March 1, 1999

Excerpts of Cuba Dissident Charges

By The Associated Press, March 1

Here are excerpts from the preliminary conclusions of the Cuban prosecutor's office, charging four leading dissidents who went to trial for sedition on Monday:

``The four people held a press conference on June 27, 1997 ... attended by various representatives of foreign (news) agencies before which they made public the contents of a special bulletin titled `The Homeland is for All'' -- which criticized a major Communist Party document for focusing on the glories of Fidel Castro's revolution while ignoring the nation's severe economic crisis.

They ``created, approved and signed the text of a document dated in Havana, Apr. 10, 1997, directed at all foreign businessmen in which they warned that the `current investment of capital could be seen in the near future as a form of complicity in causing the bad things that afflict the Cuban people.'''

The ``created, approved and signed on the same date another document entitled `Call to compatriots in exile' whose text invited Cubans residing abroad that ... they strongly encourage acts of civic disobedience.''

AP-NY-03-01-99 2219EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press