There is a forwarded message from Human Rights group (there is human rights violations in U.S.!). Mi Mi Sr. ======================================================================== From: gallo66@news.gate.net (Omar Galloso) ______________________________ **** URGENT APPEAL **** ^^^^^^^^^^^ In the concentration camps, naked babies run mere inches from barbed wire barricades patrolled by guards. The segregation of parents and children into separate camps is an established practice. Old and young, women and men, inhabit overcrowded, sweltering tents that litter the dusty landscape. The food given to them is poor and often unpalatable. Sanitation is dismal, with one toilet being shared by 300 or more. No, the date is not 1944 and these are not Nazi Germany's concentration camps for Jews ordained by Adolf Hitler. The date is 1994 and these are America's concentration camps for Cuban refugees ordered by President Bill Clinton. Hastily set up within the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Panama, these concentration camps are Mr. Clinton's solution to halting the wave of Cuban refugees fleeing the horrors of the Castro regime. It is a "solution" unworthy of a country whose very foundation was forged by people fleeing oppression and tyranny in their own homeland. The U.S. media--the same media that has obsessively covered every minuscule detail of the O.J. Simpson murder case--has largely ignored the plight of the more than 30,000 Cuban refuges in U.S. concentration camps. Amnesty International, in a report dated September 28 which received little or no coverage by the U.S. press, has concluded that: "[A] substantial proportion of the Cubans currently held at Guantanamo could be at risk of human rights violations if required to return home....[I]n the past those who have tried to leave the country illegally, despite not having committed other serious offenses, have frequently been imprisoned for several months, or even years, and become marginalized from Cuban society because their action was considered to be an 'act of betrayal'. Amnesty International therefore believes that, at the very least, such people, if returned, will be victimized." However, on September 9 the Clinton administration had already reached an accord with the Castro regime whereby none of the U.S. concentration camp internees will be admitted into the U.S. At the same time, in a move worthy of Fidel Castro himself, psychological and physical deprivations in the concentration camps have increased with the obvious intent of making the internees desperate enough that they will choose to return to Cuba. And Mr. Clinton's ploy is working--42 internees have so far chosen to return to Cuba to face an uncertain fate. In an attempt at image damage control, the administration has "promised", pending Castro's consent, to allow the admission into the U.S. of the handful of internees that are over age 70 and of unaccompanied children under the age of 18. The number of internees potentially affected by this action would amount to LESS than 1% of the population of the concentration camps. The independent group Human Rights Watch has added its voice to denouncing the United States for its treatment of the Cuban refugees. In its November report, Human Rights Watch charges the U.S. government with being an accomplice of the violations of the Castro regime by entering into an agreement to prevent the exit of persecuted people from the island. The group also points out that the detention of the Cuban refugees by the U.S. violates article 9th of the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights. It is our collective responsibility to let the Clinton administration know that its actions are intolerable and unworthy of the decent people. Your support in condemning and halting the unethical practices of the Clinton administration toward Cuban refugees are desperately needed NOW. PLEASE contact the White House and Attorney General Janet Reno and let them know that you oppose their inhumane treatment of Cuban refugees. President Bill Clinton 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 (202) 456-1111 (Voice comment line) (202) 456-2883 & 456-2461 (FAX) President@WhiteHouse.GOV (Internet e-mail) Attorney General Janet Reno Department of Justice Constitution Ave. and Tenth St. NW Washington, DC 20530 (202) 633-2001 (Voice) (202) 514-4371 (FAX) *** Thank you! ***