Radio Havana Cuba-18 April 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 18 April 2002 . *DEMONSTRATORS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA AT UN RIGHTS COMMISSION *CENTRAL AMERICAN LAWMAKERS REJECT ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION IN GENEVA *PRIME MINISTER OF GRENADA VISITS THE CUBAN CAPITAL *IRAN'S VICE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN CUBA *CONGRESS ON EMERGENCY MEDICINE, INTENSIVE CARE UNDERWAY IN HAVANA *SOME BELIEVE IN BAD COUPS AND GOOD COUPS: VENEZUELA'S DEFENSE MINISTER *INCREASING HORROR OVER ISRAELI DEVASTATION OF JENIN REFUGEE CAMP *ARGENTINA: DUHALDE LAMENTS HAVING TO BOW HIS HEAD BEFORE THE IMF *LARGEST-EVER US PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMO SET FOR WASHINGTON *USA'S "FRIENDLY FIRE" IN AFGHANISTAN KILLS FOUR CANADIAN SOLDIERS *SECRET WTO DOCUMENTS DESCRIBED AS WORLDWIDE ATTACK AGAINST DEMOCRACY Viewpoint: *WHAT HISTORY TAUGHT US ABOUT SHARON, WHAT THE WORLD CHOSE TO IGNORE *COLIN RETURNS EMPTY-HANDED . *DEMONSTRATORS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA AT UN RIGHTS COMMISSION Geneva, April 18 (RHC)-- Demonstrators expressed their solidarity with Cuba on Thursday during a rally held in Geneva. While the United States and its allies at the UN Human Rights Commission planned to introduce a resolution condemning the island for alleged human rights violations, hundreds gathered outside the Commission's headquarters in the Swiss city to voice their opposition. One of the organizers of the demonstration, Raymond Muller -- President of the Switzerland-Cuba Association -- told the crowd that Washington's economic blockade of the island constitutes a gross violation of the human rights of all Cuban citizens. Muller said that the annual resolution that will be debated tomorrow, Friday, represents another attempt by the United States to justify its genocidal policies against the Cuban Revolution. Colombians, Bolivians, Uruguayans, Chileans and citizens of other Latin American countries joined with demonstrators from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland outside the Palace of Nations -- site of the 58th Session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Carrying banners and placards expressing solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, one activist held a sign which read: "Cuba: Champion of Human Rights." Addressing those attending the rally, Ramon Cardona, Secretary General of the World Federation, denounced the anti-Cuba campaign which is launched every year at the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He affirmed that workers throughout the world support the Cuban people and the achievements of their Revolution. *CENTRAL AMERICAN LAWMAKERS REJECT ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION IN GENEVA Guatemala City, April 18 (RHC)-- Representatives of the Central American Parliament (PALACEN) have called the annual anti-Cuba resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva "unjust and unacceptable." Meeting in Guatemala City, the Central American lawmakers issued a call to member nations of the UN Commission to reject any resolution against the island. The parliamentary representatives sent an open letter to the Geneva-based Commission, insisting that the issue of human rights must be free of political manipulation and noting that Washington's annual campaign against Cuba is one of the most politically-charged debates in today's world. PARLACEN delegates affirmed that Cuba has created the conditions for the full enjoyment of human rights, not only economically, socially and culturally but also in the areas of civil and political rights. The open letter to the UN Human Rights Commission notes that the Cuban Revolution has been the target of direct and indirect aggressions as it carries out a process of radical social transformations. The Central American parliamentary representatives said that any new resolution against Cuba in Geneva would maintain the spiral of confrontation and polarization, which would clearly be detrimental to international cooperation. *PRIME MINISTER OF GRENADA VISITS THE CUBAN CAPITAL Havana, April 18 (RHC)-- Grenada's Prime Minister Keith Mitchell toured the Cuban capital yesterday, beginning a four-day working visit to the island. The purpose of his visit is to promote bilateral relations in culture and commerce. On Wednesday, the Grenadian prime minister toured the Training School for Social Workers, located in Cojimar. Before his visit ends on Friday, he will meet with high-ranking government leaders and tour other places of interest, including the International School of Physical Education and Sports, where young people from Latin America, Africa, and Asia are studying. Cuba and Grenada enjoyed close diplomatic and political relations during the administration of the New Jewel Movement, which toppled the dictatorship of Eric Gairy in March of 1979. Led by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, the Grenadian Revolution brought fundamental changes in housing, education and health care. Following a military coup and the assassination of Bishop and a number of his closest cabinet members, the United States launched a brutal invasion of the small Caribbean island in October 1983. *IRAN'S VICE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN CUBA Havana, April 18 (RHC)-- Iranian Vice President Mohsen Mehr Alizadeh arrived in the Cuban capital Wednesday