Dissident calls on Pope to intervene in Cuba

WASHINGTON (CMC):

A prominent Cuban dissident wants Pope Benedict XVI to use his power and visibility as a world leader to shine light on alleged human-rights abuses and political oppression in Cuba.

Dr Oscar Elias Biscet told the United States (US) House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs subcommittee that if he gets to meet with the pope, during his forthcoming trip to Havana, he will ask him to be an advocate for the 'oppressed'.

"I would say to him that I would love for him to lobby for our freedom of speech and for a multi-party system, so that everyone can participate and be represented," Biscet testified by telephone from the US Interests Section in Havana, speaking through a translator.

"We hope that his coming will bring great change to our country," he added.

The congressional committee said it did not announce Biscet's name before the hearing out of concern that Cuban authorities would detain him before he was able to testify.

Medal of Freedom

In 2007, former US President George W. Bush awarded Biscet the Medal of Freedom while he was still serving a 25-year sentence for his opposition to Fidel Castro's administration.

In the mid-1990s, Biscet accused the Cuban government of allowing and covering up botched abortions, and was imprisoned from 1999 to late 2002. He had been free for 37 days when he was arrested again.

Biscet, 50, was freed last March as part of the Cuban government's agreement, with the Catholic Church, to release more than 125 political prisoners.

Biscet told the congressional committee that police in Cuba beat him, disfigured his face, and broke his foot in an effort to "stop me from defending human rights".

He vowed to continue what he described as a non-violent movement to change Cuba.

"So we will create change on our own," he said. "We are hoping that we will have the capacity to create non-violent coercion and pressure in order to actually install that political change ourselves."