Radio Havana Cuba-03 April 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 03 April 2002 [Note: Today's English RHC reports arrived scrambled and mangled. Whatever could be salvaged follows -- NY Transfer] . *DEBATES BEGIN TODAY IN CUBA ON WORKERS' HEALTH *MEXICAN LAWMAKERS FOR REESTABLISHING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUBA *CUBA AND LESOTHO SIGN IMPORTANT COOPERATION AGREEMENTS *ISRAEL ACCUSED OF LAUNCHING PARALLEL WAR AGAINST THE PRESS *VATICAN ISSUES HARSHEST CRITICISM OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION POLICY *AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN CINCINNATI PROTEST RACISM WITH SUCCESSFUL BOYCOTT *RUSSIA REAPS NO REWARDS FROM PUTIN'S PRO-WESTERN POLICIES *FORMER ARGENTINE ECONOMY MINISTER JAILED IN CONTRABAND CASE *FSLN LEGISLATORS GIVE UP IMMUNITY AS ALEMAN IS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION *US LAWMAKER SUPPORTS COMPENSATION AFGHAN CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF US BOMBING *Viewpoint: A GENOCIDAL MISTAKE . *DEBATES BEGIN TODAY IN CUBA ON WORKERS' HEALTH Havana, April 3 (RHC)-- A conference delivered by Cuba's Public Health Minister, Carlos Dotres, on attention to worker's health, today kicked off the VIII Congress of the Caribbean Medical Association meeting in Havana. The meeting is taking place in the Center for Medical and Surgical Research, known as CIMEQ, gathering some 400 specialists from Spain, Portugal, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Argentina, England and other nations. Organizing committee member, Dr. Gerardo de la Llera, told the press that today's agenda includes a talk by Cuba's Work and Social Security Minister, Alfredo Morales Cartaya, who will brief participants on work safety issues on the island. Also part of the opening day's program is an official of the Pan American and World Health Organizations, Dr. Oscar Feo, who will speak on the health of workers in the Americas, and Cuban Dr. Rosaida Ochoa, who will examine prevention and information regarding AIDS. The Caribbean Medical Association boasts more than six thousand associates from different countries, more than a thousand of whom are from Cuba where it has its headquarters. The organization's principal mission is to improve people's health through scientific exchange. Cuba has been an associate member since the organization's founding in l990. The Caribbean Medical Association is part of the Association of Caribbean States and has consultant status in the United Nations. The Congress winds up on Saturday. *MEXICAN LAWMAKERS FOR REESTABLISHING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUBA Mexico, April 3 (RHC)-- Deputies of the Mexican Party of the Democratic Revolution, PRD, have sent a message of solidarity to Cuba to restore good relations between the two countries. After a meeting on Tuesday in the Mexican capital between some 30 parliamentarians and Cuba's ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Bolanos, PRD coordinator, Marti Batres, said that the encounter served to send a message of friendship to Cuba. The Mexican deputy speaking to the press, reminded his country's foreign ministry that the Mexican Constitution stipulates respect for sovereignty, self-determination and non-interference in the affairs of other countries. He noted that foreign policy must be in accordance with Mexican interests and that means that relations with Cuba are very important. Referring to Mexican Foreign Minister, Jorge Castaneda who the Party of the Democratic Revolution accuses of kowtowing to the interests of the United States, the congressman commented that unfortunately the foreign minister seems like the US Secretary of State. Marti Batres stressed that Mexico is more than the foreign ministry, it is also the legislature, which is restoring relations with Cuba. Meanwhile, in Cuba, Mexico's ambassador, Ricardo Pascoe said on Tuesday that his country will improve relations with the island. Pascoe made the statement during the signing in Havana of an education cooperation agreement between Mexico and Cuba. The Mexican ambassador said that it is "our task to insure that relations are better every day". Ricardo Pascoe noted that a good relation now exists and "we are going to maintain it". He cited as an example the agreement that had just been signed between a Mexican university and the Cuban Education Ministry, which provides for technical training of professors. *CUBA AND LESOTHO SIGN IMPORTANT COOPERATION AGREEMENTS Havana, April 2 (RHC)-- Cuba and Lesotho on Wednesday signed important cooperation agreements in health, sports, agriculture and water resources. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Fernando Ramirez de Estenoz and Foreign Minister, Thomas M. Thabane, attended the ceremony and said the agreements would strengthen and advance relations between the two nations. The Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment Marta Lomas and the Lesotho Foreign Minister signed a health accord, which encompasses sending a Cuban medical brigade of 46 doctors and nurses to Lesotho. According to the document, the Cuban doctors will participate as part of the island's Comprehensive Medical Attention Program, working with the people in areas selected by local health authorities. Marta Lomas and Thomas M. Thabane, also signed a protocol for the First Session of the Mixed Inter-Governmental Session for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. Foreign Minister Thabane noted that despite the distance that separates Cuba from Lesotho, both are part of the Southern Hemisphere. "We have agreed to save our peoples from disease and misery" he said. During his time on the island, Lesotho's foreign minister met with Cuba's top diplomat, Felipe Perez Roque and other high-ranking government officials. 64 students from Lesotho have earned their degrees in Cuban schools. *ISRAEL ACCUSED OF LAUNCHING PARALLEL WAR AGAINST THE PRESS Jerusalem, April 3 (RHC)-- While relentlessly warring on the Palestinian people, Israeli occupation troops have also launched an offensive against international media outlets. Israel has threatened legal action against the US's CNN and NBC networks for ignoring military orders and broadcasting from the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The Israeli government has also revoked the accreditation of two Abu Dhabi TV journalists after the station reported that Israeli troops had executed a group of young men in Ramallah. The BBC protested Tuesday after its correspondent, Orla Guerin, came under fire from an Israeli tank that had moved in on a peace demonstration. Millions of viewers saw her reporting on the protest when the tank turned on her, forcing her to withdraw as she shouted "Don't shoot, don't shoot". The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has joined a growing chorus of other groups criticizing Israel's policy of expelling journalists from occupied West Bank cities, and has also accused Israeli troops of shooting at reporters. The committee said the troops fired last Monday on an armored car used by NBC correspondent Dana Lewis and his two-person crew despite the fact that it was clearly marked as a media vehicle. The organization's executive director, Ann Cooper, stated that journalists are "deeply disturbed by Israel's evident desire to prevent reporters from witnessing its current activities in the West Bank." The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the Foreign Press Association in Israel have also protested the Israeli policy. Concern particularly began to grow in the wake of the wounding of Anthony Shadid, a Washington-based reporter for the Boston Globe newspaper on assignment in Ramallah. Shadid was shot in the shoulder despite wearing a flak jacket that clearly marked him out as a member of the press. Last Saturday Israeli soldiers barred reporters from the French television station France 2 from entering Ramallah after hurling a bottle at them and firing a shot in their direction. *VATICAN ISSUES HARSHEST CRITICISM OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION POLICY Rome, El Cairo, Ramallah, April 3 (RHC)-- Amid the tidal waves of criticism pouring down on Israel, the Vatican has issued its harshest ever condemnation of Tel Aviv's occupation policy. The official Vatican news daily L'Osservertore Romano wrote Wednesday that the Holy Land has become the daily victim of an aggression that is quickly becoming an annihilation. The newspaper affirmed that few times has history been violated with such incivility and thrown back in time with the clear intention of offending the dignity of an entire people, terming as "irritating arrogance" the affirmation that Israel's attacks are a defense against terrorism. The denunciation coincided with Egypt's announcement that it is suspending all contacts with Israel except through the diplomatic channels aimed at helping the Palestinian people. Egypt is one of only three Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel and has come under intense pressure to suspend those relations and break the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979. The Vatican's denunciation also coincides with Ramallah's central hospital announcement that it had started burying corpses in its parking lot after the town's morgue overflowed under the death toll of Israel's four-day invasion and ambulances are prevented from reaching the cemetery. *AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN CINCINNATI PROTEST RACISM WITH SUCCESSFUL BOYCOTT Cincinnati, April 3 (RHC)-- An African-American boycott in the racially-troubled city of Cincinnati has gained momentum with the support of renowned black entertainers and a church group. Ripped apart a year ago by the worst racial unrest since the black uprisings that followed Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, the city's African-American community began a boycott nine months ago of downtown hotels, stores, entertainment venues and restaurants. Now entertainers Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Wynton Marsalis, the soul groups Temptations and O'Jays, and