[CubaNews] PAYA: Dissident creates forum to spur democratic change in Cuba

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dissident creates forum to spur democratic change in Cuba  

Havana, Nov 22 (EFE).- Cuba's most prominent dissident, Oswaldo Paya,
announced here Thursday the creation of a citizens' forum that will lead a
peaceful campaign for free elections and democratic change on the
communist-ruled island.  

The Citizens' Committee for Reconciliation and Dialogue, which has 300
members across the country, "is not an opposition or dissident group, but
rather a citizens' forum," Paya told Efe.  

The nationwide group will spearhead the Cuban Forum campaign, which calls
for the release of political prisoners, legislative changes and the holding
of free elections for a Constituent Assembly.  

Committees set up in different areas of the country will engage in
signature-gathering campaigns and promote debates that allow Cubans' demands
to be heard, the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement said.  

According to Paya, since the ailing Fidel Castro, 81, was forced to delegate
power to his younger brother Raul in mid-2006, "there has been an important
change in Cuba; Cubans today know that change is closer at hand and have
hope," although he said pressure was still being exerted against the
dissident movement.  

Paya, recipient of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for human rights
in 2002, is best known for his Varela Project, which persuaded more than
25,000 Cubans to sign petitions asking the island's parliament to hold a
referendum on political reforms. EFE   mar/mc  



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