By George Gedda
WASHINGTON (AP) - Calling U.S. policy toward Cuba too passive, three Cuban-American congressmen introduced legislation Thursday to provide assistance, through clandestine means if necessary, to the beleaguered internal opposition on the island.
Current law authorizes such assistance but the proposal would make it mandatory. It was introduced by Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans, and Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
The assistance would be targeted not only at dissident groups but also to the large number of Cubans who have been imprisoned over the years for political offenses. Diaz-Balart said the potential beneficiaries could number in the millions, when family members are taken into account.
``Today we declare that the Cuban internal opposition can no longer be ignored and left alone in its unequal and courageous struggle against the `nazi-fascist' Cuban tyranny,'' Diaz-Balart told a news conference where he was joined by his two colleagues.
The legislation would provide humanitarian aid as well as ``democracy assistance'' - communications equipment, printing presses, photocopiers and other items that internal opposition groups need to spread pro-democracy messages.
The lawmakers noted that such assistance was provided by the Reagan administration to Poland during the 1980s and contributed to the transition to democracy there in 1989.
The three emphasized their opposition to the Clinton administration's month-old policy of facilitating increased humanitarian assistance through church-affiliated groups to needy Cubans regardless of ideology. The administration has said the policy would strengthen the role of the church and thus contribute to the weakening of the communist government.
Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen and Menendez disagreed, complaining that the new policy ignored the needs of long-suffering dissident groups. Diaz-Balart said he has received ``multiple requests'' from these groups for assistance.
The three lawmakers refused to say how the assistance they are proposing would be delivered. Menendez said he would find it incredible that a superpower such as the United States could not devise a way to get it to the island without detection by Cuban authorities.
The proposal came against a background of a series of diplomatic victories in recent days for Cuban President Fidel Castro, including rejection by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva of a U.S.-backed resolution condemning Cuba for rights abuses.
Diaz-Balart called the vote ``one of the most infamous and cowardly acts in the diplomatic history of this century.'' Menendez rejected administration contentions that it had made an all-out effort to win approval of the resolution and suggested that U.S. delegates in Geneva may have conspired with countries sympathetic to Castro to ensure defeat of the measure.
State Department officials said they were confident on the eve of the Tuesday vote that the resolution would be approved. They attributed the defeat to the decision of Russia and eight other countries to renege on promises to support the measure.
Underscoring a growing lack of confidence in the administration's posture toward Cuba, Diaz-Balart asserted that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is visiting Cuba next week ``as an emissary'' of President Clinton - a claim rejected by State Department spokesman James P. Rubin.
Rubin called Cuba ``one of the most repressive governments in the world'' and expressed hope that Chretien will confront the Cuban government directly on the ``grave human rights abuses'' being committed there.
AP-NY-04-23-98 1553EDT
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press