Cuba will try dissidents for ties to U.S. diplomat

HAVANA -- Cuba said it will try dozens of dissidents it has rounded up and accused of being traitors for allegedly working with the top American diplomat on the island.

The biggest crackdown on the internal opposition in recent years came as Fidel Castro's government confirmed that it was restricting U.S. diplomats from traveling freely around the island.

The two announcements late Tuesday night were the latest in a recent series of moves that have further frayed U.S.-Cuban relations.

An official statement read on state-controlled television Tuesday night accused the dissidents of "being directly linked to the conspiratorial activities" of the head of Washington's diplomatic mission in Havana, James Cason.

"They have been arrested by the appropriate authorities and will be turned over to the courts of justice," the statement said.

The government accuses the dissidents of being linked to Cason, who during his six months on the island has repeatedly met with opposition members. Last week, he allowed dissident journalists to use his official residence for a meeting.

Cason has said he is merely trying to promote democracy and human rights on the Caribbean island.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed outrage over the arrests, calling it an "appalling act of intimidation against those who seek freedom and democratic change in Cuba."

"These people have been arrested for simply speaking out, one of the most basic internationally accepted human rights," Boucher said.

In similar roundups in the past, many of those picked up have been released after a few hours or days without formal charges.

Opposition activists here fear that those arrested will be tried under the much-criticized, but never-yet-applied "Law against National Independence," which carries sentences of up to 10 years.

The law passed in February 1999 made it a crime to publish "subversive" materials provided by the U.S. government.

The U.S. Interests Section here distributes short wave radios and a wide range of books and pamphlets throughout Cuba with the stated purpose of promoting American culture, democracy and human rights.

Veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said that he had confirmed 24 detentions around the island and was working to confirm reports of 10 more. He called it "the most intense repression in recent years."

The island's best known activists, including Oswaldo Paya -- the top organizer of the Varela Project reform effort -- were left alone.

At least a dozen of those rounded up were independent journalists, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

"This wave of detentions marks an end to a period of relative tolerance for the independent press," said Robert Menard, the group's secretary general.

The detentions came during the annual U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, where Cuba's record is regularly condemned.

Under the new travel restrictions for U.S. diplomats, they must get prior approval to travel outside the 434-square-mile area that includes the capital of Havana on the northern coast and the large Havana Province.

Previously, U.S. diplomats had to notify Cuban officials when they traveled outside the Havana region, but no advance approval was necessary.

American government sources said they believe Cuba wants to cut back on the extensive travels here by Cason, who has logged more than 6,200 miles since arriving here in the fall.

Washington last week imposed similar travel restrictions on Cuban diplomats in the United States, saying it was responding to Havana's move.

Cuban officials are also frustrated over treatment of five convicted Cuban spies now serving time in American prisons. They were recently moved to solitary confinement.

The men were convicted in Miami of trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases and Cuban exile groups in Florida and now face sentences ranging from 15 years to life.

Cuban officials have heralded the men as patriotic heroes, insisting they were only working to prevent Cuban exile groups from organizing and executing terrorist acts against their homeland.