Cuban dissidents suffering.

CUBAN DISSIDENTS SUFFERING. A U.N. human rights expert said the number of Cuban dissidents arrested and sentenced to long terms increased in 2005, claiming "extreme tension" with the United States had played a role in hampering freedom of expression on the island, reports AP (March 7, 2006):

Christine Chanet, a French jurist who is the U.N. Human Rights Commission's expert on Cuba, said in a new report that tightened U.S. sanctions have made life more difficult for Cubans in general and political opponents to President Fidel Castro in particular. "United States laws and the funding provided for building democracy in Cuba make members of the political opposition on the island appear to be sympathetic to foreign influences and provide the Cuban authorities with an opportunity to tighten repression against them," she said;

Cuba has not allowed Chanet to visit the island since she became the commission's Cuba expert three years ago. She said her attempts to contact the government this year went unanswered. But she said she learned from other sources that "in 2005 more people were arrested and given disproportionate sentences for expressing dissident political opinions."