Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-01-Speech-3-102"

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"en.20060201.13.3-102"2
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"I agree that there are many alarm signals indicating that the Cuban regime is still implementing a policy of repression of dissident opinion, of arbitrary imprisonment of opposition groups, of constant harassment of anybody expressing opinions contrary to the government line. Also of concern is the repression of sectors which have been stigmatised by the regime, such as homosexuals and certain intellectuals. In the specific case we are dealing with, the regime’s refusal to allow the Women in White to leave the country to receive the Sakharov Prize is a further example of this worrying situation. Nevertheless, as has already been said, the policy of blockade and isolation to which Cuba has been subjected by several western powers for decades has only toughened the position of the hard-line sectors of the regime. I am therefore pleased that, in June 2005, the Council of the European Union decided to offer Cuba an opportunity for political dialogue once again. The intention here, amongst other things, was to begin to prepare the ground for what many of us hope will be an imminent transition to democracy. Those of us who have endured a dictatorship know how difficult it is to create a democracy, especially when those people who should be your allies on the outside turn their backs on you. In this regard, the appearance of more and more community, university and scientific groups, both in rural areas and in cities, within churches or in educational or social centres, groups that did not exist before and whose work may make a valuable contribution to political development in Cuba, is a hopeful sign. The time has come for the Cuban regime to accept that their future does not lie in maintaining the status quo, but in tackling in a serious and credible way the transition which the Cuban people themselves, above all, are calling for. We in the European Union must therefore make it very clear that our intention is simply to help Cuba to enter the modern world via the path of democracy, and we must therefore continue to demand the release of all of the people sentenced to many years in prison for their peaceful opposition to the regime."@en1

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