Radio Havana Cuba-29 March 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 29 March 2002 . *US JURY DELIBERATES CASE OF CANDIAN ON TRIAL FOR SELLING HEALTH EQUIPMENT TO CUBAN HOSPITALS *EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER BLASTS EU COMMON POSITION ON CUBA *ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE US PRESS SILENCE ON MIAMI 5 PRISONERS *CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT ASKS SPANISH NGOs TO CALL FOR RELEASE OF MIAMI 5 *CUBAN TRANSPLANT PATIENT CELEBRATES 16 YEARS WITH NEW HEART *PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS SPANISH REGION TO VISIT CUBA *CUBAN COOPERATION SAVES GUATEMALA $20 MILLION *ARGENTINE NEWSPAPER PRAISES CUBAN EFFORTS AGAINST DENGUE FEVER *ISRAEL LAUNCHES VICIOUS ASSAULT IN RAMALLAH *KISSINGER MAY FINALLY HAVE TO FACE COURT ACTION OVER PINOCHET COUP *DOCUMENTS REVEAL DIRECT ROLE OF IBM CORPORATION IN NAZI HOLOCAUST *Viewpoint: A DOUBLE STANDARD ON TERRORISM . *US JURY DELIBERATES CASE OF CANDIAN ON TRIAL FOR SELLING HEALTH EQUIPMENT TO CUBAN HOSPITALS Philadelphia, March 29 (RHC) -- The fate of a Canadian citizen on trial in the United States for violating the US blockade of Cuba went into the hands of a jury Thursday in Philadelphia. Canadian citizen James Sabzali faces up to life in prison and fines of over 19 million dollars for selling water purification supplies to Cuban hospitals on behalf of a Canadian subsidiary of the Pennsylvania-based corporation Bro-Tech. Sabzali, along with one Bro-Tech executive and the corporation itself, were charged with 76 counts of violating the 1919 US Trading with the Enemy Act and a single count of conspiracy. Another corporate officer was charged solely with conspiracy. Attention has focused on the challenges to Canadian sovereignty inherent in the prosecutions. Sales of the goods to Cuba were made entirely through subsidiaries in Canada, Britain and Italy - countries that do not support Washington's economic stranglehold on Cuba. As well, operating from Canada, Sabzali was bound by the Canadian Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act to not comply with the blockade - as his lawyers contended in court proceedings that began about three weeks ago. In final argument Thursday, the attorney representing Bro-Tech, Kevin Downey, declared that "the company did not have motive to expose itself to major criminal liability" for sales that netted less than 48,000 dollars in profits and constituted only 0.3 percent of their business. Instead, said the attorney, the defendants were trying to navigate confusing and conflicting laws in the US, Britain and Canada, accusing the US government of grasping and over-reaching in trying to prosecute conduct that is not criminal. Downey slammed Washington's efforts to "try to reach across national boundaries" to enforce its anti-Cuba measure. Despite the importance of the case for Canadian-US relations and growing domestic calls in the United States for ending its 41 year blockade of Cuba, the trial was barely covered in US media outlets. And according to some observers, Canada's lack of objection to Sabzali's prosecution fueled speculation that some kind of a deal had been struck between Washington and Ottawa. The verdict is not expected until next week. *EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER BLASTS EU COMMON POSITION ON CUBA Gijón, Spain, March 29 (RHC)-- A member of the European Parliament has blasted the EU's so-called "common position towards Cuba," calling it "discriminatory, unjust and hypocritical." Spain's United Left member of the European Parliament, Laura Rodriguez, stated Friday that while the EU pressures Cuba to change its political system, it maintains a favorable customs accord with Turkey - a country, she said, that does not respect human rights. Pointing to the right to health, education and a job in Cuba - which she said are basic rights - Rodriguez argued that if these basic rights aren't respected, what good are the rest. She said a hungry person isn't going to read the most plural press in the world, much less an illiterate person. The EU legislator insisted that Europe should maintain not only with Cuba, but with all of Latin America, a position independent from that of the United States government - which she accused of attempting to install a new model of economic colonialism south of the Rio Grande. Pointing to the findings of independent international organizations concerning the social development indicators in Cuba that are far above those of the Third World, on a par with the developed world, and in some cases even superior to those of the United States, Rodriguez said the European Union should also support Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission. She called the US's behind-the-doors-sponsored anti-Cuba resolution at the commission, "manipulated, shameful and indecent," challenging