"The Theatre of the Absurd continues in Geneva," read...

"The Theatre of the Absurd continues in Geneva," read an editorial in The Miami Herald. "A resolution that ''laments'' the Cuban regime's brutal repression narrowly gained approval yesterday from the United Nations Human Rights Commission. It is ludicrous that this weak resolution won passage by only one vote after a year in which the regime: Imprisoned 75 Cuban dissidents for terms of up to 28 years for nothing more than peacefully expressing their views, meeting with other dissidents, collecting signatures for a petition, loaning out books. Arrested, tried and summarily executed three young men accused of a hijacking in which no one was hurt. "Even more telling was the behaviour of the regime ''diplomats'' after they lost the vote. A Cuban delegate viciously punched Frank Calzón, a human-rights activist from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for a Free Cuba. If a regime operative acts this way in front of dozens of witnesses in a UN hall dedicated to human rights, how much worse does the regime treat dissidents on the island and in its prisons? "Impartial human-rights groups worldwide know the answer. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom House, to name a few, have documented and condemned the systematic abuses committed by Cuba's totalitarian dictatorship. Ordinary Cubans do not enjoy freedom of expression, assembly, religion or travel. They have no labor, property, civil or political rights. The only ''rights'' that the regime protects are its own, particularly Fidel Castro's taste for absolute power."