Norway expands co-operation with Cuba. But when Solheim met the country’s government, the opposition sat on the sidelines.
Ingvild Sahl / Cuba
As a final step in the so-called normalization of relations between Cuba and Norway, Erik Solheim last week signed an agreement with Cuban authorities about future development cooperation. Norway would, among other things, expand cooperation with Cuba in the health and natural disaster preparedness. Solheim met with several representatives from the Cuban government, before he and the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla signed an agreement for future development cooperation. But in advance of the meetings, Solheim had to meet an absolute requirement from the Cuban government: He could not meet representatives of the Cuban opposition. A requirement he chose to follow.
Disappointed
Oswaldo Paya, one of Cuba’s leading dissidents, was disappointed. Paya, has led the Varela Project in Cuba since 1996. It assumes that Cuba’s own constitution guarantees that a proposal that collects at least 10,000 signatures will be subject to a referendum. With the help of hundreds of organizations, he delivered in 2002 11,000 signatures in support of a petition demanding organization, freedom of speech and press freedom, amnesty for political prisoners, the right to engage in self-employment and the right to stand up to democratic elections. In 2004 he delivered a further 14 000 signatures. In 2002 he won the Sakharov prize for his work for human rights, which was probably why he was not imprisoned as 75 other leading dissident in the spring of 2003 were sentenced to long prison sentences.
A few days before Solheim arrived in Cuba, Paya met with the Norwegian ambassador to Cuba. He then expressed a desire to meet Solheim, but the request was not met.
– We respect Norway’s good intentions for our country, and know that the Norwegian people support us Cubans. However, if Norway wants to be in solidarity with Cubans, and respect our right to decide for themselves, is the best way to help us in promoting a dialogue among all Cubans – both government and opposition. To start a dialogue with the authorities only where they are allowed to determine the rules of the game, will not lead to anything, ” he says when he met Bistandsaktuelt at his home in Havana.
Watched
Paya and his family have experienced on the body what it means to fight for human rights in Cuba. His house is under constant surveillance, and the phone is bugged. All Cubans who come in contact with him or his family risks being summoned by the state police. The doctor who treated his daughter has received threats. If he gathers the people to a meeting, and the authorities get to know, they all risk ending up in prison. Almost all the other leaders of the Varela Project is imprisoned under very bad conditions. Many are sick, and Paya stressed that the most important thing now is to release all political prisoners in Cuba.
– To live a life without freedom is difficult to understand for people who live in freedom. Cubans lack of freedom in all areas of life. It creates suffering, and locks people stuck in poverty, “he said.
The best for the dissidents
International Development Erik Solheim said, however, that Paya and other dissidents in Cuba are better off by the Norwegian government dealing with the Cuban authorities.
– I’d like to meet opposition, something I do in almost every country I visit. When I didn’t do it here, it is because I think we have a better relationship with the opposition in that we also have a good relationship with the authorities. When I have a relationship with the authorities, it is possible for the Embassy to have a good relationship with the dissidents, ” he said.
According to Solheim, the Norwegian Embassy in Cuba is in close contact with the wives of many of the political prisoners.
Took up the prisoners’ case
As part of the Solheim call a full normalization of relations with Cuban authorities, he raised the situation of political prisoners as he met with Cuban Foreign Minister. In addition to mentioning the matter to the imprisoned journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzales as 23 March was sentenced to 25 years in prison and who last year received the Norwegian Authors Association’s expression prize, Solheim took up the situation of Alfredo Manuel Pulido and Luis Millan Fernandez. Both were part Payás Varela project. All three prisoners have poor health, and Solheim said in advance of the meeting that Norway is prepared to take on responsibility for the dissident if Cuba set them free and expel them from the country. Another issue that has created headaches for the Cuban government is Guilermo Fannas. He went on hunger strike for over a month, and refuses to quit before 26 seriously ill political prisoners are released. Solheim will also have spoken with the Cuban foreign minister about his case.
Double Standards
The Cuban foreign minister answered Solheim’s charges by pointing to what he believes is international double standards, in which countries who commit significant human rights violations come to Cuba with a raised finger. He argues that the international community looks through the fingers on human rights violations in some countries, while raising criticism against Cuba. Solheim told him that he absolutely agreed that there are considerable double standards in some areas, but that this does not change the Cuban situation.
– It does not solve the Cuban problem to point out that other countries are worse. Cuba can only resolve their situation by softening its policy and release the political prisoners, ” said Solheim, to Bistandsaktuelt.
Important cooperation
According to Solheim, it is important for Norway to cooperate with Cuba, because the country in some areas is a superpower, which has very good results to display.
– When it comes to health care, the Cuban doctors are present in 70-80 countries in the world. They go places where Western doctors and home state’s own doctors often do not want to go and have a huge impact on the international health care,” he said.
In January, Norway signed an agreement with Cuba to support the Cuban doctors’ work in the earthquake-hit Haiti with five million NOK. A similar issue is, according to Solheim, protection against natural disasters. While major cyclones have killed thousands of people in neighboring countries, almost no lives were lost in Cuba. Since 2007, the Norwegian Red Cross worked with Cuban Red Cross for disaster preparedness.
– We want to help spread the Cuban experience elsewhere in the world. Therefore, our agreement on development cooperation with Cuba is important, he says.