By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, May 19 (Reuters) - A leading Cuban dissident who has been in jail for the last 10 months has said he is prepared to endure a long imprisonment if necessary.
Vladimiro Roca, who was detained last July and has still not been tried, said in a message from prison he would not negotiate his release with the government.
``I am ready to bear a long imprisonment,'' said Roca, 55. He added the only way he would take exile abroad would be if forcibly deported.
Roca's comments were passed on Tuesday to Reuters via a recent visitor to him at the Ariza penitentiary, near the central city of Cienfuegos and some 200 miles (340 km) south-east of Havana. Roca, 55, is being held in a six-foot by six-foot (two-metre by two-metre) isolation cell.
His remarks were corroborated by his wife Magaly at her home in Havana. She visits him regularly.
In the past, Cuba's communist authorities have sometimes released political prisoners on condition they go abroad. For example, 17 prisoners were released and sent to Canada in the last two months.
Roca is one of four prominent dissidents who were detained in July last year and whose cases have caused concern abroad.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien unsuccessfully pleaded for clemency with President Fidel Castro during a visit last month. The Vatican, the United States, the European Union, and international human rights groups have also called for the release of the four.
Roca, Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano were detained after openly calling for democratic reforms to the one-party communist system. They had also been involved in an abortive attempt to create an umbrella group of dissident groups on the island.
Roca said he was grateful for efforts abroad to secure his release. ``From the bottom of my heart, I give thanks for the requests for my freedom that have been made in various parts of the world, especially by the Vatican, the U.S. State Department and the Canadian government,'' he said.
Cuban authorities say he and the other three are being held on suspicion of ``counterrevolutionary'' activities and are still being investigated.
Local human rights groups say they are among an estimated 350 political prisoners in Cuba, but Havana insists all inmates are jailed on legitimate charges.
Roca questioned what danger he and his colleagues could pose in Cuba.
``If, according to official figures, 97 per cent of the people back the government, what fear can they have of four unarmed, peaceful people being out on the street?'' he asked.
Roca stated his opposition -- like the majority of dissidents in Cuba -- to the U.S. economic embargo on the island, and the so-called Helms-Burton legislation in 1996 that sought to toughen the trade ban.
But he repeated a call for changes in Cuba.
``I support a process of gradual changes, not abrupt ones. I am against all kind of violence,'' he said. ``Personally, I wouldn't oppose seeing the changes the nation needs being promoted by the current leaders, including Fidel and Raul Castro.''
Roca, who was a fighter pilot for a decade in Cuba's armed forces and also once worked for the government as an economic and Soviet specialist, said he was not being ill-treated in prison although living conditions were tough.
10:33 05-19-98
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