Dignitaries Seek U.N. Probe of Paya's Death

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From AFP:

UN must probe death of Cuban dissident Paya: petition

The United Nations should investigate the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, his daughter said Tuesday, handing over a petition to the world body and claiming her father had been murdered by the Cuban regime.

"They say that my father died in a car accident, but we have confirmed ... that they were actually crashed into and run off the road by another vehicle," Rosa Maria Paya told reporters in Geneva.

She was in the Swiss city to address the UN Human Rights Council Tuesday and to hand over an open letter and petition addressed to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and his human rights chief Navi Pillay demanding "an international and independent investigation" into Paya's death.

"Mounting and credible allegations that the Cuban government may have been complicit in the murder of its most prominent critic... cannot go ignored by the international community," read the petition, signed by 46 politicians, members of parliament and human rights activists from around the world.

Among the signatories are the former Presidents of El Salvador Armando Calderon Sol, of Uruguay Luis Alberto Lacalle and of Peru Alejandro Toledo.