Radio Havana Cuba-16 November 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 16 November 2001 . *REGIONAL MEETING TO OPPOSE FTAA WRAPS UP IN HAVANA *CUBA SIGNS INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS AGAINST TERRORISM *BARBADOS DENOUNCES IMPUNITY FOR BOMBERS OF CUBANA AIRLINER 25 YEARS AGO *CUBAN TOURISM DELEGATION IN LONDON *RISING DISPUTES REPORTED AMONG RIVAL ANTI-TALIBAN FACTIONS *DESPITE INTERNATIONAL CONCERN, CHENEY DEFENDS NORTHERN ALLIANCE *THOUSANDS IN EL SALVADOR COMMEMORATE ARMY MASSACRE OF JESUIT PRIESTS *PUTIN AND BUSH AGREE TO DISAGREE ON ABM TREATY *WTO MEETING IN DOHA A DEFEAT FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT - ACTIVISTS *Viewpoint: WTO MINISTERIAL MEETING REACHES WATERED-DOWN ACCORDS . *REGIONAL MEETING TO OPPOSE FTAA WRAPS UP IN HAVANA Havana, November 16 (RHC)-- The Hemispheric Meeting to Oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas ended its four days of sessions late Friday night in the Cuban capital. Cuban President Fidel Castro delivered the closing address to more than 700 delegates from 30 countries. During an exchange with delegates last night, the Cuban leader noted that the movement to oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is taking on steam. Fidel Castro said the growing movement against neo-liberal globalization has organized huge demonstrations and "frightened the owners of the world in Seattle, Quebec and Genoa." And the leader of the Cuban Revolution said those attending this week's event in Havana will return to their countries even more strongly opposed to the FTAA -- and that he himself was doubly opposed to Washington's proposed economic annexation of the region. Regarding the dominant role of the U.S. dollar in Latin American economies, President Fidel Castro said that "the dollar doesn't control us (in Cuba); we control the dollar." He added that Cuba's "hand-made" socialist economy is being perfected, with the idea of improving the island's system. Delegates to the regional gathering represented trade union and labor organizations, religious groups, indigenous activists, environmentalists and representatives from youth and women's organizations. One of the delegates from Venezuela, Nora Castañeda, said that neo-liberalism has already raised its ugly head throughout the region and that the U.S.-proposed agreement for a so-called free trade zone of the Americas will only make things worse. She stated that "for them [the United States], we are only a market". Another delegate to the Havana gathering, Marta Grebat from Mexico, said that women are particularly targets of the neo-liberal model. She stressed that women receive much lower wages than men doing the same work, while suffering sexual harassment and exploitation on the job. As an example, the Mexican activist revealed that at a maquiladora in Querétaro, Mexico, young women are required to sign a contract, which restricts the number of children they can have. She added that women and young girls are forced to work for slave wages, while transnational companies rake in huge profits. *CUBA SIGNS INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS AGAINST TERRORISM New York, November 16 (RHC)-- Cuba has signed-on to three international conventions against terrorism, as recommended by the United Nations. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, leading the island's delegation to the 56th Session of the UN General Assembly, formally presented the conventions at UN Headquarters in New York City. According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, these three newly signed conventions are part of the seven passed by the National Assembly of People's Power last October 4th. Four other agreements against terrorism will be officially signed in the coming days -- part of Cuba's decision to sign all of the United Nations' conventions related to the fight against terrorism. *BARBADOS DENOUNCES IMPUNITY FOR BOMBERS OF CUBANA AIRLINER 25 YEARS AGO New York, November 16 (RHC)-- The Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, Billie Miller, has denounced the impunity for terrorists who sabotaged a Cubana airliner in 1976, killing all 73 persons on board. Speaking before the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the deputy prime minister of Barbados stated that despite the fact that those who planned the sabotage bombing were identified and arrested, they were never punished. The Barbados official noted that, instead, the terrorists were rewarded for their crime and are still actively carrying out terror campaigns. She reminded UN delegates that the terrorist action was carried out on October 6, 1976 -- on a flight that took off from Barbados. Deputy Prime Minister Billie Miller expressed her country's strong determination to help in the fight against terrorism, adding that there should be "zero tolerance for terrorism no matter where it comes from". *CUBAN TOURISM DELEGATION IN LONDON London, November 16 (RHC)-- A Cuban tourism delegation is in London to promote travel to the island. Headed by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Raul de la Nuez, the delegation of 25 includes the head of the Cuban tourism agency Rumbos and a number of local tourism employees. Among the Cuban delegates is a bartender from the world famous Floridita bar in Havana where the "daiquiri" cocktail was invented. He was hard at work serving drinks at a reception held by the Cuban Tourist Board. The event, which took place on the River Thames aboard the famous ship "The Hispanola," was attended by British Energy Minister, Brian Wilson, and the Conservative peer, Baroness Hooper. Hooper was on the board of Smith-Kline Beecham pharmaceutical company when it signed an agreement with Cuba to market the island's meningitis vaccine. Representatives from Pernod Ricard, which markets the Havana Club label, were also present. Cuban music and dancers were on hand and a typical Cuban plate was served -- consisting