Today is the tenth day of Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas' hunger strike. As he is refusing to drink, he could die at any time. He is determined to do so. "Everything that happens to me is the responsibility of the Cuban government," he says from his deathbed.

The 48-year-old journalist and dissident hopes his death will be bring more embarrassment on the Cuban government. Wouldn't he be more useful alive?

"I do think about that, but then I remember a line from the Cuban national anthem: To die for your fatherland is to live."

Intensive care
Mr Fariñas has just returned from hospital, where his family took him after he went into a coma. He was put on a drip and regained consciousness. But he did not receive further treatment, he says on the telephone:

"The hospital manager Derby Jimenes Serrano told my mother and my wife that the hospital serves the revolutionary citizens who support the revolution. And that it is not for counter-revolutionaries who want to disrupt the country and that they would keep me on the ward for a while but then they would send me back home."

Political prisoners
Last week, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after 86 days on hunger strike in prison. Four other political prisoners went on hunger strike last weekend, but have since stopped. Guillermo Fariñas has not. His mother, his wife and his colleagues beg him daily to end his hunger strike, because it will kill him. His life has been saved by the hospital drip, but his doctor believes his condition could become critical again after the weekend.

Guillermo Fariñas says he is just as motivated now as when he began and says he will carry on because his demand is a legitimate one: freedom for all political prisoners who are ill and who doctors have recommended for release because their lives are in danger in Cuban prisons.

"First degree murder"
Mr Fariñas is unable to accept "the deliberate murder of Orlando Zapata Tamayo". "The government should be called to account for this murder in the first degree because that is what it is." He stressed that it is up to the Cuban leaders to make the next move. He has not asked them to hand over power or dissolve the communist party. He is just asking them to follow the recommendations of the Interior Ministry's own doctors, who have asked for the release of 26 political prisoners in poor physical condition.

International community
According to Mr Fariñas the international community is very important to Cuba, because the country is deeply in debt and the economy is very weak. Governments could put huge pressure on the Cuban government, so that the 26 political prisoners, "who are only waiting for a signature", are released.

But the government is not prepared to make a gesture.

"Since 1959 they have been used to killing people, just killing people. And if you don't want to die you have to leave the country, because this country is their property. And I am not prepared to leave my country. I have never wanted to and that is why they have to let me die here."