Re: Stalinist Dan Christensen: Cuba's human rights abuses are " Sunday school picnic"

Dan Christensen wrote:
On May 1, 3:20 am, PL <pl.nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snipping portions of PL's posting already debunked here, or too lame
to bother to bother with]


Ah, NOW we are getting somewhere!
So, Amnesty International reports (snip)
I am not referring to Amnesty. I am referring to your lies about me.


I was referring to reports from AI.

> And you said it was "a pack of
lies.
Nope.
I referred to what you said and stated that:

this
"PL's political masters"
and this:
"allegations against Cuba"

are a pack of lies.
I have no masters and there are no mere "allegations" against Cuba but documented facts.
See:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/links_to_human_rights_reports.htm

> Any> allegations of "torture" in Cuba seem to be nothing more than the
usual scuffles between prison staff and unruly prisoners
(snip)
a lie exposed here:
Human Rights Watch Reports:
The conditions in Cuba's prisons are inhuman, and political prisoners
suffer additional degrading treatment and torture.http://hrw.org/doc/?t=americas_pub&document_limit=100,20
The punitive and intimidatory measures against political prisoners that
caused severe pain and suffering violated Cuba's obligations under the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 1995. Once again, in the
past year the
government forbade access to its prisons by international human rights
monitors and humanitarian groups, including the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC).http://www.hrw.org/worldreport/Americas-03.htm
Nothing specific here. (snip)
just causing severe pain you mean?


Nothing to distinguish this from the usual scuffles between guards and
unruly prisoners that happen everywhere.

false.
"punitive and intimidatory measures" against "political prisoners" causing "severe pain and suffering"
targeted violence to inflict pain and suffering: torture.

Torture
This report shows that Cuba's treatment of political prisoners in some
cases rises to the level of torture, violating Cuba's obligations under
the Convention against Torture and under the Universal Declaration.7 The
convention bars torture and "acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment" and the Universal Declaration states that "no
one shall be subjected to torture." 8 Cuba's imposition of prolonged
periods of incommunicado pretrial and post-conviction detention,
beatings, and
prosecutions of previously-tried political prisoners-where those
practices result in severe physical or psychological pain
orsuffering-constitute torture under the convention.
Again, nothing specific
Just "general torture" and abuse you mean like beatings, isolation, ...

[snip]

Nothing to distinguish this from the usual scuffles with unruly
prisoners that happen everywhere. (snip)

false.
targeted beatings and abuses against political prisoners.
Torture

Oddly, no such accounts can be found from more mainstream groups like
AI, not even HRW.
(snip)
yes they can.
Snipping them doesn't change that fact.
Note that the ISHR is a mainstream group.http://www.ishr.org/

[snip]

Never heard of them. (snip)

but then you aren't really interested in Human Rights are you?

what desperate Dan snipped:

Cuba's Repressive Machinery details how Cuba's laws deny basic rights such as freedom of expression, association, and movement, and describes the plight of dozens of individuals prosecuted under those laws. The 263-page report also details ill-treatment rising to the level of torture in Cuban prisons.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/1999/07/23/cuba947.htm


United Nations
At its fifty-seventh session in April, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution expressing concern about continuing human rights violations in Cuba, the ninth such resolution passed since 1991, and urged the government to invite the U.N. special rapporteurs on torture and on freedom of expression to visit the country.
In the resolution, the Commission noted that Cuba had made "no satisfactory improvements" in the area of human rights. It expressed particular concern at the "continued repression of members of the political opposition," as well as about the "detention of dissidents and all other persons detained or imprisoned for peacefully expressing their political, religious and social views and for exercising their right to full and equal participation in public affairs." An early draft of the resolution criticized the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, but that language was omitted from the final version.
The resolution, which was sponsored by the Czech Republic, passed by a 22-20 vote, with a number of abstentions.
http://hrw.org/wr2k2/americas5.html

The screams of tormented women

"Day and night, the screams of tormented women in panic and desperation who cry for God's mercy fall upon the deaf ears of prison authorities. They are confined to narrow cells with no sunlight called "drawers" that have cement beds, a hole on the ground for their bodily needs, and are infested with a multitude of rodents, roaches, and other insects.

