Myles Kantor
Monday, Dec. 9, 2002

Dear President Mfume,

A November 15 NAACP press release indicates that you met for two hours with human rights activists during your recent visit to Cuba. Among these activists was Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a prisoner of conscience from November 3, 1999, until October 31, 2002.

Dr. Biscet has been imprisoned again for an act of conscience.

On the evening of December 6, Biscet and approximately 12 Cubans attempted to meet in a home in Havana to discuss human rights. This was part of Biscet's effort to form "Friends of Human Rights" clubs throughout Cuba.

When police prevented them from entering the home, Biscet and his peers sat on the street to protest this violation of free association. They declared, "Long live human rights" and "Freedom for political prisoners."

Then the police arrested them.

As you might recall, Dr. Biscet is a black Cuban. It remains criminal in Cuba for blacks to criticize Fidel Castro, his functionaries, their dogma, or to establish independent organizations and media. They can't even leave the island without a pass.

"It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money." Frederick Douglass said that in 1860 after an abolitionist meeting in Boston was broken up. He noted at the conclusion of that speech, "A man's right to speak does not depend upon where he was born or upon his color."

Douglass articulated a simple but precious truth: the universality of human rights. Dr. Biscet and his peers deserve the same freedom in Cuba that you and I deserve in America.

Dr. Biscet needs your solidarity. Will the NAACP speak out?

Sincerely yours,

Myles Kantor
President, the Center for Free Emigration
(561) 704-8109

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