[News] Cuban statement at the United Nations

[News at freedomarchives.org]

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STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. FELIPE PÉREZ ROQUE, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF 
THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 59TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY. NEW YORK, 24 SEPTEMBER 2004.



Mr. President:



Every year at the United Nations we go through the same ritual. We attend 
the general debate knowing beforehand that the clamor for justice and peace 
by our underdeveloped countries will be ignored once again. However, we 
persist. We know that we are right. We know that one day we will accomplish 
social justice and development. We also know that such assets will not be 
given away to us. We know that the peoples will have to seize them from 
those who deny us justice today, because they underpin their wealth and 
arrogance on the disdain for our grief. But it will not be always like 
this. We say so today with more conviction than ever before.



Having said this and knowing – as we do – that some powerful ones, just a 
few, present here will be chagrined, and also knowing that they are shared 
by many, Cuba will now tell some truths:



First: After the aggression on Iraq, there is no United Nations 
Organization, understood as a useful and diverse forum, based on the 
respect for the rights of all and also with guarantees for the small States.



It is living through the worst moment of its already forthcoming 60 years. 
It pales, it pants, it feigns, but it does not work.



Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? President Bush.



Second: US troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq.



After the life of over 1,000 American youths was uselessly sacrificed to 
serve the spurious interests of a clique of cronies and buddies, and 
following the death of more than 12,000 Iraqis, it is clear that the only 
way out for the occupying power faced with a revolting people is to 
recognize the impossibility of subduing them and to withdraw. In spite of 
the imperial monopoly over information, the peoples always get to the 
truth. Someday, those responsible and their accomplices will have to deal 
with the consequences of their actions in the face of History and their own 
peoples.



Third: For the time being, there will be no valid, real and useful reform 
to the United Nations.



It would take the superpower, which inherited the immense prerogative of 
governing an order conceived for a bipolar world, to relinquish its 
privileges. And it will not do so.



Since now, we know that the anachronistic privilege of the veto will 
remain; that the Security Council will not be democratized as it should or 
expanded to include Third World countries; that the General Assembly will 
continue to stand ignored and that at the United Nations there will be more 
actions driven by the interests imposed by the superpower and its allies. 
We, as non-aligned countries, will have to entrench ourselves in defending 
the United Nations Charter – because, otherwise, it will be redrafted with 
the deletion of every trace of principles such as the sovereign equality of 
States, non-intervention and the non-use or the threat to use force.



Fourth: The powerful collude to divide us.



The over 130 underdeveloped countries must build a common front for the 
defense of the sacred interests of our peoples, of our right to development 
and peace. Let us revitalize the Non-Aligned Movement. Let us strengthen 
the G-77.



Fifth: The modest objectives of the Millennium Declaration will not be 
accomplished. We will reach the fifth anniversary of the Summit in a worse 
situation.



·        We endeavored to halve by 2015 the 1.276 billion human beings in 
abject poverty that existed in 1990. There had to be a yearly reduction of 
46 million poor people. However, excluding China, between 1990 and 2000 
extreme poverty rose by 28 million people. Impoverishment does not decline, 
it grows.



·        We wanted to halve by 2015 the 842 million starving people 
recorded in the world. There had to be a yearly reduction of 28 million. 
However, there has barely been a reduction of 2.1 million hungry people per 
year. At this rate, the goal would be attained by 2215, two hundred years 
after what was envisaged – and only if our species survives the destruction 
of its environment.



·         We proclaimed the aspiration to achieve universal primary 
education by 2015. However, more than 120 million children, 1 in every 5 in 
that school age, do not attend primary school. According to UNICEF, at the 
current rate the goal will be accomplished after 2100.



·        We endeavored to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate in 
children under five years of age. The reduction is symbolic: out of 86 
children who died per 1,000 live births in 1998, now the figure is 82. 
Every year, 11 million children continue to die of diseases that can be 
prevented or cured, whose parents will rightfully wonder what our meetings 
are for.