These female prisoners lack all sort of necessary personal possessions and almost always have no water, even for bathing, often drinking this precious liquid full of insects. The food distributed to them is terrible, smells rotten, and is stored in receptacles lacking in hygiene. Even prison officials have complained of the small quantities served.

In these "drawers" the women remain weeks and months. When they scream in terror due to the darkness (blackouts are common) and the heat, they are injected sedatives that keep them half-drugged."

Source: http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y03/nov03/10e8.htm



Journalist suspended by his hair by prison guards.

Frankfurt/M. - 27 May 2004. In protest against the continuing torture of the journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, whose tortures included being suspended by his hair by prison guards, three fellow prisoners and Herández himself went on a hunger strike. The prisoners are members of the organisation "Christian Liberation Movement". Herández has been imprisoned in "Kilo 51/2" in Pinar del Rio since September 2003. Since he went on a hunger strike in autumn 2003 to protest against the inhumane prison conditions, Herández has become victim of continuous violent attacks.

Source: http://www.ishr.org/press/pr2004/may04/040527cuba.htm



They kept me in a punishment cell, naked, with several fractures on one leg.

Mr. Chairman, today I want to speak about torture, about what it means for a human being to be tortured, to be humiliated, or what may be even worse, to watch a friend, a companion, or a relative being tortured.

As many of you know, I spent twenty-two years in prison for political reasons. Perhaps, I am the only delegate in this Commission who has spent such a long time in prison, although there are several persons here who have known in their own flesh the meaning of torture. I do not care about their political ideology, and I offer to you my embrace of solidarity, from tortured to tortured.

I had many friends in prison. One of them, Roberto López Chávez, was just a kid. He went on a hunger strike to protest the abuses. The guards denied him water, Roberto lay on the floor of his punishment cell, agonizing, deliriously asking for water. water? The soldiers came in and asked him: "Do you want water?"? The they took out their members and urinated in his mouth, on his face? He died the following day. We were cellmates; when he died I felt something wither inside me.

I recall when they kept me in a punishment cell, naked, with several fractures on one leg which never received medical care; today, those bones remain jammed up together and displaced. One of the regular drills among the guards was to stand on the steel mesh ceiling and throw at my face buckets full of urine and excrement.

Mr. Chairman, I know the taste of the urine and the excrement of other men? that practice does not leave marks; marks are left by beatings with steel rods and by bayonet thrusts. My head is still covered with scars and you can feel the cracks.

But, what can inflict more damage to human dignity, the urine and excrements thrown all over your face or a bayonet's blow? Which is the appropriate article for the discussion of this subject? Under which technical point does it fall? Under what batch of papers, numbers, lines and bars should we include this trampling of human dignity?

For me, and for innumerable other human beings around the world. The violation of human rights was not a matter of reports, of negotiated resolutions, of elegant and diplomatic rhetoric, for us was a daily suffering.

For me (it meant) eight thousand days of hunger, of systematic beatings, of hard labor, of solitary confinement, of cells with steel-planked windows and doors, of solitude.

Source: http://capmag.com/articlePrint.asp?ID=625


Mental torture and disease
are to break Cuba's best-known civil rights activist
Dr. Biscet is terrorised in the high security prison "Kilo 8"
Havana/Frankfurt/M. - 14 January 2004. The International Society for Human rights reports that Cuba's best-known political prisoner, the civil rights activist Dr Oscar Elias Biscet, is systematically terrorised in the high security prison "Kilo 8". Biscet was transferred to the high security prison near Havana in mid-November. He had to live through a three-week special punishment in a subterranean dark cell under inhuman conditions.

Source: http://www.ishr.org/press/pr2004/jan04/040114cuba.htm



UNHCR Report 1997.

Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture : Cuba. 21/11/97.
A/53/44,paras.101-118. (Concluding Observations/Comments)

Recommendations

118. The Committee recommends that the following actions be taken by the State Party:

(a) The criminalization of torture, as defined in the Convention, by the creation of a specific crime or crimes giving effect to every aspect of it;

(b) The establishment of a transparent permanent procedure for receiving complaints about torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, the prompt examination of such complaints and bringing to justice those responsible;

(c) The incorporation into the law of the right of the suspect or detainee to silence at all stages of investigation;

(d) The establishment of a system of recurrent review of prisons as required by article 11 of the Convention with a view to improving conditions in prisons;

(e) Revision of the rules to the organization of the judicial system in accordance with international instruments on the subject, namely the United Nations guidelines on the independence of the judiciary;

(f) The setting up of a comprehensive programme, which should be kept under constant review, for educating and training law enforcement personnel, medical personnel, public officials and all those involved in the interrogation, custody or treatment of any person arrested, detained or imprisoned;

(g) The establishment of a central register containing adequate statistical data about complaints of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, investigation of such complaints, the time within which the investigation is conducted and any prosecution mounted thereafter and its outcome;

(h) The establishment of a compensation fund for the compensation of the victims of torture and other prohibited treatment;

(i) Allowing into the country human rights NGOs and cooperating with them in the identification of cases of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment;

(j) Urgently addressing complaints about torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raised in NGO reports and the reports of the Special Rapporteurs; taking such action as the obligations of the State party under the Convention warrant; and reporting to the Committee the outcome of such investigations and any action taken in the next periodic report.

Source: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/A.53.44,paras.101-118.En?Opendocument

http://www.cubaverdad.net/torture_in_cuba.htm

http://www.cubaverdad.net/cuba_prison_system.htm
http://www.cubaverdad.net/torture_in_cuba.htm

Manuel Vazquez Portal, 53, a poet and writer for the government-run cultural press for a decade, during which he won three official prizes before being purged, is described by the Le Monde journalist who talked to him as having the face of a man who has "passed through hell." That hell has a name: the notorious prison of Boniato, not far from Santiago de Cuba--it is the same, dilapidated 60-year-old prison in which Castro himself was incarcerated after his famous 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks. Vazquez Portal compares his 15 months in Boniato prison as "like living in a barracks latrine, or a pigsty"--subhuman conditions, inedible rotten food, water-logged cells in which the numerous leaks are never repaired and the floors are covered in the rancid, infectious liquid overflow from other cells. Three months of his sentence were spent in total, terrifying isolation." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaVerdad/message/14358


Amnesty International believes that the unilateral US embargo against
Cuba contributes to the undermining of key civil and political rights in
the country.
On these grounds, Amnesty International calls for its immediate lifting..
Thanks for confirming AI's condemnation (snip)
they condemn the torture you support Dan.

[snip]

Very evasive, (snip)

Nope.
A fact exposing your lies and innuendo..

What desperate Dan snipped as it exposes his lies:
Cuba: Two years after crackdown, prisoners confined to tiny cells and beaten

Cuban prisoners of conscience, arrested in the crackdown two years ago today (18 March) have been beaten by guards while handcuffed and kept in tiny "punishment cells" infested with rats and cockroaches, according to a new report launched by Amnesty International today in Madrid.

Prison guards reportedly stamped on the neck of Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, causing him to pass out during a beating last November while he was handcuffed.

Another man, Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, was reportedly stripped and beaten by guards during an assault at the Youth Prison of Santa Clara last October. He is serving a sentence of 28 years.

The 71 men, aged 26 to 63, were arrested for ?offences? such as publishing critical articles or communicating with human rights groups.

Amnesty International believes they were imprisoned for peacefully expressing their beliefs and opinions and calls on the Cuban government to immediately and unconditionally release all of them.

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Stephen Bowen said:

"Conditions for some of these prisoners are inhumane, confining them for months to tiny, filthy cells with no water or natural light. Some are not permitted to wear any clothes and are denied bedding.

