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Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 04:02:53 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer RHC News Digest-04 May 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 04 May 2001
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*WASHINGTON LOSES ITS SEAT ON THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
*KENT STATE ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS KILLED 31 YEARS AGO TODAY
*CUBA CREATES NEW MINISTRY TO COMBAT CORRUPTION AND IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
*UPROAR CONTINUES OVER FRENCH WARCRIMES IN ALGERIA
*CUBA AND FRANCE SIGN EDUCATIONAL AGREEMENTS
*INNOVATIVE WORK AT CUBAN BIOMATERIALS CENTER
*AWARDS GRANTED AT HEALTH FOR ALL FAIR
*Viewpoint: A STUNNING DEFEAT, AND AN IMPORTANT LESSON, FOR THE US
.
*WASHINGTON LOSES ITS SEAT ON THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Havana, May 4 (RHC)--The government of Cuba has asserted that the United
States' exclusion from the United Nations Human Rights Commission is clearly
the result of Washington's scandalous, arrogant and disgraceful conduct in
Geneva and in the international scenario in general.
Cuba's Granma news daily today front-paged an editorial asserting that
Thursday's vote eliminating the U.S. from the Commission can be interpreted
as a rejection of Washington's gunboat diplomacy, pressure tactics and
highly controversial attitudes regarding key issues on the agenda of the
international community.
The editorial recalled Washington's highly criticized decision to withdraw
from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, its controversial plans to deploy
a space-based anti-missile system, its unconditional support of Israel
reflected in Washington's Security Council veto on a resolution to provide
international protection for the Palestinian civilian population, and the
new U.S. administration's Cold War mentality with respect to China, Russia
and other nations.
The Cuban government recalled that this year the United States was in
opposition to 73% of the Human Rights Commission resolutions supported by
the majority of the agency's members, including sensitive issues such as the
right to food and the right of HIV-infected persons to have access to
affordable medication.
Finally, the editorial stated that what occurred in the vote of the UN
Economic and Social Council, which has authority over the Human Rights
Commission, denotes how countries vote when the balloting is secret and
there is no fear of Washington's reprisals.
Meanwhile, even those who defend Washington and its role in the UN Human
Rights Commission have admitted that its defeat reflects growing frustration
with the US Government's attitude toward international organizations and
treaties.
The New York Times wrote today that friends of the United States in Europe
and elsewhere have grown increasingly impatient, disappointed and annoyed
with actions by Washington.
While deploring the U.S.'s exclusion from the UN agency, Felice Gaer,
director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human
Rights, told the New York Times that when it came to issues like children's
rights and the outlawing of forced disappearances, the United States took an
aggressively negative stand.
William Vanden Heuvel, a former American deputy representative at the United
Nations who is now chairman of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute,
stated that there are so many people in so many countries who are angry at
the United States for not living up to its word and who are increasingly
finding the United States to be an untrustworthy partner.
The New York Times recognized that critics of the United Nations in Congress
have neglected American involvement in world organizations generally,
rejected a host of treaties and agreements, and built up a huge $580 million
UN debt that is still tied up in the House of Representatives, despite an
agreement worked out in December to lower American dues. The news daily
reported that a spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is now
threatening that the U.S.'s exclusion from the Commission might force
lawmakers to reconsider a carefully wrought agreement to pay those dues. The
New York Times also noted that officials are interpreting the vote as a snub
of Washington by the European Union.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported today that the U.S. pressured
Austria and Sweden to withdraw their candidates, but that the two nations,
along with France, adamantly refused -- indicating the United States may be
losing influence among its allies. The Washington Post also quoted a western
diplomat who stated that, despite the U.S. government's promise to consult
its allies on the issues of Star Wars, global warming and international
conflicts, there is a perception that the Bush administration wants to do
everything alone.
*KENT STATE ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS KILLED 31 YEARS AGO TODAY
Kent, Ohio, May 4 (RHC)--Today marks the 31st anniversary of the shooting
deaths of four students at Kent State University in the United States. On
this date in 1970, a peaceful demonstration to protest the U.S. war of
aggression against Vietnam was shattered by shots fired at students by the
Ohio National Guard.