·        We said that we would pay attention to Africa’s special needs. 
However, very little has been done. African nations do not need foreign 
advice or models, but financial resources and access to both markets and 
technologies. Assisting Africa would not be an act of charity, but an act 
of justice; it would be tantamount to settling the historical debt 
resulting from centuries of exploitation and pillage.



·        We undertook to put a halt to and start reverting the AIDS 
pandemic by 2015. However, in 2003 it claimed nearly 3 million lives. At 
this rate, by 2015 some 36 million people will have died of this cause.



Sixth: Creditor countries and the international financial agencies will not 
seek a just and lasting solution to the foreign debt.



They prefer to keep us in debt; that is, vulnerable. Therefore, even though 
we have paid off US$ 4.1 trillion in debt service over the last 13 years, 
our debt increased from US$ 1.4 trillion to US$ 2.6 trillion. It means that 
we have paid three times what we owed and now our debt is twice as much.



Seventh: We, as underdeveloped countries, are the ones that finance the 
squandering and the opulence of developed countries.



While in 2003 they gave us US$ 68.400 billion in ODA, we delivered to them 
US$ 436 billion as payment for the foreign debt. Who is helping who?



Eighth: The fight against terrorism can only be won through cooperation 
among all nations and with respect for International Law, and not through 
massive bombings or pre-emptive wars against “dark corners of the world.”



Hypocrisy and double standards must cease. Sheltering three Cuban-born 
terrorists in the United States is an act of complicity to terrorism. 
Punishing five Cuban youths who were fighting terrorism, and punishing 
their families, is a crime.



Ninth: General and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, is 
impossible today. It is the responsibility of a group of developed 
countries that are the ones that most sell and buy weapons.



However, we must continue to strive for it. We must demand that the over 
US$ 900 billion set aside every year for military expenditures be used on 
development; and



Tenth: The financial resources to guarantee the sustainable development for 
all the peoples on the planet are available, but what is lacking is the 
political will of those who rule the world.



A development tax of merely 0.1% on international financial transactions 
would generate resources amounting to almost US$ 400 billion per annum.



The cancellation of the foreign debt incurred by underdeveloped countries 
would allow these to have available for their development no less than US$ 
436 billion on a yearly basis – money which is currently used to pay off 
the debt.



If developed countries complied with their commitment to set aside 0.7% of 
their Gross National Product as ODA, their contribution would increase from 
the current US$ 68.400 billion to US$ 160 billion per annum.



Finally, Excellencies, I want to clearly express Cuba’s profound conviction 
that the 6.4 billion human beings on this planet – who have equal rights 
according to the United Nations Charter – urgently need a new order in 
which the world is not left in suspense, as is the case now, awaiting the 
outcome of the elections in a new Rome in which only half the voters will 
participate and nearly US$ 1.5 billion will be spent.



There is no discouragement in our words, I must say so clearly. We are 
optimistic because we are revolutionaries. We have faith in the struggle of 
the peoples and we are certain that we will accomplish a new world order 
based on the respect for the rights of all; an order based on solidarity, 
justice and peace, resulting from the best of universal culture and not 
from mediocrity or gross force.



About Cuba, which cannot be detoured from its course by blockades, threats, 
hurricanes, droughts or human or natural force, I will not say anything.



Next 28 October, for the 13th time, this General Assembly will debate and 
vote on a resolution about the blockade imposed against the Cuban people. 
Once again, morality and principles will defeat arrogance and force.



I would like to conclude by recalling the words spoken right here 25 years 
ago by President Fidel Castro:



“The noise of weapons, of the menacing language, of the haughtiness on the 
international scene must cease. Enough of the illusion that the problems of 
the world can be solved by nuclear weapons. Bombs may kill the hungry, the 
sick and the ignorant, but bombs cannot kill hunger, disease and ignorance. 
Nor can bombs kill the righteous rebellion of the people
”



Thank you very much.





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