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Cuba bases its decision to bar the UN "monitor" not on its sovereignty -- although national sovereignty is what gives Cuba the undeniable right to make the decision to bar him -- but also on violations of international legality involved in the adoption of the U.S.-driven resolution. Note the viciously oversimplified version of Cuba's argument against the resolution: "Cuba insists it respects human rights by guaranteeing broad social services such as free health care and education." While health care and education are human rights as well as needs -- in contrast to capitalist countries where these are treated as burdensome "social service" expenses -Cuba does not limit its argument to this. They can point out thsat there is no torture in Cuba, no routine murders by the cops, no race discrimination, improvements in the status of women, recognition of the democratic rights of gays, involvement of the people in political decision-making, the broad and varied character of cultural life, and many other things. At the same time, they show how the narrow and exclusive human rights campaigns sponsored by the United States are stacked against the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Fred Feldman Fred Feldman And, as the article concedes, they contrast the human-rights situation in the free territory of Cuba to the crimes being committed by the United States in the occupied territory of Guantanamo. Fred Feldman Cuba: U.N. human rights monitor cannot visit the island ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer Friday, March 14, 2003 �2003 Associated Press (03-14) 17:59 PST HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba said Friday it will not let a U.N. human rights monitor visit the island because the U.S.-backed resolution creating her post was illegitimate. Instead, French jurist Christine Chanet would be more useful visiting terror suspects at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said. The U.N. Human Rights Commission last year approved a resolution calling on Cuba to allow such liberties as freedom of speech and association and to let a U.N. monitor in to check on progress. Chanet was appointed in January. "Cuba has not cooperated, nor will it cooperate with the resolution," Perez Roque said. He charged that U.S. arm-twisting brought about the resolution and said Cuba does not accept the legitimacy of the commission vote. "The only place on this island where the existence of such a special envoy could be justified is at the (U.S.) Naval Base at Guantanamo," he said. The United States is holding 650 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters at the base in eastern Cuba. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello accused the United States on Thursday of keeping the Guantanamo detainees in a "legal black hole" by denying them hearings in U.S. courts. A U.S. court ruled this week that because the prisoners are aliens held outside U.S. sovereign territory, they are not entitled to such constitutional rights as being charged with a crime or having access to a lawyer. Communist-run Cuba has no control over how the base is used. To prevent alienating Americans who support changes in U.S. policies toward Cuba, the island's leaders officially have not opposed the prison's existence, though they resent having a U.S. base in their country. The U.N. rights commission is preparing for its annual meeting in Geneva beginning Monday, and the foreign minister said he would attend with a delegation. The commission has voted to censure Cuba every year over the past decade except 1998. Cuba annually accuses the United States of strong-arm tactics to lobby support for the vote -- a claim American officials deny. Cuba insists it respects human rights by guaranteeing broad social services such as free health care and education. It says rich nations that fail to protect the poor are in no position to preach. Censure by the U.N. body brings no penalties but draws international attention to a country's rights record. �2003 Associated Press Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^^=============================================================== This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^^===============================================================
