June 9, 1999
BBC World Service, June 8, 1999
Some twenty-five members of Cuban opposition groups have begun a hunger strike to demand freedom of expression and the release of what they say are dozens of political prisoners on the island.
A spokesman for the hunger strikers, Joaquin Rafael Martinez, told the BBC it was time to end Cuba's one-party system and for the authorities to begin observing fundamental human rights.
There has as yet been no response from the Cuban government to the latest protest. The hungers strikers announced their protest at a news conference yesterday ; The last time Cuban dissidents spoke to the foreign journalists in this way, four of their leaders were arrested.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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