Radio Havana Cuba-08 April 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 08 April 2002 . *CUBAN DONATION OF MENINGITIS B VACCINES ARRIVES IN URUGUAY *FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL IN CIENFUEGOS *GERMAN DEPUTY STATE MINISTER OF BADEN-WURTTEMBERG VISITS HAVANA *CHILEANS CALL ON PRESIDENT NOT TO SELL OUT CUBA IN GENEVA *SHARON REFUSES TO WITHDRAW TROOPS ATTACKING REFUGEE CAMP, BETHLEHEM CHURCH *EUROPEAN UNION DEBATES SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL *IRAQ SUSPENDS OIL EXPORTS IN PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI ATTACKS *IRA DECOMMISSIONS MORE ARMS IN PEACE PROCESS *COSTA RICA: PRESIDENTIAL RUN-OFF ELECTION REGISTERS LOWEST TURNOUT EVER *IN GENEVA, US FORMALLY ACCUSES CUBA OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS *EVEN YOUR BREATH WILL NOW GIVE YOU AWAY *ASSASSINATUION ATTEMPT AGAINST AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER *Viewpont: ONCE UPON A TIME IN URUGUAY . *CUBAN DONATION OF MENINGITIS B VACCINES ARRIVES IN URUGUAY Montevideo, April 8 (RHC)-- A donation to the people of Uruguay of 200,000 doses of a Cuban vaccine against meningitis B, has arrived in Montevideo, the capital. Cuba sent the medicine, which was prepared by the island's Carlos J. Finlay Institute, on a direct flight today from Havana to the Uruguayan capital. The vaccines are part of a donation of 1.2 million doses that Havana is giving to the people of Uruguay to fight the disease. Cuba's ambassador to the South American nation, Jose Alvarez Portela, presented the shipment's documents at the Uruguayan foreign ministry. Another cargo of 71,000 doses had been sent to Montevideo during a recent meningitis B outbreak, which was responsible for the deaths of two young people and a child. The medicine was used to vaccinate people in high-risk areas in the department of Canelones. The vaccination campaign was mounted after exhaustive discussions between Uruguayan health officials and parliamentarians demonstrated that the Cuban product is highly effective. When Uruguayan authorities made the decision to use the vaccine, the Cuban government immediately made arrangements to make the donation, despite the fact that President Jorge Batlle insisted on deducting the cost of the vaccine from the island's debt to Uruguay. Havana rejected the idea of negotiating health and stated that Cuba is always ready to discuss the topic of the debt as well as other economic affairs. *FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL IN CIENFUEGOS Cienfuegos, April 6 (RHC)-- Movie lovers in the southern Cuban city of Cienfuegos are enjoying a festival of French films. More than 40,000 people earlier attended the festival in Havana, where it began. The event's organizer, Antonio Mazon Robau, president of the Cuban Film Critics Association, noted that for the first time a French film festival has gone beyond the purely artistic and has resulted in the signing of agreements between Cuba and France in the area of technological cooperation. Speaking in Cienfuegos during the festival's opening ceremony, the film critic noted that Cubans' enthusiastic reception of French movies was demonstrated by the high attendance at the Havana portion of the festival, and he announced the movies will be shown in other provinces as well. The Festival kicked off in Cienfuegos with the film, Save me, by director Christian Vincent. Assistant director of the Alliance Francais in Cuba, Daniel Damien Gatumel, commented that the each year the festival is more popular because Cubans are highly cultured and well-versed in cinema. The French film festival has already been shown in Havana, the eastern city of Camaguy and in Pinar del Río in the west, and throughout April it will run in Villa Clara, Holguín and Granma. *GERMAN DEPUTY STATE MINISTER OF BADEN-WURTTEMBERG VISITS HAVANA Havana, April 8 (RHC)-- German Deputy State Minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, Walter Doring, began a three-day visit to Havana with a seminar on bilateral economic and trade promotion. Doring, who is also the German Economy Minister, arrived Sunday night accompanied by a 25-member delegation composed of parliamentarians and business representatives from the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The German embassy in Havana announced that Doring will meet with Vice President Carlos Lage, and the German minister's Cuban counterpart, Foreign Trade Minister, Raul de la Nuez. His agenda also includes meetings with the Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Marta Lomas, and Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque. A tobacco factory is also on the program. On Wednesday, the German minister along with the president of the Cuba-Germany Soccer Friendship Association, will present an invitation to the president of Cuban soccer, Luis Hernandez, for the