of roast pork, black beans, fried bananas and rice. In conjunction with the food, the well-known English television chef, Floella Benjamin, showed a preview of her cooking series on Cuba, which will be aired on British TV next year. *RISING DISPUTES REPORTED AMONG RIVAL ANTI-TALIBAN FACTIONS Kabul, November 16 (RHC) -- In one of many developments harbinging the future of Afghanistan, Pashtun tribal leaders opposed to the Taliban have warned the Northern Alliance to stay out of the Afghan city Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in the south. Though opposed to the Taliban, 6 tribal Pashtun groups are determined that the city should not fall to the non-Pashtun Northern Alliance. The anti-Taliban Pashtun leaders favor a peace negotiation with the Taliban still offering resistance in Kandahar. In other developments, Northern Alliance forces have threatened to massacre up to 6,000 foreigners fighting with the Taliban in the besieged province of Konduz and summarily execute high-ranking Taliban leaders. At the same time, two armed groups are disputing the key Afghan city Jalalabad, reportedly taken over by one faction of the Northern Alliance forces under the leadership of Yunis Khalis and his popular military commander Abdul Qadir. But Mohammed Zaman Ghun Shareef, a Pakistan-based leader who heads a rival group called the Eastern Shura, is challenging Qadir's authority - vowing to enter and take over the city by any means necessary. As the British news daily "The Guardian" asserted in its Friday edition, western powers now face the danger that they may be victims of their own proxy success after reluctantly helping the Northern Alliance. An article contributed by Defense Studies professor at London's King's College, Michael Clarke - entitled "We Created This Political Vacuum" - asserted that western powers have a long history of allowing their military campaigns to get far in front of their political strategies - with Yugoslavia as one of the most recent examples. *DESPITE INTERNATIONAL CONCERN, CHENEY DEFENDS NORTHERN ALLIANCE Washington, London, November 16 (RHC) -- Despite threats of destabilization in Afghanistan, reports of Northern Alliance massacres and of the establishment of anti-Taliban warlord fiefdoms, US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney has affirmed that the Northern Alliance is behaving in a responsible manner. His statement to the British Broadcasting Corporation coincided with another Northern Alliance rejection of foreign troops in Afghanistan. Northern Alliance warlord Ismail Khan, who has established the western city of Herat as his bastion, said in a press conference Friday that foreign troops are no longer necessary. Khan was commenting on the arrival of British troops at an airport on the outskirts of Kabul. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC that the 100 British troops in Kabul are not there on a police mission, but rather, to facilitate a humanitarian mission. Straw said British troops would not participate in a civil war in Afghanistan. As French soldiers were heading to Uzbekistan to eventually deploy in Afghanistan, observers, the media and politicians are expressing confusion over exactly what will be the role of foreign troops. *THOUSANDS IN EL SALVADOR COMMEMORATE ARMY MASSACRE OF JESUIT PRIESTS San Salvador, November 16 (RHC) -- Thousands of Salvadorans Thursday evening marched with candles and lanterns to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Salvadoran army's massacre of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women employees. The procession began and wound up at San Salvador's Central American University, where the dean, Jesuit priest Jose Maria Tojeira, presided over mass in front of residents of the capital and inhabitants of more than 100 rural towns throughout the country. Thousands also visited the Martyrs Museum, containing the victims' blood-stained clothes and bibles. Members of the Salvadoran army trained at the US's military School of the Americas summarily executed their victims amid the largest guerrilla offensive in the history of the country's civil war. The Jesuit priests were outspokenly in favor of the poor and social justice, condemning the country's socio-economic structure as being at the root of the cause of the country's armed conflict. An army colonel and a lieutenant were convicted for the crime in 1991, but released under an amnesty law passed in 1993 - one year after the rebel-government peace accords. The 12th anniversary of the crime comes just months after the Salvadoran judiciary definitively refused to accept charges against then-President Alfredo Cristiani and 6 retired Salvadoran army generals believed to be the intellectual authors of the massacre. The judicial decision unsuccessfully culminated years of efforts to bring to justice those who ordered the soldiers to open fire. *PUTIN AND BUSH AGREE TO DISAGREE ON ABM TREATY Washington, Moscow, November 16 (RHC) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President George Bush have agreed to continue disagreeing on the Antiballistic Missiles Treaty, despite rumors that Putin was ready to capitulate. A deal on missile defense was broadly considered the most important purpose of Putin's visit to the US. Numerous media commentators and staff writers are interpreting a lack of an accord to mean that Putin is under pressure back home by those in the military and the government who believe that his recent efforts to move closer to the United States will be at the expense of some of Russia's strategic interests. And this interpretation could be seen as another confirmation of a report last Tuesday in a prominent Russian newspaper asserting that Putin held a heated closed-door meeting with disgruntled military leaders just before traveling to the US. And at home, while newspaper comments on the summit were generally positive though not very enthusiastic and in some cases cynical, more nationalistic news