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Furore over Castro card
14/08/2006 18:15 - (SA)
Rome - Italy's parliament speaker has come under fire from political foes and allies alike for sending a warmly-worded birthday card to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"Long live the Dear Comandante," Fausto Bertinotti, a
veteran communist, wrote in the message to Castro for his 80th
birthday on Sunday.
Castro, vilified by opponents as a dictator and admired by
supporters as a socialist beacon, underwent stomach surgery two
weeks ago and has provisionally handed power to brother Raul.
"None of the disagreements we have loyally expressed can
take away the hope and the emotions that the men and the women
of the Sierra Maestra sparked in our generation," Bertinotti
wrote, referring to the mountains from where Castro launched his
guerrilla war in December 1956.
"Later Cuba ... incarnated, together with you, the pride of
a people and an island that wants to live its independence and
decide autonomously about its future in a world of peace. Good
luck to you and your people," wrote Bertinotti.
The 66-year-old leader of the Communist Refoundation party
was appointed speaker of the lower house - the third-highest
ranking job in Italy under the constitution - in April after
Romano Prodi's centre-left bloc narrowly won elections.
'Wicked dictator'
The centre-right opposition called his card a disgrace.
"It is really sad that in Italy there should be people in
government and at the helm of institutions who, instead of
defending freedom, regard a wicked dictator as a model," said
Maurizio Gasparri of the National Alliance party.
Criticism also poured in from other members of Prodi's broad
coalition, which ranges from communists to Catholic moderates.
"With the wishes, we would have expected to see ... at least
a call for the respect of political and human rights in that
country," said Mauro Fabris of the centrist UDEUR party, one of
eight political groups in Prodi's government.
Human rights
European governments and human rights groups have criticised
Cuba for trampling on human rights and repressing dissent. A
crackdown that landed 75 dissidents in prison in March 2003
cooled relations between Havana and Brussels.
There are more than 300 political prisoners in Cuban jails,
according to the Cuban commission for human rights and national
reconciliation.
- Reuters
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