CUBA-U.S: Moves to Penalise Cuba Falter at U.N.

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 1996 (IPS) - A U.S. campaign to penalise Cuba for the shooting down of two U.S. planes Saturday has quickly run aground at the United Nations, diplomats here say.

Although Washington contends that Cuba had no excuse to shoot down two civilian Cessna planes flown by Cuban American exiles, U.N. diplomats are waiting to hear Havana’s side of the story.

Cuba, which contends the planes were violating Cuban airspace, is sending Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina to the United Nations Tuesday to explain the reasons for the downing of the aircraft.

Cuba is expected to argue that the aircraft, flown by the Cuban exile group ‘Brothers to the Rescue’ have repeatedly threatened Cuba’s security.

But U.S. President Bill Clinton, warning of further U.S. actions against Cuba Monday, said that, even if ‘Brothers to the Rescue’ have violated Cuba’s airspace before, “this is no excuse for the attack.”

In addition to the U.N. campaign, Clinton threatened to tighten further the 34-year U.S. embargo against Cuba.

“I will move promptly to reach agreement with the Congress on the pending Helms-Burton Cuba legislation so that it will enhance the effectiveness of the embargo,” said Clinton.

That bill, named after its sponsors in Congress, would enable any U.S. citizen whose property was confiscated after the 1959 Cuban Revolution to sue foreign individuals or companies in U.S. federal court regarding the use or ownership of the property.

Clinton has also ordered the curtailment of all charter flights from the United States to Cuba.

Clinton, in the midst of an election campaign in which the support of Cuban exiles may be a key factor, condemned Havana’s actions as “a flagrant violation of international law.”

“These small airplanes were unarmed, and clearly so,” he said. “The Cuban authorities knew it.”

The United States is still pushing the 15-member Security Council to adopt a non-binding statement, condemning the attack and calling for an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). But few U.N. diplomats see any hope that the statement will be accepted soon.

At least two of the Council’s five veto-wielding permanent members, China and Russia, oppose any sudden action against Cuba. Chinese diplomats warned of “serious consequences” if the Council attempts any quick action on the issue — language which diplomats here say could imply a Chinese veto.

Russian diplomats at the United Nations refused to comment immediately on the incident. But the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow released a statement saying that it would not approve of any action against Cuba at this time.

Despite the seeming lack of support, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright vowed Monday, “We are pushing very hard…for a way to condemn this heinous, blatant disregard of international law.”

James Rubin, a U.S. spokesman, added that Washington has “clear and convincing evidence” that the Brothers to the Rescue planes were in international waters when two Cuban MiG jets shot them down. At least three of the planes’ four passengers are believed dead, although Cuba claims that one pilot has been recovered.

Cuban officials at the United Nations defended Havana’s actions, blaming organisations like Brothers to the Rescue of responsibility for “genocidal acts against the Cuban people.”

In Havana, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, speaker of the Cuban Parliament, noted that Washington had informed Havana last year that Brothers to the Rescue would be subject to an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its previous infringements of Cuban airspace.

That includes a Jul. 13, 1995, incident in which, according to the Cuban government, the group sent 11 boats, six planes and two helicopters into Cuba’s 12-mile airspace perimeter.

At least one plane dropped leaflets in Havana, urging the ouster of President Fidel Castro. Brothers to the Rescue also attempted similar incursions last Sep. 2 and again Jan. 13, leading to an official objection from Havana.

Then, on Saturday, the group sent three planes — including one flown by Jose Basulto, head of Brothers to the Rescue and a veteran of the failed 1961 ‘Bay of Pigs’ operation to overthrow Castro — toward Cuba.

Havana says the planes entered the 12-mile zone of Cuban airspace; Washington says one plane, Basulto’s, certainly violated that zone but that the other two were shot down in international waters.

Both sides agree that the planes refused to heed instructions from Havana’s Air Traffic Control that they turn back. Both sides also agree that the planes were unarmed. The Clinton administration contends that the intentional shooting of civilian planes, wherever they are, in itself violates the Chicago Convention regulating civil aviation.

But Cuban officials point to a long history of incidents in which Cuban exiles sought the overthrow of the Castro government, and thus forfeited their right to be regarded as civilians.

One Miami-based exile group, ‘Comandos L’, entered Cuban waters at least eight times between 1991 and 1993, according to Jane Franklin, author of ‘The Cuban Revolution and the United States’. On Oct. 7, 1992, Comandos L members fired shots at Cuba’s Varadero Beach from an offshore speedboat.

“From this point on, we’re at war,” Tony Bryant, leader of Comandos L, told reporters in 1993. “The Neutrality Act doesn’t exist.”

Citing “the acts of terrorist bands headquartered in Miami,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry added, in a statement Sunday, that it deplored the loss of life “motivated by irresponsible and criminal aggressions against our country.”