HAVANA (Reuters) -- A dissident Cuban news agency sent a message on
                  Thursday to Pope John Paul protesting at alleged police violence before last
                  week's scheduled trial of one of their members, which was suspended amid
                  rowdy protests.

                  The Cuba Verdad (Cuba Truth) agency, whose five members work illegally
                  outside state media sending news abroad, delivered their public letter to the
                  office of Papal Nuncio Beniamino Stella in Havana.

                  "We request you to inform Pope John Paul II about the police violence
                  directed at the people who, on the morning of last Nov. 27, were outside the
                  Popular Provincial Tribunal in the capital," the letter said.

                  Scores of opponents and supporters of Cuba's communist government
                  traded insults and some blows outside the courtroom for about half an hour
                  before the planned trial of Mario Viera, a self-styled "independent" journalist
                  who heads Cuba Verdad.

                  At least five Viera supporters were detained in the melee, a rare public
                  disturbance in tightly-controlled Cuba, but were freed within 24 hours.
                  Dissident sources said they were fined 30 Cuban pesos ($1.50) for
                  "disturbing the public order."

                  Pro-government militants, who shoved and threw punches at protesters,
                  chased them and ripped a Cuban flag from their hands, were not stopped by
                  uniformed police, witnesses said.

                  It was the most significant outbreak of public unrest since a rowdy
                  demonstration outside the same courtroom after the trial and conviction of
                  another dissident in August.

                  In the letter, Cuba Verdad alleged the violence was provoked by members
                  of state-run units, known as Rapid Response Brigades, and by plain-clothes
                  security officers, after Viera sympathisers had begun praying together
                  outside the courtroom.

                  The interruption of their rosary prayer "demonstrates an intolerance on the
                  part of (Fidel) Castro's supporters, and lays bare how that political group
                  suppresses religious freedom, and in particular the freedom to practice
                  publicly and collectively the Catholic religion," Cuba Verdad said.

                  Cuban authorities insist the trouble was provoked by dissidents, and fanned
                  by the presence of foreign media.

                  The Cuba Verdad group urged Stella, the Vatican's de facto ambassador in
                  Cuba, to inform the pontiff how "violence was used against a segment of
                  God's people in Cuba who don't share the communist doctrine."

                  "After the Holy Father's (January) visit to our fatherland, the world opened
                  to Cuba, but Cuba does not open to the world because this is prevented by
                  the exclusive, intolerant and aggressive nature of the political order imposed
                  by the Communists."

                  The letter ended requesting moral support from the Pope for Cubans
                  "bearing the suffering caused by those who hold total and indefinite power,"
                  and offering "to turn the other cheek" in the face of further state-sponsored
                  repression.

                  Viera, 59, who has not been given a new trial date, is accused of "insulting" a
                  government official by branding him a hypocrite in an article he wrote.
                  According to Viera, the official, Jose Peraza Chapeau, head of the Foreign
                  Ministry's legal department, brought the accusation after the dissident
                  journalist wrote that Chapeau had his "morality in underpants."

                  Asked about Viera's case on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman
                  Alejandro Gonzalez said it was a "totally private matter" which did not
                  involve the state. "The trial will take place when the tribunal fixes the date,"
                  he added.

                  Gonzalez added that he could not confirm rumours the pontiff might stop off
                  in Cuba on his way back from Mexico in January.

                   Copyright 1998 Reuters.