Radio Havana Cuba-02 March 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 02 March 2001 . *CUBA SUPPORTS CHINESE, RUSSIAN POSITION ON WASHINGTON'S STAR WARS PROGRAM *RICARDO ALARCON BEGINS MIDDLE EAST VISIT IN TEHERAN *MEDICAL BRIGADE RETURNS FROM EL SALVADOR *CUBA-BELIZE COMMISSION CONCLUDES TWO-DAY MEETING IN HAVANA *MEDICAL, CONSTRUCTION BRIGADES IN BELIZE WORK FOR GREATER COOPERATION *OPEN TRIBUNAL SLATED FOR SATURDAY, IN GUANAJAY *US BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY *US NAVY CANCELS SOME VIEQUES EXERCISES AFTER P.R. GOVERNOR'S VISIT *THOUSANDS RECEIVE ZAPATISTA CARAVAN IN MEXICAN STATE OF QUERETARO *Viewpoint: CUBA OFFERS 3,000 DOCTORS TO TREAT AIDS IN AFRICA . *CUBA SUPPORTS CHINESE, RUSSIAN POSITION ON WASHINGTON'S STAR WARS PROGRAM Beijing, March 2 (RHC) -- Visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has reiterated Cuba's full support of China's and Russia's position regarding Washington's plans to deploy an anti-missile system in space. Following a meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Perez Roque said that Cuba also affirms that Star Wars constitutes not only non-compliance with international commitments regarding strategic missiles, but will also lead to another arms race. The Cuban Foreign Minister affirmed, nevertheless, that Cuba has no plans to deploy in its territory Russian strategic weapons in response to Star Wars. Perez Roque's statements come on the heels of U.S. President George Bush's comments during his first speech before Congress, in which he reiterated Washington's intention to deploy a space-based anti-missile system. Bush's words sparked another wave of criticism from Moscow and Beijing, and scepticism from the U.S.'s European allies. Meanwhile, the Chinese President saluted the Cuban people for having, in his words, endured pressure from abroad, overcome numerous difficulties, and successfully explored models of development compatible with the island's conditions. Cuba's chief diplomat arrived in China last Sunday on an Asia tour that has taken him to Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, and whose last leg will be Japan. *RICARDO ALARCON BEGINS MIDDLE EAST VISIT IN TEHERAN Teheran, March 2 (RHC)-- Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcón has arrived in Teheran, the Iranian capital, beginning an official visit to several countries of the Middle East. Upon his arrival, Alarcon met with his counterpart, Mehdi Karroubi. The Iranian official told reporters that his country joins Cuba in the common struggle to preserve national sovereignty and identity. He also referred to the ties of friendship between Teheran and Havana, saying that the visit of Cuba's Parliament President will contribute to furthering those ties. During his stay, Ricardo Alarcon is scheduled to meet with the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran, President Mohammad Khatami. Among the topics on the agenda: an exchange of views on the upcoming Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, slated for Havana next month. The President of the Cuban Parliament noted that in recent months, Cuba and Iran have exchanged numerous high-level delegations - including an official visit by the island's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. *MEDICAL BRIGADE RETURNS FROM EL SALVADOR Havana, March 2 (RHC)-- Fifty-two members of a brigade of doctors and medical personnel returned Thursday from El Salvador to the Cuban capital. With the satisfaction of having successfully carried out their humanitarian mission, the medical team worked to fight against dengue fever in the Central American country. An outbreak of the deadly disease was discovered soon after a devastating earthquake hit El Salvador on January 13th. The quake, registering 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed over 1000 people and caused widespread damage. At the request of the Salvadoran government, Cuba immediately sent 37 medical specialists, doctors and nurses. They joined forces and worked in the three departments most heavily hit by the quake -- Cuscatlan, San Vicente and La Paz. According to Dr. Elia Rosa Lemus, who headed the brigade in El Salvador, their work was "house to house." Dr. Lemus spoke with reporters upon the arrival of the medical brigade at Jose Marti International Airport. She said that some of the returning specialists were scheduled to leave the country and return home right before the earthquake struck, but decided to stay on and treat the injured. The Cuban medical brigade -- which offered its health services, as always, free-of-charge, treated more than 51,000 patients over the past 21 days. According to Dr. Elia Rosa Lemus, somewhere around 66 percent of the inhabitants of the three departments where they worked were treated by the Cuban team. Three hundred of the more than 3000 students at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana were on hand at the airport to welcome the returning internationalists Thursday afternoon. Most of them formed part of the Salvadorean contingent that Cuba is training to be doctors. *CUBA-BELIZE COMMISSION CONCLUDES TWO-DAY MEETING IN HAVANA Havana, March 2 (RHC)-- The Sixth Session of the Cuba-Belize Commission got underway in Havana on Thursday. Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration, Raul Taladrid, led the island's delegation to the talks. On behalf of her delegation, the Ambassador of Belize to Havana, Amalia Mai, expressed her satisfaction with the two-day meeting. Both delegations at the talks -- which concluded today, Friday - stated that cooperation between the two countries was going smoothly. Among the many areas of trade and cooperation between Cuba and Belize are: health care, agriculture, education, fishing, construction, sports and cultural exchange. *MEDICAL, CONSTRUCTION BRIGADES IN BELIZE WORK FOR GREATER COOPERATION Belize City, March 2 (RHC)-- Nearly 200 Cubans are currently working in Belize, of whom more than 100 are in the area of health care, 58 are construction workers and six serve as sports trainers. Published in this morning's edition of the Cuban daily Granma, an article entitled "Cubans in Belize" takes a look at the services provided to that small Central American country by many specialists from the island. The article reports that the Prime Minister of Belize, Said Mussa, personally attended a scientific seminar in the country's capital recently. The Second National Scientific and Technical Forum of Cuban Professionals in Belize was held with the participation of Cuban health volunteers, who work free-of-charge. According to Leonardo Cuesta, head of the island's medical team in Belize, Cuban health professionals cover nearly 60 percent of the country -- working in 32 rural clinics and 28 hospitals. *OPEN TRIBUNAL SLATED FOR SATURDAY, IN GUANAJAY Havana, March 2 (RHC)-- More than 40,000 Cubans are expected to gather in the municipality of Guanajay -- located in the province of Havana -- for another Open Tribunal of the Revolution. Participants at the mass rally, held every Saturday in different cities or towns around the island, will demand an end to the infamous Cuban Adjustment Act as well as the elimination of Washington's genocidal economic blockade of Cuba. Also among the demands of the rally will be for the extradition of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices, still being held in Panama following their arrests for plotting the assassination of Cuban President Fidel Castro. According to this morning's edition of Granma, invited guests at Saturday morning's rally will include nearly 200 Venezuelan students who are currently visiting the island. Tomorrow's Open Tribunal will be broadcast live on Cuban radio and television, as well as the international shortwave frequencies of Radio Havana Cuba. *US BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY New York, March 2 (RHC) -- In the USA, the New York-based Black Radical Congress has issued a press release on contemporary police brutality and misconduct, calling it a continuation of the legacy of racial violence. The Black Radical Congress, the BRC, said that the statement summarizes the United States' atrocious record of racial oppression, specifically State-sponsored violence, and that it has a dual purpose: to demonstrate the role of government in initiating and sustaining racially-motivated suppression and savagery, and to provide a rationale for making police brutality and misconduct federal crimes. The BRC press release asserts that racist violence was fundamental to the creation of the United States and the maintenance of racial oppression -- both its physical components and its structural form caused by institutional policies and programs that produce, maintain, and rationalize poverty, inadequate health care and substandard housing. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression, sustains the Black Radical Congress, the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered and executed, and brutally repressed struggles for freedom, justice and self-determination. It has initiated wars of conquest, launched man-hunts for fugitive slave, suppressed slave revolts, brutalized demonstrators, and assassinated political dissidents, continues the press release. The Black Radical Congress states that contemporary police brutality consists of deadly force, the use of excessive force, and it includes unjustified shooting, fatal choking and physical assault by law enforcement officers. Police misconduct is inclusive of planting evidence, making untrue statements, filing untrue written reports, condoning untrue statements and/or reports by keeping silent, threatening suspects, arrestees, and witnesses, engaging in illegal activities, and committing perjury. The Black Radical Congress press release takes an in-depth look at the history of racial repression and violence in the U.S., from slavery, to post-Emancipation lynching, to legal executions that replaced lynching after 1930, to modern times following the return of the death penalty in 1976. Noting that police brutality has been the trigger incident that sparked almost every modern rebellion from the 1935 so-called "Harlem Riot" to the 1992 disturbances in Los Angeles following the Rodney King beating -- and referring to all the movements to stop this brutality, from the National Negro Congress rallies in the 1930s, to the formation of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, the Black Radical Congress is distributing its press