Cuban mob attacks human rights protesters

HAVANA, Dec 10 (Reuters) More than 200 Cuban government supporters attacked 15 human rights activists on International Human Rights Day today, manhandling the demonstrators as they drove them from a Havana park.

''Fidel, Fidel'' and ''Raul, Raul,'' the mob shouted as it swarmed the dissidents before their protest could begin, breaking up the group and shoving and dragging the activists for a few blocks.

One protester's shirt was ripped off and he was threatened with a beating.

''One of us suffered a fractured arm and almost everyone was hit,'' march organizer Dr. Darcy Ferrer, said in a telephone interview. ''We do not know if anyone was detained as we still haven't heard from six or seven people,'' he said.

The attack took place in view of foreign journalists, who were also the target of angry shouts by the crowd, and appeared to signal that acting president Raul Castro has no intention of softening his ailing brother Fidel's no-tolerance policy toward political opposition to the Communist state.

Cuba freed dissident Hector Palacios for health reasons on Wednesday, sparking speculation Raul might ease policy toward the 300 political prisoners local human rights groups say are in Cuban jails.

Palacios was arrested in 2003 in a crackdown on dissent that landed 75 pro-democracy activists in prison for conspiring against Cuba with its ideological enemy, the United States.

Palacios was the 16th member of the group to be freed on health grounds and the first since Fidel Castro temporarily handed over power to Raul after emergency surgery in July.

Since the 2003 arrests, the government has staged dozens of mob actions to intimidate dissidents but claims they are spontaneous and there is no physical violence.

The rowdy crowd today was closely watched by state security agents, who on more than one occasion had to intervene. At one point the agents shoved a woman into a taxi as the crowd pounded the vehicle with their fists.

The protest was called by the National Patriotic Front, one of dozens of small opposition groups in Cuba the government charges are organized and financed by the United States.

Asked why the group had acted so aggressively, a furious Mercedes Morejon, a middle-aged woman, shouted she would do worse if she could. ''They are our enemies, they are paid by imperialism, they have no rights and got what they deserved.'' REUTERS PDS PM0158