EP geeft mensenrechtenprijs aan lege stoel (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU parliament has awarded its annual human rights prize to a Cuban dissident represented in the plenary chamber by an empty chair, recalling events at the Nobel ceremony one week ago.
"We should at this point give the certificate to our laureate, but sadly I will have to place it on an empty chair instead," parliament President Jerzy Buzek i said during the Sakharov Prize ceremony in Strasbourg on Wednesday (15 December).
Havana allowed the winner, Cuban hunger-striker Guillermo Farinas, to leave the country in order to pick up the award but only on condition that he remains in exile - a condition which Mr Farinas rejected.
He told MEPs by a recorded message instead that: "Nothing has changed in the political system ruling my country. In the minds of Cuba's rulers we are just like the slaves from whom we are descended."
"My deepest desire is that you will not be deceived by the Siren songs of a cruel regime, which has undertaken some economic reforms, but whose only desire is that the EU will change its common position and allow it to benefit from the budget lies and investments used to help poor countries under the Cotonou i Agreement."
He called for Cuba to meet five conditions to show that it has left its "neo-Stalinist" past behind: unconditionally release all political prisoners and promise not to imprison more dissidents in future; end attacks on dissidents and their families; repeal repressive laws; allow independent political parties, free media and trade unions; and allow the Cuban diaspora to play a "political, social and economic role" in Cuban life.
Mr Farinas' message refers to sanctions adopted by the EU on Cuba in 1996 which were never fully repealed and which prevent EU aid from flowing into the island.
Spain has for the past year conducted a campaign inside the EU to bin the punitive measures. EU foreign ministers debated the question in October, but Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic at the time blocked the Spanish proposal.
The empty chair scene in Strasbourg recalls events in Oslo last week, when China refused to let jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo or family members out of the country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.