the EU to question the hundreds of people secretly arrested and held in detention in the US under unknown circumstances since the September 11 terror attacks. The George W. Bush administration's secrecy about the detainees has just been ruled unlawful by a New Jersey court that ordered Washington to reveal the identities and alleged offenses of those being held. Of the hundreds arrested, so far only one person is known to have been charged with a crime linked to September 11, while some of those who were subsequently released complained of harsh treatment and difficulties seeing lawyers. The New Jersey court ruling came in a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is also seeking similar information on detainees nationwide to further chip away at what is being called the government's unprecedented secrecy, and to challenge the government's right to hold detainees' court hearings behind closed doors. *ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE US PRESS SILENCE ON MIAMI 5 PRISONERS Buenos Aries, March 29(RHC)-- Two members of the California Committee for the liberation of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States, have denounced the silence of the US press regarding the case. Bill Hackwell and Alicia Jrapko, who are also members of the US International Action Center, explained to the press in Buenos Aries the details of the Miami trial against the five Cubans. Hackwell told a meeting in the Argentine capital about his experiences attending the sentencing portion of the trial. He stressed the importance of the fear sewn among Miami residents by terrorist anti-Cuba groups like the Cuban-American National Foundation, Brothers to the Rescue, Alfa-66, which he charged, were created by the US Central Intelligence Agency. Hackwell noted that in the heart of Miami as throughout the United States, there are many who oppose Washington's aggressive policy toward Cuba including the blockade, but who are afraid to express their opinions due to the violence committed by anti-Cuba terrorist groups operating in South Florida. Alicia Jrapko, stressed the importance of getting information out to the US population about the five Cubans who were unjustly convicted of being a danger to US State Security. She said that now with all the talk about terrorism, it is vital that the world knows that these five Cubans were defending Cuba and the United States itself from terrorist attacks. The terrorists, she stressed, are in Miami. Committees have formed in New York, San Francisco and Miami to work for the release of the five Cubans. Committees in other cities are expected to be organized soon. *CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT ASKS SPANISH NGOs TO CALL FOR RELEASE OF MIAMI 5 Madrid, March 29(RHC)-- Cuban vice president, Jose Ramon Fernandez has called on Spanish non-governmental agencies to petition Washington for the release of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States. The Cuban vice president said the five, who were unjustly convicted of being a threat to US security, are heroes. He stated that the prisoners have not violated any US laws, but rather, were the victims of a legal system distorted by pressures from the extreme rightwing of the Cuban-American community in Miami. Jose Ramon Fernandez issued the call to some 200 representatives of NGOs who were participating in the VII State Solidarity with Cuba Encounter. *CUBAN TRANSPLANT PATIENT CELEBRATES 16 YEARS WITH NEW HEART Havana, March 29(RHC)-- Today Cuban Hector Despaigne celebrates 16 years of life with a new heart. The 31 year-old Despaigne has become the longest living Cuban with a heart transplant. The young man told the press in Havana that he lives a normal life and that with proper medication and regular medical check-ups, he is able to practice several sports. Since he was a child, Hector was plagued by a life-threatening heart ailment. On March 29 l986, a team of Cuban doctors headed by renowned Cuban cardiologist, Noel Gonzalez, performed a heart transplant operation in Havana Amerijeras Hospital. Some one hundred heart transplants have been performed in Cuba in the last three decades, the majority of which have been successful. *PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS SPANISH REGION TO VISIT CUBA Madrid, March 29(RHC)-- The president of the government of the autonomous Basque region of Spain will visit Cuba next week. An official Basque presidential communiqué announced that Jose Ibarretxe will visit Havana from April 5 - 11, where he will meet with representatives of Cuba's public administration and with Basque business executives who have investments in Cuba. According to the document, the objective of the visit is to advance development and cooperation projects in Cuba supported by the Basque government. The delegation is also interested in learning about the expansion plans that Basque