U.S.-CUBA: Panamanian Parliament Demands Solution to Refugee Crisis

PANAMA CITY, Dic 14 (IPS) - Amidst charges that U.S. soldiers have committed human rights abuses against Cuban refugees, the Panamanian Parliament warned on Wednesday that it may demand the United States remove the 8,600 Cuban refugees housed in the canal zone.

The president of the parliamentary Foreign Relations Commission, Oyden Ortega, said a repeat of riots or escape attempts such as occurred last week "would cause an untenable situation for Panama and the United States."

Ortega added that in such a case, parliament would demand that the government "put an end to the accord" signed on Sep. 3 which authorised the United States to install the refugee camps in the Panama canal zone.

According to that agreement, the United States would provide food and lodging to the refugees, and withdraw them from Panama within six months if Washington had failed to make a final decision on the Cubans' destiny by Mar. 3, 1995.

Spokespersons for the Cubans said their confinement and uncertainty regarding the future led to last week's riots and escape attempts, in which two refugees died attempting to cross the canal and 228 U.S. soldiers and 28 Cubans were injured, as well as two similar incidents that have taken place within the last three months.

Along with the parliamentary commission's warning, a plenary session of the legislature cited Foreign Minister Gabriel Lewis to explain the measures the government plans to implement with respect to the incidents in the camps.

Ortega said ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party law-makers will ask Lewis "to urge the United States to make a final decision on the future of the refugees."

Some 34,000 Cubans were housed in camps in Guantanamo, Cuba and Panama after being picked up at sea as they attempted to flee to the United States on improvised rafts between Aug. 12 and Sep. 9, after the Cuban government eased controls on illegal emigration.

However, the refugees were not taken into account by an accord signed by Washington and Havana on Sep. 9 to put an end to the crisis, in which the United States promised to issue a minimum of 20,000 visas a year to Cubans.

As well as having to return to Cuba in order to apply for a visa, the refugees must pass the strict requirements set by the United States.

Besides categorically refusing to return to Cuba, a refugee association demanded that Washington comply with the so-called "Cuban Adjustment Bill" passed by the U.S. Congress in 1967, according to which any Cuban who reaches a U.S. customs post automatically receives a permanent residency visa.

Meanwhile, spokespersons for the refugees, Panamanian police and the Panamanian Human Rights Committee have denounced that human rights abuses by U.S. soldiers have increased in the camps in the last three days.

A Panamanian police officer who preferred to remain anonymous told the daily 'La Prensa' that U.S. soldiers beat Cubans who were attempting to escape - including a woman - during a capture operation.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service