Hungary grants asylum to 29 Cubans in Guantanamo

BUDAPEST, Aug 18 (Reuters) Hungary has granted political asylum to 29 Cubans held at the Guantanamo US naval base, national news agency MTI quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying today.

US forces have been holding 44 Cubans caught at sea and 17 held a three-week hunger strike until yesterday to protest about the conditions of their detention and to demand admission to the United States, MTI said.

The United States had been looking for countries willing to take them and the Cubans ended their hunger strike after finding out that Hungary would take most of them, MTI said.

Hungary has granted 29 of them asylum, with the United States paying their rent, winter clothes and language courses for a year, the agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

Five others are getting US visas and some are waiting for a third country to admit them, MTI said.

MTI said many of those detained were opposition figures in Cuba and would be persecuted if they were sent back.

Other central European countries including the Czech Republic have granted asylum to Cubans in the past, it added.

REUTERS SKB RK1742