companies have in Cuba. At the same the official Basque delegation will sign a cooperation agreement between the two governments which will support cooperation and development projects in Cuba launched by the Basque government. During his official visit to the island the Basque president is expected to tour work cooperatives, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Basque companies doing business in Cuba. *CUBAN COOPERATION SAVES GUATEMALA $20 MILLION Havana, March 29(RHC)-- Cuban industrial engineer, Gilberto Rodriguez, has saved Guatemala's medical services millions dollars during his three-years in that country as part of a Cuban medical brigade. The Cuban newspaper, Granma today praised the work of the Cuban professional who has helped improve and expand sanitary conditions by repairing medical equipment that has been unusable for long periods and taking on various other tasks in the San Juan de Dios Hospital, Guatemala's largest. For repairing broken medical equipment alone, Guatemalan companies charge at least two million dollars. According to Rodriguez, the Cuban team made the repairs for practically nothing. Among his many other jobs, the Cuban technician has also reestablished electrical services in another of Guatemala's national hospitals. *ARGENTINE NEWSPAPER PRAISES CUBAN EFFORTS AGAINST DENGUE FEVER Buenos Aires, March 29(RHC)-- The Argentine newspaper "Pagina 12" today praised Cuba's triumph over the Dengue outbreak that hit Cuba at the beginning of this year. The article mentions the that the effort was carried out with the support of the entire Cuban population and the investment of important resources. *ISRAEL LAUNCHES VICIOUS ASSAULT IN RAMALLAH Ramallah, March 29(RHC)-- Israeli troops have launched a vicious attack against the headquarters in Ramallah of Palestine National Authority President Yasser Arafat, who Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has branded as "an enemy who must be isolated." While totally reoccupying the entire city and imposing a curfew, Israeli soldiers have apparently taken over all the buildings making up Arafat's compound with the exception of his personal office - though world leaders have expressed fears that Sharon wants to kill or humiliatingly imprison the Palestinian leader. Though the new Israeli military offensive, which the prime minister said will continue for weeks, was launched in response to a devastating Palestinian suicide bomb attack in Israel, since the offensive began another two suicide Palestinian attacks have occurred - and many more are expected. Arab leaders are calling the Israeli action demented, affirming that this is Sharon's response to the Saudi Arabia Middle East proposal unanimously approved Thursday by an Arab summit in Beirut. Meanwhile, a group of citizens from diverse countries are attempting to assist ambulance teams in Ramallah as they attempt to get to wounded and dying people. Israeli troops have reportedly opened fire on some Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN ambulances, prompting international civilians to try to act as human shields by riding aboard the vehicles. Some 600 activists, mostly European members of the Public International Protection group, arrived in Ramallah Thursday vowing to do all they can to provide protection for the city's civilian population. Another 200 activists from Italy were turned back by Israeli troops at a road block just south of Ramallah. *KISSINGER MAY FINALLY HAVE TO FACE COURT ACTION OVER PINOCHET COUP Santiago de Chile, Washington, Buenos Aires, March 29(RHC)-- Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger may finally have to face court action over Washington's role in the Pinochet military takeover in Chile and its bloody aftermath, reported Friday the British news daily The Guardian. Kissinger has been formally asked by an investigating judge in Chile to respond to questions about the dictatorship murder of US citizen Charles Horman in the days following the coup. Recently declassified US documents suggest that the US government and its CIA gave the military dictatorship carte blanche in dealing with dissidents, even if they were American citizens. Chilean Judge Juan Guzman will take witness statements from many of the key players in the case over the next six weeks. Fabiola Letelier, a Chilean human rights lawyer, told The Guardian that a number of "VIP surprises" will arrive in Chile in April to give evidence, while retired Chilean military officials - including witnesses to Horman's execution - have reportedly assured their cooperation. On Thursday, the New York Times highlighted a number of pressing legal actions against Kissinger both in Chile, the United States and Argentina. Among them is the case of assassinated Chilean Armed Forces General Rene Schneider, whose relatives last fall filed a 3 million dollar civil suit in Washington against