"And yet all you have to do in Cuba to be imprisoned for months or even years is to disagree with the authorities.

"The Cuban government must release these prisoners immediately and unconditionally."

Normando Hernandez Gonzalez was held in a punishment cell for four months as a punitive measure after ending a 17-day hunger strike to protest against his transfer to Kilo 5 ½ Prison, where he was held with common criminals. During 2004, at least nine prisoners were reportedly held continuously in walled-in punishment cells.

Such cells are said to be very small (2 x 1 m) with no natural light and no furniture. The prisoners are not allowed out, to receive visitors or to exercise and sometimes are not permitted to wear any clothing nor given any bedding.

The conditions under which the nine Cuban prisoners are reported to have been held, amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Some prisoners of conscience and their relatives have also suffered the suspension of visits, correspondence and telephone communications for an undetermined period of time when prisoners? relatives have made statements in the local or international press or to human rights organizations regarding the treatment of their relative in detention.

During 2004 and early 2005 a total of 19 prisoners of conscience were released, 14 of whom were granted ?conditional release? permitting them to carry out the rest of their sentences outside prison for health reasons, in the knowledge they could be detained again.

Amnesty International reiterates its calls on the Cuban government to:

* Order the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience
* Ensure that an independent and impartial inquiry is held into allegations of ill-treatment by prison guards and, that the officials implicated in these allegations are immediately suspended from duty and those responsible brought to justice
* Suspend Law 88 and other similar legislation that facilitates the imprisonment of Cuban citizens by unlawfully restricting the exercise of their fundamental freedoms
* Comply with international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners
* Ratify both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Amnesty International believes that the unilateral US embargo against Cuba contributes to the undermining of key civil and political rights in the country.

On these grounds, Amnesty International calls for its immediate lifting. The organisation also calls on the Cuban government to stop using the embargo as a pretext to violate the human rights of the Cuban people.

Background

Most of the dissidents arrested during the 2003 crackdown were charged with offences carrying higher penalties under Article 91 of the Penal Code or Law 88.

Article 91 provides sentences of 10 to 20 years or death for anyone who ?in the interest of a foreign state, carries out an act which has the objective of harming the independence of the Cuban state or its territorial integrity?.

Law 88, provides lengthy prison terms for those found guilty of supporting United States policy on Cuba aimed at "disrupting internal order, destabilizing the country and destroying the Socialist State and the independence of Cuba".

Source: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news/press/15999.shtml

Cuba: Fear for safety / Fear of torture / Intimidation / Harassment
PUBLIC
AI Index: AMR 25/002/2006
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250022006?open&of=ENG-346

According to reports, days before Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia's arrest, he, his family and several dissidents who were gathered at his house were subjected to so-called "acts of repudiation" ("acto de repudio"), demonstrations of government supporters outside the homes of dissidents and activists, which are
often orchestrated by the authorities. Amnesty International believes that these "acts of repudiation" could amount to psychological torture.
Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250032006?open&of=ENG-316

and the links at:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/links_to_human_rights_reports.htm

also see:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/cuba_prison_system.htm
http://www.cubaverdad.net/torture_in_cuba.htm


Yes a misquote. AI never asked for an immediate and unconditional end to
the trade sanctions.
[snip]
Do you even read your own postings, idiot???
(snip)

Yes.
Nowhere it asked for an "immediate and unconditional" end to the trade
sanctions as you falsely claimed, Dan. The quote above is clear.

Indeed. Here it is again (your posting):

Thanks for admitting you lied.

(snip)

"On these grounds, Amnesty International calls for its immediate
lifting."

Notwithstanding your hysterical screams of denial
(snip)

No need for scream son my part comrade Dan.
If Amnesty International wants to say they want something "immediate and unconditional" they do say so.
When they chose not to do so it is for a reason.

