COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Some 226 delegates from 18 countries met here Oct. 20-21 for the Sixth Asia-Pacific Regional Conference for Solidarity with Cuba. Representing a range of Cuba solidarity committees and other organizations, participants came from Laos, East Timor, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, North Korea, Philippines, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Burma, Mongolia and Japan, as well as from Cuba and the United States.

They exchanged experiences and discussed how to advance the worldwide fight to win the release of five Cuban revolutionaries framed up and imprisoned by the U.S. government, as well as to oppose Washington’s decades-long economic war against the Cuban Revolution. The gathering, hosted by the Sri Lanka-Cuba Solidarity National Committee, was organized at the initiative of the Havana-based Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).

The photo shows the presiding committee. From left: Pallab Sen Gupta of India; Du Duc Dinh of Vietnam; Chamal Rajapaksa, speaker of Sri Lanka parliament; Caridad Diego of Cuba; and Chaleune Ylapoher, minister of justice in Laos. At podium is Dinesh Gunawardena, chair of conference preparatory committee and Sri Lankan minister of water supply drainage.

—RON POULSEN AND JANET ROTH