From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Radio Havana Cuba-21 January 2002
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 21 January 2002
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*FIDEL WELCOMES FOREIGN MINISTERS OF PERU AND NEW ZEALAND
*SOUTH AFRICA-CUBA WORKSHOP BEGINS SESSIONS IN HAVANA
*FOREIGN INVESTMENT HELPS FOSTER DEVELOPMENT IN HOLQUIN PROVINCE
*MATANZAS THERMOELECTRIC PLANT UNDERGOES REPAIRS
*COLOMBIAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT REACH LAST-MINUTE AGREEMENT
*US HAS LITTERED AFGHANISTAN WITH UNEXPLODED CLUSTER BOMBS
*YASSER ARAFAT VOWS TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE FOR A SOVEREIGN STATE
*SOUTH CAROLINA ACTIVISTS PROTEST CONFEDERATE FLAG AT STATE CAPITOL
*Viewpont: TWO VIEWS ON ECUADOR
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*FIDEL WELCOMES FOREIGN MINISTERS OF PERU AND NEW ZEALAND
Havana, January 21 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro had separate
meetings on Sunday with the Foreign Ministers of Peru, Diego García
Sayán, and New Zealand, Phillip Golf.
García Sayán delivered a letter to President Fidel Castro from his
Peruvian counterpart, President Alejandro Toledo and also thanked the
Cuban leader for the island's cooperation in training Peruvian
experts in areas like health and sports.
The top Peruvian diplomat traveled to the island invited by his Cuban
counterpart Felipe Perez Roque. During his stay in Cuba, which
concluded Sunday afternoon, various agreements were penned aimed at
strengthening bilateral relations between Lima and Havana.
While on the island, the Peruvian foreign minister had a very packed
agenda, which included official talks with other high-ranking Cuban
officials and visits to places of historical, scientific and social
interest such as the Latin American School of medicine.
Also on Sunday, President Fidel Castro received the Foreign Minister
of New Zealand, Phillip Golf and his delegation.
During the talks in a cordial, friendly atmosphere, the Cuban leader
and the top New Zealand diplomat exchanged information on the
situation in both countries, as well as their respective views on
different international issues and other topics of common interest.
Phillip Golf is the first minister from New Zealand to visit Cuba
since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1999.
During his stay on the island, which concluded also Sunday afternoon,
Phillip Golf, who is also New Zealand's Minister of Commerce and
Justice, met with officials in the island's Ministry of Foreign
Investment and Economic Cooperation and the Foreign Ministry.
The New Zealand foreign minister signed the first cooperation
agreement with his Cuba counterpart Felipe Perez Roque aimed at
boosting trade and cooperation between the two nations.
*SOUTH AFRICA-CUBA WORKSHOP BEGINS SESSIONS IN HAVANA
Havana, January 21 (RHC)-- Experts from Cuba and South Africa are
participating, from today in an international workshop to review the
possibilities for bilateral cooperation in the area of biotechnology
and related sciences.
Speaking with reporters in Havana, the South African delegates
expressed their interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation in
this scientific area, in which Cuba has significant achievements over
the past three decades.
The event, which runs through Friday, includes conferences, seminars,
plenary sessions and visits to centers of scientific interest in the
Cuban capital.
*FOREIGN INVESTMENT HELPS FOSTER DEVELOPMENT IN HOLQUIN PROVINCE
Holguín, January 21 (RHC)-- The presence of foreign investors in the
eastern Cuban province of Holguín has fostered the development of
important economic sectors, among them the production of nickel, the
brewing industry and tourism.
According to Isidro Perez Mollinea, official from the Ministry of
Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation in Holguín, those mixed
ventures are working extremely well, based on relations of mutual
respect and understanding.
There are currently two mixed enterprises established with foreign
capital in Holguín -- Niguel de Moa and Bucanero Beer. According to
an article in Options, the Cuban weekly business magazine, there are
also two other economic associations operating with foreign capital,
as well as three contracts for management production.
The article also highlighted the growing potential for future
investment operations in Holguín, primarily in the steel and fishing
industries, as well as new possibilities in the tourism and nickel
sectors.
*MATANZAS THERMOELECTRIC PLANT UNDERGOES REPAIRS
Matanzas, January 21 (RHC)-- Matanzas' Antonio Guiteras
thermoelectric plant began on Monday a three-month repair and
modernization process.
