HAVANA — A leading Cuban human rights group yesterday urged governments around the world to petition Havana to spare the lives of army deserters who could face a firing squad for allegedly killing soldiers as they fled military bases.The statement by the non-governmental Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation referred to a deadly attempted hijacking at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport last week, as well as a previously unreported December shootout and escape in eastern Cuba.

Signed by veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, the statement noted that Cuban military law calls for capital punishment in desertion cases for anyone older than 20. The two cases of escaped soldiers involved six men, only two of whom were old enough to face a death penalty.

The statement called on organisations and governments around the world to protest capital punishment in Cuba, where several dozen prisoners are on death row.

The government’s swift execution of three men convicted of hijacking a Havana passenger ferry in April 2003 — a case in which no one was killed — led to international protests, which were largely ignored by Cuban authorities.

Sanchez’s committee said that precedent means executions could likely be coming in the desertion cases.

The government also almost always ignores what Sanchez says and refuses to legally recognise his committee.

In the most recent case of desertion, three young men who had been performing their mandatory military service shot their way out of the Managua base southeast of the Cuban capital in late April, killing at least one soldier.

Despite a widespread manhunt, they avoided capture until they allegedly commandeered a city bus before dawn Thursday, forced it to drive to the airport and loaded eight of its passengers aboard an empty jetliner they demanded be flown to the United States.

Officials say they shot and killed an army officer who had been on the bus before a gun battle at the airport led to the capture of two of the escaped soldiers. The third soldier was arrested earlier.

The escaped soldiers were identified by the government as Alain Forbus and Leandro Cerezo, both 19, and Yoan Torres, 21, the only one apparently old enough to face the death penalty. It was unclear which of the three was captured before the attempted hijacking and the killing of the army lieutenant colonel who tried to stop it.

The government blamed US policies that let most Cubans stay if they reach American soil for encouraging violent attempts to get there.

The earlier desertion came on December 20, when three soldiers killed two Interior Ministry officials and made off with machine guns in fleeing El Manguito garrison near Santiago, 525 miles east of Havana, according to the committee’s statement.

The suspects were captured a short distance away following an “intense military operation,” it added, identifying them as Yoelvis Delgado, Hiran Cabrera and Guillermo Cabrera. It said Delgado was 21, but did not give the ages of the other two.

The statement said the three were being held in Boniato Prison while waiting to face a military tribunal. Cuba’s government has not reported the incident.

Speaking by phone, Sanchez said two cases of deserting soldiers in six months show the government has struggled to maintain order, even in a country as tightly controlled as Cuba.