night, beginning an official, four-day visit to the island. During his stay, the vice president of the Islamic Republic of Iran will tour places of social and political interest. His visit is expected to also contribute to strengthening bilateral ties between Havana and Teheran. Cuba and Iran established diplomatic relations in February 1979, following a popular uprising that overthrew the Shah of Iran in January of that year. Iran is an active member-state of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77. *CONGRESS ON EMERGENCY MEDICINE, INTENSIVE CARE UNDERWAY IN HAVANA Havana, April 18 (RHC)-- The Second International Congress on Medical Emergencies and Intensive Care is underway at Havana's International Convention Center. More than 500 delegates from 14 countries -- including Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and the United States -- are attending this important medical conference. According to participants, one of the most important events taking place within the framework of the Congress was the creation of the Latin American Association of Emergencies and Disasters. Cuba will preside over the new organization for the next two years. Doctors and health professionals from Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Peru are on the Board of Directors of the Association. On Thursday, workshops were held on intensive care for children, medical emergencies, treatment for severe shock and trauma and the role of nurses in intensive care treatments. The Second International Congress on Medical Emergencies and Intensive Care, which winds up tomorrow, Friday, is being sponsored by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). *SOME BELIEVE IN BAD COUPS AND GOOD COUPS: VENEZUELA'S DEFENSE MINISTER Caracas, April 18 (RHC)-- Venezuelan Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel affirmed Thursday that recent events in his country demonstrated that some members of the Organization of American States believe there are "good coups and bad coups" - in accordance with their particular interests. In an interview published Thursday in Cuba's official news daily Granma, Rangel said that for some regional leaders there are good uprisings and bad uprisings, good destabilizations and bad destabilizations. Recalling that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been relegitimized in what he called "six impeccable electoral processes," the defense minister said that anyone who did not support Chavez during last week's attempted right wing coup - anyone who directly or indirectly, tacitly or openly sponsored or supported the plot, or remained silent - has definitively disqualified his or herself as a defender of democracy. During the hours that Chavez was held captive, said Rangel, Venezuela saw the miserable face of fascism full of hate and devoid of any concern for human life and dignity. The statements coincide with the Venezuelan opposition's renewal of its political offensive against Chavez, which has again began to insist that the president resign. And as the opposition begins to regroup, the coup leader - business tycoon Pedro Carmona - said that he was not a Pinochet, that he is and always has been in favor of democratic rule, despite having abrogated the constitution and dismissed Congress and the courts. At the same time, one of the private media outlets that has lined up against the Chavez government, El Nacional news daily, is asserting that when arrested the Venezuelan president did agree to resign, according to an anonymous source in the army. *INCREASING HORROR OVER ISRAELI DEVASTATION OF JENIN REFUGEE CAMP Jenin, West Bank, April 18 (RHC)-- The international community is expressing increasing horror over the devastation left by Israeli occupation troops in the Jenin refugee camp. United Nations Special Coordinator for occupied Palestinian territories Terje Roed-Larsen, who toured the camp on Thursday, said the destruction was "horrific beyond belief" and termed as "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed rescue teams in after the fighting. Narrating the scenes of totally burned children being pulled from beneath the rubble, the UN official said there are experts in his delegation who have been in war zones and earthquake disasters, but who have never seen anything like they've witnessed in Jenin. He said they were all in shock. Following a first inspection of Jenin, the UN Relief and Works Agency in Palestine called the refugee camp a humanitarian catastrophe. Human rights organizations are asserting that at least 300 Palestinians were killed - perhaps as many as one thousand - and thousands are disappeared, with Amnesty International asking where are the disappeared bodies, estimated to be between 8,000 and 13,500. Aid agencies believe that there still may be people alive beneath the enormous mound of rubble that was the center of the refugee camp. Doctor Muhammed Abu Ghali, director of Jenin hospital leading rescue teams, said "that is not a mound earth, it's a mass grave." Though Israel has denied persistent charges of perpetrating a massacre, British forensic expert Derrick Pounder has said that the evidence points to large numbers of civilian dead. Pounder is part of an Amnesty International team granted access to Jenin. *ARGENTINA: DUHALDE LAMENTS HAVING TO BOW HIS HEAD BEFORE THE IMF Buenos Aires, April 18 (RHC)-- Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde stated Thursday that he's sorry he has to bow