Chronicle on Cuba - October 2006

Terrorism

October 12: For the first time, the International Red Cross met with 14 suspected al Qaeda operatives being held in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, including the reputed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, according to knowledgeable sources. Suspected mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be September 11 hijacker, were among the 14 prisoners to meet with Red Cross officials. (CNN, 12/10/06)

October 12: The US Southern Command has been told to investigate possible abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison after a Marine officer said she overheard guards boasting about abusing detainees, the Pentagon's Inspector General's office said. Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who represents a detainee at the US naval base in eastern Cuba, filed the "hotline" complaint, attaching a sworn statement from his paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, 23. In it, Cerveny described comments made by several guards in a bar at Guantanamo Bay. Several of them bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice. "Other ones of them were talking about how when they get annoyed with the detainees, about how they hit them, or they punched them in the face," Cerveny told the press in a telephone interview. (AP, 13/10/06)

October 14: A paralegal and a military lawyer who brought forward allegations about prisoner abuse at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been ordered not to speak with the press, lawyers and a military spokeswoman said. Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who represents a detainee at the US naval base in eastern Cuba, filed a complaint with the Pentagon alleging that abuse was ongoing at the prison. He attached a sworn statement from his paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, in which she said several Guantanamo guards bragged in a bar about beating detainees, describing it as common practice. Muneer Ahmad, a civilian defense lawyer for Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee whose military counsel is Vokey, said that Vokey and Cerveny were ordered by the US Marines not to speak with the press. A spokeswoman for the Marines confirmed the order, saying Vokey's supervisor — Col. Carol Joyce, the Marines' chief defense counsel — had directed him not to communicate with the media "pending her review of the facts." (AP, 15/10/06)

October 15: A delegation from the National Liberation Army (ELN) flew to Havana from the Colombian city of Medellin for peace talks with the Colombian government, reports said. The rebel group will hold talks on October 16-19 with civil society groups, in preparation for the fourth round of peace talks with the Colombian government slated for October 20-25. The first round of talks began in December 2005, and all three previous rounds were supported by observers from Norway, Spain, France and Switzerland. The 4,500-strong ELN has indicated willingness to reach a deal with the government. (Xinhua, 16/10/06)

October 21: Representatives from the Colombian government and National Liberation Army (ELN) are holding the 4th Negotiation Round in Cuba, looking for a peace agreement, Granma daily reported. Luis Carlos Restrepo, the High Peace Commissioner of the Colombian Executive, is heading the governmental delegation, while Commander Antonio Garcia is doing so for the ELN. The meeting was inaugurated at a hotel in Havana, and representations of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments attended the opening session as guests. Also present in the dialogue are delegates from the governments of Spain, Switzerland and Norway, with representatives from Japan, Italy, Holland, Canada, and Sweden as observers. (Prensa Latina, 21/10/06)

October 24: Representatives of Colombia's government and its second-largest rebel group announced they are on the verge of reaching an agreement to start formal peace talks after decades of hostility. The two sides began the latest round of Havana-hosted peace discussions, and planned to continue meeting to hammer out the final details. "We have a meeting tomorrow (…) in which there will be a base agreement," Antonio Garcia, commander of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, rebel group, told journalists during a break from talks being held in a residential district of western Havana. Government peace envoy Luis Carlos Restrepo also expressed optimism about the progress of the latest conversations, part of a round of meetings that began last December in Havana. “The balance is positive from these months of exploratory talks," he said. (AP, 24/10/06)