the 10,000-member Progressive National Baptist Convention have added their support to the boycott demanding more money for depressed minority communities, the dropping of charges against those arrested last year while protesting the police shooting of an unarmed African-American youth, the implement of laws that are equally enforced across race and gender lines and more black representation in local politics. All the entertainers cancelled shows in the city, prompting the Cincinnati Arts Association to suit the boycott organizers for 600,000 dollars and Mayor Charlie Luken to accuse them of "economic terrorism." The organizers responded by accusing the city's police, prosecutor and courts of "killing, raping, planting false evidence and destroying the general sense of self-respect for black citizens." Reverend Stephen Scott, vice chairman of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, said his city is in the dark ages, affirming that "there is so much systematic racism, it's unreal." The boycott, nevertheless, has pushed city officials to the negotiating table, where they are reportedly about to agree to an out-of-court settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Cincinnati Black United Front over a federal lawsuit accusing the Cincinnati Police Department of 30 years of racial discrimination, racial profiling and the excessive use of force. *RUSSIA REAPS NO REWARDS FROM PUTIN'S PRO-WESTERN POLICIES Moscow, April 3 (RHC)-- As a Moscow-Washington summit approaches, Russians are increasingly asking what rewards they have reaped from joining the US-led anti-terrorist coalition and where President Vladimir Putin's pro-Western policy is leading the nation. The Associated Press news agency noted Tuesday that many Russian politicians, political analysts and journalists are now recalling that they had warned Putin about trusting America. Russian legislator Alexei Arbatov told AP that the majority of Russians who didn't support the president's plans from the beginning are now washing their hands of them and saying "we told you so". Former high-ranking Defense Ministry official Leonid Ivashov likened Russia's moves after September 11 to what he called "an attempt at geostrategic suicide." Putin reportedly surprised numerous Russian analysts and opinion-makers when he gave a green light to US troop deployments in formerly Soviet Central Asia and calmly accepted the imminent arrival of US military instructors in Georgia - on Russia's tense and troubled southern flank. In return, Moscow has only seen President George W. Bush dump the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and march NATO steadily toward further eastern expansion. Neither has Washington delivered the long-sought cancellation of the Soviet-era Jackson-Vanick amendment, which makes trade concessions contingent on Russia's human rights performance, or the declaration of Russia as a market economy which would lower import tariffs and ease Moscow's way into the World Trade Organization. *FORMER ARGENTINE ECONOMY MINISTER JAILED IN CONTRABAND CASE Buenos Aires, April 3 (RHC)-- Former Argentine Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo has been arrested in connection with illegal arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador in the 1990s. Cavallo was detained after being questioned in court in Buenos Aires when Federal Judge Julio Speroni was not satisfied with the former minister's response to some 60 questions. Cavallo was one of the signatories of secret decrees during the former administration of Carlos Menem authorizing the sale of 6,500 tons of weapons in violation of an international embargo. Menem, himself, spent almost six months under house arrest in the same case. Cavallo will reportedly be in the same jail as former Interior Security Secretary Enrique Mathov, recently arrested for the violent repression last December during a social uprising that left 5 people killed in Buenos Aires, some 30 throughout the nation and toppled then-President Fernando de la Rua - who also had a court appearance on Tuesday. De la Rua spent two hours in a federal court answering questions about the repression, and then retired to his country home near the capital without making statements to reporters gathered outside the court. *FSLN LEGISLATORS GIVE UP IMMUNITY AS ALEMAN IS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION Managua, April 3 (RHC)-- Thirty-eight Sandinista lawmakers in Nicaragua, including Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, have voluntarily renounced their parliamentary immunity as former President Arnoldo Aleman is formally brought up on charges of corruption. The move came after Aleman, as current leader of the country's National Assembly, threatened to back an effort to strip the Sandinistas of their immunity if his own was withdrawn as a result of the corruption scandal. Aleman, two house deputies and six former government officials were charged today with fraud and criminal association with the intent of committing crimes against the state in the theft of 