OTTAWA, May 4 (Reuters) - Cuba was sending three more political prisoners into exile in Canada on Monday, Canadian officials said.
Freed from prison on condition they leave the country, they will join 14 others who went to Canada last month amid some controversy as to whether Ottawa was encouraging a "cleansing" of dissidents.
Foreign affairs spokesman Rodney Moore said it was a fruit of Canada's policy of "constructive engagement" -- in contrast to Washington's stance of trying to isolate the communist-ruled island.
"This is considered to be a humanitarian action that we're taking because of our policy of constructive engagement," Moore said.
Canadian immigration spokesman Eric Tetrault said the process of releases was well under way before Prime Minister Jean Chretien had talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro during a visit to Havana last week.
It was this fact that gave Chretien the confidence to ask for the release of four other prisoners, leading dissidents who were trying to unite political opposition in the one-party state, Tetrault added.
Tetrault said it was possible Castro might seek to send these four to Canada as well, but he said it was not certain they would want to leave or that Canada would take them.
"Nobody has said we're willing to accept them," he said.
Castro said as Chretien flew home that he had made no commitment to the Canadian prime minister over the four dissidents Chretien discussed with him -- Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Rene Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne.
The Canadian spokesmen could not identify the three who were flying to Toronto on Monday.
But a Cuban human rights activist in Havana, Gerardo Sanchez, named the three on Sunday.
He said they were Guillermo Sambra Ferrandiz, Esperanza Micaela Atencio de la Rosa, and Jose Miranda Acosta. Two already had family members in Canada.
Guillermo Sambra is the son of Cecilio Ismael Sambra, a dissident Cuban poet freed and deported into exile in Canada in May last year. Both were arrested in 1992 for urging Cubans to vote against Castro's government in one-party elections.
Guillermo Sambra was serving an eight year sentence for rebellion and "enemy propaganda".
Esperanza Atencio de la Rosa is the wife of Pedro Marcelino de la Rosa, who was one of the 14 prisoners released to Canada last month. Like her husband, she was jailed for her role in a 1992 attempt by a group of Cubans to hijack a boat and sail to the United States. Three Cuban police officers were shot dead in the incident, although the de la Rosa couple did not directly carry out the killings.
Jose Miranda Acosta, also named by Sanchez, was serving 12 years for a reported "terrorism" charge.
Spokesman Tetrault said two family members of one of the prisoners would accompany the small group to Toronto.
The prisoner deportations to Canada followed an announcement by the Cuban government in February that it had freed 299 prisoners, including some political detainees, after an appeal for clemency by Pope John Paul. The pontiff visited Cuba in January.
20:23 05-04-98
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