Cuban defectors still held

UNHCR said on Wednesday it was still negotiating with Zimbabwe to find a third country to take two Cuban doctors detained for over two weeks after trying to defect to Canada.

A UNHCR spokesman said senior officials of the agency were in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in a bid to assist the two who came to Zimbabwe in February with a Cuban government health team.

"We still have not received a formal notification from Zimbabwe yet as to where they can go," the spokesman said. He confirmed that they were still being held in detention. Although the United States has offered them asylum, Cuban authorities, who described their action as a "shameful disgrace", reportedly said the two were free to go where they wished as long as they
did not go to the United States.

The two doctors, Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martinez, 25, were taken from their home by armed soldiers in the capital, Harare, on Friday two weeks ago after approaching the Canadian embassy and allegedly denouncing the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. They were put on a flight to Johannesburg, but brought back to Harare after another airline refused to take them on board for a flight to Cuba against their will. Although their case was formally considered at the behest of UNHCR and Western embassies, the issue of where they will go, and when, remained unresolved. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said: "It does appear that the ongoing detention, when I was last able to check, appears to be against international law. We have called on the government of Zimbabwe and will
continue to make our views known there and on this position to adhere to the Geneva Convention to which they are a signatory."