By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United Nations has compiled a new report that, like repeated statements from the Bush administration, condemns the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro for its maltreatment of political dissidents in Cuba.

The report by the representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights states that the Cuban dissidents who were sentenced to heavy prison sentences are being held in "very trying physical and psychological conditions."

Calls for clemency for the Cuban dissidents have gone "unheard," the report said. In addition, the report was critical of the April 2003 execution of three people accused of hijacking a ferry in spite of Cuba's moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

The report called on the Cuban government to stop depriving the Cuban population of its basic rights and freedoms, and it appealed for a number of measures to be taken in that regard.

The report will be submitted to the next session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in mid-March.

The U.N. report follows the criticism made by the United States of Cuba's imprisonment of human rights advocates jailed since March 2003.

Sichan Siv, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, called Cuba's sentencing of the dissidents to up to 28 years in prison "the worst act of political repression against advocates of peaceful change in the history of Cuba."

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli denounced on January 21 the poor treatment of the jailed dissidents and other human rights defenders in Cuba and called for the immediate release of those being held in prison.

The United States, said Ereli, continues to insist that "Cuba must change, democratically and peacefully."

Ereli said the Cuban government convicted the 75 independent Cuban journalists, librarians, and human rights defenders on trumped-up charges and sentenced them to unjust prison sentences -- an average of 20 years each -- for attempting to exercise their fundamental, internationally protected rights.

The latest statements from the United States and the Unite Nations are in line with the international outcry against Cuba's policies following the arrests and incarceration of the pro-democracy advocates by the Castro regime. The worldwide response included condemnations by the Organization of American States, the 15-member community of Caribbean nations known as CARICOM, and the European Union.