national team to participate in the 13th edition of the Daimler-Chrysler Youth Cup 2003 in the city of Sindelfingen, in Baden-Wurttemberg. *CHILEANS CALL ON PRESIDENT NOT TO SELL OUT CUBA IN GENEVA Santiago de Chile, April 8 (RHC)-- The Chilean Solidarity with the Children of Cuba Network, has called on President Ricardo Lagos, not to sell out to the United States, and to support Cuba in the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. In a letter presented in the La Moneda government palace, the solidarity organization called on Lagos to recognize which governments dare to maintain their independence and "oppose the orders issued by the country that has become the policeman of humanity". The letter also recalls that in the more than 40 years that the Revolution has been in power in Cuba, there has not been a single person who has disappeared in custody. The document denounces the "sad spectacle of the Chilean police, beating people and using teargas," asks "with what moral authority can our government criticize human rights in Cuba?" In the Caribbean nation, says the Chilean letter, no one dies for lack of medical attention, and no one has to beg for alms in the streets for money to have an operation. "We are talking about nation in which everyone has the opportunity to go to school; where there is a teacher for every 12 children. We are talking about a country", says the document, "that has the most physical education instructors per inhabitant in the world; the country that is on the way to becoming the most cultured in the world." The Chilean Solidarity Network notes that "these are the human rights that the poor dream of, that our people dream of and support". At the same time the letter denounces the economic blockade that Washington maintains against Cuba which it calls an attempt to exterminate the people. The letter ends by calling on the Chilean president to take an international, independent and honourable stance and vote against the "unjust sanction against Cuba" in Geneva. *SHARON REFUSES TO WITHDRAW TROOPS ATTACKING REFUGEE CAMP, BETHLEHEM CHURCH Havana, 8th April (RHC)-- As the situation in the Middle East grows more critical, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has categorically refused to pull out troops invading Palestinian territory, mobilizing more army reservists and attacking both a refugee camp and the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. In an announcement to the Israeli Knesset Monday, Sharon said that he had no intention of acceding to the demands of the international community - including that of Washington - to withdraw from the West Bank and has in fact stepped up his campaign to completely crush the Palestine National Authority which he calls a terrorist organization. The church in Bethlehem has offered sanctuary to some 200 Palestinians that Israel says are armed and is demanding their surrender. Fire broke out in the church after Israeli troops opened fire on it. Franciscan priests inside the church have accused Sharon of breaking a pledge not to attack the holiest site of Christianity and Reverend David Jaeger, a spokesperson for the office of the Custodian of Catholic sites in the Holy Land, called on the international community to intervene to stop the attack. The UK Foreign Office called the attack "totally unacceptable". Elsewhere, United Nations refugee officials demanded that Tel Aviv stop an attack on the Jenin refugee camp which Israeli forces are pounding and in which some 100 Palestinians are reported to have already been killed. Peter Hansen who heads the UN Refugee agency from Geneva, described Israeli incursions into the camp as "real horror" saying that helicopter gunships and tanks were massacring civilians and called upon Israel "in the name of human decency" to halt the attack. Israel meanwhile has warned both Lebanon and Syria to maintain what it called a "moderate" position in the face of Hezbollah incursions into Israeli territory. It has called up thousands more reservists to add to the 20,000 already operating in the West Bank. Palestinian spokesperson Saeb Erekat said that it was clear that Ariel Sharon was out to completely dismantle the Palestine Authority but, he added, the Israeli Prime Minister would not find other Palestinians willing to fill any leadership void Sharon was attempting to create. In what was seen as back peddling by Washington in the face of Sharon's refusal to obey George Bush, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that the Israeli Prime Minister had "taken very much to heart" Bush's call for a withdrawal of Israeli troops but that "the president doesn't give orders to a sovereign prime minister of another country". Nonetheless, the US peace negotiator to the region, Anthony Zinni, has been asked to reiterate Washington's concerns and formerly ask for a withdrawal of