Demonstrators yell slogans against dissidents in Havana, Cuba, during a protest by more than 200 government supporters who attacked 12 human rights activists yesterday. - REUTERS

HAVANA (Reuters):

More than 200 Cuban government supporters attacked 15 human rights activists on International Human Rights Day yesterday, manhandling the demonstrators as they drove them from a Havana park.

"Fidel, Fidel" and "Raul, Raul," the mob shouted as it swarmed the dissidents before their protest could begin, breaking up the group and shoving and dragging the activists for a few blocks. One protester's shirt was ripped off and he was threatened with a beating.

"One of us suffered a fractured arm and almost everyone was hit," march organiser Dr. Darcy Ferrer said in a telephone interview. "We do not know if anyone was detained as we still haven't heard from six or seven people," he said.

The attack took place in view of foreign journalists, who were also the target of angry shouts by the crowd, and appeared to signal that acting President Raul Castro has no intention of softening his ailing brother Fidel's no-tolerance policy toward political opposition against the Communist state.

Cuba freed dissident Hector Palacios for health reasons on Wednesday, sparking speculation Raul might ease policy toward the 300 political prisoners local human rights groups say are in Cuban jails.

Palacios was arrested in 2003 in a crackdown on dissent that landed 75 pro-democracy activists in prison for conspiring against Cuba with its ideological enemy, the United States.