SISTER OF "TORTURED" CUBAN DISSIDENT ON HUNGER STRIKE

HAVANA, CUBA (ANS) -- The desperate sister of a long time political
prisoner in Cuba has begun a hunger strike to force prison guards to
stop the torture of her increasingly weak brother and allow him medical
attention, dissident sources confirmed Wednesday July 25.

The Cuban Democratic Directory (CDD) said Berta Antunez, the sister of
the 39-year old jailed Christian dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez
(Antunez) began the action earlier this week "in her humble home in
Placetas (in) Villa Clara, Cuba."

Her action comes at a time when human rights groups and family members
have expressed concern about the alleged harsh treatment suffered by
several imprisoned dissidents, including beatings and deprivation of
food and medicine.

In a statement distributed via CDD, Berta Antunez said she was
particularly worried about the "harassment" of her brother, who
received an 18-year prison sentence in March 1990 on charges of
spreading "enemy propaganda?" an apparent reference to his opposition
to the Communist government of Fidel Castro.

CIVIL RESISTANCE

He was also one of the founders of Pedro Luis Boitel National Movement
for Civil Resistance, which seeks to record and denounce maltreatment
of political prisoners and promotes passive resistance amongst
detainees.

Antunez has been confined in solitary confinement, a tiny, sealed cell
with no light or bedding, typically overflowing with excrement and
infested with rats and insects, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW), another human rights group. During the Papal visit to Cuba in
1998, the Pope included Antunez's name on the list of political
prisoners for whose freedom he was petitioning.

While in the feared Convenedor del Este in Havana, the authorities have
repeatedly confiscated his Bible and denied him water, medical
attention and clothes, CSW reported last month. More recently the Cuban
prisoner was "savagely beaten and tortured", human rights watchdogs
said.

CHILD BEATEN

In addition "my family suffered an act of aggression during our visit
on July 5 of this year when the guards even beat up a nine-year old
child, in addition to the horrible beating that they gave my brother in
front of my own eyes," claimed Berta Antunez according to CDD.

She said she had "delivered a letter to the national headquarters of
Jails and Prisons in Havana" on July 14, "asking that the harassment
against my brother end, and that he be moved to our province," from
where "he has been exiled for more than ten years." Because she did not
receive an answer, Berta Antunez decided to declare a hunger strike,
said CDD.

Her brother reportedly suffers from serious bronchitis, and prison
authorities do not permit his family to deliver him medicine. "Prison
officials do not administer him any relief for his suffering either,"
added CDD, which has close contacts with his family.

OTHERS ALSO SUFFER

Among other known dissidents said to suffer similar treatment is Dr.
Oscar Elias Biscet, whose health has been deteriorating, since prison
officials prevented his wife last month to bring him the "meager
rations of food and medicine" allowed to other detainees, the United
States State Department said.

This punishment in the Kilo 8 prison of Pinar del Rio province was to
end on August 18 but his wife has been unable to confirm this to
outsiders as her telephone communications have been "interrupted",
ASSIST News Service (ANS) learned from dissident sources.

Human rights organizations have also expressed concern about Normando
Hernandez Gonzalez, who activists say has been in a "punishment cell"
since May 14 when he reportedly refused to be transferred "to areas of
extremely dangerous hardened criminals", arguing that it would diminish
his dignity as a Prisoner of Consience.

LONG ISOLATION

"After more than ninety days of isolation, his wife and family do not
have news of his health or his whereabouts," CDD said. Two political
prisoners, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia and Leonel Grave de Peralta, who
joined his protests in May were recently transferred from his "Kilo 5
1/2" Prison' in Pinar del Rio, to other detention centers, the
organization added.

Some 70 human rights activists were arrested in Cuba last year as part
of a massive crackdown on dissidents and pro-democracy activists,
including Christians, who protest a one-party system in place in the
four decades since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Cuba rejects the word "dissident," saying all opponents to President
Castro's communist government are U.S.-backed "counter-revolutionaries"
"mercenaries" and "traitors". It has also denied reports of torture and
mistreatment of prisoners.

Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
www.assistnews.net