MAKING THE MOST OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR NOWAK'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000194

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2029
TAGS: CU PHUM PREL UN
SUBJECT: MAKING THE MOST OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR NOWAK'S
VISIT TO CUBA

Classified By: COM Jonathan Farrar for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d0


1. (C) SUMMARY: Special Rapporteur for Torture and other
Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred
Nowak, is expected to visit Cuba sometime in 2009. USINT
urges that he be approached before the trip with offers of
information we have on prisoners and prisons in Cuba. ACTION
REQUEST PARA 5. End Summary.


1. (C) One outcome of the February 4, Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) of Cuba before the UN Human Rights Council was
the announcement that UN Special Rapporteur for Torture and
other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Manfred Nowak, will visit Cuba sometime later in 2009. Some
press reports have said Nowak will arrive in Cuba in October,
but we have no indication that any date has been established.


2. (C) The EU had included Cuba's permitting visits by
special rapporteurs among the benchmarks for reviewing the
status of the EU Common Position. The GOC appears willing to
allow such visits, but as with all contacts with the outside
world, it wants to be sure that the visits are carried out
strictly on its own terms. Special Rapporteur on Food and
Human Rights Jean Zeigler visited in late 2007, the first
visit of a Special Rapporteur to Cuba in more than 20 years.
His statements praising Cuba's system of distributing food
delivered at a carefully scripted press conference got wide
press play within Cuba (and met with wide ridicule among
members of Cuban civil society). However, Zeigler's more
detailed formal report containing several useful observations
and recommendations regarding some of the weakpoints in
Cuba's food supply network, unfortunately went unreported in
the press.


3. (C) Several political prisoners and/or family members of
prisoners have reported to us that in the past few weeks
there has been significant activity in almost all prisons to
clean, paint, replace furniture, etc. Conscious of the usual
GOC moQs operandi, we suspect that it is working hard to put
on a good face for a Nowak visit. However, it is unlikely
that it can transform the entire system of jails and
penitentiaries. Rather, we believe the GOC will attempt at
all costs to manage Nowak's visit so that he sees only things
that it wants him to see.


4. (C) In that vein, we read with interest an EFE report
from Montevideo about Nowak's March 21-27 visit to Uruguay
and believe that the activity described in the press report
would be an excellent plan of action for his visit to Cuba.
According to the press report, Nowak made unannounced visits
to psychiatric hospitals and prisons of his choosing, met
with local human rights organizations, and with family
members of prisoners. All of these would be great options in
Cuba. To those we would add a review of the treatment of
common criminals. Prisoners of conscience tend to get most
of the attention in Cuba, and the GOC insists they are all
US-paid spies and therefore common criminals. However, from
the reporting we have gotten from a variety of sources,
treatment of ordinary prisoners is even worse than treatment
of prisoners of conscience.


5. (C) ACTION REQUEST: USINT suggests that IO and DRL
approach Nowak before his trip to Cuba and that information
available publicly in our human rights report regarding the
state of the prison system and treatment of prisoners be
passed to him. We also believe that the access he was able
to achieve in Uruguay should serve as a benchmark for access
in Cuba. Anything less should, in itself, be justification
for public comment on his part.
FARRAR