Vatican Urges Clemency for Jailed Cuban Dissidents

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 26 Apr 2003, 18:32 UTC

Pope John Paul II has urged Cuban President Fidel Castro to show clemency to about 75 political dissidents jailed in a recent crackdown. The Vatican said Saturday the pope sent a letter to the communist leader expressing his "deep sorrow" over the imprisonment of the dissidents. The letter also expressed the pope's "profound pain" over the execution of three men who had attempted to hijack a ferry to the United States.

The pope's appeal follows an international outcry over the Cuban crackdown. The April 11 executions ended a three-year moratorium on capital punishment in Cuba.

On Friday, Mr. Castro made a televised speech, defending the sentences against the hijackers because of what he called the threat of military confrontation with the United States. The Cuban leader accused the U.S. government and anti-Castro exiles in Florida of plotting to provoke a mass exodus of citizens from Cuba as a pretext for military intervention.

He said the execution of the three men by firing squad was meant to deter more Cubans from taking violent measures to leave the island. The ferry hijacking on April 2 followed two successful hijackings of passenger planes to Florida within two weeks.

The crackdown in Cuba led to violence in Venezuela Saturday, where supporters and opponents of Mr. Castro clashed outside the Cuban embassy in Caracas. Police used tear gas to separate the two groups, which were throwing rocks and bottles at each other.