his head before the International Monetary Fund and accept another unsustainable economic shock package that will only worsen his country's explosive social scenario. The statement came after an IMF mission in Buenos Aires returned to Washington following a two-week evaluation of the conditions that would be imposed on Argentina in exchange for renewed financial assistance. The IMF's strict requirements for the assistance have fuelled unprecedented opposition in this South American country to any agreement with the multilateral institution, generating profound and wide spread animosity towards it. Rodolfo Terragno, of the Radical Civic Union party, said the IMF mission's presence in Buenos Aires was like "paying homage to a viceroy." Economist Mercedes Marcó del Pont, of the Research Foundation for Economic Development - traditionally a supporter of IMF agreements - said the aggressive stance of the institution and its level of interference in national policy is "unheard of." The particularly candid governor of San Juan, Alfredo Avelin, simply said "the IMF should go to hell," adding that "the only thing lacking is for us to pull down the Argentine flag and replace it with the IMF's." The institution told Argentina to dramatically reduce public spending, restrict the emission of currency and eliminate the bonds paid to workers in some provinces due to the lack of currency - which represent more than a third of the circulation. The IMF is also demanding the repeal of laws such as legislation on economic subversion, which has served as the basis of the investigation of bank executives suspected of facilitating the illegal transfer of money out of the country - to the tune of billions of dollars. Surveys have found that close to 70 percent of the Argentine population believes it's necessary to carry out policies independently of what the IMF recommends. The agreement with the multilateral institution comes as public workers have paralyzed several provincial governments demanding payment of their backlogged salaries and cargo transportation workers block major Argentine cities to protest incessant price hikes in diesel fuel. *LARGEST-EVER US PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMO SET FOR WASHINGTON Washington, April 18 (RHC)-- Activists in Washington DC have officially announced the largest ever protest in the United States in favor of the Palestinian people. As President George W. Bush was calling Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a "man of peace," the coalition of pro-Palestinian pressure groups called him a war criminal. The coalition ANSWER - Act Now to Stop War and End Racism - announced that some 200 buses will be traveling to Washington from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan and Florida in an effort to counter the influence of the powerful pro-Israeli lobby on Capitol Hill. The demonstration was also called on the occasion this weekend of the Spring gathering of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in the US capital, whose policies will also be targeted. One of the organizers, Milwaukee town council member Don Richards, charged that the World Bank originally used capitalism to solve the problems of poverty in a Europe devastated by the Second World War, but now uses poverty to solve the problems of capitalism. Numerous organizations from other countries held press conferences in Washington, including the Chiapas Center for Political Studies and Community Action, which charged that since the 1980s structural adjustment programs in Mexico have produced a massive migration from the countryside to cities and to the United States, and have destroyed Mexico's food production autonomy. Two years ago a similar anti-World Bank and IMF protest in Washington attracted more than 10,000 activists, though they are predicting between 20 and 30,000 this weekend. The demo for last year's Fall gathering of the multilateral institutions was suspended due to the September 11 attacks. *USA'S "FRIENDLY FIRE" IN AFGHANISTAN KILLS FOUR CANADIAN SOLDIERS Ottawa, Kandahar, April 18 (RHC)-- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien affirmed Thursday that the death of four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan as the result of friendly fire from a US military aircraft raises many questions. Chretien assured the family members of the victims and the Canadian people that there will be answers to those questions. A US fighter jet mistakenly dropped one or two 500 pound, laser-guided bombs on a Canadian military unit as it was engaged in a well publicized live-fire training exercise near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing four and wounding another eight soldiers. Canada's defense chief, Lieutenant-General Ray Henault, said that how this could happen was a mystery, pointing out that the area where the friendly fire took place is recognized as training ground and US military aircraft are using very strictly controlled routes. The bombing is being called one of the worst friendly fire accidents since the US-led campaign began in October. On December 5, a B-52A dropped a bomb on US and allied Afghan forces near Kandahar, killing three Americans and at least seven Afghans. On December 22, US aircraft struck a convoy killing dozens of Afghan tribal leaders traveling to the inauguration of the country's interim administration, though US military commanders have always insisted that it was a legitimate