troops. Powell is this week on a peacemaking mission to the Middle East where he said he would meet with besieged Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat if "the agenda permits". *EUROPEAN UNION DEBATES SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL London, 8th April (RHC)-- In the face of outright Israeli defiance against world opinion, the European Union today broached the possibility of applying economic sanctions against Tel Aviv if its attacks against the Palestinian Authority continue. European ministers had already discussed sanctions last week but now seem resigned to applying those sanctions at their next meeting in Luxembourg this week. The EU is especially upset at the waste of money donated to the new Palestinian autonomous areas for improved infrastructure. A new airstrip in Gaza, for instance, has been destroyed by Israeli troops. More than 1.5 million Palestinians are confined to their homes by a round the clock curfew imposed by the Israeli army in the West Bank. Over 200 Palestinians and 11 Israelis have been killed since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his troops to invade Palestinian cities across the West Bank. Fighting is especially fierce in the city of Nablus. Critics in Europe say that Sharon is openly defying the entire world with his brute force tactics, laying the ground for more suicide attacks in a never ending cycle of violence. *IRAQ SUSPENDS OIL EXPORTS IN PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI ATTACKS Havana, 8th April (RHC)-- Iraq will make an immediate halt of oil exports for a full month or until Israel withdraws from Palestinian territory, announced President Saddam Hussein in a nationally televised speech. The move upped oil prices across the world and has worried western states that the oil producing country's organization OPEC may use oil as a weapon to protest the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against the people of Palestine. In spite of an agreement made in late 2000 that OPEC would not resort to such tactics, many Arab countries are now backing away from the accord, with Iran and Libya heading the move to support Iraq's decision. If Iraq is forced to act alone, it's halt in production would have little effect on the world's oil supplies especially as OPEC has a surplus that would cover the shortfall. However, world markets are jittery and the price per barrel has increased by $1. In spite of its hard-line on Iraq - which it is currently threatening military attack - the U.S. is the world's biggest consumer of Iraqi crude oil, taking more than half of Baghdad's oil and depending on Iraqi supplies for about nine percent of its huge imports. *IRA DECOMMISSIONS MORE ARMS IN PEACE PROCESS Dublin, 8th April (RHC)-- The International Decommissioning Body which has as its task the overseeing of weapons disposal by the Irish Republican Army, has reported a new and substantial destruction of arms. The IRA, in a move it says it hopes will "stabilize, sustain and strengthen" the Northern Ireland peace process, decommissioned an important quantity of ammunition, arms and explosives. The Northern Ireland Secretary of State John Reid said that the news was very welcome and the head of the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, announced that the move demonstrated the IRA's commitment to the peace process. The UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, made efforts to congratulate the IRA and compared the situation in the Middle East to that of Northern Ireland commenting that there were obvious advantages to pursuing a political and negotiated peace process. The pressure is now on loyalist paramilitary groups to begin their own process of decommissioning, said Northern Ireland First Minister, David Trimble. However, the Democratic Unionist Party described the IRA's second decommissioning of weapons as " a stunt" and an "insignificant event". The first act of decommissioning came in October 2001. *COSTA RICA: PRESIDENTIAL RUN-OFF ELECTION REGISTERS LOWEST TURNOUT EVER San José, 8th April (RHC)-- The president-elect of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco, visited the Basílica of Los Angeles 23 kilometers from San José to give thanks for his victory over the weekend. The 68 year old leader of the ruling Social Christian Unity Party received 58% of the votes in the second round of the presidential election. The first round gave him 31% which was not the over 50% needed to win. This was the first time in the history of the nation that a second round was needed. Another record was the level of voter absenteeism, which at 39% was the highest in the history of the Central American nation. *IN GENEVA, US FORMALLY ACCUSES CUBA OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Geneva, 8th April (RHC)-- The United States has formally accused Cuba of human rights