Radio Havana Cuba-01 October 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 01 Octoberber 2001 . *FIDEL CASTRO BIDS FAREWELL TO CUBAN MEDICAL TEAM BOUND FOR MALI *CUBA TO COMMEMORATE 1976 TERRORIST DOWNING OF JET ON SATURDAY *HAVANA'S THEATRE FESTIVAL ENDS AFTER HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WEEK *WASHINGTON WARNS OF NEW ATTACKS, SPARKS PANIC PURCHASE OF SURVIVAL GEAR *REBEL-GOVERNMENT PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA AGAIN HANGING BY A THREAD *ARAB LEADERS: NO SOLUTION TO TERRORISM WHILE US SUPPORTS ISRAEL TOTALLY *BUSH ADMINISTRATION TERRORISM MEASURES FLOUNDER IN CONGRESS Viewpoint: *CENTRAL AMERICAN HUNGER CONTINUES AS US CONTINUES WAR PREPARATIONS . *FIDEL CASTRO BIDS FAREWELL TO CUBAN MEDICAL TEAM BOUND FOR MALI Havana, October 1 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro was on hand at Havana's airport to bid farewell to 101 Cuban health professionals who returned Sunday to the African nation of Mali after they had spent their vacation back at home with their families. The doctors, nurses and technicians are part of the Cuban medical brigade offering its services to Mali as part of Havana's ongoing help to Third World nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Most of the work is performed in isolated rural communities where no doctors exist or where local medical personnel are so thin on the ground that they are overwhelmed and unable to cater to the population. The Mali brigade comprises 87 doctors, 11 nurses and health technicians, 2 dentists and one engineer. To date they have served 117,571 people including 31,847 children and performed 2,822 surgical operations. *CUBA TO COMMEMORATE 1976 TERRORIST DOWNING OF JET ON SATURDAY Havana, October 1 (RHC)--This coming Saturday the 6th October will be the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Cuban airliner on take off from the island of Barbados. All 73 lives on board were lost - among them the entire Cuban youth fencing team, returning from a tournament abroad - when a bomb exploded on board. Radio Havana Cuba will later in the week be presenting a program in memory of those who died on the 6th October 1976 at a time that is especially poignant in view of the terrorist attack on the United States on the 11th September. The man who admitted to planning and carrying out the bombing, Cuban-American Orlando Bosch, is considered a hero among the right-wing members of the Miami community. Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh described Bosch as an "unreformed terrorist." Nonetheless, against the recommendations of the district director of the INS and the Department of Justice, he was freed by Governor Jeb Bush of Florida after a total of 30 countries had refused to grant his applications of asylum due his long record of terrorist acts. Orlando Bosch now walks the streets of Miami a free man. The Cuban government has frequently protested that Washington houses terrorists such as Bosch, while the US government maintains Cuba on its list of terrorist nations for granting political asylum to a number of African American and Puerto Rican activists from the 1970s and 80s. A commemoration event will be held on Saturday at the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana. It is expected to be attended by many thousands, including the family and friends of those who died. *HAVANA'S THEATRE FESTIVAL ENDS AFTER HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WEEK Havana, October 1 (RHC)--The 10th Havana Theatre Festival ended a week of theatre-going for residents of Havana, more than 40,000 of whom attended performances in 14 different theatres and stages across the city. A total of 42 Cuban and 16 foreign stage companies presented 28 different pieces that ranged from Chekov to experimental fringe theatre. One of the final performances was "Antagon" by a German company called Equinox Terminal. It was a spectacular outdoors show which received great applause and critiques for its staging and costumes. Another company that received great acclaim was the Cuban Hubert de Blank with its "Neruda's Postman" and "The Dance." Children's theatre was also an important aspect of this particular festival and received widespread coverage and participation.. *WASHINGTON WARNS OF NEW ATTACKS, SPARKS PANIC PURCHASE OF SURVIVAL GEAR Washington, October 1 (RHC)--The sale in the United States of water purifiers, survival manuals and gas masks has been steadily on the rise, amid warnings from Washington that more terrorist attacks could well occur. Speaking Sunday on the CBS TV program "Face The Nation," Attorney General John Ashcroft asserted that authorities believe there are other persons in the country with terrorist plans and that organizations with ties to Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden are active in dozens of nations around the world. White House spokesman Andrew Card asserted Sunday that terrorist organizations have probably found ways to use biological and chemical weapons. The magazine "Newsweek" reported over the weekend that terrorists unsuccessfully tried to obtain the poisonous biological agent Antrax in the Czech Republic, according to an anonymous source from the FBI. The CNN TV network is reportedly interrupting its news program to provide information on the use of gas masks, while local radio stations across the US are doing the same. Following Sunday's announcements in Washington, drug stores throughout the country began to run out of antibiotics in what is being called astronomic sales of these products. *REBEL-GOVERNMENT PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA AGAIN HANGING BY A THREAD Bogotá, October 1 (RHC)--The rebel-government peace process in Colombia is once again hanging by a thread following the death of a former government minister recently kidnapped by leftist guerrillas. While President Andres Pastrana announced that he will re-evaluate every aspect of