Radio Havana Cuba-11 May 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 11 May 2001 . *FIDEL RECEIVED IN MALAYSIA WITH 21-GUN SALUTE *US FAILS TO CONVINCE RUSSIA TO SUPPORT STAR WARS *BUSH'S TRADE NEGOTIATIONS "FAST TRACK" WIDELY CONDEMNED *ECOLOGISTS ALARMED BY ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLIGENCE OF US *TOURISM 2001 CONVENTION COMES TO AN END IN HAVANA *FRANK DISCUSSION OF PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS IN LAS TUNAS *OPEN TRIBUNAL SLATED FOR BAHIA HONDA IN PINAR DEL RIO *Viewpoint: US TWISTS ARMS IN THE UNITED NATIONS . *FIDEL RECEIVED IN MALAYSIA WITH 21-GUN SALUTE Kuala Lumpur, May 11 (RHC)--In Malaysia, visiting Cuban President Fidel Castro was received Friday with a 21-gun salute. Following the official reception, the Cuban leader was received by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in what President Castro called an encounter of two non-conformists. The Malaysian Prime Minister has been highly critical of free market globalization and international credit agencies. His government was the only one in Southeast Asia that did not seek aid from the International Monetary Fund during the region's 1997 financial crisis. Instead, Kuala Lumpur adopted measures strongly criticized by western nations, including rigid controls on the movement of finance capital. In this way, Malaysia was able to emerge from the crisis in 1999 and register an 8.5% growth of its Gross Domestic Product in the year 2000. Malaysian Foreign Minister Sayed Hamid Albar told local media that the Castro-Mohamad gathering, during which important cooperation and trade accords were signed, was warm and productive. He pointed out that both leaders have their doubts regarding globalization and are in favor of a more just and equitable world order. Afterwards President Castro delivered a 45-minute speech at the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and gave a press conference lasting almost 3 hours, during which he spoke of globalization and the history of US intervention in Cuba. Cuba and Malaysia, he said, favor a just globalization, not the kind that only benefits the powerful and that implemented without debate in documents quickly agreed to behind closed doors. Recalling that only Venezuela and Brazil questioned the Free Trade Association of the Americas talks in Quebec last month, the Cuban leader said Latin America needs more leaders with the rebellious spirit of Malaysia's. He called globalization a new and more dangerous form of neocolonialism, evidenced by the continually growing gap between rich and poor nations. Responding to a question from a correspondent with Germany's Reuters news agency concerning the alleged rigid political controls on the press in Malaysia and Cuba, President Castro said that the Cuba media are in the hands of the people, not in the hands business executives and transnationals. And, he added, Cubans are very well informed. *US FAILS TO CONVINCE RUSSIA TO SUPPORT STAR WARS Moscow, May 11 (RHC)--A U.S. delegation in Moscow Friday was unable to convince Russian authorities to support Washington's deployment of a space-based anti-missile system. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the 18-member delegation, headed by US Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, provided more questions than answers. In a reference to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Yakovenko said Washington's arguments had little weight, and did not convince the Kremlin that the United States has a clear vision on how to resolve international security problems without destroying weapons treaties already in place. The spokesman said that talks will continue in Washington between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. *BUSH'S TRADE NEGOTIATIONS "FAST TRACK" WIDELY CONDEMNED Washington, May 11 (RHC)--Democrats in the U.S. Congress, environmental activists and labor leaders have blasted President George Bush's petition for "fast track" power in trade negotiations, predicting that he's not likely to receive approval. Democratic leader Dick Gephardt said that for a long time now his party has called for trade negotiations and deals that contain environmental, human rights and labor provisions. David Waskow, of Friends of the Earth, said Bush has failed to deal with the specific threats in trade regulations that are capable of eliminating environmental legislation. Upon presenting his proposal, Bush claimed that he was offering his fast track critics a tool box with 17 instruments to promote the good behavior of countries in trade matters. But Democratic Representative David Bonior and AFL-CIO labor federation leader David Smith said the tool box contains nothing new and doesn't have a hammer to impose sanctions to protect labor rights and the environment. Daniel Seligman, of the Sierra Club, said Bush's proposal will cost tax payers billions of dollars, pointing to a Canadian firm that has used regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement to legally challenge a California law on clean water and to demand a multi-million dollar compensation. *ECOLOGISTS ALARMED BY ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLIGENCE OF US Havana, May 11 (RHC)--Environmental protection and the preservation of bio-diversity are key issues that must be immediately addressed, according to a panel of experts appearing on Thursday's broacast roundtable discussion. They asserted that the United States is one of the main violators of international conventions designed to protect the planet's environment. Doctor Dalia Salabarria, head of the Environmental Agency of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), pointed to the reprehensible exploitation of the Earth's natural resources by the United States. She stressed that US corporations are interested only in profits, taking from the Third World without giving anything in return. Another panelist, Doctor Pedro Perez Alvarez, Director of the Ecological Institute of CITMA, noted that Cuba is extraordinarily rich in natural resources, with the largest biological diversity in the Greater Antilles. There are more than 6500 species of plants on the island, 52% of them unique to Cuba. Panelists credited the Cuban Revolution with maintaining a strong program to protect and preserve the environment in order to safeguard it for future generations. The roundtable ended with excerpts from Cuban President Fidel Castro's address to participants at the Rio Summit in 