Today on the campus of Kent State, a memorial ceremony was held to
commemorate the four students who were killed when National Guard troops
charged the retreating crowd. Eye-witnesses and some of those wounded 31
years ago recalled that the troops first fired tear-gas to disperse the
protesters. Then, without warning, an order was given to fire, and shots
rang out on the campus located in the U.S. State of Ohio.
One participant at today's ceremony told reporters that even after more than
30 years, no one will ever forget those four innocent students, gunned down
during protests of the U.S. war against the Vietnamese people.
*CUBA CREATES NEW MINISTRY TO COMBAT CORRUPTION AND IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
Havana, May 4 (RHC)--On Thursday, Cuba announced the creation of a new
Ministry to combat corruption and improve efficiency in its economy. The new
Ministry of Auditing and Control will oversee the administration of state
funds as well as detect and prevent all forms of corruption.
In 1995, President Fidel Castro warned that corruption played a major role
in the fall of the Soviet Union and could pose a potential threat to Cuba's
socialist system.
The new ministry will oversee and improve company book-keeping, reduce black
market activity and seek out those responsible for corruption, as well as
maintain a strict ethical code for officials and state managers. Lina
Pedraza Rodriguez, who is the director of the National Auditing Office, has
been named as the new minister.
While there have been examples of corruption among middle level managers in
Cuba, as well as cases of petty theft, foreign companies doing business on
the island frequently remark at the lack of corruption at higher levels,
making Cuba almost unique in the region. Foreigners say they are astounded
that the high-level contracts they sign with government agencies and
employees do not require the automatic accompaniment of bribes. In fact,
Fidel Castro has frequently challenged his critics to find any foreign bank
account belonging to any Cuban leader.
*UPROAR CONTINUES OVER FRENCH WAR CRIMES IN ALGERIA
Paris, May 4 (RHC)--Uproar and controversy continue in France following
revelations of crimes committed by French troops in Algeria in the 1950s.
Amid ongoing expressions of shock and disgust at revelations by a retired
French army general, who has admitted to death squad activity while
attempting to put down Algeria's independence struggle, some sectors are
calling for an investigation and for justice.
Retired General Paul Aussaresses sent shockwaves through French and
international public opinion this week with the publication of excerpts from
a book he has written admitting to torture and assassinations of Algerian
independence leaders. French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that he
is horrified, members of France's co-governing Green Party have called for a
special investigative commission, and an unidentified member of the French
Supreme Court told the news daily L'Humanite that the retired general's
revelations should be considered crimes against humanity.
Experts consulted by the news daily Liberation, however, recalled that in
July 1968, France passed amnesty laws benefiting all French soldiers who may
have committed crimes during the effort to prevent Algerian independence --
which led France to deploy a total of 500,000 troops to that North African
nation.
*CUBA AND FRANCE SIGN EDUCATIONAL AGREEMENTS
Havana, May 4 (RHC)-- Two agreements have been signed by Cuba with France
relating to a project on technical education and professional training, as
well as the expansion of French language courses on the island.
The agreements were signed in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign
Investment and Economic Cooperation yesterday, attended by the French
Ambassador Jean Levy and Deputy Minister Rodrigo Malmierca.
The accords, valued at $1.5 million, follow the 1998 incorporation of Cuba
into the French Zone of Cooperation and Solidarity and other talks
formalized in high level meetings between both countries since then.
Various Cuban educational institutions will benefit from the agreements,
including universities across the island, polytechnical schools, archives
and training centers. France will provide a series of grants as well as
teaching personnel, technical support, language laboratory equipment and
French literature.
*INNOVATIVE WORK AT CUBAN BIOMATERIALS CENTER
Havana, May 4 (RHC)--An article in the Cuban newspaper Granma International
has praised the work of the Biomaterials Center at the University of Havana.
The Center, known by its acronym BIOMAT, was founded in 1991 and was
designed to provide the Cuban health care system with materials that could
not be obtained elsewhere due to the U.S. blockade of the island.
The products manufactured by BIOMAT include an adhesive which seals skin
wounds, a powder used in bone reconstruction, and a product used in making
dental prostheses. The adhesive, which is called Tisuacryl, avoids the need
for changes of dressings after an operation and also minimizes scarring.
Tisuacryl is sold on the world market in direct competition with the same
product marketed by Johnson & Johnson of the US and the German firm Braun.
