Extracts. Castro Visits Iran Cuban President Fidel Castro on Tuesday praised Iran for its struggles against imperialism and said his first visit to Iran would strengthen bonds between the two nations, both locked under unilateral U.S. sanctions. President Mohammad Khatami greeted Castro, who appeared at the formal welcome Tuesday in a navy suit and tie rather than his usual military attire, with a handshake. An honor guard stood in the sprawling gardens of the Saadabad Palace. "My visit to Iran for me and my nation is a great privilege," Iranian state-run television quoted Castro as saying. "I truly believe that the relations of the two countries will be stronger after this trip." On receiving Castro, who arrived in Tehran late Monday, Khatami referred to the Iranian revolution more than two decades ago that ousted the U.S.-supported shah. "Our nation has great affection for the people of Cuba, and Mr. Castro's presence here today comes after 22 years of waiting," Khatami said. Castro also referred to the revolution, saying that "while Iran was a regional gendarme (for the United States) before the revolution, it has played a leading role in fighting against imperialism over the past 22 years," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Later Tuesday, Castro laid a wreath at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian revolution and a vitriolic critic of the United States. Although Khatami has embarked on a slow rapprochement with Washington, many Iranian officials still refer to the United States as the "Great Satan." Hotel lobbies often are adorned with signs that say, "Death to America." In Cuba, Castro regularly rails against the United States government. Earlier this month, he ridiculed President Bush and warned against U.S. "annexation" of Latin America through the creation of a hemispheric free-trade zone. The Cuban leader arrived in Iran from Algeria; he also was expected to visit Malaysia and Qatar. Cuba's communist government almost never announces Castro's travel schedule in advance because of security concerns. In recent years, the 74-year-old Cuban leader mainly has traveled to regional summits in Latin America and the Caribbean. Khatami met Castro once in 1998 and again last year when he stopped off in Havana on the way back from an oil summit in Venezuela. **** China Opposes US Spy Flights Off Chinese Coast, FM Spokesman China has constantly opposed US spy flights off China's coast and will continue to lodge serious representations with the United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> on the resumption of such flights, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said Tuesday. Asked to comment on reports that the United States has resumed reconnaissance flights off the Chinese coast, Sun said that China's opposition to such spy flights is "consistent and clear." He urged the US side to "draw a lesson (from the recent incident) and correct such wrong-doings." Surveillance Flight Resumed According to reports, the US side resumed reconnaissance flights off China's coast Monday by an unarmed RC-135 military aircraft off northeastern China after the April 1 collision incident. An unescorted US Air Force RC-135 took off from Kadena Air Force base in Japan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/japan.html> on May 7 flew along the Chinese coast, staying in "international airspace," a source told ABCNEWS. The Pentagon confirmed that the surveillance flight returned to the Kadena base without any contact with the Chinese. In the past, Chinese fighter jets have attempted to intercept US surveillance flights over the South China Sea. US officials said the purpose of the flight was to establish a new baseline of intelligence on China. The RC-135 flies higher and faster than the EP-3 Aries II. Monday's surveillance flight was the first since US reconnaissance missions were suspended after a tense diplomatic standoff instigated by an April 1 midair collision between a US Navy plane and a Chinese fighter jet. The 24-member crew of the Navy spy plane, who made an emergency and unallowed landing on Hainan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/hainan.html> Island, were held by the Chinese for 11 days. **** EP-3 Plane Cannot Fly Back from Hainan: Spokesman Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi reiterated Tuesday that the EP-3 plane of the United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> cannot leave south China's Hainan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/hainan.html> Island by means of flight. Sun made the remarks while replying to a question from the media: "It is reported that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently expressed the hope that US EP-3 plane could fly back to US from the Hainan Island. Does the Chinese side allow this means of returning the US plane?" Sun replied, "The Chinese side has several times stated clearly in relevant Sino-US negotiations that it is impossible for the US EP-3 plane to fly back to US from Hainan Island." "The US side should take a pragmatic and constructive attitude so that the issue on handling the US plane could be properly settled," the spokesman added. **** Consecration Ceremony for Myanmar Jade Buddha Held in Beijing A consecration ceremony for a jade Buddha presented by the Myanmar government was held Monday by the Chinese Buddhist Association in Beijing's Lingguang Temple. When visiting China last June, General Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council, said that he would present a jade Buddha to China on behalf of the Myanmar government to commemorate China's senting of the tooth relic of Sakyamuni to Myanmar for enshrinement. The tooth relic, still treasured in Lingguang Temple, has so far been sent to Myanmar three times to be enshrined and worshipped there at the request of the Myanmar side. On a nine-inch pedestal, the 54-inch-tall jade Buddha was formally handed over to China early this year, and will be enshrined in the Jade Buddha Hall of Lingguang Temple. The Chinese Buddhist Association made considerable preparations to welcome the jade Buddha. For instance, it rebuilt and refurbished the old Buddhist hall to enshrine the Buddha. The ceremony was attended by officials from the Chinese State Administration of Religious Affairs and the Chinese Buddhist Association as well as hundreds of monks and laymen. A Myanmar government delegation headed by Minister of Religious Affairs U Aung Khin and some diplomats from the Myanmar Embassy in China also attended the ceremony as honored guests. **** US Should Stop Criticizing Other Countries for Human Rights The United States should stop criticizing human rights issue of other countries, said a Vietnamese spokeswoman. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh made the remarks here Tuesday in response to a relevant question. She said the United States must have realized the international community's assessments on the United States in the field of human rights. The relationship between Vietnam and the United States is the relationship between two sovereign states established on the base of respecting each other's independence, sovereignty, non- interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, Thanh said. The spokeswoman also said that Vietnam is ready to hold talks with the United States on the issues of common concern, including the issue of human rights on the basis of equality, respecting each other's independence, sovereignty and not imposing one's views on others. **** Cuba Comments on US' Ouster from UNHRC Noting that the US was voted off the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), an article carried in the Cuban newspaper Granma pointed out that the result serves as a punishment to the US' hegemonic policy. The article said that this is the first time that the US has been excluded from such a highly political world body. This is a moral victory for Cuba to oust the US, the principal to undermine human rights, from UNHRC, it added. The article continued that in the voting, many countries, which could not raise their objections openly in the presence of the US�� hegemony and violence, cast their punitive votes. It noted that the US bullies the peoples of other countries and its allies as well, thus running into the predicament of isolation. ***** US Ouster From UNHRC Proves Failure of Its Human Rights Policy A senior Cambodian official said Tuesday that the US ouster from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has indicated the failure of its human rights policy. In an interview with Xinhua, Lu Laysreng, Cambodian Senior Minister of State and Minister of Information stated that "the US ouster from the UNHRC has made the US lose face before the peoples of the whole world. And it is also a shame to the US foreign policy." He noted that the US has always posed itself as a defender of peace, democracy and human rights, saying that the US interferes in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of protecting human rights of other countries. The minister pointed out that "the US failure has also indicated that the US human rights policy is very unpopular in the majority of developing countries, so it failed." **** >From Yugoslavia to Geneva-In Memory of May 8th Martyrs "This is a crystal clear mirror.�-.There are nutriment and air needed for meditation". Those are the lines written by Poet Byron when he toured Leman lake (Geneva Lake) in Geneva. In March and April 2001, I was participating in reporting the UN Human Rights Commission session. In the same period of the year before last, I experienced and reported a war in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Today of the year before last, US-led NATO conducted savage bombings of a small country; in the same period of this year, the United States took the field itself without any disguise, at the human rights session, it attacked the developing countries, picking faults right and left. On May 8 two years ago, US missiles attacked Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, resulting in the deaths of three Chinese journalists, and injuries of more than 20 embassy staff, to this date, the wounds of the Chinese people have not as yet been healed; at the human rights session the United States again waved its human rights big stick at China. As an ordinary journalist, I have not as yet made a deep analysis of the view--"human right standing above sovereignty", my intuition tells me: this obviously is "might meaning right". Yugoslavia-Geneva, this is a war in the same strain, whether with or without the smoke of gunpowder, the United States wanted to achieve one aim: clearing obstacles to establish a world of the United States. Things that took place on the soil of Yugoslavia are not far away from us. I remember that one night when NATO bombed Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav driver drove a car to send us back to our station. When NATO aircraft rumbled past, the driver leaned out of the window, waved his fist toward the sky and cried, "You, a horde of cowards, come down to the ground and have a fight with us if you have the guts, we can floor you three with one punish." US-led NATO, however, finally subdued the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia only by relying on continuous air attacks, not through ground battle. The aggressors, like playing video games, selected their targets on the computer screen, pressed the buttons, and destroyed Yugoslav factories, bridges, railways and highways one by one in a calm and unhurried manner. When the brave yet despair Yugoslav people went out of the air-raid shelters, walked onto the bridges and defended the bridges, factories and television stations with their own bodies against NATO bombings, as a foreign reporter, I saw at that time the heroic and stirring scene, I wanted to cry but had no tears. I remember the words said by Javier Solana, then secretary-general of NATO: If Yugoslavia does not submit to our will, we will peal its skin as we do to a rabbit until it is dead. The elated victor really got a swelled head. On May 8, 1999, they extended their evil hands to Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. Although China is far away from Yugoslavia and is separated from the United States by half of the globe; and although there are various international laws and international rules, they still put their hands to it. Is it that in their ideology, China is no more than an enlarged Yugoslavia? The Kosovo flames of war left us too many things to ponder over. Two years have elapsed, the United States has forgotton that it owed the Chinese people a debt of blood, and that it ravaged the innocent people of Yugoslavia, on the UN human right rostrum this year, it again taught the Chinese people and the people of other developing countries a lesson at the UN human rights rostrum in the posture of a human rights guardian. Moreover, the United States applied strong political and economic pressure on members of the Human Rights Commission, demanding that they submit to US will and pass the anti-China motion