Statement by the Permanent Representative of Cuba, Ambassador Bruno Rodr?guez Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org Statement by the Permanent Representative of Cuba, Ambassador Bruno Rodrmguez Parrilla at the 4000th Session of the Security Council, on the item Letter of the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, dated 7 May 1999, addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/1999/523). New York, 8 May 1999. Mr. President, The embassy of the People`s Republic of China in Belgrade has been destroyed by NATO missiles that have taken lives, and brought about to missing and seriously injured persons. The United States and NATO that term these civilian dead or wounded, collateral damage, now cynically declare that the embassy was not a deliberate target, that it may have been an accident, and that they are investigating, that they do not attack civilians and that the whole picture must be seen. It is not an accident, but rather an act of aggression. There is not much to investigate after seeing the terrible images that are going the world. In addition, there is information that today other civilian targets were bombed. The Government of the Republic of Cuba strongly condemns this new act of genocide that constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the People4s Republic of China, of the United Nations Charter, of International Law, and of the Geneva Convention. Mr. President, As Josi Martm affirmed, the truth must be expressed. The Security Council cannot be passive and quiet, as though it were unaware yesterday4s and all these six weeks4 bombings have caused deaths, injuries, hunger, desolation, terror for millions of people. The hundreds of civilians killed, many of them children, and the thousands of civilians injured, the passengers burned to death in the Grdelica Gorge train, the dozens of journalists killed in the bombing of Serbian Television, the children trapped in the iron furnace that the refugee convoy of Djakovla-Pec turned into, the persons that were traveling on the bus on the Luzane bridge may not be in the records and resolutions, but they are on the minds of all of those seated here around this table, and more importantly, on the minds of those people who, almost always rightly, feel that this place has little to do with their lives and their aspirations. The United States and NATO are using state-of-the-art weapons in order to deliberately cause interruptions in supplying power to health services, water supplies, and food production, as though they were unaware that cuts in electricity, in heating, in communications, in energy sources, in transport, the destruction of civilian centers that provide services indispensable to a population, the destruction of information services and of the means of living of a population as well as psychological warfare, have a humanitarian impact. Housing, hospitals, health centers, schools, homes for the elderly, historic monuments, churches, works of art, have been destroyed. Civilian targets have been intentionally attacked with prior knowledge that they were dwelt by civilians, and that civilians would be killed, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Protocols and of the International Humanitarian Law. Is it possible that, on considering this item, the Security Council does not at least call for an end to the brutal bombings against the peoples of Yugoslavia? Can anyone believe the refrain that the war is not with the Serbian people? NATO, headed by the United States, is committing acts of genocide. Genocide must come to an end. Mr. President, The attacks on the Chinese Embassy and on civilian targets in the last few hours demonstrate, in spite of what has been said, that there has been no progress whatsoever toward a political solution. The facts are more eloquent than speeches and papers. How is it possible to consider acceptable the nature of the agreement of the Group of Eight, if it starts by ignoring the main cause of the tragedy, which is the NATO bombings? There can be no just or honorable agreement if the aggression, the acts of genocide, the bombings of civilian targets, and the systematic attempts to deprive a nation of its means of subsistence do not cease first. As was recently stated by President Fidel Castro, We are of the view that in such a predicament only a political, and not a military, solution is possible based on respect for the rights of every nation in that region, and every religion, ethnic group and culture: a solution for both, Serbians and Kosovars. I am deeply convinced that the problem cannot be solved by force, that the military technology will crash against the will of any people determined to fight. [...] I firmly believe that there is no other choice, for anybody, but to work toward a political solution which is possible on the basis of common sense and rationality. I can assure you that the Cuban diplomats who remain in Belgrade, who travel through it daily, are exceptional witnesses to what is occurring. Mr. President, Cuba hopes that the Security Council will act immediately, in keeping with its responsibilities, and that it will reassume its role in these exceptional and emergency circumstances. Should it fail to do so, the harm to the international order, to the collective security of States, and to the United Nations will be irreparable. The historical responsibility will be enormous if the Security Council continues to allow to be subordinated, dominated and disdained. It is the task and the exclusive duty of the Security Council to recover the powers of the mandate assigned it by the Charter. Its most urgent and important task is to stop the genocide and to stop the NATO bombings. Then, the foregoing having been accomplished, the task would be to find way to a just and honorable political solution that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of all the states of the region. Cuba hopes that the Security Council will not accept or endorse any program which is based on the use of force, on inequity and on plundering; that will it not accept or agree to discuss the elements of a peace process under the NATO bombings; that it will not accept or endorse any agreement before first putting an end to the genocide. Otherwise, the Security Council will have to be counted, not only among the victims, but also among the accomplices. We hope it will not be necessary to wait twenty years for someone to bitterly acknowledge that would be in the year 2019? that this war was a regrettable mistake. That has happened before, but not until 4 million Vietnamese and 50 thousand U.S. citizens died. We sincerely hope for the reestablishment of a just, honorable and lasting peace for all the peoples that built a fraternal Federation upon the ruins of World War II, and that lived in prosperous harmony for over forty years. Thank you. 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