The competition is stiff but the Cuban firms selling Tisuacryl always
undercut the price of the transnationals. A significant amount of the
product is also donated to international missions in countries such as
Haiti, Honduras and Guatemala, where Cuban doctors are helping to set up
comprehensive health care systems.
BIOMAT also offers a number of other products used in dentistry, orthopedics
and tissue studies.
*AWARDS GRANTED AT HEALTH FOR ALL FAIR
Havana, May 4 (RHC)--At the end of last week's International Medical
Equipment Fair, also known as Health For All, Cuba was among a number of
countries granted awards.
Germany received seven awards, including advanced diagnostic technology
developed by Siemens for the study of the heart. Spain received five awards,
one of which was for a diagnostic kit for prostate cancer detection.
Cuba received recognition for a portable digital electrocardiograph machine
manufactured by the Central Institute of Digital Research, and the RALCA
external fixator for fractured hips, created by the Frank Pais Orthopedic
Hospital in Havana.
The island's National Center for Scientific Investigation also introduced
the Micro Diramic, a urinalysis device that is capable of producing results
in four hours and is said to be ideal for diagnosing urinary tract
infections of pregnant women.The devices will soon be installed in
neighborhood clinics across the country.
*Viewpoint: A STUNNING DEFEAT, AND AN IMPORTANT LESSON, FOR THE US
The United States government suffered a crushing defeat yesterday. Since
1947, the United States had been a member of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission. This year however, in the wake of Washington's scandalous,
arrogant and humiliating conduct in Geneva, it was excluded from the Human
Rights Commission in a secret-ballot vote by the UN Economic and Social
Council.
U.S. diplomats in New York were astonished by the results of the vote which
elected three out of four candidates from the group of Western countries to
vacant seats for 3-year terms on the Commission. The United States received
only 29 votes out of a possible 53, well behind France with 52 votes,
Austria with 41 and Switzerland with 32 votes, a humiliating defeat for the
imperialist superpower.
Upon learning of the results, which left U.S. diplomats dumbfounded, an
avalanche of diplomatic representatives from all over the world approached
the Cuban diplomats to congratulate them for what they described as the
price that Washington paid for its dirty maneuvers against Cuba, imposing
its own dictates by means of blackmail and threats against sovereign
countries.
The reaction in Washington was bitter disappointment, expressed by both the
US State Department through its spokesperson and by the chief of
Washington's delegation to the UN Economic and Social Council. Furious over
the defeat, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who performs as the
representative of the Miami-based anti-Cuba mafia, accused the Human Rights
Commission of being "a club of tyrannies," among other reasons because Cuba
is systematically re-elected as a member nation. Diaz-Balart threatened
that "the U.S. Congress "would take note of what is unfortunately happening
in the United Nations." A close friend of Diaz-Balart and representative of
the anti-Cuba mafia in the U.S. Congress,
Representative Ileana Ros Lethinen, a close friend of Diaz Balart who also
serves the anti-Cuba lobby in the US Congress, described the US loss of
membership on the Commission as "intolerable."
What the muddled, arrogant henchmen of the US government cannot understand
is that the outcome expresses the international community's disapproval of
Washington's gunboat diplomacy and its coercive practices at international
forums, as well as their constant manipulation and discriminatory practices
in the Geneva Commission. This year alone, Washington voted against 73% of
the measures proposed to deal with such highly sensitive issues as the right
to food and the access of AIDS patients to medication.
The vote also expresses the international community's strong rejection of
the US withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, its absurd and dangerous decision
to build a anti-missile shield, the cold war mentality of the new U.S.
administration, as well as Washington's unconditional support of Israel,
among many other U.S. actions.
What happened in the UN Economic and Social Council is a demonstration of
the genuine wishes of nations when they are able to vote in secret,
protected from Washington's fury. The result is also a blow to the hegemonic
aspirations of the United States in its attempts to use the issue of human
rights in its crusade against Cuba and the rest of the Third World.
Cuba was re-elected as a member of the Human Rights Commission last year by
a consensus of the Latin American group. The Caribbean island will continue
to defend in Geneva the right of peoples to a dignified life based on
justice and peace. Cuba will continue to stand against US maneuvers, as it
has done over the years, using as its best weapons -- the island's moral
authority and honor, and the support of an ever-increasing number of
nations.
For the United States, however, it is another lesson that the world is
changing.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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