dailies like the "Sovietskaya Rossiya" quipped that "no matter how much they pat each other on the back and give each other bearhugs in front of TV cameras, they will never be equal partners. But even pro-Kremlin newspapers underlined that there was no written, formal agreement by the US to cut its offensive weapons to a specific level, only Bush's promise to do so. Following 4 Bush-Putin encounters in less than a year, the two leaders agreed to meet again next year. *WTO MEETING IN DOHA A DEFEAT FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT - ACTIVISTS November 16 (RHC) -- Results of the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha were confusing, but what was clear is that they do not favor developing countries, according to anti-free market globalization activists Walden Bello and Anuradha Mittal. An article published Friday by Bello and Mittal in the alternative news web site Commondreams News Center asserted that contrary to the claims of European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, Doha did not launch a "development round". The article noted that there is only a perfunctory acknowledgement of the need to review implementation issues - that is, compliance with accords already reached - which was the key agenda of the developing countries coming into Doha. At the same time, the language on the phasing out of agricultural subsidies is watered down owing to the strong objections of the European Union, there is no commitment to an early phase-out of textile and garment quotas because of strong resistance from the United States, the demand for a mechanism to promote food security and development pushed by developing nations was completely ignored, there is no real commitment on pharmaceutical property rights overriding public health emergencies, and the Doha Declaration eliminates the reference to the International Labor Organization being the appropriate forum for addressing labor and trade issues, which leaves the door open for the WTO to assert its jurisdiction in an area where it has no authority or competence, according to the authors. They asserted that the agreement on pharmaceutical patens, trumpeted as a victory for developing countries, is exaggerated, noting that while an attachment to the declaration does recognize that there is nothing in the WTO patent agreement that would prevent countries from taking measures to promote public health, there is no commitment to change the wording of that agreement. And, according to the authors, the WTO patent agreement can serve as the basis for future legal challenges to countries that override patents in the interest of public health. Walden Bello and Anuradha Mittal, who were present in Doha as representatives of anti-globalization NGOS, called this a defeat for democracy and development. *Viewpoint: WTO MINISTERIAL MEETING REACHES WATERED-DOWN ACCORDS United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined Western voices in praising the results of the 4th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference held this week Qatar, although in reality there is little reason to do so. After heated exchanges between the industrialized North and the impoverished South, the meeting that was held in Doha, the capital of Qatar, managed to hammer out a series of agreements, some so watered down that their viability is doubtful. For the Third World, the most important result of the Doha meeting was the political declaration that reaffirms that the accord on the rights of intellectual property related to trade cannot stop governments from ignoring patents on medicines needed in health emergencies. It is an affirmation that pierces through the control exerted by pharmaceutical companies in the rich countries on the international medicine market. The Third World delegations agreed that the declaration on the norms of pharmaceutical patents was one of the few victories won by the poor nations. Grudgingly agreed to by the industrialized North, the statement was passed thanks to a tenacious battle waged by the African countries, Brazil and India. All countries in which serious health problems exist and whose governments are demanding expedited measures in order to care for the spiraling numbers of ill. Another one of the few clearly positive acts in Doha was the approval of the entrance of China into the World Trade Organization. Though the economically disadvantaged nations urged the rich countries to eliminate subsidies on their exports, the industrialized nations would only agree to a progressive reduction. Added to the ambiguity of that agreement was another regarding a new three-year round of world negotiations, aimed at reducing commercial barriers and dealing with pending issues in the so-called Uruguay Round. The deep divisions that surfaced during the WTO ministerial meeting in Qatar between the opulent and the marginalized countries regarding the unfairness of international trade regulations will be debated during the next meeting scheduled for January. Many leaders of wealthy nations claim that the most important aspects of development will be identified in discussions on agriculture and trade, which will be the next meeting's main topics. However, it would be more prudent to wait until the conversations start and then cautiously observe the results in order to determine if they truly mean a round of negotiations guaranteed to develop the impoverished South. We must keep in mind that the agenda is complex and full of pitfalls, because it deals with questions on industrial tariffs, application of former trade agreements, intellectual property rights and the environment. In Qatar, there was at least one thing that all agreed upon: that the world economic recession, aggravated by the attacks of September 11th in the United States, has forced everyone to think about and debate the planet's uncertain economic future. (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-12468 2001-Nov-17 05:32:02