CUBAN DISSIDENTS FREED

Police in Cuba have freed a group of dissidents they had arrested on Tuesday at the funeral of the prominent activist Oswaldo Paya. Pressure group the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said most of those arrested had been freed, but the group did not give exact numbers. The dissidents were picked up for questioning by police after shouting slogans against the government. The dissidents were arrested (last Tuesday) as they were leaving the church where Oswaldo Paya's funeral service had been held.

Pswaldo Paya's funeral (Associated Press)

Mr Paya (aged 60) died in a car crash on Sunday. His son, Oswaldo, suspected that the car may have been forced off the road. Mr Paya alleges that two survivors of the crash said they had been forced off the road by a truck that rammed their car repeatedly.

Cuban officials say the driver, a Spanish national, lost control and hit a tree. Diplomats have told Reuters news agency there is no evidence to back Mr Paya's allegations and that they believe it was a genuine accident.

Oswaldo Farinas staged hunger strikes to draw attention to the plight of political prisoners in Cuba. In 2010 he received the Sakharov Prize, the European Union's human rights award for the second time having previously won in 2002. He was the founder of the Varela project, a campaign (begun in 1998) to gather signatures in support of a referendum on laws to guarantee civil rights. In May 2002, Cuba's National Assembly was presented with a petition of more than 10,000 signatures calling for an end to four decades of one-party rule. The Cuban government described Mr Paya as an agent of the US who was working to undermine the country's revolution.

REMEMBRANCE

As a historian / archaeologist and someone who has more than a passing interest in politics I have to find a happy medium between living in the past and living in the now. It is important that we remember what has been done (for good and for bad) and to use that knowledge to make intelligent sensible choices about our future. I am a big believer in ‘rememberance’, by that I mean we should never be selective when it comes to remembering history.

If you want to wallow in nostalgia about the ‘British Empire’ or the ‘Soviet Union’ that’s fine, but, while remembering the heroic and principled stand against fascism in 1940 then you should also chose not to forget about the Bengal famine (which killed six million) in the middle of the second world war or the million or so who starved to death in Ireland in the middle of the 19th century.

The remnants of Stalin's Artic Railway

For those who yearn for the strong man in Russian politics and days when the sound of ‘Soviet rockets made the world tremble’ don’t forget the millions who were murdered or imprisoned by Stalin and his cronies (not to mention the millions killed and imprisoned by the fascist regimes in Europe and Asia in the 1930’s and the 1940’s) and the repressive regimes that held sway across half of our continent until the early 1990’s.

The vast majority of the old brutal oppressive Communist dictatorships, save for Cuba and the People's Republic of China (PRC) have collapsed and been rightly cast into the dustbin of history. While both Cuba and the PRC have made real social achievements (particularly when it comes to health care and literacy) it is important to remember that these achievements have come at one hell of a price in broken Human lives and scattered bones.

In recent years the tide may well have finally turned against dictatorship, even though we may yet have some way to go before they are finally gone. Certainly the real courage shown by protesters against tyrannical (nominally Communist and other) regimes, particularly in the last 12 months has been impressive, it has however been matched by what can best be described as a failure of leadership on the part of the UN Security Council which appears tired, out of step and unfit for purpose.

A WELL-HEELED DICTATORSHIP…

Things may be looking up for the repressive Communist dictatorship in Cuba as an expected scramble to exploit and develop toil reserves in Cuban territorial waters begins. International oil companies from Spain, Norway, Russia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Canada, Angola, Venezuela, and the Peoples Republic of China (oddly enough there are none from the USA) are literally falling over themselves to bring in exploration drilling rigs to search for what may well be substantial oil deposits.

The US Geological Survey (back in 2004) estimated that there may be some 4.6 billion barrels worth of oil, the Cuban authorities disagree and suggest that there may be some 20 billion barrels worth. Either way a major oil discovery would make this communist dictatorship financially independent for the first time since the revolution in 1959 and effectively shatter the US trade embargo and turn Cuba from being a net oil importer into a net oil exporter. While this would be good news for the Cuban people it might not be good news for environmentalists and hard-pressed Cuban civil rights activists as the dictatorship would be flush with cash and effectively unassailable.

