There's Trouble In Cuban Paradise

Hey somebody tell Jack Nicholson to call his "genius" buddy Fidel and find out what's going on. Or, better yet, hey Chevy Chase is this the working socialism you were talking about?

Now, listen to the Czech Karel Schwarzenberg who knows a repressive regime when he sees it.

Hundreds of Cuban dissidents chanted "freedom, freedom" and "down with Fidel Castro" at the start of a gathering of pro-democracy campaigners held near Havana.

But the opening of the convention, held in an orchard, was overshadowed by a wave of arrests and the expulsion of visiting European parliamentarians and journalists, as President Castro's secret police acted against the island's first multi-party democracy conference.

Five European legislators, with several journalists and human rights activists from the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, were seized. At least six Poles were believed to be in Cuban jails.

Among those expelled was Karel Schwarzenberg, formerly an aide to the Czech president, Vaclav Havel. The central European aristocrat and parliamentarian described the arrests as "the typical behaviour of a totalitarian regime". The Cuban's exaggerated response was indicative of "the nervousness of a regime that is visibly unsure of itself", he said.

An attempt to hold a similar congress nine years ago was called off after the participants were arrested.

About 200 activists demanding the release of Cuba's political prisoners attended the meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. The organiser, Martha Beatriz Roque, told the gathering: "No state, no regime, no party has the right to control a whole nation. That is why we are here."

The organisers said the state had prevented many would-be delegates from attending the meeting.

Participants then heard a video-taped message from President George W Bush, who hailed their attempt to bring freedom to the island. Cuba's dissident community, which has been subjected to 46 years of harassment since the communist takeover, is far more sympathetic to the United States than to Europe, where they believe that there is a lingering romantic attachment to President Castro.

From the telegraph.