Cuba

CUBA WHEREAS • the Cuban government continues to suppress all human rights totally and with unrelenting severity • "rapid response brigades," directed by Cuban state security, have physically attacked journalists attempting to report on demonstrations, and arrested those taking part in demonstrations or simply signing declarations requesting freedom to exercise their elemental human rights • the Cuban government denies visas to reporters seeking to report from Cuba, and recently has expelled accredited journalists without provocation or cause THE 47TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES • to exhort the Cuban government, in the name of basic decency, to stop prosecuting persons for trying to exercise their fundamental human rights, and to permit freedom of expression and association without impediment • to call upon the Cuban government to permit the international press access to the country, its people and its institutions • to demand the restoration of freedom of the press within the context of a process of democratization which should culminate in the holding of free elections with guarantees and international supervision, as have taken place in Chile, Nicaragua, and the countries of Eastern Europe, and to return Cuba to the community of free and civilized societies and to put an end to the suffering and deprivations of the Cuban people.