BY ANA ACLE
aacle@herald.com

Marta Beatriz Roque, one of Cuba's best-known opponents of the Communist regime, spent her 55th birthday Tuesday -- her first full day out of prison in nearly three years -- chatting with loved ones, listening to music, and relaxing at home in Havana.

``Prison is very hard, you have to live it to understand,'' Roque said in a telephone interview, her voice choking, as Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me played in the background. She was released Monday.

But the time behind bars did not alter Roque's stance; she has publicly dissented against the government for 11 years. She vowed to continue to struggle for democracy.

Her conditional release went unmentioned in Cuban government newspapers, but made headlines around the world and sparked speculation that colleague Rene Gomez Manzano may also be released soon. Her release, which followed Friday's release of engineer Felix Bonne, also hinted that Cuba is trying to ease international pressure stemming from human rights violations.

The United Nations condemned the government for that record a month ago, and Cuba has criticized the censure ever since. On Tuesday, the Cuban government singled out former allies Poland and the Czech Republic for their unfavorable votes.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Cuba should heed nations around the world that have called for the abolition of laws that punish free expression.

``We welcome the two releases,'' Boucher said. ``But we urge the Cuban authorities to free the remaining two members of the Dissident Working Group as well as all the other prisoners who are being held for political reasons.''

Cuban human rights advocate Elizardo Sanchez estimated the number of political prisoners at 350, one-third of whom are considered prisoners of conscience. ``In my opinion, they should not have ever been jailed,'' Sanchez said by telephone from Havana. ``Their only crime was to express a political opinion.''

Their release, Sanchez said, does not indicate the government will ease up on the dissident movement. He predicted it will worsen. ``It would have been difficult to explain to the international community that with more than half of their sentences completed and with good conduct that they had not been freed,'' Sanchez said.

Roque and Bonne, along with lawyer Manzano and former military fighter pilot Vladimiro Roca, were jailed in July 1997 and sentenced in March 1999 for writing a pro-democracy leaflet, The Homeland Belongs to All. The four were charged with criticizing the Communist Party's monopoly on power.

Roque was sentenced to 3 1/2 years, Bonne and Gomez to four years and Roca to five. Roca remains in solitary confinement, the harshest of all the punishments, because he is the son of the late Communist leader Blas Roca and was the best known.

``From a personal point of view, I feel good being free,'' Roque said. ``But . . . two others remain in prison. We will not be happy until they are released.''

Roca is president of the Social Democratic Party, Roque is director of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, Bonne leads the Cuban Civic Mainstream, and Gomez presides over an independent lawyers group, Agramontist Mainstream.

Miami human rights advocate Ruth ``Chuny'' Montaner said Roque and Bonne were let out of jail for health reasons.

Roque, who had a 52-day hunger strike, suffers from liver problems and low hemoglobin, and Bonne had been hospitalized for 15 days before his release, Montaner said.

``Until they are all released, we won't know if the Cuban government wanted to avoid a major scandal and released the sick or wanted to move forward,'' Montaner said. ``So until we really see the next steps . . . it's too early to say the reason for this release.''