Rights Threats Remain

To the editors:

When Christina S. N. Lewis writes that "the war against Communism is ended," (Opinion, "Have You Heard of Sophonie?", May 3) does she mean that we should no longer be concerned about the rights of people living under the world's remaining Communist dictatorships? Should the fact that the Soviet Union has vanished like a bad dream free our consciences of the burden of caring that in Cuba, for example, political dissidence is considered a criminal mental illness and children are regarded as property of the state?

Fidel Castro is not a threat to the interests of the United States. So what? His record on human rights is nothing short of abominable, as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights recently reaffirmed, and this is something that should concern us all. As should analogous abuses in China, Myanmar, Afghanistan and other countries.

Of course, I agree with Lewis that the economic and political situation in Haiti is deplorable (a situation not helped, incidentally, by the Clinton administration's ill-advised 1994 military intervention on the behalf of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide). I do not believe that it is commensurate with the kind of stifling, Stalinist repression that Fidel Castro continues to wreak upon Cuba. All the same, it seems to me that if Lewis wants to raise awareness of the plight of Haitians, the way to do it is not to deny the plight of Cubans. And I agree that we should treat all refugees equally--all should be allowed to stay.

Kevin A. Shapiro '00

May 3, 2000