U.N. Spurns Cuba Embargo
for 17th Year
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS)
- The United Nations
General Assembly Tuesday
snubbed the United
States for its hostility
towards Cuba, amid fresh
calls for an end to the
45-year economic and
financial embargo
imposed on the socialist
island.
On Tuesday, as many as
184 countries voted in
favour of a General
Assembly resolution
demanding the U.S. lift
45-year-old restrictions
on international trade
with Cuba.
The vote broke last
year's record, when 183
countries endorsed the
resolution against the
U.S. embargo. The
192-member General
Assembly has adopted 16
similar resolutions
since 1992.
Like last year, in
addition to the United
States itself, the
negative votes were cast
by just three countries:
Israel, the Marshall
Islands and Palau. The
only abstention was the
small island nation of
Micronesia.
Before and after the
vote, speaker after
speaker deplored the
U.S. policy and said the
sanctions against Cuba
violate international
law and the U.N.
Charter.
The U.N. support for
Cuba comes just a week
after the U.S. President
George W. Bush described
Cuba as a "tropical
gulag" and signaled his
administration's
readiness to take more
hostile measures to
force an economic and
political change on the
island's people.
In a major policy speech
last Wednesday, Bush
assured his support for
those in and outside
Cuba seeking to replace
Cuba's socialist
democracy with a pro-U.S.
economic and political
system.
"Now is the time to
support the democratic
movements growing on the
island," Bush said,
calling for the world
"to put aside its
differences and prepare
for Cubans' transition
to a future of freedom
and progress and
promise."
"The dissidents of today
will be the nation's
leaders tomorrow," Bush
added in his speech,
with family members of
Cuban dissidents seated
behind him on stage.
"When freedom finally
comes, they will surely
remember who stood with
them."
For their part, Cuban
leaders said Bush was
trying to harass Cuba
and threatening its
entity as an independent
and free nation.
"Mr. Bush: Your
genocidal blockade, your
support of terrorism,
your murderous Cuban
Adjustment Act, your
wet-foot/dry-foot
policy, your protection
of the worst terrorists
in this hemisphere, your
unjust punishment of the
Five Cuban Heroes who
denounced the dangers
for citizens of the
United States and other
countries to be killed
in mid-flight, all these
must cease," wrote the
Cuban leader Fidel
Castro in a brief
response on Oct. 21.
"Sovereignty is not
negotiable," he said.
"The shameful tortures
being carried out in the
occupied territory of
Guantánamo must also
cease. We have never
been intimidated by your
threats to launch
pre-emptive and surprise
attacks against sixty or
more dark corners of the
world. Do not attack
other countries; do not
threaten humanity with a
nuclear war."
On Tuesday, speaking on
behalf of the G77 and
China, the largest
political bloc of
developing nations,
Pakistani deputy
ambassador Farukh Amil
described the U.S.
sanctions against Cuba
as "a means of political
and economic coercion".
"The continued
imposition of an
economic, commercial,
and financial embargo
against Cuba violates
the principles of the
sovereign equality of
states and of
non-intervention in each
other's domestic
affairs, international
human rights law and the
U.N. Charter," he told
delegates.
Explaining why the
European Union (EU)
voted in favour of the
resolution, Portuguese
diplomat Jorge de Lemos
Godinho said the U.S.
measures against Cuba
were "not acceptable."
In Godinho's view,
although the embargo
against Cuba is a
bilateral issue, the
U.S. has extended it to
other territories.
The embargo provisions
contained in the 1992
Cuban Democracy Act and
the 1996 Helms-Burton
Act put limits on EU
countries' trade
relations with Cuba.
"The EU cannot accept
unilateral measures
imposed by the U.S.,"
Godhino said, adding
that in 1996, the EU
Council of Ministers
adopted a Regulation and
Joint Action to protect
the interests of natural
and legal residents of
the EU against the
extraterritorial effects
of the Helm-Burton Act.
The EU representative
recalled that in 1998 at
a summit, the U.S. had
agreed to grant waivers
to certain sections of
the Helms-Burton Act.
"The EU continues to
urge the U.S. to
implement its side of
that understanding," he
said.
Among many others,
diplomats from China and
Russia, South Africa,
Mexico, India and Mexico
also made strong
statements in support of
the Cuban demand for the
lifting of U.S. embargo.
Meanwhile, Ronald Godard,
the U.S. State
Department's senior
advisor for Latin
American affairs, argued
that, "The embargo was
caused by Cuba in its
denial of freedoms to
its people" and that the
"purpose of the embargo
is to end the grip of
the Cuban government on
the Cuban people."
Claiming that the U.S.
is one of Cuba's largest
trading partners,
accounting for more than
2 billion dollars in
medical and agricultural
commerce, he said the
U.S. is also "the
largest provider of
humanitarian aid to the
Cuban people."
"Rather than voting for
the resolution against
the United States,"
Godard added in a short
statement, "the member
states should oppose the
Cuban government's
embargo on freedom,
which is the real cause
of the embargo."
The Cuban government
says the commercial and
financial blockade
imposed by the U.S.
since 1962 has caused
losses of over 89
billion dollars, which,
at the current dollar
value, account for no
less than 222 billion
dollars.
"Anyone can understand
that the blockade is the
main obstacle of the
well-being of the Cuban
people," Cuban minister
of foreign affairs
Felipe Perez Roque told
delegates. "It has
constituted a
systematic, blatant and
massive violation of
rights."
"President Bush has
urged Congress to
maintain the embargo,"
he said. "Indeed seven
in 10 Cubans have lived
their lives only knowing
aggression against their
country. The U.S. has
ignored with arrogance
and political blindness
the 15 resolutions
calling for the lifting
of the blockade." |
