And if that doesn’t work they’ll strongly condemn it.
Demanding Fidel Castro release political prisoners, the European Parliament on Friday condemned human rights violations in Cuba. A resolution by the European Union legislators criticized ``the continuing flagrant violation of the civil and political human rights and the fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists.’’ On Wednesday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country holds the EU presidency, told the legislature that the human rights situation continues to deteriorate on the Caribbean island.
| Ah! The Italians are the drivers! That explains it... |
In July, Castro said his country would no longer accept aid from the EU, accusing it of backing the anti-Castro policy of the United States.
Fi-del actually got one right!
EU members have already agreed to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events on the island. Since 1993, the EU has provided over $156 million in aid to Cuba. In Havana, nine political dissidents meeting with German lawmakers hailed the resolution. The German legislators were part of a delegation visiting Cuba for a two-week international environmental conference sponsored by the United Nations. ``We all support the resolution,’’ Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident for more than three decades who spent four years in Cuban prisons, told The Associated Press. This spring, Cuba sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years in a crackdown on the opposition. The prison terms were condemned by governments and human rights organization around the globe. The Cuban government defended the crackdown as a necessary defense against U.S. attempts to change the island’s socialist system.
Let’s see if the EU can keep a stiff spine on this one. |