HAVANA, May 20 (UPI) -- Two European politicians were expelled from Cuba ahead of a pro-democracy conference prompting concerns the meeting might be canceled.
The European Union lawmakers, Czech Karel Schwarzenberg and Arnold Vaatz of Germany, were scheduled to speak at a meeting of dissidents calling for the removal of Cuban President Fidel Castro, the BBC reported Friday.
"This is the typical behaviour of a totalitarian state," said Schwarzenberg. "I did nothing against the law. They just didn't like the people I was visiting."
The EU officials were invited to attend a conference called Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, scheduled to begin Friday. Several prominent Cuban dissidents, however, declined to attend.
Cuba's relations with the EU have been strained in recent years.
The EU imposed sanctions on the Carribbean nation when it arrested and imprisoned 75 dissidents in March 2003. Cuba freed 14 of them last year prompting the EU to lift the sanctions.
