January 12, 2000

By Anita Snow, .c The Associated Press

HAVANA, 11 (AP) - Cuba's civil rights situation worsened during the last six months of 1999, with a slight increase in the number of people submitted to the Cuban justice system for political crimes, a leading human rights organization said Tuesday.

Elizardo Sanchez, president of the outlawed Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the organization's latest survey showed 344 people were sanctioned or otherwise legally processed for political reasons during the last half of the year, up from 324 during the first half.

About 20 percent of those processed during the last half of 1999 could be classified as prisoners of conscience under criteria established by many international human rights groups, Sanchez said in a statement faxed to foreign news organizations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday. The Cuban government's position is that it holds no political prisoners, only common criminals.

``I consider that the situation for civil and political rights in Cuba has worsened over the past year... owing to that Cuba continues to be the only closed society in this hemisphere,'' Sanchez said.

``There have been no significant release of prisoners, the number of people sanctioned or processed for political motives increased. During the year, there took place the widest waves of repression over the past decade,'' he concluded.

Sanchez, who himself spent many years in Cuban prisons, is among the communist island's best known opposition activists. The commission he heads issues a report on civil rights every six months, along with a list of people it considers to be imprisoned for political motives.

Many of the detentions occurred in what Sanchez characterized as ``a wave of repression'' in the days before the Ibero-American summit of heads of state in November. At the time, President Fidel Castro charged that government opponents were trying to undermine the event.

While many detentions were for a few hours or days, at least 17 people picked up for political motives in November and December remain behind bars, Sanchez said.

They include Dr. Oscar Biscet, arrested for displaying the Cuban flag upside down in a sign of defiance of the communist government.

AP-NY-01-11-00 1702EST

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.

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