Radio Havana Cuba-15 March 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 15 March 2002 . *FIDEL CASTRO NAMED HONORARY PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS ON PHYSICAL REHABILITATION *ARGENTINE SENATE OPPOSES VOTE AGAINST CUBA AT UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION *ANNUAL POLIO VACCINATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN CUBA *CUBAN PLANE CRASHES; 16 PASSENGERS ON BOARD *A RAY OF HOPE FOR PEACE IN ANGOLA AFTER LUANDA'S UNILATERAL MILITARY TRUCE *ZIMBABWE: BBC SAYS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS GENUINELY SUPPORT MUGABE *BUSH PROPOSES MORE AID TO POOR COUNTRIES; AID ADVOCATES SKEPTICAL *COLOMBIA: BUSH WANTS CONGRESS TO ELIMINATE ALL RESTRICTIONS ON MILITARY AID *NUMBER OF ACTIVE HATE GROUPS ON THE RISE IN UNITED STATES - REPORT *PERSISTENT DOUBT ABOUT SUCCESS OF LATEST US MILITARY ACTION IN AFGHANISTAN *Viewpoint: MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA - TOGETHER, BUT CAN IT LAST? . *FIDEL CASTRO NAMED HONORARY PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS ON PHYSICAL REHABILITATION Havana, March 15 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has been named the Honorary President of the Second International Medical Congress on Physical Rehabilitation. Over 600 experts from 21 countries -- including physicians, occupational therapists, neurologists, geriatric and orthopedic specialists -- took part in the three-day meeting at Havana's International Convention Center, which wrapped up on Friday. The leader of the Cuban Revolution attended Thursday evening's sessions of the Congress. In brief comments to the delegates, Fidel Castro thanked them for their kind gesture, but said he personally felt unworthy of the honor -- except as a representative of the Cuban people and what they have collectively accomplished in the area of medicine and physical rehabilitation. The Cuban president emphasized the importance of working toward solutions to societal problems and pointed out that Cuba leads the way in the world with the implementation of more than 70 social programs. He noted that Cuba is proof that a small, poor country with few resources can resolve many social problems. Highlighting the island's achievements in the fields of health care and physical rehabilitation, Fidel Castro recalled that Cuba has offered the United Nations 4000 doctors to work in Africa to fight the spread of AIDS. He also noted that Cuba has developed several effective vaccines, including a vaccine against Meningitis B. Referring to today's unipolar world, the Cuban leader expressed sadness and concern over the fact that scientific advances do not translate into better living conditions for all, but rather into an ever-wider gap between the have and the have-nots. *ARGENTINE SENATE OPPOSES VOTE AGAINST CUBA AT UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION Buenos Aires, March 15 (RHC)--The Argentine Senate has called on the government to not vote against Cuba at the upcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The Senate resolution was passed Thursday and news of the legislative action hit the front pages of Friday morning's editions of Pagina-12 and La Nacion. Specifically, the Senate calls on Buenos Aires to refuse to support any condemnation against Cuba "until Washington's economic blockade and other sanctions against the island are lifted." Pagina-12 notes that the Senate vote "complicates the Argentine government's strategy to please the U.S. State Department in exchange for financial aid." The newspaper article says that the legislative resolution puts the administration of President Eduardo Duhalde in a difficult position -- either supporting its own Congress or supporting the U.S. campaign against Cuba in Geneva in exchange for urgently needed financial support. In its story, the Argentine daily La Nacion notes that the Senate demonstrated to the Executive that, at least regarding foreign policy, the Congress has chosen a different path. The newspaper says that the country's lawmakers have clearly come out against Washington's maneuvers to push through a resolution condemning Havana for alleged human rights violations at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Observers recalled that the United States lost its seat on the UN commission last year, after a majority of its members expressed disgust with Washington's arrogance. Last month, the Buenos Aires Lawyers Association warned Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde about statements by officials of his administration that "imply an open interference in the internal affairs of Cuba." The attorneys termed as "very disturbing" the position adopted by the country's Foreign Ministry regarding alleged human rights violations on the island. During a recent visit to Washington, Argentina's foreign minister commented that Buenos Aires would support the U.S. position against Cuba at the upcoming UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The Buenos Aires Lawyers Association charged that it is Washington that is responsible for the imposition of a genocidal policy against Havana, which violates the human rights of the entire Cuban people. The attorneys noted that the statements of Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf and Argentina's position in Geneva could constitute payment in exchange for promises of U.S. loans to lift the nation out of its current financial and