AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

On 3 November 1999, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a physician, was once again taken into custody. Dr. Biscet, founder of the Lawton Foundation, is an anti-abortion activist and an outspoken critic of the Castro regime. He has been arrested twenty-six times in the last year.

The arrest of Dr. Biscet is just one in a wave of arrests and intimidation of Cuban human rights activists and opposition leaders in the lead-up to the 9th Ibero-American Summit, where Cuba played host to a meeting of officials from 19 Latin American nations, Spain and Portugal.

Despite these oppressive measures, human rights advocates and relatives of political prisoners held meetings with visiting dignitaries, including Prime Minister José María Aznar of Spain and Foreign Minister Rosario Green of Mexico.

Most recently, Dr. Biscet was detained in the town of Pedro Betancourt while visiting dissidents who took part in a fast in support of political prisoners. He was previously arrested in July 1998 and charged with the "improper use of state-owned materials" to conduct a study about abortions in Cuba.

The detention of Dr. Biscet constitutes a serious violations of international human rights standards enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted without opposition by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. They include:

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person (Article 3);
• no one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 5);
• no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile (Article 9); and
• everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Article 19).

(Sources of information for this update include Cuba Press. Sources of information for previous alerts include the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights and The Miami Herald.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• calling on the Cuban government to release Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and the other human rights activists immediately and unconditionally on the grounds that they are prisoner of conscience; and
• urging the Cuban government to respect the rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Dr. Juan Escalona Reguera
Fiscal General de la Republica
San Rafael 3
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: 011 53 7 333 164
Sr. Jefe del Centro de Investigaciones del Departamento de
Seguridad del Estado (DSE)
Versalles
Santiago de Cuba
Prov. Oriente, Cub

COPIES SENT TO:

Felipe Perez Roque
Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores
Calzada No. 360
Vedado
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: 011 53 7 333 085 or 335 261

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