Скачать или смотреть Oswaldo Paya leaves Cuba for Madrid

(15 Dec 2002)

1. Wide shot Havana airport
2. Oswaldo Paya walking with his wife
3. Medium shot Paya at Iberia counter
4. Close up Paya showing exit visa in passport
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Oswaldo Paya, Cuban dissident:
"I leave somewhat worried. Just a few hours ago my house was vandalised. The door was broken and sealed from the outside. I harbour no hate, but it is the home where my wife and three small children live. I cannot say I leave here at ease."
6. Cutaway Paya and media
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Oswaldo Paya, Cuban dissident:
"This prize is for the thousands of Cubans that have signed the Varela Project, because they have taken away the masks and the fear, they have taken a positive step, a valiant step saying that Cuba should change but should change the way Cubans want it to, between Cubans peacefully and without exclusions while giving participation to all the voices. I think that will happen - it is in the spirit of all Cubans regardless of their political position."
8. Medium shot Paya with wife and children and his father

STORYLINE:

Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya received permission to leave Cuba on Saturday, three days before he is to receive the European Union's top human rights award.

Paya had been trying for weeks to get an exit visa so that he could go to Strasbourg, France, to receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on Tuesday.

European politicians and diplomats had urged Cuba to grant him permission to travel.

Speaking before he was to board a flight for Spain, Paya said he would receive the award "in the name of the Cuban people".

Only Friday, Paya's house was vandalised with bumper stickers and the flag a group which has carried out paramilitary attacks against Cuba's communist government.

He said he believed government security forces were behind that event.

Paya, head of a Christian-oriented dissident group, is a lead organiser of the Varela Project, an island-wide signature gathering effort requesting a referendum asking voters if they favour guarantees for rights such as freedom of speech and private business ownership, broad electoral reforms and freedom for political prisoners.

Militant exile groups have accused the Varela Project of being so moderate that it favours Castro - though Paya said scores of people who signed the document have been detained or questioned by security forces.

In May, Varela Project organisers turned in stacks of petitions they said were signed by 11,020 people asking Cuba's parliament for the referendum.

Paya said Friday that organisers since then have collected more than 10,000 additional signatures.

The Cuban parliament has not responded to the Varela Project request, though Cuba's government has repeatedly referred to dissidents on the island as insignificant in number and as paid agents of the United States.

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