In an editorial Tuesday, it said last week's statement released by Caribbean Community Foreign Ministers on "recent developments in Cuba" is the sort of position expected from a bloc of small nations that understand why firm support must not be withheld from one of their own under attack.

"At the same time, they are prepared to publicly express concern on a sensitive human rights issue", it said.

The editorial continued:

"The Sixth Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over two days, May 8-9, addressed a variety of issues of hemispheric and international importance to the Caribbean region.

Relations with both Cuba and the USA were among the matters dealt with. The Foreign Ministers clearly had no difficulties in underscoring the importance CARICOM attaches to such ties.

What's of particular significance is the Foreign Ministers' plea for the authorities in Havana to "show clemency" to a group of some 75 dissidents recently imprisoned for their alleged acts of subversion against the state in collaboration with hostile foreign forces.

The CARICOM Foreign Ministers spoke to the hurtful consequences for the Cuban people of the economic embargo imposed against Cuba by the United States of America four decades ago, as well as pointing to the grave implications for Cuba's sovereignty and territorial integrity of the "hijackings and terrorist activities" organized by groups hostile to the government of President Fidel Castro.

They, however, felt it necessary, in accordance with the Cuba-CARICOM Declaration of December 8, 2002 on "the importance of transparent and accountable governance, and the protection of human, social, political and economic rights", to make a plea for clemency for the imprisoned dissidents.

Without prejudice to the commitment they share with Cuba to uphold the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the Foreign Ministers urged the government in Havana to "ensure greater transparency in its criminal justice system and to promote more open debate and discussion in order to further social, political and economic progress..."

Mindful that their concerns on the recent executions of three hijackers and the jailing of dissidents are neither exploited nor expediently misunderstood by anti-Cuba forces, the Foreign Ministers thought it necessary to expand their concerns.

These included calls for an end to Cuba's exclusion from the Organisation of American States -- a result of U.S. pressures; termination of the 40 years of punitive embargo, and the "terrorist activities" directed from foreign soil against that Caribbean nation.