By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba launched a blistering attack on thewives of imprisoned dissidents on Tuesday, accusing them ofworking with its arch-enemy, the United States, to subvertone-party socialist rule.
The women, known as the "Ladies in White", have staged anunprecedented series of small demonstrations since theirhusbands were arrested in a political crackdown in 2003 thatlanded 75 dissidents in prison on charges of working for theU.S. government. Fifty-five remain behind bars.
On Monday, 10 of the women staged a sit-in next to Havana'sRevolution Square to demand that President Raul Castro'sgovernment release their relatives. They were detained, put ona bus and driven home by police.
A government statement carried by Cuba's official mediaattacked the women's protest for being a "provocation ...ordered by their Yankee masters".
State-run television showed photos of the women meetingwith Michael Parmly, the head of the U.S. Interests Section inHavana, which a commentator called "the headquarters of theCuban counterrevolution."
Havana denies there are any political prisoners in Cuba andlabels all opponents as "mercenaries" on the U.S. payroll.
The "Ladies in White," who earned their name by marchingsilently every Sunday along a Havana boulevard dressed inwhite, were unfazed by the government attack.
"We were born out of government repression and we have noparticular political agenda," said one of their founders,Miriam Leiva. "Our objective is purely humanitarian, to freethe prisoners of March 2003."
Around 100 government supporters arrived at Monday's sit-inshouting slogans and insults at the women and later helpedpolice remove them, in some cases by dragging them to the bus.
The government said it intervened to save the women from aspontaneous outburst by angry patriots.
The television newscast did not show images of the roughtreatment. Instead, it played excerpts of a telephoneconference call the women held on Friday with U.S. Rep. IleanaRos-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who is a staunch anti-Castrovoice in Congress.
Cuba accused the Cuban-born legislator of encouraging thewomen to destabilize the country.
"It is all a big farce and the government is manipulatingthe information," said Berta Soler, one of Monday's protesterswhose husband Angel Moya is serving a 20-year prison term.
"The government did not show the images of us being yankedaround, dragged and kicked," she said.
The illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rightsestimates there are more than 200 people in prison in Cuba forpolitical reasons serving sentences of up to 28 years.
Amnesty International recognizes 58 as prisoners ofconscience who are jailed solely for peacefully expressingtheir beliefs.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel and Nelson Acosta,editing by Alan Elsner)