it tabled. It dared to do so because it thought it could do so. I remember that Assistant Secretary of State of the United States Halord Koh once openly said: In the world today, there is nothing that the United States cannot accomplish if it wants to. But what about the fact? The American anti-China motion was defeated for the 10th time. China does not fear any threat, since the opposite side chose confrontation, then we would take on it to the very end. Don't slight the trial of strength at the human rights session, the US swelled arrogance after the Kosovo war had been continually frustrated in Geneva, the two battles fought at the human rights sessions last year and this year have boosted the morale of the Chinese and other developing countries. When representatives of various countries vied to come over to the seat of the Chinese delegation, shook hands and embraced the Chinese representative, and when the utterly lonely US representative walked away with his briefcase, I felt the strength of justice. This year's human rights session has concluded. As we were about to leave Geneva there came the news saying that the United States failed to be elected in the re-election of the UN Human Rights Commission, the Uncle Sam who had ordered people about in the Human Right Commission for dozens of years had to hold an indifferent position for the first time. I once against had a walk along the banks of aforesaid lake. On one side were the blue water and azure sky, the swans and wild ducks were playing with water, the distant mountains were undulating and the snow gleamed white; on the other side the grass looked like a carpet, lovely flowers were everywhere, famous architectures, former residences of celebrities, the well-known dance music Swan composed by Tchaikovsky here, the beautiful melodies seemed to be drifting between mountains and rivers. This reminded me of the eternal photo: Two youngsters laughed heartily in the bright and beautiful sunshine and bouquets of flowers and piles of brocades, in their hands were fairly blue birds ready to fly. It was in this season, at this place and amidst this beautiful melody that Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying left Geneva for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Is this a coincidence? Geneva-Yugoslavia? I wish that the story of Prince and Princess Odette would not be rewritten by vicious persons. **** S.Korea Urges Japan to Revise 35 Passages in Textbooks South Korea Tuesday made an official demand that the Japanese government revise a combined 35 distorted, downplayed or omitted passages in eight controversial middle school history textbooks. South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo Tuesday morning summoned Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Terusuerusuke Terada to his office to convey an aide-memoire and a 36-page document that specifies South Korean demands. At the 15-minute call-in meeting, Han urged the Japanese government to give quick revision of the suggested passages in accordance with its international promises and previous agreements, saying Japanese political leaders including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should exert leadership to resolve the issue. The foreign minister also said the textbook issue should not spoil the future-oriented bilateral relations between the two nations. "It should not hurt Koreans' past pains buried in their hearts, " Han said. On April 3, the Japanese Education Ministry approved eight textbooks, causing strong international indignation against Japan' s misdeed. **** Philippine Newspaper Comments on US�� Ouster from UNHRC The US' ouster from the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) is not accidental, but an inevitable outcome of its unjust acts, the Philippine's leading Chinese newspaper, World News, said in an editorial Monday. The editorial noted that the US always posts itself as a "human rights defender". "But it recklessly criticizes other countries for their human rights conditions and interferes in internal affairs of other countries. Therefore, the US inevitably encounters objections from other countries," it continued. "The human rights defender has become internationally notorious and become a laughing stock for other countries," the editorial added. The article said that the reason why the US was voted off UNHRC is also that its hegemonic policy is extremely unpopular. It pointed out that the US always pursues double standards on human rights issues, that is, wantonly attacks other countries while covering up its own errors. ��When dealing with other international issues, the US is always self-centered and goes its own way, thus losing trust on the international arena.�� The editorial emphasized that the US deserves its ouster and has no reason to blame others. **** US Deserves Ouster from UNHRC: Macao Newspaper The US deserves its ouster from the United Nations Human Right Commission (UNHRC), the Macao newspaper, Ta Chong Pao, said in a commentary Tuesday. It noted that the voting off the UNHRC gives a good lesson to the US which has been pursuing for a long time hegemony and grossly interfering in other countries' internal affairs. The newspaper noted that, it is a great satire that the US, which postes itself as the "world human rights police", was excluded from the UNHRC. This fully demonstrates that most countries, especially the developing countries, are indignant at the fact that the US has been pursuing for a ong time hegemonism on the human rights issue and grossly interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the signboard of human rights. The failure of the US is a penalty meted out by justice and international laws to the superpower, the newspaper said. According to the commentary, three factors resulted in the US' failure. Firstly, the US government issues a human rights report annually to wantonly condemn many countries for their human rights conditions. Secondly, the Bush administration's decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Kyoto Pact and its announcement of the establishment of the NMD have also encountered extensive condemnation from the international community. Thirdly, for a long time the United States has deliberately defaulted its UN membership dues as a chip to control and manipulate the United Nations, the newspaper noted. It pointed out that the US' ouster from the UNHRC is a significant historical event and serves as a good lesson to the White House policymakers. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
