Violent Clash Outside The Cuban Embassy in Paris

A cameraman from Televisión Española (TVE) as well as two directors from Reporters Without Frontiers (RWF) are among the injured in yesterday’s confrontation outside the Cuban Embassy in Paris, when members of the security detail of said Embassy attacked a group of protesters gathered there to deliver a letter to Cuban Embassador Eumelio Caballero, protesting the recent wave of oppression set loose in the island.

“The Ambassador did not want to accept the letter. They didn’t even open the gates. Then, some members of Reporters Without Frontiers chained themselves to the fence’, said Cuban author Zoe Valdés, currently residing in Paris.

In her telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald, Valdés indicated that Embassy personnel “who are obviously not diplomats, but rather oppressors”, exited the Embassy building carrying hammers and sledgehammers to break the protesters chains, whose hands and harms they beat, as well as striking several observers standing near by.

“The objective of delivering this letter, addressed to Fidel Castro, to the Ambassador was not achieved, but all the press present at the site bore witness of the violent attacks by these purported diplomats”, said Valdés.

Asides from Valdés, some 30 people congregated at the Embassy in an effort organized by Reporters Without Frontiers, among them, Cuban author Eduardo Manet, Spanish author and producer Fernando Arrabal, cinematographer Romain Goupil, as well as intellectual Pascal Bruckner, both French citizens.

In an early morning press release, the Cuban Embassy indicated that they had been the victim of an “illegal provocation”, and offered a different version of the events.

“A group of counterrevolutionaries of Cuban origin, affiliated with Miami based terrorist organizations, some members of Reporters Without Frontiers, and journalists from national and international press, organized (in an illegal manner) a provocation against the Cuban Embassy in France”, said the official press release.

Cuban diplomats denied that the activists attempted to deliver a letter, and stated “they did not solicit us at any moment.”

According to the account by Castro’s diplomats, the incident took place when the protesters chained several gates to the diplomatic compound shut, and themselves to the fence as a sign of protest.

The Cuban Embassy added that they alerted French police, who arrived at the place, but “limited themselves to observing from a distance, without intervening”, for which reason the functionaries from the diplomatic mission “felt obligated” to act and forcibly remove the activists.

More protests are scheduled for today, Friday, at 3:00 P.M in front of the diplomatic compound, organized by the Committee for Cuban Democracy and Freedom, an organization that unites Cubans of diverse political ideologies exiled in France, announced Lázaro Jordana, the organization’s director.

In a toned-down press release for today’s activities, the Embassy states that they “expect no repeat of illegal actions intended to disrupt the normal functions of the diplomatic delegation, and the physical integrity of its functionaries”.

A spokesperson for Reporters Without Frontiers pointed out that this was the first time any violent acts occur during one of its rallies. They are normally peaceful, such as the four-hour occupation, earlier this month, of the Cuban tourism office in Paris, protesting the wave of arrests of Cuban dissidents in the island.

Cuba stated that they had notified the French Ministry of the Interior that its diplomatic envoy and other Cuban interests in Paris have suffered “the ninth aggression in twenty days” at the hands of “this violent group”.

The French offices of TVE informed us that they would file a protest with the Cuban embassy over the incident, in which their cameraman, Christian Valdés was punched in the face.

Cuba countered by saying that the TVE film crew “also took part in the provocation” and that “they had not requested an interview” with Ambassador Caballero.

Meanwhile, Robert Ménard and Regis Bourgeat, Secretary General and Director of RWF respectively, required medical attention for cuts and contusions received during the incident.

The protesters wore T-shirts and masks bearing the likeness of the independent journalists jailed in Cuba, as well as signs reading “CUBA – PRISON”, or a quote from Raúl Rivero, Cuban poet and journalist, sentenced to twenty years in jail: “I do not conspire, I write”.

See: http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=6449

Reporters Without Borders protesters beaten up by Cuban embassy officials

Reporters Without Borders activists were beaten by staff of the Cuban embassy in Paris today when they chained themselves to the embassy railings in the presence of several prominent cultural figures to protest against the imprisonment of 26 journalists in Cuba.

A dozen Reporters Without Borders protesters were attacked by Cuban embassy staff today after the ambassador refused to accept a letter demanding the release of 26 journalists recently imprisoned for up to 27 years. Cuba has now overtaken Eritrea, Burma and China as the world's biggest prison for journalists.

After the refusal, the protesters chained shut the entrances to the embassy and handcuffed themselves to the railings outside. Embassy staff then beat up the organisation's secretary-general, Robert Ménard, and the head of its Latin America desk, Régis Bourgeat.

The demonstrators wore masks and t-shirts bearing pictures of the journalists and carried two banners, one reading "Cuba = prison" and the other showing a quote by one of the jailed journalists, Raúl Rivero, saying : "I don't plot, I write."

Among those who came to express support for the jailed journalists were Cuban writers Zoé Valdès and Eduardo Manet, Spanish playwright and filmmaker Fernando Arrabal, French film director Romain Goupil and French novelist Pascal Bruckner.

Reporters Without Borders also released a letter it sent on 18 April to French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, criticising France for not including in its policy towards Cuba the common stand adopted by the European Union (EU) making closer ties between the EU and Cuba conditional on allowing multiparty democracy and basic freedoms. It asked the minister to step up contacts with the dissidents and their families and give them more support. (Read the letter).

Reporters Without Borders has several times called on the EU to suspend consideration of Cuba's application in January to join the Cotonou Agreement (that gives 77 Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries EU aid and preferential trade terms) until the journalists were freed.

Reporters Without Borders activists had occupied the Cuban tourist office in Paris for several hours on 4 April to call for their release, symbolically turning it into a prison and saying it would take further action if the arrested journalists were convicted.

The Cuban government took advantage of the imminent US invasion of Iraq to launch an unprecedented wave of repression on 18 March, arresting nearly 80 dissidents, including 26 independent journalists, and accusing them of undermining the country's "independence and territorial integrity" in league with the US Interests Section (diplomatic representation) in Havana. They were jailed for between six and 28 years.

Raúl Rivero, 1997 winner of the Reporters Without Borders / Fondation de France Prize and Ricardo González, the Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Havana, received 20-year sentences. All were given sham trials, in secret, at high speed, with no right to defend themselves and involving pre-prepared evidence from undercover agents and neighbours accusing them solely on the basis of their opinions.

Before 18 March, four journalists were already in prison. They were Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, of the Línea Sur Press news agency, who was sentenced in November 1997 to six years imprisonment for "insulting" President Fidel Castro and Vice-President Carlos Lage ; Carlos Brizuela Yera, of the CPIC news agency, and Lester Téllez Castro, head of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña, who were arrested on 4 March last year in Ciego de Ávila while protesting against a police attack on a journalist from the Cuba Press agency ; and Carlos Alberto Domínguez, who has been held without formal charges since 23 February last year.

The Cuban constitution bans any private ownership of the media. Because they cannot publish in their own country, about 100 independent journalists have relied on Cuban exile organisations in the United States to put out their articles, mostly on Internet websites. Nearly 60 independent journalists have been forced into exile abroad since 1995 after being harassed daily by the authorities.

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