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Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 23:18:09 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-19 Sept 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 19 September 2001
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*CUBA EXPRESSES DEEP CONCERN OVER ATMOSPHERE OF HATE IN US
*CUBAN EXPERTS ALARMED BY US ATTEMPT TO CONVERT PAIN TO BLIND RAGE
*US MEDIA WATCHDOG DEPLORES WARMONGERING IN MEDIA OUTLETS
*IN AN EXCEPTION TO WAR RHETORIC, BOSTON GLOBE NOTES GROWING PACIFISM
*SOVIET VETERANS OF AFGHAN WAR WARN THE US WHAT AWAITS
*MASSIVE OPPOSITION IN PAKISTAN TO COOPERATION WITH US WAR
*PRIME MINISTER GONSALVES SPEAKS OF NEED FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION
*FIFTH INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION FAIR OPENS IN HAVANA
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*CUBA EXPRESSES DEEP CONCERN OVER ATMOSPHERE OF HATE IN US
Havana, September 19 (RHC)--The government of Cuba has expressed deep
concern over the propagation of sentiments of hate and arrogance
following what it called the sad and brutal news of the September
11 terrorist attacks. A front page statement published in the
official Cuban news daily "Granma" asserted that, accompanied by the
terrible images of suffering and pain, some are allowing themselves
to be carried away by the resurgence of old methods and doctrines
that are at the very roots of terrorism and the perilous tensions
that have emerged within the international scenario.
The government of Cuba asserted that at a moment when the only wise
choice is the serene and courageous search for definitive solutions
to terrorism and other tragedies based on universal consensus,
influential US political leaders are pronouncing unrestrained phrases
with anger and a spirit of vengeance that haven't been heard since
the Second World War.
Any honest person, reads the statement, has the right to ask whether
US circles of power are truly seeking justice or are using the
painful and unprecedented tragedy to impose methods and privileges
that will lead to the tyranny, without limits nor restrictions, of
the planet's most powerful State over all the world's peoples.
Referring to calls for the lifting of restrictions on political
assassinations by US government agencies, Cuba recalled that these
methods were used to eliminate patriotic leaders like Patrice Lumumba
in 1961, and to organize military takeovers and genocides that have
cost hundreds of thousands of lives and left millions of people
tortured and disappeared.
Recalling Washington's terrorism against Cuba, confirmed in Senate
hearings and investigations, the official statement asserted that US
intelligence services developed an entire branch of science dedicated
to the most grotesque and repugnant ways to kill. Terrorism is no
worse than a government's proclamation of the right to kill at
discretion in any part of the world without legal norms, trials nor
even evidence, continues the statement, calling this type of policy
uncivilized -- the law of the jungle -- and a threat to world peace.
*CUBAN EXPERTS ALARMED BY US ATTEMPT TO CONVERT PAIN TO BLIND RAGE
Havana, September 19 (RHC)--Cuban journalists and experts in
international affairs warn that the pain and suffering of the
American people in the wake of last week's tragic events in the
United States is being converted into calls for blind revenge.
During Tuesday evening's roundtable discussion -- broadcast live on
Cuban radio and television -- panelists stated that rather than
military attacks against an alleged enemy, the real causes of
terrorism must be confronted.
Special attention was devoted to Washington's preparations for
military strikes against those they believe are responsible for the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Reynaldo Taladrid, a journalist with Cuban television, pointed out
that the United States is psychologically preparing public opinion
for a major military response to the events of last week. He said
that recent statements by U.S. authorities have all pointed in the
direction of a major military action.
Panelists on the roundtable discussion noted that citizens of 62
countries are missing and presumed dead -- a fact that Washington is
using to pressure other nations to sign on to the impending military
strikes.
The roundtable discussion stressed that the drums of war being heard
in Washington could lead the world to a conflict of incalculable
consequences.
*US MEDIA WATCHDOG DEPLORES WARMONGERING IN MEDIA OUTLETS
September 19 (RHC)--The US media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting, or FAIR, has deplored the warmongering in the country's
media outlets, noting that for some it doesn't matter who bears the
brunt of an American attack. In a press release entitled "Media March
to War," the organization referred to commentators who appear to
blame the September 11 terrorist attack on what they see as America's
unwillingness to act aggressively in recent years.
It's worth recalling, FAIR said, the US response to the bombing of a
Berlin disco in April, 1986, which resulted in the deaths of two US
soldiers. Washington immediately bombed Libya, which it blamed for
the attack, killing 36 civilians, including the baby daughter of
Libyan leader Muhamar Khadafy. Libyans did not consider this a
"pinprick," a word used by media commentators concerning recent US
military responses. Nor, it continued, was the bombing of Yugoslavia
and Iraq a transformation of a killing machine into a playpen for
sociologists and political schemers, as the Chicago Tribune's John
Kass recently stated.
The group noted that all these deaths apparently had little
deterrence value, pointing to the December, 1988 bomb that destroyed
a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. More recently, states the
FAIR press release, in 1998 Bill Clinton sent 60 cruise missiles,
some equipped with cluster bombs, against Bin Ladens's Afghan base
and a Sudanese pharmaceutical firm as retaliation for the bombing of
US embassies in Africa. The record of retributory violence in
insuring security is dubious, FAIR said, while noting that instead of
serious inquiry into anti-US sentiment in the Middle East and
elsewhere, many commentators are offering little more than
self-congratulatory rhetoric.
*IN AN EXCEPTION TO WAR RHETORIC, BOSTON GLOBE NOTES GROWING PACIFISM
September 17 (RHC)--While much of the US media is full of war
rhetoric, there are exceptions. The Tuesday edition of the "Boston
Globe" reported that peace activists are gathering quietly in vigils,
and that though they are largely being drowned out by a feverish tide
of war rhetoric, the voices of pacifism and restraint are growing
stronger.