A WIND OF CHANGE?

Small stones can start large avalanches, opposition to Muammar Gaddafi and his murderous repressive regime is not new, it has a long history both inside and outside of Libya. Not that former PM Tony Blair and other Western Leaders who were busy snuggling up the repressive leader and his spawn would have noticed, but courageous Libyans defying the repressive Gaddafi regime took to the streets not a month ago, but more than two years ago. They risked torture and death sentences and their protest largely passed unnoticed by most of the world, a small group of families began to hold weekly demonstrations in Benghazi, the city that has become the epicenter of the uprising that swept across Libya.

In less than three months Gaddafi has gone from being the West's best mate to billy no mates. The UN Security Council has twice in three weeks done the right thing, initially by referring Libya to the International Criminal Court, then, by authorizing military force to protect civilians from Muammar al-Qaddafi's crazed wrath. Qaddafi is in many ways the perfect stage villain complete with an iffy dress sense, madness and way over-the-top threats to "show no mercy" to the people of Benghazi, along with his regional meddling and megalomaniac ideas, left him few friends or defenders.

Now What's even more amazing aside from the fact that China and Russia decided not to vote or even to abstain in the UN, is the fact that the Arab League (which has long promised much and delivered little for the Arab peoples) has also played an key role by abandoning its usual position of opposition to Security Council action against some of it's more repressive members. Previously the league has watched silently as Sudan's Omar al-Bashir committed crimes against humanity in Darfur, somewhat less recently, Saddam Hussein (Iraq) massacred Shia and Kurds, and Syria's Hafez al-Asad destroyed the town of Hama.

Now the question are the winds of change wafting through the Middle East and North Africa or is the ground literally crumbling beneath the feet of a whole host of iffy and repressive regimes - with popular dissent and demonstrations in Algeria, Syria, Yemen and Bharain - where next people may well wonder? What's embarrassing for Western leaders in particular is that they now find that many of the despots they have feted because they brought 'security and stability' to the region (and also lucratively armed to the teeth) are now busy repressing their own people in what appears to be a series of increasingly bloody and brutal (and hopefully futile) attempts to stay in power.

Gaddafi and friend (AFP / Getty)

Western leaders are 'discovering' that 'their boys' are a pretty grim and repressive bunch of (hopefully) no hopers. I suppose that we should all be grateful in that at least we have been spared the embarrassing suggestion that they did not no what they were like or what they were doing. Certainly the former New Labour Government and no doubt the Con Dem's spent plenty of time being nice to Gaddafi regime (the sight of Peter Hain (Labour MP for Neath) defending a long line of arms sales to Libya recently on BBC Question time comes to mind). Now the people are taking to the streets throughout the region, risking their lives for freedom, democracy and human rights against autocratic leaders that have long denied them for so long.

Here's hoping what we are seeing is the wind of change and here's hoping that Gaddafi (and his ilk) and the rest of the repressive bunch end up in Court and after due process spend a seriously long time in goal answering for their crimes. When Saddam went far too much was swept under the carpet (the Kurds amongst many others never did get their day in court) and we never did find out which Western Governments (and the rest) and which companies had been quietly breaking the sanctions because after all he was 'our boy'.

And while we are at it lets have a long hard look at just who's been profitably tooling up the forces of repression around the globe and shine some light on the UK's foreign policy and exactly what decisions have been and are being made on our name? Now this wave of revolution has been fuelled by the courage of ordinary people who are prepared to stand up and be counted, aided and abetted by Facebook - the blocking of which by repressive regimes is a key sign of unrest and dissent- incidentally I wonder if Facebook is blocked in Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbarbwe and Iran all of whom have expressed their support for Gaddafi?

GUESS WHO'S NOT COMING TO DINNER?

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who has repeatedly faced imprisonment and surveillance from the Chinese government and is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for "subverting state power" - has rattled more than a few bars. Liu helped write the manifesto, Charter 08, calling for political change in China. The massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 turned him into a Human Rights activist. As a result of his nomination for and his winning of the Nobel Award for his work on Human Rights there is a growing boycott of the award ceremony.