violations at the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Naming Cuba along with Russia and China, Washington accused the three of violating fundamental human rights. Other countries named by the Bush government are Iraq, Iran, and North Korea - the US president's famous "axis of evil", along with Zimbabwe, Sudan, Vietnam, Haiti and Burma. Cuban representative, Iván Moroy Godoy, said that as usual poor Southern countries were accused of such violations by Northern rich countries. Iraq pointed out that thanks to the sanctions imposed upon it by the united Nations under pressure from the US, over a million children had died of preventable causes. That, said Baghdad, was a gross human right violation in itself. The delegation from Libya protested what it saw as a clear allying of terrorism with Islam, totally rejecting the categorization of "terrorist" to those such as the Palestinian people who were, said Tripoli, fighting for their independence and survival. The United Nations Human Rights Commission vote on Cuba is expected to take place in about a week. *EVEN YOUR BREATH WILL NOW GIVE YOU AWAY London, 8th April (RHC)-- British police report that they have the technology to identify suspects via their breath, it was announced Monday. Small amounts of moisture left on a telephone or against an item used to cover a face, can detect the DNA of a suspect and lead to their identification. Home Office minister John Denham announced today that police officers would be given special training to enable them to use kits to remove such evidence from crime scenes. Investigating officers will have to use great discipline to avoid contaminating the scene as even their breathing could destroy vital evidence, report forensic experts. *ASSASSINATUION ATTEMPT AGAINST AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER Jalalabad, 8th April (RHC)-- A bomb apparently designed to kill the new interim Afghan Minister of Defense exploded in the eastern city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan today, killing four bystanders. The explosive device was set off when a convoy carrying Mohammed Fahim was passing. The minister escaped unhurt. He was travelling to Jalalabad to discuss a new campaign to eradicate poppy-growing in the region. The poppies produce opium which is used to manufacture heroin. The explosion was seen as an attempt to destabilize the interim government prior to meetings of the national council to elect a new government in June of this year. Earlier this year, the country's interim Aviation Minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed by a mob during a riot caused by delays at Kabul airport. However, it was later suspected that he was deliberately assassinated by members of the current administration. *Viewpont: ONCE UPON A TIME IN URUGUAY I am going to tell you a story about a thief, not a chicken thief, who, most of the time, robs a chicken because he is hungry. This is a story about a thief in a suit and tie. One of those who commits crimes without getting his hands dirty or running any physical risks, unlike the chicken thief who can be bitten by a dog or beaten with a stick. The thief in the suit and tie sends someone else to commit the crime. He plans it, has the information to do it, but doesn't run any risks. This story happened many decades ago in a small, struggling country in South America. Someone was planning the devaluation of the Uruguayan peso. What did this mean in concrete terms? That if you had a dollar in your pocket it was worth $10.00 Uruguayan pesos. But after devaluation, you got $25. It goes without saying that any self-respecting public official that has this knowledge keeps this information a top secret. The person at the center of our story knew about the impending devaluation because he was the very one who was going to introduce it. So, armed with foreknowledge and influence, he sent millions of Uruguayan pesos to Brazil, to exchange them for Brazilian currency, the cruceiro. He then exchanged these for US dollars. Our hero became a millionaire several times over. A scandal erupted which has pursued him all his life. And so when the same Mr. Jorge Batlle took on the presidency of Uruguay, more than 40 years after this sensational scandal from which he became known as The Traitor, the head of CNN News in Spanish, Jorge Gestoso, who is also Uruguayan, asked him about the aforementioned scandal. Jorge Batlle was remorseless and answered all the questions shamelessly. This is the very person who announced a few days ago that he had ordered his foreign minister to vote against Cuba in the Commission on Human Rights, without knowing what they are even voting on. The gentleman traitor could well do it. A precedent has been set. With acknowledgement to Orlando Contreras. (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-6962 2002-Apr-09 12:12:34