Globe staff writers Alice Dembner and David Abel, in an article
entitled "Peace Vigils Planned Throughout the US: Amid Talk of War,
Movement Pleads for Reconciliation," noted that the monument to
George Washington at the World Trade Center is not only draped in
American flags, but also covered with antiwar slogans. Dembner and
Abel wrote that peace vigils have been held from Portland, Oregon to
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and hundreds more are planned over the
coming weeks.
According to the article, more than 100 civil rights and religious
organizations plan to gather Thursday in Washington to map a larger
response to last week's terrorism, hoping to moderate the
government's support for military strikes abroad and expanded law
enforcement powers at home. Separately, according to the Boston Globe
article, peace groups will gather in New York on Friday to plan
national action against President Bush's declared "war on terrorism,"
arguing that war is not the answer and will only add to the carnage.
The article asserted that it's not only pacifists who oppose the war
rhetoric, but also others who look to history and see failures and
abuses when the United States moved without enough thought. It quoted
retired Boston University historian Howard Zinn, who said the United
States has to move from a war-making nation to a nation that uses its
resources for constructive powers to get at the grievances that feed
terrorism.
*SOVIET VETERANS OF AFGHAN WAR WARN THE US WHAT AWAITS
Moscow, September 19 (RHC)--Soviet soldiers who fought in
Afghanistan have warned of the "sea of bloodshed" that would
accompany a war against the Taliban regime, insisting that the United
States would fail in such an endeavor. Retired General Boris Gromov,
currently Governor of the Moscow region, stated that a war against
Afghanistan would be a dangerous task for any country.
The commander of the last Soviet troops to abandon Afghanistan in
1989 said most of the Afghan people are peace-loving, don't support
any established power, but are willing to defend their country from
aggression. General Alexandr Rutzkoi stated that if Washington wants
to earn the hate of the entire Muslim world the US only has to launch
a war against Afghanistan.
Rutzkoi, also a former Russian vice president, said Afghanistan is
not Yugoslavia -- that air strikes will be useless against a
territory full of mountains and deserts. The Russian general recalled
the words of Alexander the Great, who asserted that you can enter
Afghanistan but you can never win, saying both the Soviets and the
British have had this experience.
Other Russian generals suggested that Washington give support to
anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan that now only control between 5
and 10 percent of the country, stating that one form of support would
be the bombardment of the bases where the Taliban hide their
arsenals.
Observers are note that as Russia wavers on whether and how to
support the United States in fighting what President Vladimir Putin
has called a "common enemy," statements by the Russian generals are a
reminder that Moscow's ambivalence is more than the lingering
mistrust of a former Cold War rival or concern about US military
involvement in Central Asia, Russia's traditional sphere of influence
on its southern border.
Russian hesitation is seen as a reflection of the country's
conviction that Afghanistan is a place where a war cannot be won,
where high mountain gorges still hold the terrifying memories of a
thousand ambushes and where controlling the cities never meant
subduing the land.
*MASSIVE OPPOSITION IN PAKISTAN TO COOPERATION WITH US WAR
Islamabad, September 19 (RHC)--Opposition in Pakistan to a US
military strike against Afghanistan intensified Wednesday, with
numerous religious authorities calling for a Holy War against
Washington if it attacks. Western embassies in Pakistan have begun to
send their families home in fear of disturbances if the attack takes
place.
Pakistan's principal religious organization, the Ulema Council,
issued the warning as thousands of fundamentalist Pakistani students
marched through the streets of the northern city of Peshawar
expressing support for Osama Bin Laden.
The Ulema Council announced street demonstrations throughout the
country next Friday to protest any eventual Pakistani cooperation
with Washington. The Ulema Council includes all the theological
leaders of every Sunni Muslim tendency, the country's majority
religion.
*PRIME MINISTER GONSALVES SPEAKS OF NEED FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION
Havana, September 19 (RHC)--The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and
the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, continues his visit to the island.
Speaking with reporters following a ceremony to render homage to
Cuba's National Hero Jose Marti, Gonsalves said he was extremely
pleased with his visit so far. He had special words of praise for
Cuban President Fidel Castro, whom he called "not only a great Cuban,
but a great internationalist and an exceptional human being."
The prime minister said his talks with the leader of the Cuban
Revolution have been "a tremendous educational experience." He noted
that he sometimes felt like he was in a classroom, listening to a
great teacher. The two Caribbean heads of state discussed a number of
issues, including bilateral relations and the international
situation.
Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Gonsalves delivered a lecture at
the University of Havana, addressing the need for regional
integration and greater cooperation in the Caribbean.
*FIFTH INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION FAIR OPENS IN HAVANA
Havana, September 19 (RHC)--Representatives from 21 countries and
more than 100 companies are represented at Havana's International
Transportation Fair, the largest such event in that economic sector
held on the island. The Fair got underway today and runs through
Saturday, the 22nd, at Pabexpo Exhibit Hall.
Samples on display include products and services for maritime, land
and rail transportation, as well as road products and other
transportation-related items.
There are 28 foreign firms taking part in this year's Fair, while the
rest are Cuban-based enterprises. Grouped in the 6800 square-meter
exhibit area are the largest display stands belonging to Panama,
Germany, Spain, Canada and Holland.
Meanwhile, the International Transportation Convention 2001 is
running at the same time as the Fair at Havana's International
Convention Center. Among the agenda items are preparations for the
11th Latin American Congress on Public and Urban Transportation. The
Convention also includes a technical and scientific workshop and the
3rd Latin American Meeting of Institutions in charge of
Transportation Supervision, Control and Regulation.
Other activities during the convention include lectures and
presentations on different technologies related to the transportation
industry.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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