The repairs and modernization works, at a cost of over 25 million
dollars, are aimed at creating the conditions for the plant to
operate with Cuban crude oil, surpassing the current levels of half a
million tons a year.
At the time, when the Matanzas thermoelectric plant resumes
operations in April, it should be ready to generate up to 90 percent
of the demand for electricity on the island, using Cuban crude oil.
It would also save tens of thousands of dollars by substituting
imported fuel.
*COLOMBIAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT REACH LAST-MINUTE AGREEMENT
Bogotá, January 21 (RHC)-- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia and the government of President Andres Pastrana reached a
last minute agreement late Sunday night, keeping the country's peace
process alive.
The agreement, announced at a joint news conference by government
peace commissioner Camilo Gomez and rebel leader Raul Reyes, canceled
the government-declared deadline for reaching a ceasefire, which had
been set for midnight last night. The two negotiators read out a
12-point communiqué in which they agreed to immediately begin talks
aimed at signing a ceasefire deal by April 7th.
The accord also calls for the participation of an international
verification commission to mediate disagreements and monitor each
side's compliance with promises made at the peace table. In addition,
Colombia's political parties and civic leaders will be invited to the
peace talks over the next few weeks to participate in the
negotiations.
James LeMoyne, the U.N. special peace envoy for Colombia, praised the
agreement, saying it is "a defined structure to begin discussing real
themes." He noted that while the road ahead is not free of obstacles,
at least there is a real chance to achieve peace in the future.
The government also agreed to discuss the issue of paramilitary
forces. Known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia,
paramilitary troops do not enjoy political recognition by the
Pastrana government and have no formal place at the peace table. The
group frequently works alongside the military and has been
responsible for numerous massacres of civilians.
*US HAS LITTERED AFGHANISTAN WITH UNEXPLODED CLUSTER BOMBS
Kabul, January 21 (RHC)-- Thousands of Afghans who fled their homes
during the war cannot go back because their houses, fields and
villages are littered with unexploded remnants of U.S. cluster bombs.
Some experts say that nearly 20 percent of the "bomblets" dropped by
war planes failed to explode on impact.
According to a British-based, non-governmental de-mining organization
-- the Halo Trust -- the small canisters with white parachutes are
silent killers. A spokesman for the NGO, Robert Gannon, told
reporters that the unexploded cluster bombs are particularly
dangerous for children, who often mistake them for toys. He said that
over the past several weeks, seven children have been killed while
playing with bomblets in a village near Mazar-I-Sharif.
Eyewitnesses say that ten cluster bombs hit the village in October,
scattering an estimated 2000 bomblets -- many still active. Each
cluster bomb releases 202 BLU-97 bomblets, which look like yellow
soda cans and spread shrapnel over a wide area when they explode. The
bombs, used during U.S. bombing campaigns in the Gulf War and Kosovo,
have been widely criticized by human rights groups because so many
fail to explode.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch noted that when bomblets fail
to detonate on impact, they essentially act as land mines that can
explode from a simple touch. The Washington, DC-based organization
has called for a moratorium on the use of cluster bombs.
Examples of the dangerous situation are evident in Denar Kheil, one
of more than 100 cluster-bomb sites in the country identified by the
United Nations Mine Action Center in Afghanistan. According to the UN
agency, there was little danger to civilians when the anti-personnel
bombs were dropped, because residents had fled to refugee camps in
Pakistan or Iran to escape the fighting. But now the bomb-infested
areas prevent thousands of displaced persons from returning home.
The UN Office of High Commissioner for Refugees is reportedly hard at
work resettling Afghans in areas cleared of mines and bombs. But
many, unaware of the dangers that are littered throughout fields and
villages, are returning on their own.
Relief agencies are issuing dire warnings, urging families to check
first with authorities before trying to get back home -- to see if
their old neighborhood has been turned into a giant minefield.
*YASSER ARAFAT VOWS TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE FOR A SOVEREIGN STATE
Ramallah, January 21 (RHC)-- The President of the Palestine National
Authority Yasser Arafat says he will continue to fight for a
sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, even
if it costs him his life.
Speaking to a group of Palestinian intellectuals in the West Bank
city of Ramallah, where he has been surrounded by Israeli military
forces, the Palestinian leader said it was not the first time, nor
the last time, that his people have been under siege. He recalled Tel
Aviv's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Israeli forces besieged the
Palestinian leader and members of the Palestine Liberation
Organization in Beirut. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was
defense minister at the time.
