From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-03 Oct 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 02 October 2001
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*CUBA'S UN AMBASSADOR SAYS WAR AGAINST TERRORISM CANNOT BE SELECTIVE
*PARLIAMENT TO RENDER HOMAGE TO VICTIMS OF 1976 TERRORIST ATTACK
*CUBAN DELEGATION VISITS SPANISH AUTONOMOUS REGIONS
*MAJOR CUBAN TRADE EXHIBITION UNDERWAY IN VENEZUELA
*INTERNATIONAL SPACE WEEK TO BE CELEBRATED IN CUBA
*MASSIVE PRO-TALIBAN, ANTI-US DEMONSTRATION IN PAKISTAN
*WASHINGTON DENIES HAVING EXCLUDED ARAB NATIONS FROM MILITARY ATTACKS
*BERLUSCONI CLAIMS "LEFTISTS DISTORTED" HIS REMARKS ON ISLAMIC CULTURE
*Viewpoint: NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE UN TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE
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*CUBA'S UN AMBASSADOR SAYS WAR AGAINST TERRORISM CANNOT BE SELECTIVE
New York, October 2 (RHC)--The war against terrorism cannot be
selective or respond to the interests of any particular government,
asserted Cuba's Permanent United Nations representative Bruno
Rodriguez on Monday. Addressing the special UN session on terrorism,
Rodriguez stated that while the UN Security Council has made specific
efforts and adopted several resolutions in the past, terrorism has
been an area in which prudence has prevailed. In the few cases where
specific acts of terrorism have been addressed, it has been in the
direct interest of some of its permanent members, he said.
The Cuban diplomat recalled that Cuba asked the Security Council to
act in 1976, when a Cuban civilian airplane was blown up in flight
after taking off from Barbados, killing all 73 people aboard. He said
resolution S/23990 submitted by Cuba was not even considered.
Rodriguez said that in comparing the draft resolution to that adopted
by the Security Council last Friday, he found that though Cuba's was
more moderate, it proposed some of the concepts and measures
contained in the recently adopted resolution.
Cuba's text, said Rodriguez, took note that one permanent member of
the Security Council -- in reference to Washington's representative
-- had evidence in its possession relating to that act. It also took
into account, he continued, the fact that the mastermind of the
terrorist act, Orlando Bosch, resided in the territory of that same
State - where he still lives - and that the other mastermind, Luis
Posada Carriles, had been doubly employed, after the appalling crime,
by the government of that State.
The Cuban diplomat said the resolution did not request the use of
force or sanctions, but simply asked the Council to condemn the
bombing, to indicate the obligation to clarify the crime and to
punish the guilty parties. It asked the State concerned, he
continued, to provide all the information and evidence in its
possession relating to the past and current information and current
residence of the terrorists who were in its territory, and to adopt
effective measures to prevent its territory from being used to
prepare, organize and carry out terrorist acts against Cuba.
And, said Bruno, it asked the Council to keep the matter under
consideration. After Cuba, recalled the Cuban diplomat, the permanent
member concerned took the floor for five minutes only to state that
he frankly could not help but wonder why they were there, that they
were losing time -- and that was the end of the meeting.
Rodriguez noted that Cuba has expressed support for a return to the
United Nations Organization of the prerogatives that it has been
deprived of and let the General Assembly, its most universal and
representative body, be the center of that fight for peace --
regardless of its limitations due to the arbitrary veto right of the
Security Council permanent members, most of them also members of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- and for the eradication of
terrorism with total and unanimous support from world opinion.
Terrorism, said Cuba's permanent UN representative, cannot be
eliminated if some terrorist acts are condemned while others are
ignored or justified. Rodriguez said he was speaking in the name of
3,478 Cubans who have died as a result of aggression and terrorist
acts, and the claim for justice of 2,099 who were disabled as a
result of those acts, noting that as late as the 1990s a total of 68
terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Cuba, 33 during the last
five years.
*PARLIAMENT TO RENDER HOMAGE TO VICTIMS OF 1976 TERRORIST ATTACK
Havana, October 2 (RHC)--The Cuban Parliament has convened an
extraordinary session next Thursday to pay homage to the 73 victims
of the 1976 terrorist bomb attack against a Cuban civilian airplane
that had just taken off from Barbados. On Saturday, the 25th
anniversary of the terrorist attack, there will be a mass rally at
Havana's Revolution Square during which President Fidel Castro is
expected to speak.
