Cuba dissidents propose vote on freeing prisoners

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban dissidents proposed on Thursday that the public vote on whether the island's political prisoners should be freed, while Cuba said its enemies are using human rights to "demonize" it.

The dissidents acknowledge their idea is unlikely to be accepted, but said they suggested it to end an impasse between the government and dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas, who is seeking the release of 26 ailing political prisoners.

"Why not leave the solution of this matter in the hands of the people?" Francisco Chaviano said in a press conference held by dissident group Agenda for the Cuban Transition.

He said the referendum, which would be unprecedented in Cuba where the Communist Party is the only legal political party, could be held in conjunction with upcoming municipal elections.

Voters could be offered three options, he said: free all of Cuba's estimated 200 political prisoners, free just the 26 supported by Farinas, or keep all of them behind bars.

Cuba has been criticized internationally and urged to release its political prisoners since the February 23 death of jailed dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died after an 85-day hunger strike to protest prison conditions.

Farinas, in the 44th day of a hunger strike in the central city of Santa Clara, has said he also is prepared to die for his cause.

But on Thursday Cuba repeated President Raul Castro's declaration, made in a speech on Sunday, that the government will resist international pressure on human rights.

Cuba's enemies, it said in a front-page editorial in Communist Party newspaper Granma, have launched a "new crusade to demonize" the island and "discredit the revolutionary process, destabilize the country and provoke conditions for the destruction of our social system."

It quoted Castro, who said in his nationally televised speech that Cuba would "never give in to blackmail."

If Farinas did not change his "self-destructive" attitude, he and his supporters would be to blame for his death, not the government, Castro said.

Chaviano said his group would like to think its suggestion would be considered, "but unfortunately the government never has given reason for that type of hope."

Farinas told the dissident group he would end his hunger strike if the referendum were held, but said in a telephone interview from Santa Clara he did not expect it to happen.

"I don't have any hope that the government will accept this proposal because it has always arrogated the right of speaking in the name of the people without consultation," said Farinas, 48, who has conducted 22 previous hunger strikes.

Farinas, a psychologist and writer who stopped eating and drinking the day after Zapata's death, has been receiving fluids intravenously in a hospital since collapsing March 11.

The government, which characterizes dissidents as "mercenaries" working for the United States and other enemies, has described both Zapata and Farinas as common criminals.

(Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Jeff Franks and Eric Walsh)