By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Feb 27 1996 (IPS)

The Cuban government said the sanctions announced by US President Bill Clinton in reprisal for the shooting down of two aeroplanes Saturday, were “unjust,” “contradictory” and “absurd.”

A communique released by the Cuban Foreign Ministry Tuesday said “the biggest injustice” of these decisions was that the measures were being taken against a nation which is already the victim of a blockade, terrorism and violations of its territorial space.

“Cuba neither fears nor accepts threats,” said the declaration issued to answer US Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s statement that force may be used against the island.

Head of parliament Ricardo Alarcon told television cameras the nation was ready, warning that it would be “a tough nut to crack” compared with any other nation which had suffered US intervention.

Clinton’s statements reaffirmed the violent attitude Cuba has suffered from the US for decades, and the first victims of the new sanctions were the families of people exiled in Miami.

All commercial flights from the US to Havana were blocked, a measure that was not even taken during the Cuban raft people crisis of 1994, when the number of flights was merely reduced.

The US Leader also stressed that there was now no chance of a presidential veto on the Helms-Burton bill, which aims to toughe up the blockade on Cuba and is currently working its way through Congress.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said that these measures meant Clinton had gone against certain sections of the US population who wanted the funding for anti-Castro services, like “Radio Marti” which broadcasts anti-government propaganda to the island, reduced.

The Cuban declaration described Clinton’s appeal for UN sanctions as “contradictory,” given that this organisation has criticised the US blockade on the island on four separated occasions.

Clinton’s sanctions were announced two days after two Cessna aeroplanes from the Miami based Cuban-American “Brothers to the Rescue” organisation were shot down by the Cuban air force.

Government sources on the island said the aircraft passed within eight miles of Baracoa beach, east of Havana, in one of the common “provocative” incursions into Cuban zones.

Meanwhile, the US administration claimed theaircraft were over international waters when Cuba shot them down.

The UN Security Council criticised the Cuban action after much arm twisting by the United States this Tuesday even though many of the details have still to be cleared up.

This document said the Security Council “strongly deplores the shooting down by the Cuban airforce of two civil aircraft on Feb. 24, 1996, which apparently has resulted in the deaths of four persons.”

The statement was approved even before Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina had a chance to present his nation’s side of the story to the Security Council.

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