By Ben Iannotta
KEY WEST, Fla., Dec 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard seized a Cuban exile boat in the Florida Straits on Thursday to stop the vessel from entering Cuban waters in a human rights protest.
The boat M/V Human Rights, with five members of the Miami-based Democracy Movement aboard, was being escorted back to Key West by a Coast Guard cutter, Petty Officer Jeff Hall said. Two other Cuban exiles were being brought to Marathon in the Florida Keys.
Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez and his six colleagues had set out on the 39-foot (12-metre) vessel from Marathon before dawn, planning a protest against Cuban President Fidel Castro to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.N.
Declaration of Human Rights. They said they would try to land in the communist-ruled island.
``The vessel was seized about 25 miles south of Key West for leaving the Florida Security Zone,'' Hall said, adding there had been no resistance.
The Coast Guard has standing orders to stop any vessel leaving Florida for Cuban waters without proper documentation.
President Bill Clinton ordered tighter controls on illegal entry into Cuban territory in 1996 after Cuban jets shot down two small planes flown by members of the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Four people were killed in that incident.
Democracy Movement spokeswoman Milagros Velasco called the seizure ``unjust and unfair.''
The U.S. government had curtailed the exiles' right to return freely to their country of origin, she said.
``We were trying to make a statement and recover that right on a very significant day, so it is a pity,'' she told Reuters from the group's Miami headquarters.
The Democracy Movement has launched several previous seaborne protests against Castro's government.
Last year, the group's boat Democracia was seized by the Coast Guard in Key West because its crew would not promise not to enter Cuban territory.
In January, Sanchez tried to sail to Cuba without a visa during Pope John Paul II's visit but failed because of problems with his boat.
The United States led vigorous condemnations of Cuba for shooting down the exile planes in 1996, saying they had been downed in international waters. Havana argued they were over its territory and said Cuba had suffered numerous violations of its airspace in the months leading up to the incident.
16:20 12-10-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited