am 12.
Reporter: Did they hit you?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. They hit all of us. Even a child from year 1. They made all the children cry.
Reporter: can I ask your name?
Mahdiye: I am Mahdiye Salimi.
Reporter: Why do you think they are doing this? Has your father done something wrong?
Mahdiye: Nothing. My father has done nothing wrong. He just has asked for his rights. The rights that they didn’t give him. For example for every 200 tomans of his wage, they have taken 100 for themselves.
Reporter: Are you going to the prison with your father again?
Mahdiye: Yes.
Reporter: Are you anxious?
Mahdiye: Of course I am. How can I not be? When they took my mother they didn’t even let us to be with her for a moment. They even didn’t let us hug her.
Reporter: I heard that your [two year old] sister was also wounded. Is that true?
Mahdiye: Yes. When they pushed her into the van, her lips hit metal and was badly hurt.
Reporter: Did they continue hitting your mom there?
Mahdiye: Yes they did. They hit her even there.
Reporter: Is your school closed?
Mahdiye: No it is not. It was supposed to be closed because of heavy snowfall but they announced that it was open.
Reporter: So you missed school too?
Mahdiye: Yes. I missed my classes.
Reporter: How many children were there?
Mahdiye: There were 5. Mrs, Zia's daughter from year 3 (10 years old). Mrs. Razavi's daughter from year 1(7 years old). And one from year 9 (15 years) and myself (I am 12 year old and from year 6) and my own sister who is 2 and a half.
Reporter: And how many women? Do you remember how many you were in total?
Mahdiye: There were 3 women.
Reporter: Are you the only children who were released?
Mahdiye: No all the children were released but our mothers (my mother and Mrs. Zia) have not been released yet.
Reporter: What do you want from people who are listening to you? What is your wish?
Mahdiye: I want them to defend us. Do something so my mother will be released soon. Now our mother is in detention and there is nobody to take care of us.
The above was translated by Arash Sorx for WPI Briefing.
------------
International Labour Solidarity Committee of the
Worker-Communist Party of Iran
Co-ordinator: Shahla Daneshfar
Public Relations:
Bahram Soroush
www.wpiran.org
www.kargaran.org
www.newchannel.tv
Shiva Mahbobi
Address: BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX
Website: www.wpiran.org
OutRage! NEws Service
Homepage:
http://www.outrage.org.uk
Comments
Hide 4 hidden comments or hide all comments
Help us prepare for war on Iran
07.02.2006 12:14
Who would have thought a far-right war blog like Harry's Place, whose view is exemplified by fellow fascist Anthony Browne, and which shares the same ideology as far-right propagandists like Michelle Malkin, could achieve a temporary alliance with a gay-rights group and Iranian communists?
United for War, Death and Destruction - Anything for Israel!
(until the wars over, then we'll dump you)
Hairy Hatchett
Homepage:
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/
Sickening Islamofascists
07.02.2006 13:15
You fool nobody and should be banned from Indymedia like the BNP is.
Jun
Should be hidden
07.02.2006 13:33
This was the reason given for posts about political prisoners in Cuba being hidden.
Why has this post been allowed to remain ?
Why doesn't the IMC want British readers to know about political repression and torture of political prisoners in Cuba ?
Raul
Iran and Cuba - blood brothers in repression
07.02.2006 13:48
Legal and Institutional Failings
Cuba’s legal and institutional structures are at the root of rights violations. Although in theory the different branches of government have separate and defined areas of authority, in practice the executive retains clear control over all levers of power. The courts, which lack independence, undermine the right to fair trial by severely restricting the right to a defense.
Cuba’s Criminal Code provides the legal basis for repression of dissent. Laws criminalizing enemy propaganda, the spreading of “unauthorized news,” and insult to patriotic symbols are used to restrict freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. The government also imprisons or orders the surveillance of individuals who have committed no illegal act, relying upon provisions that penalize “dangerousness” (estado peligroso) and allow for “official warning” (advertencia oficial).
