Brussels, 23/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - On a visit to Cuba, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said that the European Union "cannot be absent at this time in the region and leave the political dialogue with Cuba in a situation of freeze at such an important moment of the country's development". "I intend sounding out the degree of appetite the Cubans have for the resumption of the dialogue and see what the possible areas are for a rapprochement", he added, considering that the "Belgian Presidency offers a more favourable momentum for the rekindling of the dialogue with Cuba". Thursday evening, Mr. Michel was to meet President Fidel Castro. This exploratory mission was made possible following the lifting of the reservations by the United Kingdom, Spain and Sweden (see EUROPE of 23 August, p.2).
On the eve of the visit, Reporters without Borders had asked Mr. Michel to intervene in favour of the release of the Cuban journalist Bernardo Arevalo Padron and the trade unionist Jose Orlando Gonzalez Bridon, both held for press infringements.
The Secretary General of RWB, Robert Menard, asked Louis Michel to "draw the consequences of the lack of developments regarding the respect of the freedom of the press in Cuba". According to RWB, some one hundred independent journalists are regularly harassed by the Cuban regime.