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<font size=2><br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3><b>STATEMENT BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN
AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA<br><br>
</b><div align="center"> <br><br>
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<b> This morning, the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Geneva voted on draft resolution
</b>“<b><i>Question of Detainees in the Area of the United States Naval
Base in Guantánamo”</i>, which was submitted by Cuba last 14 April
2005.<br><br>
<br><br>
The result of the voting
of such text, 8 votes to 22 with 23 abstentions, is further proof of the
hypocrisy and double standard prevailing in the CHR, which our country
has publicly and repeatedly denounced.<br><br>
<br><br>
As usual, the United
States government resorted to intimidation and blackmail to prevent the
adoption of this draft resolution.<br><br>
<br><br>
Thus, that government
tried to silence international outrage in the face of the horrendous
photographs of tortures in Abu Ghraib and other U.S. detention centers,
the revealing testimonies of detainees and of other persons who have had
access to them, and the outery and condemnation of personalities from
every walk of life, of parliaments, international organizations, NGOs and
the world public opinion.<br><br>
<br><br>
It will be recalled that
Cuba presented a draft resolution on this issue to the Commission on
Human Rights last year. Then, we did not insist on putting it to the
vote, mainly at the request of the European Union.<br><br>
<br><br>
But at that time, the
evidence we have today, on the flagrant and systematic violations of
human rights of the detainees at the illegal Guantanamo Base, was not
available. There are over 500 prisoners from more than 40 countries,
including Europeans and even minors, and it was not known that apparently
it was this facility where the methods of torture, later extended to
other U.S. detention centers located outside its territory, were first
tested.<br><br>
<br><br>
Neither was it known
that such system of torture had been officially sanctioned at the highest
levels of the U.S. government and legally justified by a decision written
in the White House by the present U.S. Attorney General.<br><br>
<br><br>
The scandalous vote in
bloc against this resolution by the countries of the European Union is an
additional indication of their submission to the U.S. government and of
their inability to pursue a policy of their own, even in an issue on
which their respective public opinions, the European Parliament and their
national parliaments have demanded a strong European position in
condemning such practices.<br><br>
<br><br>
For example, the
Resolution adopted on 28 October 2004 by the European Parliament not only
requested the government of the United States to allow an impartial and
independent investigation on the allegations of torture and mistreatment
of all persons deprived of their freedom and under their custody, but
also instructed the Member States of the European Union to present a
draft resolution on this issue to the present session of CHR.<br><br>
<br><br>
Hence, it was to
be expected that the abovementioned Cuban draft resolution would have
been well received, at least by the Member Countries of the European
Union which, not having presented their own text, as their Parliament had
requested, should have co-sponsored the Cuban initiative or, at least,
voted in favor.<br><br>
<br><br>
The Cuban delegation
held three rounds of consultation on our draft resolution, attended by EU
delegations, where their support was requested. In addition, the Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed our ambassadors to call on
European Foreign Ministries to ask for their co-sponsorship and their
vote in favor on this significant issue.<br><br>
<br><br>
However, several
countries did not even receive our ambassadors and the Foreign Ministries
of others intentionally scheduled the meeting at a date after the vote in
Geneva. In no case did we have a positive response. What our diplomats
received were only evasive answers – at times courteous, at times
disdainful and, even, many times with shame.<br><br>
<br><br>
More than one official
of European Foreign Ministries, when asked the reason for their
unwillingness to support the Cuban draft, responded that the European
policy consisted of “defending their interests while not opposing the
United States”. The extreme was that an European officer, seemingly
furious, told a Cuban ambassador that Cuba was to blame for the
“situation created” in Geneva, in obvious reference to the fact that
European countries did not know what to do, faced with the quandary of
upsetting the United States or confronting their own public
opinion.<br><br>
<br><br>
The truth is that not a
single EU country member of the CHR co-sponsored the resolution as had
been requested from them. The EU surrendered yesterday morning, as
denounced by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz on his TV appearance
last night and agreed to vote against the Cuban draft in bloc, in spite
of the protest by EU countries not members of the CHR, which – by not
having to vote – argued for a vote of abstention as it would not risk US
retaliation.<br><br>
<br><br>
</b> <b> But the worst is that
some of them actively worked in African, Asian and Latin American
capitals and even in the meeting room in Geneva, in close coordination
with U.S. diplomats, to prevent the adoption of the Cuban draft
resolution.<br><br>
<br><br>
The Cuban draft resolution calls on the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Enjoy Physical and Mental Health and the Special Rapporteur
on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers – CHR mechanisms which the
United States itself considers impartial and universal – to determine, on
the field, the truth of the serious charges being brought against the
U.S. government for its acts in violation of the human rights and dignity
of their Guantánamo prisoners.<br><br>
<br><br>
Our people, like hundreds of millions of citizens worldwide, have
legitimate concerns over what is happening at the U.S.-usurped Guantánamo
Naval Base. We will not be held back by the fact that the offender is the
one that continuously presents draft resolutions against our country at
the Commission on Human Rights, which in an unjustified, selective,
discriminatory and politized manner, attempt to accuse us of being
violators of human rights, and being used as a pretext to maintain and
reinforce the economic, commercial and financial blockade and to create
conditions that would justify a possible aggression against Cuba.
<br><br>
<br><br>
Cuba has more than enough moral authority and sense of justice to face
the resolution against our country, co-sponsored and supported by the
European Union and other satellites in the Imperial orbit, without having
to resort sophistry of any kind;. Cuba has more than enough gallantry to
openly present its opinions and proposals, and to request an
investigation of what has already become an affront that shakes the
conscience of mankind. <br><br>
<br><br>
Our moral standing is based on the undisputable fact that political
assassinations, disappearances, extra-judicial executions, death squads,
torture, humiliation and mistreatment of detainees have never existed in
revolutionary Cuba, neither during our hard struggle for the final
liberation of our people, nor during the 45 years elapsed since the
triumph of the Revolution.<br><br>
<br><br>
In all, it is not a surprise for Cuba that our draft resolution was not
adopted at this bureaucratic vote of the CHR. It was expected that EU
countries and some others – with their proverbial hypocrisy and double
standard – wowed fail to overcome their dependency on the United States,
to have justice prevail, and to demonstrate their much-ballyhooed concern
for the respect of human rights worldwide.<br><br>
<br><br>
The countries that voted against the Cuban draft resolution today have
been exposed and have become direct and public accomplices to the
tortures, humiliations and violations of the human rights of the persons
illegally detained, including some of their own citizens, at the US
Guantánamo Naval Base and elsewhere. <br><br>
<br><br>
With this vote, we have fulfiled the valuable objective of putting an end
to the impunity hidden behind pretense and complicit silence regarding
torture.<br><br>
<br><br>
It has been proven that the Commission on Human Rights is beyond cure. UN
Member States, in order to build a totally different and universal body
that is truly at the service of the noble cause of human rights,
cooperation and dialogue, will have to avoid the danger that the reform
of the CHR does not give birth to a worse creature. <br><br>
<br><br>
Our people will never give up its struggle and will persist in its
denounciation of the crimes committed by the ruling fascist clique in the
United States.<br><br>
<br><br>
With a greater morale than ever, Cuba will redouble its struggle in the
defense of justice, rightness and ethics in favor of the attainment, by
all the citizens of the planet, of the enjoyment of all human
rights.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<div align="right">Havana, 21 April 2005<br><br>
<br><br>
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