Cuba accused of crackdown after prisoner death

The Cuban government detained at least 126 people, including dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, in a crackdown following the hunger strike death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban human rights group said on Monday.

Many were attending or en route to Zapata's funeral on Thursday in the eastern city of Banes when they were detained, most for less than 24 hours, said Elizardo Sanchez, spokesman for the independent Cuban Human Rights Commission. 

He said the government was attempting to prevent protests over Zapata's death, which was condemned internationally and prompted calls from the United States and Europe for Cuba to release its estimated 200 political prisoners. 

"The government has applied this wave of repression to neutralize expressions of condemnation and rejection of the fact that it let Orlando Zapata die," he told Reuters. The crackdown, he predicted, would continue.                                           

The government countered on Monday night with a report on state-run television showing Cuban doctors working to save Zapata's life and receiving the thanks of his mother, Reina Tamayo, who later accused the government of killing her son. 

The report included what was said to be a taped phone conversation between a Cuban dissident and an anti-Castro activist in Miami about Zapata''s deteriorating condition and the need for his mother to have a press conference.    

Zapata, a 42-year-old plumber, died on Feb. 23 after an 85-day hunger strike to protest conditions in prison, where he had been held since 2003, serving 36 years in sentences for crimes including resistance and disrespect.                                           

His death has become a rallying point for government opponents, who say they will step up efforts to force democratic change in Cuba.                                                                                   

DETAINED                                           
Yoani Sanchez, who often criticises the Cuban government in her "Generation Y" blog, was detained in Havana on Feb. 24 as she went to sign a condolence book for Zapata, according to an entry in her Twitter account.                                           

In a brief blog entry, she described images from that day of "detentions, blows, violence, a jail cell that smelled of urine." She could not be reached for comment immediately, but Elizardo Sanchez said she had been "treated brutally." Yoani Sanchez, 34, said in November she was detained and beaten by government agents as she walked in Havana to a protest against violence.                                           

On Friday, the human rights commission reported that five people, including four prisoners, had launched hunger strikes to protest Zapata's death.

But on Monday, Sanchez said two of the prisoners had been convinced by family members to start eating again. The non-prisoner, Guillermo Farinas, was worsening quickly because he was neither eating nor taking fluids, Sanchez said.

Cuba said in state-run press on Saturday that Zapata was a common criminal used by Cuba's enemies for political purposes. Cuban leaders consider dissidents to be US mercenaries working to overthrow the communist-led government.