social crisis. *ANNUAL POLIO VACCINATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN CUBA Havana, March 15 (RHC)--The 41st annual polio vaccination campaign is underway across the island. Children from one month to three years of age are being immunized against polio -- a deadly disease that was officially eliminated in Cuba in 1962. According to Dr. Miguel Angel Galindo, Deputy Minster of Hygiene and Epidemiology and head of the National Immunization Program of the Ministry of Health, more than 430,000 children will receive the first dose of the liquid vaccination against polio over the next several days. Dr. Galindo said that a second dose will be administered during the last week of April, at the same time that the polio vaccination for nine-year-old children will be reactivated. *CUBAN PLANE CRASHES; 16 PASSENGERS ON BOARD Havana, March 15 (RHC)--A small, AN-2 passenger plane, en route from Cienfuegos to Jardines del Rey in the central province of Villa Clara, crashed yesterday afternoon. According to a news release from the Cuban Civil Aviation Institute, 16 people were on board and there is no information regarding survivors. Cuban authorities are currently investigating the cause of the accident. News cables report that 13 of the passengers were foreigners: six Canadians, five British and two German citizens. *A RAY OF HOPE FOR PEACE IN ANGOLA AFTER LUANDA'S UNILATERAL MILITARY TRUCE Luanda, March 15 (RHC)--Peace drew a bit closer in Angola Friday when the rebel UNITA organization announced who will be their peace negotiators. On Thursday, authorities in Luanda had ordered a halt to offensive military operations against the rebels to give them a chance to consider participating in talks on a ceasefire. The UNITA negotiation team will be headed by the organization's delegate for Europe, Isaias Samakuva. In another sign of distension, food trucks and passenger buses began to circulate on the highway between Luanda and Ndalatando -- which had been the principle target of rebel forces leading up to the Angolan government's unilateral truce. Numerous vehicles could also be seen on the highway connecting Luanda to Malanje, a city 400 kilometers east of the capital that has been the target of numerous rebel attacks in recent weeks. Angolan authorities stated Thursday that it's willing to grant a full amnesty to all UNITA combatants and leaders, as well as their participation in the government, in exchange for the organization's demilitarization. The recent death in combat of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi has led to the possibility of giving new life to Angola's defunct peace process. Many observers have noted that UNITA no longer has an ideology on which to base its struggle, and that the organization's insistence on continuing to wage war was essentially the result of Savimbi's powerful ego. *ZIMBABWE: BBC SAYS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS GENUINELY SUPPORT MUGABE Harare, March 15 (RHC)--Departing from what's been called its traditional "colonial agenda" coverage of Zimbabwe, the British Broadcasting Corporation has admitted that while the opposition claim that President Robert Mugabe stole a victory that was rightfully theirs, no one can deny that hundreds of thousands of people genuinely gave him their vote. A BBC report Friday entitled "Mugabe Focuses on Land Revolution," noted that most of those who voted for the president were poor black farmers living in Zimbabwe's rural areas who will now celebrate in the hope that he will finally deliver on his promise to give them the prime agricultural land owned by the country's white minority. Most of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white-owned farms have been listed for compulsory acquisition, but eviction orders served on hundreds of white farmers last year have not been enforced, asserted the BBC, noting that the government seemed to be focused primarily on Mugabe's re-election campaign. The report also noted that Mugabe had previously stated that prying white hands off the levers of Zimbabwe's economic power was the main reason why, at 78, he fought so hard to remain at the helm of a country he has already ruled for 22 years. *BUSH PROPOSES MORE AID TO POOR COUNTRIES; AID ADVOCATES SKEPTICAL Washington, March 15 (RHC)--In a shift of policy, US President George W. Bush has come out in favor of increasing aid to poor countries -- but the announcement, though welcomed, has also been severely questioned by aid advocates. After months of rejecting calls to increase foreign aid on the grounds that it often goes to waste, the Bush administration Thursday reversed course and proposed an additional 5 billion dollars over three years to poor countries that adopt what he called "sound economic policies" and attack corruption. While critics are noting that the increase is considerably less than that proposed by aid advocates -- and would still leave the United States far behind other nations in terms of the percentage of the economy devoted to aid -- some are also expressing concern over the conditions that must be met for poor countries to benefit. What has most surprised observers is Bush's first public recognition that poverty can breed desperation, and therefore terrorism. But Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, pointed out that "this investment in poverty is not comparable to the investment in the war on terror." At the same time, Mary McClymont, president