Kissinger and former CIA director Richard Helms alleging summary execution, assault and civil rights violations. The news daily noted that in his books, Kissinger has acknowledged that he initially followed Nixon's orders to organize a coup against Allende, and that while he claims he shut down the effort a month later, declassified documents demonstrate that the CIA continued to actively encourage the bloody military takeover. Another group, meanwhile, has filed a criminal complaint against Kissinger in Chile for his suspected involvement in Operation Condor, the continental network of repression set up by South America's military dictatorships that led to the murder and forced disappearances of hundreds of democracy activists. An Argentine court has begun a similar investigation in which Kissinger has thus far been named a potential defendant or suspect. But according to legal experts, it is virtually impossible for a foreign court to compel former American officials to answer a summons. *DOCUMENTS REVEAL DIRECT ROLE OF IBM CORPORATION IN NAZI HOLOCAUST Washington, March 29(RHC)-- Newly discovered documents from Hitler's Germany have revealed that the US computer company IBM directly supplied the Nazis with technology used to help transport millions of people to their deaths in the Auschwitz and Treblinka concentration camps. Author Edwin Black, who book IBM and the Holocaust was published in hardback last year, has affirmed that new evidence to be published soon in a paperback version shows that executives at the firm's New York headquarters directly controlled a Polish subsidiary that leased punch-card machines used to calculate exactly how many Jews should be emptied out of the ghetto each day in order to transport them efficiently on railways leading to the camps. Media outlets including Britain's The Guardian and Israel's Jerusalem Post have reported that according to Black, the sole purpose of the IBM's new Polish company at the time was to service the Nazi occupation and rape of Poland - even operating a punch-card printing shop down the street from the Warsaw Ghetto. As opposed to his first book, the new version reportedly provides the first evidence that the company's dealings with the Nazis were controlled from IBM's New York headquarters throughout the second world war. The first edition of IBM and the Holocaust prompted a group of death-camp survivors to launch a legal action against the firm, but it was dropped in case it might delay other compensation payments to Nazi regime victims. But much of that compensation process has now been completed, raising the possibility that the paperback may revive the legal proceedings. *Viewpoint: A DOUBLE STANDARD ON TERRORISM For having chosen to fight terrorism, violence, and crime, five Cubans have been thrown in jail. Three received life sentences, and all were unfairly tried, in a case that was corrupted and biased from the beginning. In prison these anti-terrorism fighters have all been mistreated, indeed treated worse than terrorists, as they serve time in separate, isolated penitentiaries. Their crime was opposing the wrong kind of terrorism, the kind of terrorism that has for decades been permitted, even encouraged by the United States. And they are in prison because they were fighting terrorism in the name of Cuba. Talented, dignified, well-educated, the five Cuban anti-terrorism fighters remain in arbitrary, humiliating incarceration in the United States, the country that after September 11 elevated fighting terrorism to the rank of a world endeavor, the country whose security agencies have admitted that in fighting terrorism it is essential to count on human intelligence. Well, in fact they are in jail because information they supplied on terrorist elements and their actions inside the United States-information that Cuba voluntarily shared with the United States-was used by US authorities NOT to put the terrorists in jail but to track down and arrest the anti-terror fighters. Jail has indeed been the payment for their contribution. It is almost a pity that gifted and noble sons and daughters of Cuba may feel prompted to use their talent and their energy in such a defensive effort. It is a pity because while they know that their actions and the actions of dozens like them are needed to save the lives of innocent people in Cuba and in the very United States, they could certainly use that talent and that energy alongside thousands of their peers-doctors, nurses, scientists-who in Cuban research centers and in the fields and mountains of Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world are also helping to save lives. But this is simply part of the price that we Cubans have now grown used to paying for life in dignity, for that lasting and restive feeling of staying sovereign. (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-1429 2002-Mar-30 12:15:41