On October 6, 1976, a DC-8 Cubana airplane that had arrived in
Barbados from Guyana, after stopping over in Trinidad and Tobago,
blew up after taking off from Barbados, killing all aboard, including
Cuba's junior fencing team, 11 Guyanese students and 5 government
officials from North Korea.
An investigation determined that Venezuelans Hernan Ricardo and
Freddy Lugo placed the bomb on the orders of two Cuban-American
terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
Bosch was freed from a Venezuelan prison in 1988 due to humanitarian
considerations. Thirty countries refused to grant him asylum, but he
was accepted in the United States, despite opposition from US
judicial authorities and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Bosch now lives free in Miami.
Posada Carriles escaped, under circumstances that were never
clarified, from a maximum security prison in Caracas, by walking out
the front door. Posada Carriles is currently in a Panamanian jail for
plotting to assassinate President Fidel Castro last year.
Thousands of Cubans are expected to congregate at the Plaza of the
Revolucion Saturday in memory of those killed. Over a million
gathered in the Plaza the day after the bombing took place in 1976.
The commemoration is seen by the Cuban people as especially
significant given the terrorist events of September 11, which were
immediately and strongly condemned by Cuba.
*CUBAN DELEGATION VISITS SPANISH AUTONOMOUS REGIONS
Habana, October 2 (RHC)--The Vice-President of the Cuban Council of
Ministers, Jos� Ram�n Fern�ndez, arrived in Madrid Tuesday at the
head of a Cuban delegation which will visit the autonomous Spanish
regions of Murcia, Andaluc�a, Pais Vasco Valencia, and Arag�n.
The object of the visit is to further improve the already close
cultural and commercial relations with the peoples of these
communities. The Cuban delegation will be received in each region by
their presidents.
Meetings with the Spanish Communist Party and the Spanish Social
Party have also been scheduled. The trip will run through October 12.
*MAJOR CUBAN TRADE EXHIBITION UNDERWAY IN VENEZUELA
Caracas, October 2 (RHC)--In the largest exhibition of its kind
outside Cuba for the last few years, Expocuba was inaugurated Tuesday
in Caracas, Venezuela.
The exhibition gives foreign businesses a look at Cuba's
manufacturing industries and services. Representatives from 135 Cuban
companies have stands at the trade show, including those from the
agricultural, sugar, science, environmental, construction, sports and
education sectors. Others representing information technology, light
industry, fishing, health, communications, transport and tourism are
also present. Conferences are to be held on the Cuban steel and sugar
industries, which have been undergoing major overhauls.
Presentations on Cuban advances in the fields of pharmaceuticals and
biotechnology, including vaccines, are also on the agenda.
Expocuba is being organized by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, headed
by Antonio Carricarte. Venezuela continues to be Cuba's principal
trading partner due to a trade agreement signed by both nations a
year ago.
*INTERNATIONAL SPACE WEEK TO BE CELEBRATED IN CUBA
Havana, October 2 (RHC)--On Sunday, October 7, aficionados of
astronomy will gather here in Havana for the beginning of a week's
celebration of the sky in what is being called here a Fiesta of the
Stars. People of all ages are expected to gravitate toward the open
area in front of the Royal Castillo de la Fuerza in Old Havana in an
evening of star gazing through the numerous telescopes set up along
the Avenida del Puerto.
Academics from the University of Havana, the Cuban "Cosmos Group" and
the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy will be on hand to explain
details of our constellation and others.
The occasion is sponsored by the International Union of Astronomy,
which calls for a Space Week across the world every year in an effort
to educate and maintain interest in our universe. In Havana, the
one-week festival will include photographic exhibitions, historical
displays, research themes centered in the University's Faculty of
Mathematics and Cybernetics. It will run from October 4 through 10.
*MASSIVE PRO-TALIBAN, ANTI-US DEMONSTRATION IN PAKISTAN
Islamabad, October 2 (RHC)--In Pakistan, some 50,000 people took to
the streets of the western city Quetta in a pro-Taliban, anti-US
demonstration. Many were carrying swords and clubs in this important
Pakistani city, capital of Beluchistan Province. Authorities had
prohibited the protest and ordered foreign journalists to remain in
their hotels.
Islamic leaders reiterated the threat of a civil war if Islamabad
cooperates in any eventual US attack against Afghanistan. Observers
are calling the massive protest a glimpse of what can be expected
throughout the country if Afghanistan comes under attack. It's
believed that approximately 10 percent of the Islamic republic's 140
million inhabitants openly support Kabul's Taliban regime.