release to collect the signatures of those who petition the United States Congress to make police brutality and misconduct federal crimes. *US NAVY CANCELS SOME VIEQUES EXERCISES AFTER P.R. GOVERNOR'S VISIT Washington, March 1 (RHC) -- The U.S. Navy has cancelled military exercises this month in the Puerto Rican island-municipality Vieques. The announcement came from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who last Tuesday met with Puerto Rican Governor Sila Maria Calderon. Rumsfeld indicated that the target practice has been suspended in light of on-going talks between the Pentagon and the Puerto Rican government. Calderon had asked Rumsfeld to suspend the target practice until the U.S. Health Department releases its study on at least some of the effects the military exercises have on the local population in Vieques. She said Vieques residents should have the alternative to vote on the immediate halt to the war exercises. Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in Washington, Anibal Acevedo Vila, said the Pentagon's decision is a step in the right direction. Acevedo Vila, who has a voice but not a vote in the U.S. Congress, said it isn't the victory that Puerto Ricans are seeking -- that is, a permanent suspension of the military exercises -- but that is does demonstrate that advances are being made. *THOUSANDS RECEIVE ZAPATISTA CARAVAN IN MEXICAN STATE OF QUERETARO Queretaro, March 2 (RHC) -- In the Mexican state of Queretaro, thousands of people waited for the arrival of the Zapatista Caravan for Peace and the Dignity of Indigenous Peoples. Rebel commander Marcos took the opportunity to lash out at Queretaro Governor Ignacio Loyola Vera, who came out in favour of executing the Zapatista leadership. Marcos said Loyola Vera -- who he called an imbecile -- should read his history, recalling that in this Mexican state it was the Emperor Maximiliano of Habsburg who was executed. He said that like Loyola Vera today, Maximiliano was at the head of a reactionary government. The indigenous rebel commander said that conservative government was defeated by a patriotic army similar to that of the Zapatistas, and those who were executed were the conservatives, not the patriots like themselves. The Zapatista leadership said Thursday that when the country's indigenous ethnic groups struggle alongside millions of Mexicans in an effort to forge a new nation, then Mexico will no longer belong to a handful of people. Due to an accident due to the faulty brakes of a vehicle in the Zapatista caravan -- in which one police officer was killed -- the indigenous leadership decided to suspend its trip to the western state Michoacan. The caravan was expected to continue today to Guanajuato to participate this weekend in the Third National Indigenous Congress. *Viewpoint: CUBA OFFERS 3,000 DOCTORS TO TREAT AIDS IN AFRICA Cuba's United Nations ambassador, Bruno Rodriguez, has reiterated Cuban President Fidel Castro's offer to send 3,000 volunteer doctors to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa where more than 20 million people are infected with the virus. This week, the Cuban ambassador told the United Nations that 95% of those ill with AIDS live in the Third World, where poverty and economic and social backwardness prevail. The only thing that Cuba's asks in return is that the rich nations, which possess 86% of the world's gross product, contribute the medicines necessary to undertake this humanitarian task. There exist lay and religious non-governmental institutions which work to help solve many social problems in today's world. The United Nations itself does what it can through its organizations. Unfortunately, due to its economic problems, it cannot do much. Among these problems is the fact that the United States, the richest and most powerful nation in history, owes the U.N. back dues of which it is conditioning payment on forcing the international institution to do what Washington wants it to do. It is estimated that some 57 billion dollars a year are needed to help alleviate the AIDS tragedy, which is threatening to destroy Africa. Cuba, an underdeveloped country which has also been economically blockaded by the United States for more than four decades, cannot even think of contributing money to the cause. However, the world knows that what the island does possess it takes pleasure in giving. And since the Revolution has trained tens of thousands of professionals of all types, among them some 66,000 highly skilled physicians, it is able to play a key role in fighting AIDS worldwide. Several thousand Cuban doctors have already completed internationalist missions in the Third World. The island has great amounts of human capital and is willing to assist those who need it without charging a penny. Cuba's only interest is to serve as an example to those who can better afford to help. The ability to gather together 3,000 volunteer doctors is an amazing feat for any country and it is possible in Cuba because the socialist system has imparted truly democratic and disinterested values in the people. What better way to respect the human rights of ALL the peoples of the world? (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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