of Inter Action, a coalition of some 160 nongovernmental organizations active in developing countries, warned that some nations will not be able to meet Bush's criteria for being eligible, but that the peoples of those nations should not be left behind because of that. Among the "sound economic policies" mentioned by the US president are the neoliberal premises of opening up markets and developing sustainable budget polices -- which can also be translated as reducing social spending. Salih Booker, director of the NGO Africa Action, said that to him it sounds like good old World Bank and International Monetary Fund structural adjustment -- also known as economic shock therapy, which have the heaviest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of populations in poor countries. Booker said that "what Bush is saying is that we'll give you a little more money if you do what we tell you to do," complaining that the US president said nothing about debt relief. Observers are also noting that the surprising proposal appeared likely to defuse criticism of Washington's stinginess, which had threatened to erupt at a United Nations conference on funding for development next week in Monterrey, Mexico. *COLOMBIA: BUSH WANTS CONGRESS TO ELIMINATE ALL RESTRICTIONS ON MILITARY AID Washington, March 15 (RHC)--The US's principle news dailies reported Friday that the Bush administration is planning to ask Congress next week to remove all restrictions on military aid to Colombia's army. The White House will reportedly ask lawmakers to lift restrictions that impose human rights standards on the Colombian military and cap the number of US personnel in the country, while at the same time warding off restrictions on any future aid, among others. The Bush administration put aside a similar Colombia proposal two weeks ago over concern that it wouldn't be well received in Congress. But US legislators surprised the White house in recent days when, in the face of an intensification of Colombia's civil war following a breakdown in the rebel-government peace process, key congressional figures switched gears and said they would support such a move. The reports coincide with a Colombian trade union denunciation against an American mining company accused of using right wing paramilitary death squads to kill three union leaders last year, and death threats against a newly-elected leftist Colombian legislator forced to flee the country. Colombian labor leaders filed a lawsuit in the US state of Alabama on behalf of Colombian workers at the US's Drummond Mining Company. Before their deaths, the three slain union leaders were involved in bitter talks with the firm's owners over wage and labor conditions in its coal mines in northern Colombia. At the same time, Gustavo Petro -- an independent leftist legislator who was elected to Congress last Sunday with one of the best results -- had to flee the country following rightwing death threats. Petro also received death threats last year and was forced to leave the country for an unknown destination for three weeks after accusing Colombian legislators of corruption. *NUMBER OF ACTIVE HATE GROUPS ON THE RISE IN UNITED STATES - REPORT Phoenix, Arizona, March 15 (RHC)--A US racism watchdog organization has reported that the number of hate groups operating in the United States rose by 12 percent last year to 676. The Southern Poverty Law Center found that the most remarkable moment in the year came in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, when figure after figure on the American radical right rose to applaud the murder of some 3,000 of their countrymen. The study asserts that this display of hatred revealed as never before the militantly anti-American and pro-Nazi features of contemporary rightwing extremism. The Southern Poverty Center's Intelligence Project director Joe Roy, stated that "twenty-five years ago, your typical white supremacist wrapped himself in the flag," but that "today, that same extremist is burning the flag." In its annual count, the Intelligence Project found that the latest increase in hate groups, from 602 to 676, was accounted for almost entirely by rises in neo-Nazi and softer-line neo Confederate groups, and that the second 12 percent increase in as many years continued a pattern of growth dating back to the mid-1990s. At the same time, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Tolerance Project has launched a new campaign dubbed "Every Victim Counts" to reform serious flaws in hate crime reporting in the United States. The project has asserted that ten years after the FBI began compiling hate crime statistics, an investigation by the group found a system riddled with errors, omissions and even outright falsification of data -- insisting that tens of thousands of hate crimes are going undocumented each year. *PERSISTENT DOUBT ABOUT SUCCESS OF LATEST US MILITARY ACTION IN AFGHANISTAN Boston, London, March 15 (RHC)--Doubts have persisted in major international media outlets concerning the extent of success of the US military offensive in Afghanistan's Shah-e-Kot Valley. The Boston Globe newspaper's Friday edition reported that US officials acknowledged Thursday that they are uncertain how many Al Qaida and Taliban fighters were killed during a 12-day offensive and whether others escaped or are still hiding in Afghanistan's eastern mountains. The news daily asserted that celebrations by US and Afghan allied forces over