Exiles collect petition asking US to indict Castro

By Brian Bandell

MIAMI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Cuban exile groups have collected 105,000 signatures on a petition asking the U.S. government to indict Cuban President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro on murder charges over the shooting down of two planes crewed by exiles in 1996, officials of the groups said on Friday.

The petition is part of an effort by the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue, the Cuban American National Foundation and the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch to pressure President George W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, to pursue indictments against Castro.

The petition, which has no legal weight, was signed by people in the United States and abroad, including Cuba, officials with the groups said at a news conference.

The exile groups expressed anger at the previous administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, which they urged unsuccessfully to indict Castro.

They said they hoped that President Bush would act, but so far their demands have gone largely unheeded.

"The reality is that if the Bush administration doesn't indict Fidel, the Cubans might not be there for them in 2004 (the next presidential election)," said Judicial Watch chairman Larry Klayman, who repeated the same message to Gov. Bush.

Some political analysts argued that the Cuban American vote directly helped Bush win last year's tangled U.S. presidential election, which was decided by the state of Florida. EXILES VOTED IN DROVES FOR BUSH

Cuban exiles, angry that the Clinton administration sent young Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez back to the communist island, voted in droves for Bush, who won Florida over Clinton's vice-president, Al Gore, by just 537 votes.

In June, Gerardo Hernandez, the leader of a Cuban spy ring operating in Florida, was convicted of conspiracy to murder in the Feb. 24, 1996 downing of two Cuban exile planes by Cuban war planes.

Four pilots, members of Brothers to the Rescue, died when the planes were shot down over the Florida Straits. The incident sparked international outrage and further aggravated hostile relations between the United States and Cuba.

Three of the pilots were U.S. citizens.

"It makes no logical sense to convict a conspirator and not a perpetrator," said Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto. "This case, however, clearly shows that if there was the political will to do what is right and what is required by law, there is sufficient evidence to bring about indictments and subsequent convictions."

The exile groups say Fidel Castro gave the order to shoot the planes down.

They said head-of-state immunity should not apply to a criminal act, citing deposed Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic as an example of a national leader who is being brought to trial. Milosevic is in detention awaiting trial by an international tribunal in The Hague on war crimes charges.

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