Etalkinghead

http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/031704.htm

Exactly one year ago, on March 18, 2003, the Cuban government launched a massive crackdown on peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, human rights defenders, and independent labor unionists, librarians, medical doctors, and teachers. Almost 90 democracy advocates were detained in a matter of days, their houses thoroughly searched, and many of their belongings confiscated…

Since the crackdown, all 75 prisoners remain incarcerated and are reportedly being held in substandard and inhumane conditions. Most of them are held in prisons hundreds of miles from their homes, making family visits very difficult if not almost impossible. Many of the imprisoned, such as economists Oscar Espinosa Chepe and Marta Beatriz Roque, are not receiving adequate medical treatment for conditions that, in some cases, have developed during incarceration and are life-threatening. Others, like Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, have been held in solitary confinement for months, denied family visits and access to sunlight. In some cases, like that of prisoner Blas Giraldo Reyes, the government is harassing relatives of the incarcerated so that they avoid contact with other dissidents, threatening harsher punishments for their loved ones in prison…

We call upon the Cuban government to uphold the rights of all Cubans who wish to promote and defend human rights according to their conscience…