CUBA-U.S.: Toughened Sanctions Ready for Clinton’s Signature

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 1996 (IPS) - The bill designed to punish the Cuban government of President Fidel Castro for shooting down two U.S. private aircraft sailed through the House of Representatives here Wednesday and is now ready to be signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

Among other provisions, the ‘Helms-Burton’ bill tightens sanctions against Cuba and codifies the 32-year-old U.S. Trade Embargo in such a way that the president cannot modify it with out gaining Congress’ approval.

The 338-86 vote to pass the bill followed by just 24 hours similar action by the Senate Tuesday. That body passed the bill by a 74-to-22 margin. Overwhelming approval of the bill — which had been delayed in the Senate earlier this year — became virtually certain after Clinton himself signed onto it last week.

The measure, co-sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms and Congressman Dan Burton would punish all countries which trade with Cuba if they transact any business involving properties confiscated by the Communist government since the 1959 revolution — a prohibition that can affect virtually all business with Cuba.

Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina Wednesday denounced the bill in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The bill is “an open challenge to the majority condemnation that (the U.N. General) Assembly has made in recent years against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed upon my country,” Robaina said, referring to failed U.S. attempts to win U.N. support for its 34-year-old embargo of Cuba.

“It is a law directed against you all, against all those who desire to exercise their right to have relations with, trade with, and invest freely in Cuba,” Robaina added.

Russia, the European Union, and Canada have condemned the U.S. bill.

In a statement Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the bill “contrary to international law.” Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, speaking in Grenada, urged Clinton not to sign the bill, which the Canadian government contends may violate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

But Clinton vowed to sign the measure into law following Cuba’s Feb 24 shootdown of two U.S. planes flown by the Miami-based Cuban American group ‘Brothers to the Rescue’. Four pilots were killed in the downed aircraft.

Robaina defended Cuba’s action, arguing that the planes were flown by a group that planned “terrorist” actions against Havana.

He denied that Cuba had violated international aviation law by shooting down the planes, which were both civilian Cessna aircraft. Despite strong opposition from Washington, Cuba maintains the planes were not civilian, and had intentionally violated Cuban airspace.

The foreign minister also lashed out against the retaliation by the United States for the shootdown.

Robaina’s central argument to the United Nations is that the organisation that orchestrated the flights over Cuba is not, as it claims to be, a humanitarian group which rescues Cuban refugees at sea.

Rather, he argued, since the United States and Cuba signed agreements in 1994 regulating migration between the two, “the provocation, planning and execution of terrorist actions became (Brothers to the Rescue’s) sole, evident purpose.”

In recent months, he said, the group used its planes over Cuban territory in an “overt, dangerous” way, violating Cuban airspace last Jul 13 and this Jan 13 and dropping “tens of thousands of flyers with subversive propaganda” over Havana.

“To carry out their actions, they have used twin-tail Cessna airplanes of military design from the United States armed forces, which were used for exploration and combat in the Vietnam War,” the foreign minister claimed.

“Cuba has more than enough proof that this organisation made plans to dynamite high tension towers in Havana, to sabotage the Cienfuegos oil refinery and to carry out attempts on the lives of the main Cuban leaders,” Robaina argued.

As a result, after several pleas to U.S. authorities to stop the group’s overflights, the Cuban government itself took action when three Brothers to the Rescue planes again violated Cuban airspace on Feb 24, he said.

The envoy added that two Cuban MiG jets “performed a preventive warning pass,” and, when that failed to deter the planes, shot two of the planes down “at a distance of five to eight miles from our coasts.” Four passengers, apparently all Cuban-Americans, were killed.

U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, however, countered that the two planes were shot down outside of Cuba’s 12-mile airspace zone, in international waters. She argued that Cuba took no action to bring down the planes peacefully, opting from the start to shoot them.

Last week, Albright disclosed radio transcripts, allegedly between Havana’s ground control and the two Cuban MiGs, that purportedly show that Cuba knew it was dealing with civilian planes and intended to shoot them down regardless.

The transcripts, provided by the U.S. Defence Department, do indicate that one of the Cuban pilots said, “Because some vessels are approaching there, I am going to give it (one of the Cessnas) a pass.” But another pilot was cited as saying, “If we give it a pass, it will complicate things.”

Within seconds of the warning pass, however, the transcripts cite the pilots asking authorisation to shoot the planes down, and then immediately destroying them. The MiGs never attempted to bring the Cessnas down by wiggling their wings as a warning or firing warning shots, Albright contended.

For now, both Cuba and the United States turn to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which is slated to take up the shootdown Friday. Both sides have vowed to cooperate with a full ICAO investigation of the Feb 24 shooting and its antecedents and comply with all recommendations.