the success of the operation remained tempered by conflicting versions of enemy casualties. And while US commanders revised their estimate of enemy fighters hiding in the mountains from about 200 to 1,000, Afghan military commanders, asserted the Globe, stated that the enemy force could be significantly larger, also noting that as US and allied forces this week started to search the villages and cave complexes in the area they found little evidence of Al Qaida or Taliban casualties. The newspaper quoted a US special forces soldier who participated in the battle as saying that the enemy fighters shouldn't be overestimated because they come and go as they please. The British news daily The Guardian reported Friday that Afghan commanders have cast doubt on the success of the US military operation when yesterday they admitted that hundreds of Al Qaida and Taliban fighters had escaped during the 12-day assault. According to The Guardian, many Afghan commanders expect the enemy fighters to regroup in other mountain hideouts near the Pakistan border where many villagers are still sympathetic to the Taliban. Numerous military experts have asserted in recent days that a clear assessment of the results of the battle is essential in determining to what extent Al Qaida can regroup, and to plan future battles. *Viewpoint: MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA - TOGETHER, BUT CAN IT LAST? The announced establishment of the new state of Serbia and Montenegro will delay but probably NOT impede the eventual dismembering of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croatians, and Muslim Bosnians merged with various other ethnic groups at the end of the Second World War to form the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. But with the collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe, the situation in that country dramatically changed. >From then on, the forces inside and outside of Yugoslavia favoring a so-called Balkanization of the Yugoslavian situation multiplied; later four of the six federated republics broke way. As early as 1991, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia were already seeking separation, followed a year later by Bosnia-Herzegovina, which eventually embarked upon a fratricidal civil war. To the delight of those opposing Yugoslavian unity and of Serbia's enemies, the Republic was reduced to half its original territory, around Serbia and Montenegro, and with roughly eleven million people. At the same time, foreign-instigated Albanian-Kosovar separatism and the establishment of the so-called Great Albania, exacerbated the conflict in the Serbian region of Kosovo. Following the sustained and cruel bombings by NATO of Yugoslavia in 1999, Kosovo became a kind of protectorate under international control, with foreign forces making all the decisions, and the Serbians being forced to flee or face the harassment of the Albanian-Kosovars. Although the new agreement announced for the Balkans contemplates continued relations between Serbia and Kosovo, even if Montenegro decides to be independent within the three years, it is easy to see that for the time being the current status quo in Serbia remains unchanged. As regards the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the establishment of the new state of Serbia and Montenegro, which still depends on parliamentary ratification to become effective, appears as a last attempt to avoid the splitting of the two republics, in line with European and US interests. Since the sudden departure from power of then Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, Europe stopped supporting Montenegro in its separatist efforts. Having succeeded in their objective of removing Milosevic after grossly interfering in Yugoslavia's internal affairs, Europe and the United States decided to persuade Montenegro to somehow remain united with Serbia, because in Belgrade they had as president Vojislav Kostunica, an old rival of Milosevic. But they had so encouraged Montenegro to separate that now they are finding it difficult to convince it to maintain ties with Serbia, although Montenegrins speak the same language and obey the same orthodox patriarch authority. To try and persuade the separatist republic Europe and the United States sent none other than Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy representative and one of men behind the atrocious bombings in Yugoslavia, which left thousands of civilians dead and immense material damages. In exchange for the commitment to remain together Solana promised Montenegro that the new state would be allowed to request entry into the European Union. But it remains unclear whether the new arrangement will lead to Montenegro totally renouncing its independence, for although the pact provides for a common president and ministries of Defense and External Affairs, it also provides for the small republic to hold a self-determination referendum within three years. In the meantime, Montenegro has already started to distance itself from its neighbor by replacing its currency, the dinar, with the euro, and by establishing separate police forces, banks, and customs authorities. So a joint, common state remains in place, but it stands on foundations so shaky that the slightest political storm could topple it, although European and United States patching can likely be expected. (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-8223 2002-Mar-16 12:25:00