By IANS
Havana : A prominent dissident in the communist-ruled state has launched a citizens’ forum to campaign for free elections and democratic change in Cuba, Spanish news agency EFE reported Friday.
Oswaldo Paya, a recipient of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for human rights in 2002, has announced the creation of Citizens’ Committee for Reconciliation and Dialogue here Thursday that will work for democratic change in the country.
The committee, which has 300 members across the country, “is not an opposition or dissident group, but rather a citizens’ forum”, said Paya.
The group will spearhead the campaign that calls for release of political prisoners, legislative changes and holding of free elections for a constituent assembly.
Committees set up in different areas of the country will engage in signature-gathering campaigns and promote debates that will allow Cubans to be heard.
Paya said the ailing Fidel Castro, 81, was forced to delegate power to his younger brother Raul in mid-2006, but since then, “there has been an important change in Cuba. Cubans today know that change is closer”.
But pressure was still being exerted against the dissident movement, he added.
Paya became well known after he persuaded more than 25,000 Cubans to sign petitions asking the island’s parliament to hold a referendum on political reforms in 2002, for which the European parliament had conferred him with the award.