Published:4/16/96
Section: FRONT
Page: 12A
As Sebastian Arcos Bergnes languished last year in his cell at Ariza Prison in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in his fourth year as a political prisoner, he could not envision that someday he would bear witness against his jailers in an international forum.
On Monday, leaning on a cane, his body weakened by cancer, the 67-year-old dissident entered the meeting hall of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in this Swiss city to do just that.
"I never, never dreamed I would be here to denounce such abuse before this commission," Arcos said. "I am beyond salvation, but there are thousands of prisoners who are suffering the same I suffered: poor or no medical attention and ill will on the part of the authorities."
Arcos, who moved to Miami in September 1995 to undergo medical treatment, is one of several witnesses who will appear this week before the U.N. panel, which began holding hearings Monday on the human rights situation in Cuba.
Relatives of Armando Alejandre Jr. met Monday with the U.N. special reporter on Cuba, Carl-Johan Groth of Sweden, to discuss the circumstances of Alejandre's death. He was one of four Brothers to the Rescue fliers who died Feb. 24 when their two civilian planes were shot down over the Florida Straits by two Cuban warplanes.
"We are here to state that was an act of murder," said Ana Alejandre, the flier's sister. Groth is scheduled to address the commission today to submit his report on the status of human rights in Cuba during 1995. Although barred from Cuba by President Fidel Castro, he managed to write his report through meetings with Cubans overseas and telephone interviews with Cubans on the island.
The 36-page document, dated Feb. 7, was delivered earlier this month to the delegates from the commission's 53 member nations.
"I intend to bring the report up to date with the case of the (Brothers) aircraft and with the repression exerted on Concilio Cubano," Groth told The Herald.
His reference was to the official crackdown that began in late February against the Concilio, a coalition of about 130 dissident organizations inside Cuba.
Among Groth's recommendations:
* A halt to the persecution and punishment of Cuban citizens for reasons related to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
* Unconditional freedom to all persons being held for alleged crimes against the state and related offenses.
* The legalization of independent groups, particularly those involved in political, labor, professional or human rights activities.
Monday morning, Arcos was met outside the conference hall by Mario Chanes de Armas, 70, another witness. Chanes, who fought alongside Castro in the failed raid on the Moncada barracks in 1953, became a political prisoner in 1961. Freed in 1991, he settled in Miami in 1993.
© 1996 The Miami Herald.