From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Ire/Cuba: Adams To Visit Cuba To Unveil Memorial - Irish Times Tuesday, December 11, 2001 Adams to visit Cuba this month to unveil memorial ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- The Sinn F�in president will visit Cuba later this month to unveil a memorial to the 10 hunger-strikers who died in 1981. By Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor A party spokesman confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday that Mr Gerry Adams will visit Havana before the end of this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the campaign for political status for republican prisoners in the Maze prison. The Cuban President, Dr Fidel Castro, backed the hunger strikes at the time. Mr Adams was to have visited Cuba last summer, but the visit was reviewed following the arrest of three Irishmen in Colombia in August on suspicion of links with the country's FARC guerrillas. The incident was dismissed at the time by the party's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, as a non-story. But party support in the US was affected and opposition to paramilitary activity has deepened since the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th. US supporters of Mr Adams are divided over whether the visit should go ahead, given relations with Cuba. Mr Peter King, a Republican congressman, told The Irish Times last night: "I've told Gerry for some time I think it's a mistake to go. It undercuts Sinn F�in's argument for human rights. Castro is a flagrant violator of human rights." He added: "By going to visit someone like Castro, you're giving credence to his legitimacy." Asked about other US Republicans who support the visit he said: "That's what democracy is all about. Some arguments you win, some you lose." A Sinn F�in spokesman said yesterday: "The party has taken a decision and Gerry himself has taken a decision to visit Cuba. The visit is to go ahead." It is expected that Mr Adams will leave for Havana before Christmas on what the spokesman said was "a very short trip". _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
