A few hours from the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the sinking of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat, forces of the Ministry of the Interior arrested Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and the activist Rolando Illobre, directors of the Lawton Foundation of Human Rights, in Havana on Thursday.

According to telephone conversations of the independent activist Migdalia Rosado Hernández to the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), State Security agents appeared at the residence of Illobre, and without an arrest warrant intended on detaining the activists.

"The agents asked for reinforcements and initiated a broad operation in which members of State Security and the Revolutionary National Police," related Rosado. Presently the whereabouts of both detainees is unknown.

In May, the Nuevo Herald published statistical data of a study realized by Biscet and the computer programmer Rolando Muñoz about irregularities in the use of Rivanol, a method to provoke abortions after the first trimester.

Biscet, expelled at the beginning of 1998 from the Hospital Hijas de Galicia in Luyanó, dedicated the study to the memory of the 20 children who died on July 13, 1994 in the "13 de Marzo" tugboat tragedy.

The Lawton Foundation for Human Rights specializes in divulging information on the violation of the right to life.