CUBA-U.N.: Havana Launches Pre-Emptive Strike on Civil Aviation Report

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 1996 (IPS) - Cuba is crying foul over a U.N. agency’s report that says Cuban pilots shot down two planes belonging to a Miami-based group over international waters last February.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has yet to formally release the assessment of the Feb. 24 shootdown, but Cuba’s U.N. ambassador, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, criticises the draft report as biased.

“It is a report that omits things, that is incomplete,” Rodriguez said of the ICAO report, which was presented to the agency’s Council in Montreal Friday.

A draft copy of the report from an ICAO commission has been made available to IPS, but its release is not expected till next week. The draft deems that two Cuban MiG-29 planes shot down the two Cessna planes over international waters near Cuba. It disputes Havana’s claims that the Cessnas, flown by ‘Brothers to the Rescue’ — a group opposed to President Fidel Castro — were violating Cuban airspace when they were downed.

The draft also accuses Havana of giving insufficient warning to the Cessna planes before the MiG pilots sought authorisation to shoot them down. Four Cuban-American pilots were killed, further cooling Cuban-U.S. relations.

The ICAO’s governing board will review the report Jun. 26, and though the final version may differ from the current draft, Cuba is angrily denying the findings.

“The report ignores three important pieces of evidence,” Rodriguez said.

The Cuban ambassador contends that the report discounts testimony from sources who assert that the planes went down in Cuban waters; that it omits evidence that objects from the planes were found in Cuban waters; and that it does not corroborate information that one ship which observed the shootdown was in international waters.

Rodriguez stuck to Havana’s claims that it has proof the planes went down over Cuba, and that the shootdowns were thus legitimate acts of self-defence.

“Cuba has solid evidence that the downing of these aircraft took place over Cuban airspace,” Rodriguez contended. “We have technical evidence, objects belonging to the plane, that were found in Cuban territorial waters.”

“The ICAO report must be fair and apolitical,” Rodriguez said.

ICAO officials, citing restrictions on the circulation of the report, refused to comment on Cuba’s allegations of bias.

“The report will remain restricted until the ICAO Council meets on Jul 26,” said Hutton Archer, the agency’s communications director. Archer said that, since he could not confirm or deny the report’s conclusions, he could not comment on any accusations about their fairness.

Cuba’s worries may stem from the potential consequences of ICAO conclusions that Havana downed the planes over international waters. Ever since the controversy began, the United States has made clear that it would follow any unfavourable verdict against Cuba by seeking U.N. sanctions.

Sources at the United Nations tell IPS that Washington would bring the ICAO verdict to the U.N. Security Council in a bid to attach sanctions against Cuban air travel. The United States already has in place a 34-year embargo against Cuba, which was tightened and formally made into law by Congress following the shootdown.

“The United States will pursue further actions, unilaterally or multilaterally,” U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright has promised.

U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi says that after the ICAO Council reviews the report, it will send its findings to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who should then deliver his own recommendations to the Security Council before month’s end.