1.3 million dollars in public funds. At the same time, Nicaraguan Judge Ileana Perez called on the country's legislature to strip Aleman and house deputies David Castillo and Marta McCoy of their immunity. Legislators recently stated that the opposition to Aleman has clinched the 47 of the Parliament's 92 votes necessary to withdraw the immunity, but according to observers, the move will come up against stiff resistance from the 6-member congressional leadership committee - of which 4 belong to the former president's Liberal Party and only one is a Sandinista. *US LAWMAKER SUPPORTS COMPENSATION AFGHAN CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF US BOMBING Kabul, April 3 (RHC)-- A US senator has asserted that Washington should "do what's right" and pay compensation to Afghans who lost family members in misdirected American bombings. The affirmation came Wednesday from the head of a US congressional delegation visiting the Afghan capital, Kabul. California Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher urged Washington to take seriously the claims of Afghan civilians. In a one-day visit, 9 members of Congress reportedly met with Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai and other officials to express their agreement with the pressing need for Washington to follow up its military successes with generous economic aid. Estimates of civilians killed in the war range from several hundred into the thousands. The government of one province alone, Kandahar, has filed more than 70 compensation cases with the central government. Rohrabacher said decent and honest people must admit that mistakes were made and must make reparation. His statement came on the heels of unsuccessful efforts by Afghan civilians to speak with officials at the US embassy in Kabul during another visit of two US senators. Among the close to 3 dozen Afghans who gathered outside the installation were people who had lost their homes, their belongings and most if not all their family members to errant US bombs and missiles. *Viewpoint: A GENOCIDAL MISTAKE The Israeli occupation of the autonomous Palestinian territories has become a bloodbath of Palestinians, as those who order the massacre turn a deaf ear to growing international outrage. Despite Israel's vicious offensive against the Palestinian people, some so-called western powers stubbornly make an analogy between the state terrorism unleashed by Tel Aviv and the suicide actions mounted by the resistance movement in some Israeli cities. Critics say this attitude is just a smoke screen to evade world condemnation of the state of terror imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Middle East. But since it is not easy to justify the genocide ordered by the Israeli Prime Minister, western observers avoid mentioning it taking aim instead at the Palestinian National Authority and its leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to further attack the victim in the conflict. However, Tel Aviv's supporters are well aware that the Israeli attack against Ramallah and the other Palestinian territories is meant to do much more than simply reduce Arafat's leadership role. Sharon's true intention is to insert the long-standing dispute with the Arab world, particularly with the Palestinian people, into the framework of the so-called campaign against terrorism, launched by Tel Aviv's mentor, The United States. Sharon has resorted to trying to exterminate the Palestinian people, ignoring the fact that if Arafat is killed or kept indefinitely under the Israeli siege, the Palestinian cause will certainly become even stronger and inspire far more support the world over. Experts agree that it would be a colossal mistake to even think that killing Yasser Arafat is the way to end the Palestinian uprising, known as the Intifada. The Israeli Prime Minister is ignoring yet another key factor in his current spiral of violence against the Palestinians. The vast majority of Jews long for a definitive peace with their Arab neighbors, and are also suffering the effects of their leaders' policies. Consequently, the Israeli electorate is also increasingly withdrawing its support from Sharon's ultra-right wing Likud party. For the United States, Israel's unconditional ally, the current crisis constitutes a difficult situation, because Washington's Mitchell Plan or so-called peace project that was suggested by CIA director George Tenet, has been discarded. The self-proclaimed "mediator" in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was intent on using the Middle East peace negotiations as a way to gain support for its much-touted campaign against terrorism, which is now ominously directed against Iraq. The unanimous NO to Washington in the recent Arab League Summit in Lebanon and the growing criticism of Israel's policies from a still disunited Arab world, confirm that Tel Aviv is aimlessly placing difficult to-overcome obstacles in the way of its unconditional ally and mentor. (c) 2002 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-13995 2002-Apr-06 12:02:23