RIGHTS: Dissidents Criticise U.S. Campaign against Cuba

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Mar 6 2002 (IPS) - The United States campaign to win a United Nations condemnation of Cuba’s human rights situation is preventing the debate from dealing with the “expectations and urgency” of the island’s problems in this area, say members of the domestic Cuban dissident movement.

The discussion on human rights continues to be “vitiated and politicised” by the conflict between Washington and Havana, Manuel Cuesta, secretary-general of the opposition centre-left Cuban Democratic Socialist Current (Corriente SDC), told IPS.

Cuesta says the absence of the United States from the 53-nation membership of the UN Commission on Human Rights will be “healthy” for the sessions slated to take place Mar 18-Apr 26 in Geneva.

The United States, which persistently accuses Cuba of human rights abuses, last May lost the seat it had held in the Commission for 56 years.

In the secret ballot carried out at the UN Economic and Social Council to choose from among four candidates to fill three places, the United States received 29 votes to France’s 52, Austria’s 41 and Sweden’s 32.

“The lack of direct U.S. participation in this year’s decision could reduce the level of political confrontation that always arises with regard to the case of Cuba,” commented Cuesta.

The Corriente SDC considers it “desirable” that Washington “for once abstains from using its power and influence” to garner enough votes on the Commission to pass a resolution of condemnation against Cuba.

A motion to censure Cuba, which the Czech Republic presented before the Commission in April 2001, was approved with 22 votes in favour, 20 against, 10 abstentions and one absence. Cuba has received condemnations every year from the UN body since 1990, with the exception of 1998.

Cuesta believes these censures serve as “compensation” in the moral sense, though are merely symbolic “in the political and diplomatic spheres,” because they contribute little towards improving the Caribbean island’s domestic situation.

According to the Cuban government, the United States has not let up in its pressure on other countries to achieve yet another condemnation of Cuban this year.

Official sources said Monday that the United States is pressing Latin American countries to support its efforts to win back its seat on the Commission, as new vacancies will come up in May.

The Commission on Human Rights has 53 members, with a quota of seats for each region: 15 for Africa, 12 for Asia, five for Eastern Europe, 11 for Latin America and the Caribbean, and 10 for Western Europe and other countries.

According to Havana, which is closely watching Washington’s every step that involves discussions on Cuba in Geneva, U.S. diplomats are trying to convince two European countries from withdrawing their candidacies to facilitate a seat on the Commission for the United States.

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, invited a group of Latin American ambassadors to a Feb 15 breakfast to request their support in achieving a censure of Cuba again this year in Geneva, says an official Cuban government communiqué.

According to the Fidel Castro government, Washington has leaked the “secret” that the Czech Republic will once again present a motion against Cuba, “but only on the condition” that the United States guarantees there are enough votes for approval.

Of the 11 Latin American countries to be represented in Geneva in the upcoming sessions of the Commission, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Uruguay voted in favour of the censure in 2001.

Brazil, Colombia (whose seat is now held by Chile), Ecuador, Mexico and Peru abstained from last year’s vote, while Venezuela and Cuba voted against the motion.

The Mexican government has already announced that it will not sponsor, co-sponsor or present any resolution before the Commission having to do with Cuba, and will only vote on documents promoted by others.

If the motions presented are similar to those of 2001, “the Mexican vote will probably look like last year’s,” said Mexico’s Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda, when he accompanied President Vicente Fox on a visit to Havana early last month.

The motions that have been approved in the past charge that the Castro government bans any political opposition and imprisons the movement’s leaders, maintains state control over the media and does not hold presidential elections.

The Cuban authorities retort that the island’s government, unlike those of other Latin American and Caribbean countries, guarantees “the most basic rights” of life, health, food, education and employment.

They believe the debate to be settled in Geneva is about a country’s right to have “its own system,” in this case, one of a socialist bent.

The treatment of the human rights question with respect to Cuba is subject to a great deal of politicisation due to ideological differences and to the decades of tensions between Cuba and the United States, concludes an academic study published on the island.