Like here:

Quote:

"in 1.
"On the basis of the available information, therefore, Amnesty
International considers the 75 dissidents to be prisoners of
conscience(2) and calls for their immediate and unconditional
release."

In 8.1
" to immediately and unconditionally release the 15 prisoners
previously named by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.


" to immediately and unconditionally release anyone else who is
detained or imprisoned solely for having peacefully exercised their
rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
en of quote

here they felt they had to say "immediate and unconditional".
In the other report they clearly felt they didn't.

Anyway: your abuse of snippets from Amnesty in hypocrite to the hilt. You reject 95% of what they demand for Cuba: respect of human rights, free and fair elections, freedom of speech, immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners, ....
I support all that.
If all demands of AI are met then the basis for the trade sanctions falls away and they will end.
I support the complete package of demands of AI and want them realized "immediately and unconditionally".
You want that all the abuses they condemn continue Mr. Hypocrite Liar.


But thanks for confirming you support torture, murder, human rights abuses, politicide, democide, ...

That is all just a "Sunday's picnic" to you.
I am glad you don't live in my neighborhood.

as I said comrade Dan: whenever you post your lies about me I post the truth about you.
You are right to understand that your record of lies, innuendo, insults and support of human rights abuses discredits you.
All shame you brought on yourself by your attitude and actions.

And the exposure of the "lobbyist" lie.


Your abuse of misquotes has been exposed over and over again Mr. serial Liar.
When you tried to come up with your own new version of the lie
you also fell flat on your face , no?
Remember when you claimed I had been "lobbying" people In Geneva while
your pal "cuba libre" that stalked me then showed from an IP that I was
in Santiago de Cuba at the time.

Dan's other exposed false claim:
"Taking a little break from arm-twisting in Geneva, Mr. Lobbyist?"
Link:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/b6375f9783e47aee?q=g:thl174670614d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8

A real loser you are.

Below you will find what is behind Dan Christensen's slanderous
campaign: facts he can't deny.

- Frustration

I exposed Dan Christensen as a fraud in this group years ago when I blew
his "cover". In SCC he tried to portray himself as an "independent
interested party" with no political agenda.
When I came across a blatantly different reply to a similar question in
a Stalinist e-group to which I had been invited I posted it to show his
lying hypocrisy.
Since then he has been pissed as hell as it undermined his lying
propaganda effort to mislead "those in the background" (his own words,
those that didn't have "local knowledge". He himself admitted in the
same e-group that propagandist like him can never "convince" those with
"local knowledge".

In frequent exchanges he got some mad he often forgot to keep up the
presence and made him show his hand and true nature:

Quote:
"In my opinion the advances made by the Revolution are morally well
worth fighting for and justify the use of these extraordinary
measures.
In this case, the ends do indeed justify the means.
......................................
These measures, however, would NOT be morally justified in propping
less
worthy regimes in the region -- the USA and its vassal states in the
Caribbean and Latin America come immediately to mind."

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=tirG3.176162%245r2.278940%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca

"It is wrong to think that a particular end justifies EVERY means. At
this time, for example, it would be wrong of the Cuban government to
send death squads after their opponents as happens in Mexico and
Colombia. Again, the actions of the Cuban government in detaining
these
so-called dissidents seem quite mild in comparison and are morally
justified under the circumstances."

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=txMG3.176443%245r2.284921%40tor-nn1.netcom.ca

That meant he was exposed a the hypocrite liar he is. It showed that the
false claims he made about others (support of genocide, torture, abuses,
......................)in fact only applied to him.

I have also frequently exposed his lies about facts and people in SCC.

"It is clear from Smith's article here (and his website, CIP Online)
that he does, in fact, support an immediate and unconditional lifting
of your beloved embargo."
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/msg/3f1fe3a55c12d7d7?dmode=source&hl=en

HIS own words:

'We should reduce tensions, not aggravate it, making it clear to the
Cuban
government that we do not have hostile intentions toward them,'' Smith
said
during a 40-minute speech at a conference titled Cuba and the United
States:
Relations in Permanent Conflict, Causes, Effects and Solutions.
''I did not say lift the embargo without conditions,'' he said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12157593.htm
You can enter after a free registration.

