Published: March. 31, 2010 at 4:47 PM
HAVANA, March 31 (UPI) -- Two more Cuban dissidents have gone on hunger
strikes to press demands for the release of at least 26 political
detainees, who are all suffering from debilitating health problems since
the death due to starvation of Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February.
Information about the additional hunger strikers, released by the
unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation,
coincided with the European Union's postponement of a planned meeting
next week with Cuban officials. The talks were to have pushed for
advancing the human rights process in Cuba in return for EU incentives.
The 26 political detainees cited in recent campaigns for their release
are only a small part of numbers quoted by Cuban activists and confirmed
by human rights campaigner Amnesty International.
Cuba has reacted with disdain and vituperative rejoinders to campaigns
for the release of the detainees, telling the EU to mind its own
business. But analysts said Cuba's position received a major setback
when Zapata died in February after an 85-day hunger strike.
Emboldened by the silence of Cuba's South American friends, and
reluctance of most Latin American leaders to question Cuba over the
rights issue, Havana has defied critics and rejected any suggestion of
wrongdoing.
The EU under Spanish presidency, meanwhile, continues its search for a
middle path, only to be thwarted by Havana's actions and pronouncements,
analysts said.
The two dissidents to start the hunger strike join Guillermo Farinas,
who began his fast Feb. 24 after Zapata died. Both began their fasts
earlier but news of their protest action became known only this week.
Franklin Pelegrino has been fasting for 30 days at his home in the
eastern province of Holguin, while dissident prisoner Darsi Ferrer, a
physician, announced 10 days ago that he was beginning a hunger strike,
commission spokesman Elizardo Sanchez said.
After Zapata's death about a dozen political prisoners and members of
the opposition began fasts but most of them called off their protests
after a few days.
Ferrer has been held without a trial or any formal charges being brought
against him since July 21, 2009, the rights commission said.
It said the campaign for human rights improvements in Cuba didn't
support hunger strikes in any context and believed the Cuban government
could bring about a human outcome of the crisis.
Cuba's government says it has no political prisoners and calls the
dissidents mercenaries in the service of the United States.
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