Following is a statement from the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington on the Human Rights Watch report. The Miami Herald translated from the Spanish original:

Cuba does not recognize the legality nor the moral authority of HRW as an organization that defends human rights.

HRW is an organization that analyzes this issue from a discriminatory, selective and above all politicized perspective. Its evaluation of human rights in Cuba is illegitimate and illegal.

The history of HRW with respect to Cuba has always been marked by the distortion of the Cuban reality, and obedient to the mercenary service of the anti-Cuban sectors.

The presentation of this report in a news conference precisely today has no other intention than to divert the public's attention from the hearing by the international relations committee of Congress on the elimination of restrictions on Americans' travel to Cuba. That audience will be tomorrow. No doubt, a strange coincidence!

Once again, José Miguel Vivanco and his organization lend themselves to the anti-Cuban media show. HRW's attitude is cynical and manipulative, when it says that it "supports the lifting of the embargo'' (but) uses the same arguments that the U.S. government uses to maintain and justify the blockade and attack Cuba.

HRW however did not comment on the recent report, "Public Campaign,'' on the actions of the anti-Cuban PAC US-Cuba Democracy . . . which shows that money rules politics as well as the the positions toward Cuba of some lawmakers in this country. . . . Could it be that HRW also receives some of these "donations?''

Cuba reiterates its unwavering willingness to hold a frank and open dialogue on any topic, on the basis of mutual respect. However, we do not tolerate any effort to trample and manipulate our right to free self-determination and sovereign equality.

Alberto Gonzalez

Press Officer

Cuban Interests Section. Washington