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CUBAN MOVEMENT FOR A UNIFIED DEMOCRACY

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Ex-Spain PM Urges Release of Cubans.
By KAREL JANICEK
The Associated Press

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Friday called for the release of dozens of inmates in Cuba, charging they're political prisoners held ``simply because they have a different opinion from the official line.''

He spoke at a meeting of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, which is examining ways to support resistance to Fidel Castro's regime.

Participants highlighted the case of Raul Rivero, a dissident journalist and author who was arrested in March 2003 along with 74 others in a crackdown on the opposition.

``There's nothing to justify that people like Raul Rivero should be imprisoned just because they wrote a critical poem against a dictator,'' Aznar said.

They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years on charges of working with the U.S. government to undermine Cuba's political system. Rivero received a 20-year term. Both he and Washington have denied the charges.

The Cuban government has justified the crackdown, saying it has the right to defend the nation from foreign attempts to change its socialist system.

The committee was founded a year ago by former Czech President Vaclav Havel, who was a leading dissident during his own country's communist times. The communist regime in Czechoslovakia, which later split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, fell in 1989.

``I think that the situation in Cuba will change quite soon,'' Havel told the conference, adding that he hoped it will happen peacefully.


Source: www.lavozdecubalibre.com