target. *SECRET WTO DOCUMENTS DESCRIBED AS WORLDWIDE ATTACK AGAINST DEMOCRACY London, April 18 (RHC)-- A European non-governmental organization has obtained secret World Trade Organization documents that have been described as an attack on democracy that will lock the world into privatization and deregulation of essential services. The British news daily The Guardian reported Thursday that the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory acquired the leaked documents of the European Commission's secret WTO negotiating positions that prove why the organization has been holding talks behind six-foot fences to avoid protesters. The documents are being called a shopping list of requests to open up service sectors in everything from water supplies to banking in 29 countries, including China, India, Canada, Egypt, Mexico and the US - and the list is expected to grow. The EU demands range from removing the ability to limit Wal-Mart's activities in India to destroying Malaysia's capacity to regulate its financial sector to corporate control of access to clean water. Called a corporate wish list made manifest, David Hartridge - the former director of the WTO services division - pointed to the enormous pressure generated by American financial services firms like American Express and Citicorp. The Guardian reported that secret trade and investment documents leaked over the internet are the dynamite keg that have brought other such treaties to their knees. Five years ago, the US NGO Public Citizen found and posted on their website an obscure investment treaty called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. What campaigners found in this text sparked an unprecedented worldwide campaign against it, until the treaty no one had heard of crumbled under public pressure. Viewpoint: *WHAT HISTORY TAUGHT US ABOUT SHARON, WHAT THE WORLD CHOSE TO IGNORE by Simon Wollers Truth, as they say, is the first casualty of war. But when honest historians finally write the truth, their books -- replaced by the revisionist histories of governments -- are often stored away and allowed to gather dust. As the world begins to get a first glimpse into the previously blockaded Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, journalists and aid organizations are unearthing the terrible truth of what has happened there over the past three weeks of Israel's occupation. Leaders across the planet are openly condemning the evident massacre of Palestinian citizens at the camp -- in spite of Tel Aviv's clumsy attempts to bulldoze over mass graves -- but to what avail? The dead are dead, the homeless now in their thousands across the West Bank and the complacency that has always accompanied news relating to -- yes, let's say it -- the Palestinian Holocaust has once again proven why desperate Palestinian youth seek ruthless measures to combat such a ruthless enemy. Although few learn from history, there are plenty of lessons the world should have learned before allowing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to roll his tanks over the lands and lives of the Palestinian people. And make no mistake, the international community DID allow him this freedom. Washington, the voice Sharon would have heeded the most -- for after all, $3 billion is $3 billion -- overtly gave him space to murder in Jenin. The European Community, Israel's most important trade partner and thus not lacking in influence over Tel Aviv, grumbled a little and then sat back to see what would happen. Now, when hundreds, possibly thousands in Jenin lie mangled in the rubble of their homes, the voices of shock and consternation are raised. Well-known English Labor MP and prominent member of the Jewish community in England, Gerald Kaufman, Tuesday attacked Sharon in the House of Commons in the harshest possible terms. Denouncing the Israeli leader as a war criminal whose actions were on a par with the terrorist attacks of Zionists in the 1940s, Kaufman said that Sharon had spilled blood on the Star of David in his barbarous attack on Jenin. Sharon's supporters will, at least, not be able to point the finger - however ethnically inaccurate it usually is - of anti-Semitism in Kaufman's direction, but others should be pointing their own fingers to demand: Why now? Why, when it is too late? Why are people like Kaufman speaking out now and not before? Does anyone remember the televised abomination of seeing a desperate, unarmed Palestinian father try to protect his young son from being deliberately targeted by Israeli soldiers in a fire fight a few months ago? The terrified little boy, who was vainly hiding behind a scrap of wall with his father, was murdered in full view of the world. Did this move world leaders to hitch up their belts and barge into Sharon's office to demand an end to the butchery or else they would intervene? History, in the case of Jenin, offered a clear and simple-to-understand lesson. Ariel Sharon, as Israeli Defense Minister in September 1982, oversaw the massacre of up to 1,800 Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla in South Lebanon. As a member of the underground Haganah organization in the 1940s Sharon comes from a history of Zionist terrorism -- the Prime Minister he served in 1982 was Menachem Begin, the leader of the terrorist organization Irgun -- an offshoot of Haganah -- and had practice in how to massacre Palestinian families in his 1948 killing of over 250 peaceful inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin. The