Paxety Pages

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the July, 2005, measures of extreme repression on the part of the Cuban Government against members of Cuba’s prodemocracy movement, calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners, the legalization of political activities and free elections in Cuba, urging the European Union to reexamine its policy toward Cuba, and calling on the representative of the United States to the 62d session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce or support a resolution calling upon the Cuban regime to end its human rights violations in Cuba, and for other purposes.

Whereas the European Union instituted measures on the Cuban Government after the Cuban Government exercised extreme repression on peaceful prodemocracy activists in 2003, but in January 2005 the European Union suspended its measures;

Whereas on July 13, 2005, the Cuban Government detained 24 human rights activists who were participating in a solemn event in remembrance of the victims of the tugboat massacre of innocent civilians by the Cuban government of July 13, 1994;

Whereas human rights activists Rene Montes de Oca, Emilio Leiva Perez, Camilo Cairo Falcon, Manuel Perez Soira, Roberto Guerra Perez, and Lazaro Alonso Roman remain incarcerated from the July 13, 2005, event and face trumped up charges of ‘‘disorderly conduct’’;

Whereas on July 14, 2005, the Government of France invited the Cuban regime’s ‘‘Foreign Minister to the French Embassy in Havana for a Bastille Day’’ celebration;

Whereas members of the prodemocracy opposition in Cuba sought, on July 22, 2005, in Havana, to demonstrate in front of the French Embassy in a peaceful and orderly manner, on behalf of the liberation of all Cuban political prisoners, and to protest the current policy of the European Union toward the Cuban Government;

Whereas the Cuban regime mobilized its repressive state security apparatus to intimidate and harass the peaceful demonstrators in order to prevent prodemocracy activists from reaching the French Embassy;

Whereas the Cuban regime arrested and detained many who were planning on attending the peaceful protest of July 22 in front of the French Embassy, including Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, Félix Antonio Bonne Carcasse´s, Rene Gómez Manzano, Jose Javier Baeza Dis, María de los Ángeles Borrego, Ernesto Colás García, Emma Maria Alonso Del Monte, Jose Escuredo Marrero, Uldarico Garcia, Yusimi Gil Portel, Oscar Mario González Pérez, Humberto Guerra, Luis Cesar Guerra, Julio Cesar López Rodríguez, Miguel López Santos, Jacqueline Montes de Oca, Raul Martínez Prieto, Ricardo Medina Salabarría, Francisco Moure Saladrigas, Georgina Noa Montes, Niurka Maria Pena Rodríguez, Luis Manue Peñalver, Pastor Pérez Sánchez, Jesús Adolfo Reyes Sánchez, Gloria Cristina Rodríguez González, Juan Mario Rodríguez Guillen, Miguel Valdés Tamayo, Santiago Valdeolla Pérez, and Jesús Alejandro Victore Molina;

Whereas Rene Gómez Manzano, a distinguished leader of the struggle for freedom in Cuba, and dozens of other prodemocracy activists, continue to be detained without cause;

Whereas hundreds of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience languish in the Cuban regime’s prisons for the crime of seeking democracy for Cuba;

Whereas the Cuban regime has arrested more than 400 young Cubans, from late 2004 through June of 2005, and according to the Cuban regime, the arrests were carried out as a ‘‘measure of pre-delinquent security’’;

Whereas the Cuban regime has continued to repress attempts by the Cuban people to bring democratic change to the island and denies universally recognized liberties, including freedom of speech, association, movement, and the press;

Whereas thousands of others languish in Cuba’s totalitarian prisons accused of ‘‘common crimes’’, such as illegally attempting to leave the country and violating the norms of the economic system, who should be recognized as prisoners of conscience because they are being jailed for attempting to exercise personal freedoms;

Whereas the Cuban Government remains designated as one of 6 state sponsors of terrorism by the United States Department of State;

Whereas the Cuban Government continues to provide safe harbor to fugitives from United States law enforcement agencies and to international terrorists;

Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes global human rights standards, asserts that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention;

Whereas the Cuban regime engages in torture and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, including extended periods of solitary confinement and denial of nutritional and medical attention, according to the Department of State’s Country Report on Human Rights 2004;

Whereas the personal representative of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner has not been allowed by the Cuban regime to enter the island to carry out the mandate assigned by the United Nations Human Right Commission in its resolution of 2002/18 of 19 April 2002, and reaffirmed in resolutions 2003/13 of 17 April 2003, 2004/11 of 15 April 2004, and 2005/12 of 14 April 2005; and

Whereas the Cuban regime continues to violate the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, and other international and regional human rights agreements, and has violated the noted Resolutions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) condemns the gross human rights violations committed by the Cuban regime;

(2) calls on the Secretary of State to initiate an international solidarity campaign on behalf of the immediate release of all Cuban political prisoners;

(3) supports the right of the Cuban people to exercise fundamental political and civil liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, the press, and the right to multiparty elections;

(4) calls on the European Union to reexamine its current policy toward the Cuban regime, before June of 2006; and

(5) calls on the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and other international organizations, to work with the member countries of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) throughout the 62d session of the UNCHR in Geneva, Switzerland, to ensure a resolution that includes the strongest possible condemnation of the July 2005 measures of extreme repression on opposition activists and of all the human rights violations committed by the Cuban regime.