Speech in the ACT Legislative Assembly
24 February 2010
Orlando Zapata Tamayo
MR COE: Mr Speaker, today, I join many throughout the world mourning the loss of Orlando Zapata Tamayo who died just a few hours ago in Havana, Cuba.
Visitors to my office would’ve seen a poster on my wall entitled “Freedom for Cuba’s Prisoners of Conscience” provided to me by a friend, Aramis Perez, Executive Secretary of Young Cubans in Action. The poster highlights 20 political prisoners that have been imprisoned in Cuba for speaking out for freedom. I seek leave to table a copy of that poster.
MR SPEAKER: Is leave granted?
Leave granted.
MR COE: Soon after Tomayo’s arrest in 2003, Amnesty International called for the Cuban government:
to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for having peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Mr Tamayo was one such prisoner named in the Amnesty report who should be released.
The Miami based Directorio Democrático Cubano states:
[After years in prison] In October, 2009, Zapata Tamayo was brutally beaten by military personnel at Holguin provincial prison, causing an internal hematoma in his head so severe that Zapata Tamayo had to undergo surgery. He began his hunger strike on December 3, 2009, at Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey, classified in Cuba as employing a “maximum severity” prison regime. For 18 days, Major Filiberto Hernández Luis, the prison’s director, denied Zapata Tamayo drinking water, the only thing he was ingesting during the strike. The effect of this act of torture was to induce kidney failure. In mid-January, he was transferred to Amalia Simoni Hospital in the city of Camagüey, where he was left to languish nearly completely nude under intense air conditioning, causing him to contract pneumonia.
This tragic situation has sparked much criticism of the Castro regime. Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson said: ‘Freedom-loving people everywhere should hold the Cuban regime responsible for the fate of Orlando Zapata Tamayo’. Republican US Senator LeMieux said: ‘He spoke out against the regime’s brutal authoritarian practices, knowing that by doing so he risked imprisonment, or worse’.
Mr Speaker, the Castro regime should release all prisoners of conscience. Whilst we in Canberra are a long way from Cuba, I encourage everyone to lend their voice to this worthwhile cause.
My thoughts go to Mr Tomayo’s mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger and other family members as they come to terms with this loss.
I also bring to the Assembly’s attention that Ariel Sigler Amaya and Normando Hernandez Gonzalez are also Cuban prisoners of conscience and are of extremely poor health.
I encourage listeners and readers of this speech to visit www.directorio.org to find out how they can take action to help end the terrible oppression that exists in Cuba.
The International Young Democrat Union, of which I am on the Board, has a freedom campaign dedicated to Cuba. To find out more about this, people should contact my office or visit www.iydu.org.
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