Published: 07/23/94
Section: FRONT

Page: 1A

INVESTIGATION, REPORTS OF TUGBOAT DROWNINGS BEING STIFLED IN
CUBA

In an apparent attempt to limit reports about the sinking of a Cuban tugboat in which dozens of would-be-refugees drowned, Havana has detained human rights activists trying to investigate the incident and increased jamming of Radio Marti.

The July 13 sinking of the tugboat -- stolen from the port of Havana by about 70 Cubans who planned to sail it to the United States -- continues to generate controversy and anger in the Cuban exile community and in Cuba.

Seven Cuban human rights activists trying to investigate the circumstances behind the incident were arrested this week in Havana, fellow monitors said. It was unclear Friday whether they were still being held.

Three of them -- Nelson Torres Pulido, Odilia Collazo Valdes, and Nelida Vera Perez -- were arrested just two blocks
from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said Ricardo Bofill, the Miami-based president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

"It appears they were trying to take reports about the tugboat incident to the Interests Section," said Bofill.

The Cuban government says it is still investigating what happened when the tugboat 13 de Marzo went down seven miles off the Cuban coast, but it maintains the sinking was accidental and that those who stole the ship knew it was leaky when they began their exodus.

The few of the 31 survivors -- an estimated 40 died -- who have spoken publicly tell a different story. They recount an unnerving pursuit by Cuban tugboats that shot torrents of water
from high-pressure hoses at their vessel and rammed it on all sides.

The U.S. State Department isn't satisfied with Havana's account. 'We continue to receive information from survivors and next of kin that this was not an accident," it said in a statement Friday. 'We support the plea of the Archbishop of Havana for a full investigation."

Radio Marti, the U.S.-government-sponsored broadcast beamed to Cuba, has given extensive coverage to the sinking. "Beginning July 13, informing the Cuban people about the incident has been the top priority for Radio and TV Marti," said Rolado Bonachea, deputy director of the Office of Cuban Broadcasting.

But since last week, station officials say, Cuban government jamming of Radio Marti shortwave and medium-wave transmissions has increased. The jamming appears concentrated in Havana province and is particularly intense in an area east of the capital where many of the victims lived, they said.

Bonachea said Radio Marti broadcast Cuban government accounts of the incident, and then contrasted them with interviews from three survivors, relatives of those aboard the tugboat and Cuban human rights monitors.

"A lot of people heard the interviews on Radio Marti and other exile stations, and they're very upset about it. They are angry over what happened," one Havana resident said this week.

In the sketchy reports that have appeared in the official Cuban media, there has been no mention of the survivors' account. Havana has mentioned only missing people, not drownings, and has not released the names of the missing.

Cuban human rights monitors have been trying since last week to come up with an accurate account of what happened. But their task has been hampered by the fact that there were no independent witnesses and some survivors are reluctant or unable to talk.

The monitors report that survivors and victims' families have been visited by state security agents. "Apparently some of them are feeling pressured and didn't even want to open their doors," said Bofill.

Now the detentions will make the task even more difficult.

Various Cuban activist groups, including the Christian Democratic Movement and the Cuban Party for Human Rights, reported the detention of the seven human rights activists.

Among the other activists detained were Oscar Gutierrez, Lazaro Rodriguez, Martha Losada, and Horacio Casanova, according to a press communique issued by the Human Rights Party and the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, in Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padron and other Havana suburbs where the drowning victims lived, families waited for the government to deliver the bodies of their loved ones.

But some aren't too optimistic they will be able to bury their dead any time soon.

"It seems like the government may not want to recover the bodies until some of the attention dies down," said Bofill.

"I believe they (government officials) want to avoid disturbances at the burials because here, among the people, the dismay was generalized and many people have come to express their solidarity," said Jorge Andres Garcia, the father of one of the survivors, in an interview with foreign reporters in Havana earlier this week.

"Now we need to launch a campaign for the recovery of the bodies," said Bofill.