March 26, 2005 - 11:30 PM

EU urges Castro to free dissidents

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel has urged Cuban President Fidel Castro to release
imprisoned dissidents during a visit to Cuba to reopen talks between Brussels and Havana, an EU spokesman says.

The Cuban leader expressed interest in mending relations with Europe during the four-hour meeting that lasted until 1 a.m. on Saturday,
Michel's spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said.

EU relations with Cuba were frozen two years ago after Castro ordered a crackdown on critics of his one-party Marxist state.

"Michel repeated to Castro the unvarying position of the EU in favour of the release of all political prisoners on the island," the
spokesman said.

"The meeting was cordial and very constructive," he said.

Michel's visit is the most senior by an EU official since Cuba locked up 75 pro-democracy dissidents in March 2003, just days after the
EU opened an embassy in Havana.

It comes as Cuba faces a vote next month in the U.N. Human Rights Commission on its record.

Veteran Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said he was sceptical the visit would bring any improvement.

"The signs we are getting are very negative. Political and social repression is increasing, and I think the civil liberties situation will
deteriorate in the near future," he said before meeting Michel with other dissident leaders.

Michel also met with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana and top prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, the only major
institution not under state control in Cuba.

NO SIGN OF CONCESSIONS

European diplomats said Michel's visit was crucial to gauge whether a rapprochement is possible in the coming months. Much depends
on Cuba's willingness to make concessions on the human rights front, and there is little sign of that, they said.

Cuba has released 14 of the dissidents on medical parole and has balked at EU demands the remaining 61 be freed.

In meetings with Cuban officials, Michel has tackled difficult issues, including access to Cuban jails. Cuba does not allow the
International Red Cross to visit its prisons, where rights groups say 300 people are held for political reasons.

"The mood is good, and the conversations are very frank," Michel said on Friday after meeting Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
and the president of the Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon.

"There is an acceptance on the Cuban side (of the need) to discuss all these very sensitive issues, human rights, the prisoners,
renewed cooperation between the European Union and Cuba," the former Belgian foreign minister told reporters.

After the 2003 crackdown, Brussels suspended high-level visits, and Cuba froze contacts with EU diplomats when they began inviting
dissidents to their national day receptions in Havana.

Castro, in power since a 1959 revolution, organized protests outside the Spanish and Italian embassies, accused the EU of caving in to
pressure from his arch enemy the United States and rejected European development aid.

At the request of Spain's new Socialist government, the EU lifted its diplomatic sanctions in January and reverted to a policy of
engagement that will come under review in June.