Human Rights Watch denounces attack on Yoani
Via Capitol Hill Cubans:
November 7, 2009
(Washington, DC) – Cuban authorities should cease all attacks on human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and civic activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should condemn attacks on those who peacefully exercise their basic rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and assembly in the strongest terms.On November 6, Cuba’s most prominent blogger, Yoani Sánchez, together with blogger Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo, were abducted by three men. Sánchez and Pardo were forced into an unmarked vehicle, beaten, and threatened by their captors before being released onto the street.
“The Cuban authorities are using brute force to try to silence Yoani Sánchez’s only weapon: her ideas,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch. “The international community must send a firm message to Raul Castro that such attacks on independent voices are completely unacceptable.”
Sánchez and Pardo had been walking to attend a “march against violence” in Havana when they were abducted. When Sánchez called for help and bystanders started to intervene, one of the captors warned the other civilians, “Don’t get involved, these people are counterrevolutionaries.”
Sánchez wrote that, while in the car, “one man put his knee on my chest and the other, from the seat next to me, was punching me in the face.” The captors told Sanchez that her “clowning around” was finished.
Cuba is the only country in the region that continues to repress virtually all forms of political dissent.
“This brazen attack makes clear that no one in Cuba who voices dissent is safe from violent reprisals,” said Vivanco.
I know that many feel that a statement from Human Rights Watch helps to raise credibility for Yoani Sanchez and her fellow Academy Bloggers among those who are not closely following what is happening in Cuba, because it does raise the profiles of these valiant protesters, and that is definitely a good thing. We all can applaud this public statement--I certainly do.
But I would be very careful when presenting anything from Human Rights Watch, who have quite frankly been a useful tool of the Colombian FARC over the years. They do seem to have undergone something of a change recently when, after years of silently supporting Chavez, they finally found themselves forced to speak out, which led to the dismissal from Venezuela of their director "in country" and others. Maybe today's statement signals a growing awareness among HRW that the Latin American Left truly is still as firmly opposed to permitting civil rights as most of us know they have always been.
But the record of HRW in Colombia is a most dismal one. And I know the story of the Paras quite well--I despise them too--but the villainy of the FARC outstrips that of the Paras by a magnitude many times over, which is not a perspective HRW will deliver.
HRW has provided a totally unbalanced, unfair, inaccurate, and openly-partisan justification to the Obama Administration for denying the Colombian Free Trade Agreement, even as recently as June of this year, by slanting a presentation of the situation of the Paras as it exists today, completely divorced from any balanced assessment of the FARC and the dangers they represent. I do not feel they can be trusted. HRW has shown, quite frankly, that there are moments when they are true enemies of human freedom.
But I repeat, it is a good thing to publicize what happened in Havana over the weekend no matter who does it. Just do not get too excited that the HRF truly cares about human rights. They have an agenda which shows they are willing to justify "sacrifices" when it suits them.
Oops! In my second to last sentence I wrote:
"... Just do not get too excited that the HRF truly cares about human rights...."
I meant to write "HRW" not "HRF." The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is the real deal.
So ...
"... Just do not get too excited that HRW truly cares about human rights...."
Sorry everyone. I shouldn't do this so late.
StJacques
StJacques Online: A Freedom Blog
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