It's interesting to see who apart from China are not going to attend Friday's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Envoys from Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco will so far all miss the event "for various reasons". By way of comparison only ten embassies were absent from the 2008 ceremony which honoured the former Finnish President and UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

The interesting bit may well be the reason why they are not there – some have pretty dreadful human rights records, some are one party repressive totalitarian states (with enough imprisoned dissidents of their own – who don’t want to encourage other Human Rights campaigners a tad closer to home) and others are simply significant recipients of Chinese Foreign Aid. Literally the bullies and the bought! What's even more interesting is how many are portrayed as being our Allies (in the so called War On Terror) - oh the company that we keep!

TIME FOR A FREE CUBA

The other weekend (2nd May), largely unnoticed especially by the usually vocal yet sycophantic apologists for the repressive Cuban Communist dictatorship, who were somewhat understandably preoccupied with the final days of the Westminster general election, the wives and mothers of various political prisoners held in Cuba were finally allowed to hold their weekly protest for the first time in three weeks without being harassed.

Previously Communist Government supporters had blocked the women, known as Ladies in White, from marching on the previous two Sundays. It takes real courage to confront a dictatorship that imprisons without trial (well save for show trials) and detains people who dissent. Perhaps this is a beginning the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina and Charter 77 in old Czechoslovakia were small in number but managed to see out their respective dictatorships. 

The BBC notes that the archbishop of Havana had intervened on behalf of the women, stating that Cardinal Jaime Ortega said the Communist authorities had agreed to allow the marches during the month of May, after which they would review their decision. On Sunday 25th, the women were blocked from marching by government supporters who corralled them into a park, where they shouted insults at them for hours.

For some years the 'ladies in white', a group of wives of political prisoners in Cuba, have been courageously staging weekly marches in the capital Havana. On the 26th April they were blocked and taunted by government supporters, and finally led away to a police bus. The Cuban government has routinely described the dissidents as common criminals who were paid by the US to destabilise the country. 

Cuba (just in case our home grown niavatistas have forgotten) is a repressive Communist dictatorship, earlier this year on 18th March which happens to be the anniversary of the mass arrests in 2003, the majority of whom remain detained remain behind bars, there were protests. This year the anniversary would probably have passed unnoticed save for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo was the first Cuban activist to starve himself to death in protest in nearly 40 years.

Even the European Parliament was moved to vote to condemn his death. In response the state controlled Cuban media, ran with a series of highly critical articles which appeared on the front page of the official newspaper Granma almost every day since then the EU vote. The EU has ineffectually called for a policy of engagement and dialogue with the communist-run island, a policy that sits in stark opposite to the continuing US trade embargo.

The US trade embargo has only hurt the long suffering ordinary people most rather than the members and dependants of the Communist Government and its elite, needs to come to an end. There is a pressing need for free and fully democratic elections in Cuba - perhaps this last Communist dictatorship may yet be finally consigned into the dustbin of historywhere it belongs - either way the decision needs to be made neither by the US Government or the Communist Dictatorship, but, by the Cuban people themselves.

TIME FOR CUBAN DEMOCRACY

On Wednesday Cuban police detained wives and mothers of political dissidents at a demonstration in the capital, Havana. Some 30 members of the "Ladies in White" were stopped as they marched alongside the mother of a prisoner who died last month after a hunger strike. They are demanding the release of some 50 government critics who are still being detained without trial after mass arrests in 2003.

The BBC understands that most of the women detained in Havana were released shortly afterwards. Orlando Zapata Tamayo was the first Cuban activist to starve himself to death in protest in nearly 40 years. The case of Zapata, who was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and led to significant international condemnation and calls for the immediate release of all Cuba's detained dissidents.

However, recently Cuba's Communist authorities by way of response to outside pressure and international bad publicity have gone on the offensive against dissidents at home and abroad. This protest was the third held this week by the Ladies in White (Las Damas de Blanca) to mark the anniversary of the crackdown in the one-party Communist state which began seven years ago and continues to this day.