Yasser Arafat said his cause is just and that he and the Palestinian
people would not back down from their legitimate rights. And he also
said that despite difficult times, he would continue to seek peace
with Israel -- but not at the cost of selling out Palestinian
autonomy.
Over the past 16 months, more than 1000 people have been killed --
more than 800 of them Palestinians.
*SOUTH CAROLINA ACTIVISTS PROTEST CONFEDERATE FLAG AT STATE CAPITOL
Columbia, South Carolina, January 21 (RHC)-- Civil rights activists
will begin picketing border crossings into the U.S. State of South
Carolina next month, in a new wave of protests aimed at removing the
Confederate battle flag from the state's capitol building.
According to officials from the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), South Carolina removed the
flag from atop the statehouse dome and re-raised on the statehouse
lawn -- the result of a compromise reached by the state legislature
after a six-month economic boycott of the state led by the NAACP.
But many civil rights activists continue to oppose flying the
Confederate emblem, which they associate with slavery and
discrimination, on state grounds.
Today, a holiday to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., the NAACP held a rally in South Carolina's capital of
Columbia to formally announce its action plan. The civil rights group
said that in the next 30 days, NAACP members would set up
"informational pickets" on interstate highways just inside the South
Carolina border. Dwight James, the executive director of the
organization's South Carolina chapter, said the NAACP would also
staff information booths at rest stops and start a billboard
campaign.
The state highway patrol said it was aware of the group's plans but
would not comment on how it would respond to the roadside picketing.
The state NAACP launched its boycott in January 2000, when the
Confederate flag flew atop the statehouse dome along with the state
flag and the U.S. flag. The Confederate flag was first raised over
the capitol in the early 1960s during the centennial of the Civil
War. By April 2000, a spokesman for the state's tourism board
estimated the boycott had cost South Carolina $20 million in tourist
revenues.
The next month, the legislature passed a compromise bill and the
Confederate battle flag was moved that summer. But the NAACP said the
legislation did not go far enough, calling the flag an offensive
symbol of racism, associated with bigotry and oppression.
*Viewpont: TWO VIEWS ON ECUADOR
Officially, Ecuador is emerging from the general crisis, which has
made the country ungovernable over the past five years. In 2001, the
Gross Domestic Product grew by 5.3 per cent, the largest registered
in Latin America. The South American nation also managed to lower
inflation and its soaring unemployment rate.
On the surface, these successes appear to be linked to the
dollarization of Ecuador's economy, a measure applied since 2000 by
the government of Gustavo Noboa.
According to Economy Minister, Carlos Julio Emanuel, dollarization
stabilized the economy, pushed up the GDP, reduced inflation and
sparked an increase in investment.
Last Tuesday, in his annual report to Congress, Noboa spoke about his
economic policies and announced that during the last year of his
term, the economy will be more competitive and open to entering
international markets and attracting more foreign investment. "Closed
economies run by the state fail," he stated.
The problem is that Noboa's optimistic view is in sharp contrast to
that of many sectors of Ecuadoran society. This is reflected in a
private survey done by the Cadatos-Gallup company. According to that
public opinion poll, only a third of Ecuadorans agree with their
leader.
The leader of the National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous and
Black Organizations, Pedro de la Cruz, declared that Noboa "lives in
another reality, not in the reality of our country." De la Cruz
explained that though inflation has dropped in sucres, the national
currency, it remains in the clouds in dollars, which is more serious.
What's more, he warned that speculation is out of control, especially
in the prices of basic necessities, some of which have tripled.
"Noboa stated that the jobless rate fell from 16.8 to 9.5 per cent,
but what he doesn't say is that is because the majority of Ecuador's
skilled labor force have left the country."
Since January 2, students have mounted huge street demonstrations in
a number of cities, though the largest have taken place in Quito, the
capital. Police have violently attacked the demonstrators. On January
11th, 16 year-old, Damian Ponce was shot to death as he demonstrated
against the government economic policies in the central Andean city
of Cuenca.
The political-social situation could quickly deteriorate after the
break off of talks between the principal labor organizations and
business, so that another wave of strikes can be expected.
But perhaps the worst thing is that an International Monetary Fund
mission arrives next week to examine the state of the national
economy in the framework of negotiations to sign a new Letter of
Intent. Of course, the Ecuadoran president thinks things are going
just fine in his country and as he put it: relations with the IMF
couldn't be better. But what about relations with the Ecuadoran
people?
(c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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