Political Imprisonment
In early July 2005 the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a respected local human rights group, issued a list of 306 prisoners who it said were incarcerated for political reasons. The list included the names of thirteen peaceful dissidents who had been arrested and detained in the first half of 2005, of whom eleven were being held on charges of “dangerousness.”
Of seventy-five political dissidents, independent journalists, and human rights advocates who were summarily tried in April 2003, sixty-one remain imprisoned. Serving sentences that average nearly twenty years, the incarcerated dissidents endure poor conditions and punitive treatment in prison. Although several of them suffer from serious health problems, the Cuban government had not, as of November 2005, granted any of them humanitarian release from prison.
On July 13, 2005, protestors commemorated the deadly 1994 sinking of a tugboat that was packed with people seeking to flee Cuba. The protestors marched to the Malecón, along Havana’s coastline, and threw flowers into the sea. More than two dozen people were arrested. Less that two weeks later, on July 22, another thirty people were arrested during a rally in front of the French Embassy in Havana. While the majority of those arrested during the two demonstrations have since been released, at least ten of them remain incarcerated at this writing.
Travel Restrictions and Family Separations
The Cuban government forbids the country’s citizens from leaving or returning to Cuba without first obtaining official permission, which is often denied. Unauthorized travel can result in criminal prosecution. The government also frequently bars citizens engaged in authorized travel from taking their children with them overseas, essentially holding the children hostage to guarantee the parents’ return. Given the widespread fear of forced family separation, these travel restrictions provide the Cuban government with a powerful tool for punishing defectors and silencing critics.
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom of assembly is severely restricted in Cuba, and political dissidents are generally prohibited from meeting in large groups. In late May 2005, however, nearly two hundred dissidents attended a rare mass meeting in Havana. Its organizers deemed the meeting a success, even though some prominent dissidents refused to take part in it because of disagreements over strategy and positions. While barring some foreign observers from attending, police allowed the two-day event to take place without major hindrance. The participants passed a resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.
Prison Conditions
Prisoners are generally kept in poor and abusive conditions, often in overcrowded cells. They typically lose weight during incarceration, and some receive inadequate medical care. Some also endure physical and sexual abuse, typically by other inmates with the acquiescence of guards.
Political prisoners who denounce poor conditions of imprisonment or who otherwise fail to observe prison rules are frequently punished by long periods in punitive isolation cells, restrictions on visits, or denial of medical treatment. Some political prisoners carried out long hunger strikes to protest abusive conditions and mistreatment by guards.
Death Penalty
Under Cuban law the death penalty exists for a broad range of crimes. Because Cuba does not release information regarding its use of the penalty, it is difficult to ascertain the frequency with which it is employed. As far as is known, however, no executions have been carried out since April 2003.
Human Rights Defenders
Refusing to recognize human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity, the government denies legal status to local human rights groups. Individuals who belong to these groups face systematic harassment, with the government putting up obstacles to impede them from documenting human rights conditions. In addition, international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are barred from sending fact-finding missions to Cuba. It remains one of the few countries in the world to deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.
Key International Actors
At its sixty-first session in April, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights voted twenty-one to seventeen (with fifteen abstentions) to adopt a blandly-worded resolution on the situation of human rights in Cuba. The resolution, put forward by the United States and co-sponsored by the European Union, simply extended for another year the mandate of the U.N. expert on Cuba. The Cuban government continues to bar the U.N. expert from visiting the country, even though her 2005 report on Cuba’s human rights conditions was inexplicably and unjustifiably mild.
The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, in effect for more than four decades, continues to impose indiscriminate hardship on the Cuban people and to block travel to the island. An exception to the embargo that allows food sales to Cuba on a cash-only basis, however, has led to substantial trade between the two countries. Indeed, in November 2005, the head of Cuba’s food importing agency confirmed that the U.S. was Cuba’s biggest food supplier. That same month the U.N. General Assembly voted to urge the U.S. to end the embargo.