*WASHINGTON DENIES HAVING EXCLUDED ARAB NATIONS FROM MILITARY ATTACKS
Washington, October 2 (RHC)--Washington has affirmed that President
George Bush has never promised to not attack Arab nations in the war
against terrorism. Following a visit to the White House, Jordanian
King Abdalla II Monday announced that Bush had promised him that
neither Iraq nor any other Arab nation would be targeted, but White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer later stated that Bush did not say that
and that the information is incorrect.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, has insinuated that the
anti-terrorism war could reach Iraq. Late on Monday, during an
interview on the CBS network, Powell responded to a question
concerning the possible bombardment of Iraq affirming that for the
moment Washington is concentrating on the first phase of the
operation against Osama Bin Laden and his organization al-Qaida, but
that Bush has not discarded any military option in the second, third
or fourth phases of the campaign.
The statements from authorities in Washington led Arab League
Secretary General Amr Musa to warn Tuesday that an attack against an
Arab country would be detrimental to the formation of an
international anti-terrorist coalition.
*BERLUSCONI CLAIMS LEFTISTS "DISTORTED" HIS REMARKS ON ISLAMIC CULTURE
Rome, October 2 (RHC)--Still on the defensive, Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asserted that his comments about the
inferiority of Islamic culture were distorted by leftists. In
statements to the Arab news daily in London, "Asharq Al-Awsat,"
Berlusconi claimed that he never said anything against Islamic
civilization, blaming statements to the contrary on what he called
the "leftist Italian press" interested in tarnishing his image and
destroying his long-standing relations with Arabs and Muslims.
Today the Italian Prime Minister was scheduled to receive the Saudi
ambassador in Rome, Mohammed ben Nawaf ben Abdulaziz Al Saud, along
with a diplomatic delegation from other Muslim nations in another
effort to tone down the avalanche of criticism against statements
widely considered racist.
The Arab League has called "insufficient" Berlusconi's recent
statements before the Italian Senate that his words were
misunderstood and taken out of context. But the Italian Prime
Minister told the "Asharq Al-Awsat" news daily that he had no
intention of apologizing for words he insists that he did not utter.
*Viewpoint: NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE UN TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE
So the world continues to wait. People in the US put their names on
waiting lists for gas masks and have their bodies tattooed with
images of the World Trade Center, while a man in the UK does swift
business selling spaces in his nuclear attack-proof bunker for 30,000
pounds a head. The rest of the world once again consents to US
dominance, going on with their lives, thinking there won't be a major
conflict, at least not one where lots of white, First World people
get killed.
We recall former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's comment
to CBS in 1996 in which she said the deaths of half a million Iraqi
children was worth her government's continued economic blockade
against Baghdad. We also note the fact that the deaths of over 500
Latino janitorial workers in the World Trade Center has been barely
reported. So what's a few thousand more Afghani lives?
We have the United Nations, of course. That august body that has such
an excellent record of settling world conflicts. The Security Council
won't allow a world war to break out, surely -= just a local conflict
confined to those Afghanis, whose history is one of violence, the
world is being told, so they're used to it anyway. But the UN remains
relatively inactive and has anyway been bypassed once more by the US
and NATO -- just as it was with Yugoslavia.
England's Tony Blair has put his full support -- politically and
militarily -- behind George W Bush, and NATO's general secretary Lord
Robertson has invoked Article 5 of its charter which treats an attack
on one member as an attack on all. Thus the scene is set. The world
waits with morbid interest for a new round of exciting television
images to herald a new holy war by Washington. A holy war that has
the potential to provoke another one.
The Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, Bruno Rodriguez, said
Monday that the United Nations Organization is precisely the
universal coalition we need to fight terrorism. He added that no
amorphous and unpredictable coalition, NATO or any other military
organization or group of States could replace the United Nations in a
global and legitimate action against terrorism. The United Nations
should not give up its functions or prerogatives to the impositions
from any country. Rodriguez said that the United Nations alone can
address in a deep, calm, resolute and strong way, the issues of
terrorism currently faced by the world.
To allow a powerful nation to railroad the rest of us into another
world conflict to appease its notion of justice with vengeance is
tantamount to an approval of another form of terrorism -- that of the
State. Cuba knows what it is talking about -- it has been the target
of terrorism for four decades.
In the words of Cuban President Fidel Castro last week: "Terror has
always been an instrument of the worst enemies of humankind bent on
suppressing and crushing the peoples' struggle for freedom. It can
never be the instrument of a truly noble and just cause."
And the world sits by and waits...
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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