village was strategically important to the emerging Jewish State and so it was decided to occupy it and drive out its residents. A full third of its population was massacred to frighten off the others. Begin's homicidal example served Sharon well with Sabra and Chatilla, except that he didn't have to personally sully his hands with Palestinian blood as had his boss. He just allowed the South Lebanon Army of Christian zealots to do the work for him. Today he has allowed the Israeli Defense Force -- a misnomer if ever there was one -- to do his continued work of slaughtering Palestinians in his clear intention to continue a policy of holocaust, which, considering his people's history, makes his actions even more loathsome. I keep using the word holocaust. Is that an exaggeration? Human rights organizations are this week asking a simple question: Aside from the over 300 confirmed dead, where are the 8,000 to 13,000 Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp who have disappeared? History gives us these words spoken by Philip Habib who was US President Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East in 1982: "Sharon was a killer obsessed with hatred of Palestinians. I had promised Arafat that his people would not come to any harm. Sharon, however, ignored this commitment entirely. Sharon's word is worth nil." And in case this isn't enough to convince even the most stalwart of those in denial as to Sharon's intentions, you don't have to look very much further in history than Ariel Sharon's own words in an interview he gave to the Israeli newspaper Daval after Sabra and Chatilla and published on December 17th, 1982: "You can call me anything you like. Call me a monster or a murderer... Better a live Judeo Nazi than a dead saint... Even if you prove to me that the present war in Lebanon is a dirty, immoral war, I don't care... We shall start another war, kill and destroy more and more until they have had enough... If anyone even raises his hand against us we will take away half his land and burn the other half... We might use nuclear arms... Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us... And I don't mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me as a war criminal if you want... What you don't understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it." Sharon was true to his word in the refugee camp of Jenin, and the frightening truth of what more he has in store for the Palestinian people will one day become part of those dusty history books, if the world doesn't do something about it today. *POWELL RETURNS EMPTY-HANDED You could say that Colin Powell's visit to the Middle East has had irrelevant consequences in the region. That, however, is not the case. His Middle East visit did not improve the situation, but nor did it leave things as they were before his arrival. It did, in fact, leave an even worse scenario. Many people think the only superpower capable of changing the course of the military invasion against Palestine is -- Bush willing -- the USA. But it turns out that the Middle East is a hermetic playground in which Israel does what it pleases without accepting outside influences and thanks to its strategic alliance with Washington, manages to neutralize any attempts by the EU and international organizations to stop the massacres. In its editorial today, the Spanish newspaper El País writes that if the weight of a nation is measured by the influence of events, the superpower is not then the US, but Israel. Of course, American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, did not employ every resource to have Sharon's army withdraw from Palestinian territories, nor did he pressure the Israeli government to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity and the confinement of the President of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Since the beginning, his trip was doomed to failure. The starting point of the visit was based on a cynical rationale, which placed both Palestinians and Israelis on the same level of negotiation as if both contenders had the same forces. If people fight with stones against tanks and then their enemy's best friend comes to tell them that they have to respect the rules of the one who possesses the tanks or they will be responsible for the violent consequences against them, then small wonder Powell left Ramallah empty-handed. Now Colin Powell is calling for a regional conference to analyze the situation in the Middle East to which Yasser Arafat will not be present. Many consider this to be a maneuver to give Sharon more time, as there are sufficient resolutions that already exist to demand an end to the Israeli onslaught. With this in mind, it is not right to say that Powell's visit to the Middle East was a failure. Maybe what he achieved was precisely what he intended from the outset: to give Israel time to finish the job, promote confusion in the international arena so Palestinians are accused of causing and extending the war, and divert public attention from the only solution to the problem: the recognition of a Palestinian free State. This is the only way Israel will have the security it desires and peace in the region. Any other idea is a delaying tactic to buy time for both Sharon and Washington, both interested in keeping the geopolitical status quo of the region just the way it is. (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-28163 2002-Apr-19 00:41:58