In an effort to deprive the Cuban government of funding, the U.S. government enacted new restrictions on family-related travel to Cuba in June 2004. Under these rules, individuals are allowed to visit relatives in Cuba only once every three years, and only if the relatives fit the government’s narrow definition of family—a definition that excludes aunts, uncles, cousins, and other next-of-kin who are often integral members of Cuban families. Justified as a means of promoting freedom in Cuba, the new travel policies undermine the freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Cuban Americans, and inflict profound harm on Cuban families.
Countries within the E.U. continue to disagree regarding the best approach toward Cuba. In January 2005, the E.U. decided temporarily to suspend the diplomatic sanctions that it had adopted in the wake of the Cuban government’s 2003 crackdown against dissidents, and in June it extended the sanctions’ suspension for another year. Dissidents criticized the E.U.’s revised position, which Spain had advocated, and which the Czech Republic, most notably, had resisted.
Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco), a group of wives and mothers of imprisoned dissidents, were among three winners of the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for 2005. The prize is granted annually by the European Parliament in recognition of a recipient’s work in protecting human rights, promoting democracy and international cooperation, and upholding the rule of law. As of this writing, it was not clear whether the Cuban government would allow representatives of Ladies in White to travel to France in December 2005 to receive the prize.
Relations between Cuba and the Czech Republic continue to be strained. In May 2005, Cuba summarily expelled Czech senator Karel Schwarzenberg, who was visiting Havana to attend the dissidents’ two-day meeting. On October 28, on the eighty-seventh anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia, the Cuban authorities banned a reception that the Czech Embassy was planning to hold in Havana, calling it a “counter-revolutionary action.” The Cubans were reportedly angered by the embassy’s decision to invite representatives of Ladies in White to attend the function.
Venezuela remains Cuba’s closest ally in Latin America. President Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez enjoy warm relations, and Venezuela provides Cuba with oil subsidies and other forms of assistance.
Raul
Please remove 'jun', and its racist use of language please
07.02.2006 14:04
If so, I trust that from now on you will permit the SAME form of the term applied to other religions, especially those religions depicted in terrorist acts against Palestinians and muslims in films like 'Munich'.
Personally, I would just prefer that racists like 'jun' have their post removed. This isn't 'Fox News' or 'Free Republic' after all.
twilight
Oh, that's okay then
07.02.2006 15:55
sceptic
...support the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the clerical dictatorship.
07.02.2006 16:12
What other name would you prefer? Would you prefer anti-Zionist heroes?
Before you move to defend these theocrats, THINK, they brutaly represss their people and attempt to force their religion down people's throats, not to mention using it to guide their every move (sound like anyone we know?)
Before you call for people's comments to be banned, THINK, you routinely post ridiculous and evidence-less claims, and no-one calls for your comments to be removed. Surely you should have to give more evidence than "this happened when this happened, they MUST be related".
"While opposing any western attempt to impose regime change on Iran, we support the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the clerical dictatorship."
The Last Bondsman
Don't Forget ...
07.02.2006 18:21
Bush Executes Retarded People
Bush Executes Retarded People
Typical short-sighted bitching
07.02.2006 19:10
Steffan
e-mail:
baboonpower@hotmail.com
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Oh and for those that care about workers' rights....
07.02.2006 19:24
Hundreds of postal workers from across Belfast marched with local residents up the Shankill and down the Falls today. The march culminated in a rally, addressed by local CWU activists and Eamonn McCann. The meeting voted overwhellmingly to remain out on strike.
Over 800 postal workers are now out on unofficial strike across Belfast and Mallusk, and they have been out for 7 days in what is becoming the longest and biggest strike we have seen in years. The strike is over management bullying and harassment. This was escalated by Royal Mail issuing letters to four key activists threatening them with legal action and the bill for the strike.
Steffan
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baboonpower@hotmail.com
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