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Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 05:15:14 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC Weekend-18 August 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 18 August 2001
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*HONDURAN PAPER OFFERS REVEALING GLIMPSE OF JOHN NEGROPONTE
*PRESIDENT OF SENEGAL BREAKS RANKS ON SLAVERY REPARATIONS
*COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT CLAIMS A MAJOR MILITARY DEFEAT FOR FARC
*GERMAN NEO-NAZIS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF RUDOLPH HESS
*LEADER OF PALESTINE COMMUNIST PARTY DIES
*KABILA SAYS UN NOT DOING ENOUGH TO HELP PEACE EFFORTS IN CONGO
*Viewpoint: BUSH AND TRAVEL TO CUBA: THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE BE DAMNED
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*HONDURAN PAPER OFFERS REVEALING GLIMPSE OF JOHN NEGROPONTE
Havana, August 18 (RHC)--In an article published by the Honduran news daily
El Tiempo, the former rector of the National Autonomous University of
Honduras writes that his life was effectively threatened by John Negroponte,
the US ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. Negroponte is currently US
president George W. Bush's nominee for the position of Ambassador to the
United Nations.
Negroponte's nomination has garnered great criticism from human rights
organizations in both the United States and Honduras due to Negroponte's
support of the repressive regimes of Central America that existed during
that period of time.
Dr Juan Almenares recounts a meeting he had with Negroponte in 1982 in which
the ambassador showed clear hostility. Almenares was known for his position
against the U.S. military occupation and the presence of the Nicaraguan
military contras in Honduras. He also spoke out against the human rights
violations taking place all through the 1980s.
In his articles, Almenares recalls that he was incessantly subjected to
persecution, threats, attempts on his life and constant psychological
warfare. It was in this ambiance that he was asked to meet with the US
ambassador.
Almenares explains that Negroponte was intimidating and hostile the entire
time. The US cultural attach� did the talking. When the university rector
asked when the United States was going to end its military occupation of
Honduran territory, Negroponte replied that he would answer the question
after Almenares had been reelected as rector. Almenares immediately
understood the remark to mean that he would not be reelected.
A few weeks after the interview, the rector was visited by Jos� Benjam�n
Cisne Reyes, a magistrate at the Honduran Supreme Court, who told him that
all the Supreme Court magistrates had been summoned before Ambassador John
Negroponte, the chief of the Honduran armed forces and the president of the
nation, Roberto Suazo C�rdova. The magistrates were then told they were to
annul Almenares' reelection as university rector. The judge told Almenares
that he was forced to vote against him or he would be killed. He also said
that the rector would be facing death too.
Once Dr. Almenares was reelected, the Supreme Court declared his election as
null and void. Twenty years later, said Almenares, he feels he should speak
out against the man who oversaw human rights violations in Honduras and is
now being put forward to serve as Ambassador to the United Nations. He ended
by saying that he remembers human rights activist Father Guadalupe Carney, a
U.S. citizen, who disappeared during Negroponte's term in Honduras.
*PRESIDENT OF SENEGAL BREAKS RANKS ON SLAVERY REPARATIONS
Dakar, August 18 (RHC)--In the ongoing battle of words prior to the
beginning of a conference on racism, xenophobia and the legacy of slavery
scheduled for Durban, South Africa, the president of Senegal has crossed
swords with many human rights activists.
President Abdoulaye Wade has spoken against the principle of demanding
compensation from the colonial powers for their role in the slave trade. He
said that Western nations should apologize for what they had done and
declare that slavery is a crime against humanity. It is absurd, he added, to
demand indemnity. How would it be paid out and to whom, he asked. Others
have said they are worried that the issue will take precedence over other
important matters that deserve immediate attention.
Many African nations are seeking compensation from Europe and the United
States for their part in the perpetration and maintenance of the slave
trade. Alioune Tine, the executive secretary for the African Assembly for
the Defense of Human Rights, or RADDHO, said that the Senegalese president's
remarks were unfortunate. He added that Wade had broken the dynamic in which
Africa was grouping itself to confront the colonial nations that had
espoused slavery. Instead of giving us support he has given strength to the
position taken by the United States and European nations, said Tine.
Washington has threatened to boycott the Durban gathering if the issue of
slavery reparations is brought up. As a result, The U.S. has gained the ire
of Africa and human right organizations around the world. In reports on
Friday, Wade Henderson of the U.S. Civil Rights Leadership Conference called
Washington's opposition to include reparations for slavery and colonialism
in the Durban agenda hypocritical, pointing to the US government's staunch
defense of compensation for the victims of the Jewish holocaust and its
willingness to provide some payment to Japanese-Americans interned in
concentration camps during World War II.
He said the US human righs organizations will be in Durban with or without
Washington, and that they will make public a report on what he called the
chronic racism in the United States against African-Americans, Asians,
Hispanics and Native Americans.
*COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT CLAIMS A MAJOR MILITARY DEFEAT FOR FARC
Havana, August 18 (RHC)--In the wake in what Colombian government sources
are saying is one of the most devastating defeats for the nation's largest
guerilla force, Bogot� has sent a commission from the attorney general's
office into the zone of conflict to investigate the outcome.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, is reported to have
lost at least 100 combatants in the area of Guaviare including a major
attack against a convoy of supply trucks by the Colombian air force. The
attack was part of an offensive launched by President Andres Pastrana with
4,000 soldiers from the country's most elite units, supported by helicopters
and planes supplied by the United States. Some 1,300 guerilla fighters hold
the area.
The Blackhawk helicopters were consigned to Colombia on condition they only
be used in Bogot�'s struggle against farmers growing illicit crops for
processing into drugs.
*GERMAN NEO-NAZIS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF RUDOLPH HESS
Berlin, August 18 (RHC)--Some 200 Neo-Nazis participated in a memorial
march to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the death of Rudolph Hess, one
of Adolph Hitler's principal advisors.
The march took place in Hess' hometown of Wunsiedel where authorities
allowed the commemoration for the first time since 1991. A counter-march
involving 150 demonstrators was peaceful and no incidents between the two
groups were reported.
Rudolph Hess committed suicide on August 17, 1987 in Spandau Castle where he
had been imprisoned since the end of the Second World War. He was 94 years
old. His Neo-Nazi followers insist to this day that he was murdered and have
carried out pilgrimages to his hometown ever since. A plane trailing a
banner with the words "Hess Murdered" could be seen flying over the
marchers, the DPA news agency reported.
*LEADER OF PALESTINE COMMUNIST PARTY DIES
Ramallah, August 18 (RHC)--Thousands of people attended the funeral on
Saturday of Suleiman Najab, the leader of the Palestine Communist Party, who
died on Thursday after a serious illness. The burial took place in the city
of Ramallah in the West Bank.
As leader of the PCP since 1992, Najab was also a member of the Executive
Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization. His funeral coincided with
that of Naser Abu Zubie, the Al Fatah activist who was assassinated by an
Israeli secret service commando unit last Monday.
*KABILA SAYS UN NOT DOING ENOUGH TO HELP PEACE EFFORTS IN CONGO
Kinshasa, August 18 (RHC)--The president of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Joseph Kabila, has accused the United Nations and the African Union
of not correctly carrying out their roles as regional peacekeepers, said
Radio Kinshasa Saturday.
The declaration was made during an official visit of the Congolese president
to Malawi. Kabila said that the international organizations have failed in
their mission to put an end to civil war in his country and to punish those
responsible for maintaining rebels groups fighting against his government.
He named Rwanda and Uganda.
However, the leader of the Congo, who has been in power for only a few
months since the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, added that his
hopes for peace had not been dashed and that negotiations between both sides
would be taking place in Botswana next week.
The governments of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe support Kinshasa in its war
against the rebel groups. The new president of Malawi, Bakili Muluzi said
that he would do all he could to promote peace in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
*Viewpoint: BUSH AND TRAVEL TO CUBA: THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE BE DAMNED
Over the last decade, visiting Cuba has become an attractive pasttime. This
year alone, fully one million tourists had visited the island by the end of
July, with a further million expected before the end of 2001.
Cuba has, in fact, jumped up to 10th place in the list of countries most
visited in the Americas. Most visitors come from Canada, Spain, Germany,
Italy, France, Mexico, Great Britain and Argentina. But paradoxically, the
country that is closest to Cuba, with tourists who have substantial buying
power and the desire to visit the island, is the one that opposes its
economic growth.
For nearly four decades U.S. residents have been forbidden to visit the
island by successive governments that proclaim their country to be the most
democratic in the world. Their Constitution clearly states a citizen's right
to freedom of travel, but this annoying detail is skirted by using the
Treasury Department to monitor spending restrictions. Thus U.S. residents
are effectively banned from travel to Cuba, whatever those Founding Fathers
were trying to do.
This week has seen a very purposeful reminder that the freedoms of the U.S.
Constitution are not for everyone. An increasing number of people returning
from Cuba have been receiving letters from the Treasury Department
requesting information on their itinerary and later applying fines averaging
$7,500. The George W. Bush administration has made it very clear that it
intends to follow the Trading with the Enemy law to its strictest extent.
By now, everyone knows that this is a pay-off to the right-wing anti-Cuba
lobby in Florida that arranged to have Bush installed in the White House.
They fully control his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, and more or less run
Miami as a fiefdom. Their tentacles long ago extended into Congress but
never have they been able to gain so much power within the Oval Office
itself.
All this is being done against the will of the people of the United States
-- a full 70% of whom want to see their government's blockade raised.
Congress has just passed a resolution calling for a lifting of the effective
travel ban. The Senate is likely to follow suit and George W, true to form
in ignoring the will of the people he is supposed to represent, has promised
his Miami keepers that he will veto the legislation when it reaches his
desk. But then, the people didn't choose him for office in the first place
-- the Cuban-American Miami killers did -- so why would we expect him to
show loyalty to anyone but them?
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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