1992. The Cuban leader told those gathered at the international meeting on environmental issues nearly ten years ago, "Tomorrow will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago." *TOURISM 2001 CONVENTION COMES TO AN END IN HAVANA Havana, May 11 (RHC)--Tourism 2001, Cuba's largest tourism convention to date, has come to an end after a successful week in Havana. This year's convention attracted the largest number of participants ever: more than 2500 delegates from 43 nations exhibited their products at 107 stands. Speaking to reporters in the Morro-Cabaņas historical park, Tourism Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz said that the event had surpassed all expectations. Regarding Cuba's performance in the sector, he predicted the arrival of two million visitors on the island by the end of 2001. He added, however, that much work is still to be done in order to diversify the markets, including China, Japan and Russia, from which more than 17,000 tourists are expected this year. Ferradaz pointed out that by the end of April 748,000 visitors had arrived on the island, a 12% percent increase compared with the same period of 2000. He emphasized the importance of tourism for all of the country's economic sectors, saying that during the first three months of 2001, domestic production accounted for 66% of supplies used by the tourist industry. *FRANK DISCUSSION OF PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS IN LAS TUNAS Las Tunas, May 11 (RHC)--Members of the Cuban Union of Young Communists are holding one of their periodic evaluations in the eastern province of Las Tunas. Addressing participants at the meeting, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, a leading member of the Cuban Communist Party, stated that as an organization, the UJC is doing well. Machado Ventura said that the latest indices of the youth organization show a marked improvement over the past two years. Delegates agreed that the work of the Union of Young Communists has improved, but noted that there are still many problems to be resolved. One delegate to the evaluation meeting in Las Tunas complained that some members of the UJC do not attend regular, monthly meetings. She noted that many absences are justifiable, but other absentees have no good excuse. For his part, the First Secretary of the Union of Young Communists, Otto Rivero, stated that "we are living in new times that require new answers." He said he was very pleased that delegates were expressing their real feelings and was confident that this honesty would contribute to resolving many of the organization's problems. *OPEN TRIBUNAL SLATED FOR BAHIA HONDA IN PINAR DEL RIO Havana, May 11 (RHC)--More than 20,000 people are expected to gather Saturday morning in the municipality of Bahia Honda, located in the province of Pinar del Rio, for a mass demonstrations that will be broadcast live on Cuban radio and TV. The Open Tribunal in Bahia Honda will call for the release of US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Saturday, May 12th, is the International Day of Solidarity with Mumia. Falsely accused on trumped up charges of murder, the African-American leader has been on death row in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years. The demonstration will also provide yet another opportunity to call for an end to Washington's genocidal economic blockade against the island. In addition, the rally is expected to denounce the recent decision by the Panamanian government not to extradite Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices to Cuba for trial. *Viewpoint: US TWISTS ARMS IN THE UNITED NATIONS The United States has once again resorted to blackmail in the United Nations. This time Washington is conditioning payment of its gigantic debt on its reinstatement in the Human Rights Commission and the International Narcotics Control Board. The US House of Representatives has proposed that the government suspend payment of some $244 million to the UN until the United States manages to regain the human rights seat it lost last week in a secret vote by members of the Economic and Social Commission. The House measure must still be approved in the Senate. While it deals only with a final payment, due in 2001, and does not threaten payment this year of $582 million toward the total US debt, passage of the measure would still be a serious blow to the New York-based international organization. One of the first projects that will be seriously affected by lack of funding will be peace-keeping operations, because the UN owes a large amount of money to a group of countries that contribute troops to its peace-keeping effort. But the UN's financial problems are of little concern to the White House. The US, which likes to consider itself the world's gendarme in these matters, sees its exclusion from the UN rights body as an irreparable loss and it is furious over what it considers an "affront." Some representatives, like Republican Henry Hyde, are urging the US State Department to launch a crusade against use of the secret vote in the United Nations. Washington wants to force members to reveal how they are voting on all issues, so that the most vulnerable delegates will give in to US pressures. These pressures traditionally come in the form of threats to cut off desperately needed financial assistance. And what are the true interests of the United States? To change the United Nations and its organizations, among them the Human Rights Commission and the International Narcotics Control Board, into platforms to be used at their pleasure. The United States had already turned the Human Rights Commission into a politicized, selective body that sits in judgment against the Third World, with little or no mention of human rights violations occurring in the industrialized world. The government of George W. Bush refuses to see that his country's exclusion from UN commissions and boards came about because of its unpopular international positions, such as refusing to sign the Kyoto Treaty on the control of noxious gases and its blind support of Israel. But the arrogance of US government officials blinds them to this reality. Their angry response, threatening to withhold payment of what the US rightfully owes the United Nations, is being seen as nothing more than the temper tantrum of a giant after losing fair and square to his diminutive opponents. (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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