the peace process, High Commissioner for Peace Camilo Gomez affirmed that the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces has endangered the process. Other political leaders and presidential candidates are calling on the government to suspend peace talks that began nearly 3 years ago and that have brought few results. The rebels have blamed the Colombian army for the shooting death of former Culture Minister Consuelo Araujonoguera, calling the military's attempt to free her irresponsible and senseless. Next week, Pastrana is to decide whether he will extend for another 6 months the vast demilitarized zone in southern Colombia established in November, 1998 to facilitate rebel-government peace talks. The Colombian army has placed on maximum alert all its units operating near the demilitarized zone. *ARAB LEADERS: NO SOLUTION TO TERRORISM WHILE US SUPPORTS ISRAEL TOTALLY Riyadh, Amman, Cairo, October 1 (RHC)--Saudi Arabia has asserted that there will be no solution to terrorism as long as Washington maintains its unconditional support of Israel. Saudi Interior Minister Nayef Ben Abdel Aziz stated Sunday that US interests will continue to be threatened by terrorist attacks as long as Washington does not seriously and equitably seek a solution to the Palestinian question. A similar position was voiced over the weekend in Syria, where the ruling party news paper "Al Baas" wrote that Washington's anti-terrorism measures will only have a passing effect if the causes of terrorism are not attacked. Upon receiving Sunday visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Jordanian King Abdala II highlighted the urgency of a solution to the conflict in Israeli-occupied territories. In El Cairo, visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi insisted that Washington cannot lead an international campaign against terrorism while supporting what he called Israeli terrorism. *BUSH ADMINISTRATION TERRORISM MEASURES FLOUNDER IN CONGRESS Washington, October 1 (RHC)--Observers on capital hill are predicting that Washington's controversial anti-terrorism measures will not be approved, as has occurred with other similar initiatives. On Sunday, Patrick Leahy, Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, refrained from offering any timetable for approval of the package, while at the same time reiterating concern over the restriction of civil liberties implied in many of the measures. Differences between the Senate and House aborted anti-terrorism measures presented to Congress after the 1995 terrorist bomb in Oklahoma City and the bomb attack during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In a CBS interview, Leahy said the US government does not want to be like other countries that Washington constantly criticizes, that he doesn't believe that US citizens should be detained without even having to tell them why. Attorney General John Ashcroft continued insisting over the weekend on rapid approval of the measures. The calendars of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees indicate that at the earliest the two chambers of Congress will begin debates on the measures in mid-October. Viewpoint: *CENTRAL AMERICAN HUNGER CONTINUES AS US CONTINUES WAR PREPARATIONS They know little about international terrorism and even less about international affairs. In fact it is possible that many are unaware of the events that shook the world on Tuesday, September 11 in Washington and New York, since many are illiterate and nearly all lack electricity in their homes and therefore access to news. Their struggle is simple. It is one of survival. Some million and a half Central Americans, most of them in Honduras with the rest in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, have for months been surviving on plants, roots and some fruits because their harvests have been destroyed by this year's drought and they have no way of pulling up stakes and moving on to another region. The United Nations World Food Program has offered help to a little more than 300,000 people, less than a fifth of those affected. Now they have announced that their food reserves are insufficient and will soon run out even as the numbers in urgent need of food , especially children, grows by the minute. As the masters of war keep the world's attention riveted on an imminent invasion of Afghanistan; while confusion and fear reign right here on our doorstop, tens of thousands of people's lives are danger from a different threat: that of starvation. And the tragedy will touch more than those who die: those who manage to survive will be marked for life. According to physician Hector Cespedes one of the 15 Cuban doctors currently working in the town Jocotan in eastern Guatemala, hunger in the area has become so endemic that the harm done to the children is already irreversible - with stunted growth and limited intellectual ability having become the norm. In Honduras, where there are 800,000 people on the verge of starvation, half will not survive until the next harvest without urgent assistance. The World Food Program and the International Red Cross have issued emergency calls to the developed nations to make extra donations if they are to save lives. Keeping this situation in mind, the words of Cuban President Fidel Castro take on even more importance, when last Saturday he affirmed that none of the world's most critical problems can be solved by force. To maintain peace with dignity, independence and without war, is the cornerstone, noted President Castro, of the struggle for a truly just world of free peoples. Maintaining peace also means eliminating hunger, giving children an opportunity to have a future, giving humanity a feeling of decency and solidarity which is so needed now. It is only in this way that we can avoid tragedies like that which is happening at this moment in Central America. (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-1120 2001-Oct-01 23:11:09