Permanent copy in the Cubaverdad archive:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaVerdad/message/16823

Then there is the issue of his lying website: I had pages removed (for
violations of law, slander, ...), have shamed him in to changing it on
various occasions (adding links that would then expose his lies, remove
lying caption from pictures, ...)and have in general exposed the lies on
it (on Amnesty International for example)

What Dan claimed on his website (the misquote):
"Today, for the first time, Amnesty International has explicitly
denounced the US embargo on Cuba in humanitarian terms, and made clear
its support for the immediate and unconditional lifting of these cruel
sanctions"
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ215.html

Link to the "report": (the one Dan didn't give until I shamed him in
to it)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR250172003?open&of=ENG-CUB

where the only thing Amnesty international asks for "immediately and
unconditionally" is the release of political prisoners.

Quote:

"in 1.
"On the basis of the available information, therefore, Amnesty
International considers the 75 dissidents to be prisoners of
conscience(2) and calls for their immediate and unconditional
release."

In 8.1
" to immediately and unconditionally release the 15 prisoners
previously named by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.


" to immediately and unconditionally release anyone else who is
detained or imprisoned solely for having peacefully exercised their
rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly."
en of quote

- Dogmatic hatred.

Dan Christensen is a hard-line Stalinist. His first steps in SCC were to
defend Stalin and in other forums he has praised "workers democracy"
under Stalin.
He has admitted that he is ready to fight to the last Cuban (from his
comfortable armchair in Canada) for his cause.
By posting the reports from the international press, human rights
organizations and Cuban independent journalists I have exposed his
propaganda as a lie. That makes the man wild with rage.
As he like to see himself as the "victim" (he once claimed he was being
censored in SCC) he therefore lashes out at people claiming that those
that contradict him are "CIA" agents (as if the CIA would care about a
third rate liar as Dan) and professional "lobbyists" probably to make
himself feel that he is "important" and to explain away his complete
propaganda failure (portraying himself as "overcome by unsurmountable
institutional odds").

- Personal hate and the "rat pack"

Dan has suffered the trauma of having part of his website remove after
a long battle over the personal attacks and falsifications he had posted
there.
The frequent exposures of his lies and hypocrisy only fueled the
personal hatred.
Dan ganged up with various other propagandists that people that have
been attacked by them refer to as the "rat pack". I have been the target
of the lies and slanderous insults of this "rat pack".
They specialize in online slander (from posting private information,
attacking their business or businesses they are associated with,
inciting others to harass people, over accusing people of being "CIA
agents" or "lobbyists" to the worst things one can imagine)and direct
harassment (phone calls, letters, letters with razor blade or white
powder, loitering in front of people's houses,.. up to death threats in
France).
All they succeeded in doing was to dramatically increase traffic to a
website I participate in ( www.cubaverdad.net )and to suffer the
consequences of their slander.
Dan Christensen had part of his website removed. The Centre Che in
France had their complete website removed and their "secretary" known
here as "cubalibre" went to jail for 6 months for a whole series of
abuses. A Spanish "subsidiary" of the rat pack still has a surprise coming.
All because of their lies were exposed.

But then in the end this is what it boils down to:
those that don't have rational arguments find themselves exposed as the
liars they are. When that happens all they have left are the old slander
tactics: they attack the people that expose their lies in the hope that
they can intimidate them.
If Dan Christensen felt he had any chance to convince people directly he
would try to do so by posting facts and arguing facts.
He is reduced to snipping, posting the same snippets over and over
again, lies and slander.
As long as he and the rest of the "rat pack" (and their hangers on) are
reduced to that they expose" their own failure.
Fine by me.

PL

"The Cuban government is based on lies and cheap propaganda. That is why
it is afraid of words and the truth."
Raul Rivero, April 2006, University of Sevilla, Spain
.

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