The women were heckled by hundreds of well organised government supporters as they left a church in the Parraga neighbourhood with Reyna Luisa Tamayo, who alleges that her son was tortured in jail and that his death amounted to premeditated murder. Police officers and interior ministry agents later asked the women to end their march and take shelter in two government buses. After they repeatedly refused, several female officers moved in and put them on to the buses by force.

The Cuban government routinely describes the dissidents as common criminals who were paid by the US to destabilise the country. Thursday (18th March) is the anniversary of the mass arrests in 2003, the majority of whom remain detained remain behind bars. The anniversary would probably have passed unnoticed but for the death of Zapata, he adds. When the European Parliament voted last week to condemn his death, Cuba responded by launching a counter attack on the EU.

Highly critical articles have appeared on the front page of the official newspaper Granma almost every day since then. Police brutality in Europe was the latest headline, while racism, unemployment and poverty in Europe were others, our correspondent says. The EU has ineffectually called for a policy of engagement and dialogue with the communist-run island, a policy that sits in stark opposite to the continuing US trade embargo. In truth, the US trade embargo, which hurts the ordinary people rather than the Communist Government and its ilk, needs to come to an end.

There is a need for free and fully democratic elections in Cuba - perhaps this last Communist dictatorship may yet be finally consigned into the dustbin of history - either way the decision needs to be made neither by the US Government or the Communist Dictatorship, but, by the Cuban people.

CUBA - THE OVERDUE REVOLUTION

International Human Rights Day passed in Cuba with Cuban dissidents, who were trying to hold a silent march in Havana, being confronted by organised crowds chanting pro-government slogans (perhaps a shade of the old Czechoslovak Communist Government tactic with Charter 77). Pro Government supporters screaming insults broke up two small groups of dissidents marching through Havana.

A UK diplomat was also harassed and ended up having to be protected by plain clothes police officers. On the other side of Havana, there as a second protest march, by the Ladies in White, who are the mothers and wives of prisoners - they too were surrounded and jostled.

In classic Soviet era double speak the Cuban authorities called the counter-demonstrations spontaneous outbursts by concerned citizens defending the Cuban revolution. The reality say critics of the Cuban one Party state is organised mobs aimed at intimidating any opposition. So much for Raul Castro who hinted that he would end such tactics when he took over the presidency from his brother, Fidel, but old Soviet habits, die hard.

The significant achievements in health, education and literacy are real achievements, but they are overshadowed by the continuing fact that a one party state is a one party state, a dictatorship is a dictatorship, whether nominally in the name of the proletariat or not - it's time for the long overdue democratic revolution in Cuba, its time for real democracy.

AND FINALLY - DEMOCRACY WINS OUT

The last ruling old style ruling Communist Party has just been defeated it the polls in Moldova, where the four main opposition parties won just over half the votes and seats in parliamentary elections, with the Communists gaining 45 per cent. This former Soviet republic has been in political stalemate since questionable elections in April. Now a pro-EU coalition government is likely to emerge in Moldova and hopefully

Communist Party - 45.1%

Liberal Democratic Party - 16.4%

Liberal Party - 14.4%

Democratic Party - 12.5%

Our Moldova Alliance - 7.4%

Official turnout was 58.8%, up from 54% in April.

Based on 97% of votes counted (Source: Central Election Commission).

With 97% of ballots counted, the four main opposition parties have 50.7% compared with 45.1% for the Communists. Opposition leaders say they will form an alliance if the result is confirmed. The election last Wednesday was a re-run of the election in April, which was followed by days of violent demonstrations because of allegations of vote-rigging.

The Communist Party has been in government in Moldova since 2001, and the county remains one of Europe's poorest countries. It is ironic that the last country in Europe to reject the rule of a Communist party via the ballot box is one of Europe’s poorest states, a former Soviet republic with a population close to the size of Denmark although somewhat far from Denmark’s living standards.

Once again in a relatively straight fight the Communists’ lose out at the polls. Which leaves us with the remaining Communist Dictatorships in Cuba and the People’s Republic of China? The question is for how much longer can the remaining Communist Dictatorships hold sway and cling onto power?