STATEMENT DELIVERED BY H. E. MR. FELIPE PÉREZ ROQUE, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
  OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF THE 60TH SESSION OF THE
                             COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Geneva, 17 March 2004

Mr. Chairman:

For 17 years now, Cuba has been waging a battle at the Commission on Human Rights against the cynical attempts by the
US Government to condemn it.

In the early 80s, the far right - that was getting ready to assume power with Ronald Reagan at the forefront - criticized
President Carter in the famous Santa Fé Document through the following words: "Curiously," they said, "the current
Administration has not seriously attempted to enforce its human rights doctrine against Castro's Cuba." Thence was born
the idea - strictly enforced until today - of seeking Cuba's condemnation in Geneva to justify the 45 years of blockade and
aggressions that the United States has imposed on the Cuban people.

Thus, in 1987, the United States submitted to this Commission a draft resolution that was defeated.

In 1988 and 1989, it could not impose on the Commission the condemnation of Cuba. We were not yet living in a unipolar
world, governed by the interests and whims of a superpower, whose President - not elected, by the way, but appointed by
the Republican majority of the Supreme Court - has taken the liberty to put the following dilemma to the rest of the world:
you are either with the United States or on the side of terrorism.

It was only in 1990, amid the upheaval of what had been the socialist bloc - when the end of history was proclaimed and
the enemies of the Cuban Revolution celebrated in advance what they thought was the inevitable fall of Socialist Cuba -
that the United States could, with the assistance of lackey governments, impose for the first time ever a resolution against
Cuba at this Commission.

Those were rough years, but the Cuban people, with the leadership of Fidel, did not surrender, did not relinquish its fight
for Cuba and for all those who in the world defend both justice and freedom, for all those who believe that a better world is
possible. Cuba's dignified endurance against the disgrace and the lies started to earn recognition and support among the
members of the Commission, until the attempt to hold our country in condemnation was unmistakably defeated in 1998.

The United States, chagrined and debased, sought to disguise its anti-Cuban scheme in 1999. Then, it instructed the
Government of the Czech Republic - who else but such a despicable lackey? - to officially submit the US text, while the
superpower, amid enormous pressures, threats and blackmails, managed to get the minimum margin of votes for a
ridiculous condemnation of Cuba. Amid the scorn and the disrepute, the farce lasted until 2001.

But in 2002, the Czech Government already refused to continue playing the disgusting role of Washington's toady. The
peoples in Latin America, in turn, demanded that their governments did not join the condemnation of Cuba and refrain from
becoming accessories to the aggression and the blockade against the small country by the powerful and rapacious
attacker. To top it off, the Bush Administration, so shamelessly hypocritical and cynical, had been excluded from the
Commission on Human Rights. After hectic and desperate actions, that Cuba is fully aware of, it was the turn of the
Governments of Uruguay and Peru to then play that infamous role against the will of their peoples.

We all remember how last year the US Ambassador stated: "I agree with anything that means the condemnation of Cuba."
Seldom did this Commission have so much fun with the ridicule and the imposture of the superpower - which, if there were
an ounce of justice and credibility in this forum, would stand accused for its crimes and the haughty violation of every one
else's right.

That has been the story. And what will happen this year? Will the US Government refrain from fabricating Cuba's
condemnation? Impossible. It needs it to justify its ruthless blockade and its plans of military aggression.

Will the European Union finally face the US attempt to condemn Cuba? No, I do not think so. And we all know why. Some
will say it is because of ancient wisdom. Others know it is because of hypocrisy and double standards. Will it then present
a resolution condemning the human rights violations, even of European citizens, at the concentration camp that the United
States built in the territory illegally occupied by its naval base in Guantánamo? No, I do not think so either. Will it by any
chance denounce the serious human rights violations being committed against the five Cuban political prisoners sentenced
to several life imprisonments in US jails and the impossibility of contacts with their relatives? No, it will not do it. Whoever
does not have the courage to stand up to the unilateral hegemony of the superpower should at least remain silent and not
act as an accessory to the aggression against Cuba. It should defend the right of the small besieged country instead of
befriending the irrational hatred of the aggressor.

Who will be the new pawn at the service of the imperial master? Rumor has it that it will be Costa Rica. Out of a
commitment to the cause of human rights? No. Let us recall that it does not vote against the appalling human rights
violations and the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. Let us recall that Costa Rica transferred its
Embassy to Jerusalem. Would Costa Rica present a resolution condemning the death penalty against minors, women and
mental patients in the United States? No, it will not do it.

Therefore, by mid-April once again, this Commission will be faced with the dilemma of condemning Cuba or defending the
right to independence, self- determination and development of a noble and generous people that has never been absent
when it has been necessary to fight for a just cause in the world; a people that fought apartheid; a people that always
supported those who fought the bloody military dictatorships sponsored by the United States in Latin America; a people
that has graduated from its intermediate- and higher-level schools over 41,000 youths from 123 countries; a people that
today has more than 15,000 doctors working in 65 nations of the Third World.

Mr. Chairman:

Cuba rejects the idea that this is only a "procedural resolution." That is a lie! Everybody knows that the United States will
proclaim it as the condemnation of Cuba. We all know that it allows keeping the so-called "Cuba Issue" on the agenda.

 I also reject the allegation that Cuba has not cooperated with the Commission. In 1988, Cuba received a delegation from
the Commission on Human Rights; in 1994, it received the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who has not yet been
able to go to the United States; in 1995, it received a delegation of human rights NGOs organized by Danielle Mitterrand;
and in 1999, it received two rapporteurs from this Commission.

Why should there be a resolution asking Cuba to accept a Personal Representative of the High Commissioner if no
representative is appointed to investigate the crimes and the human rights violations committed by the US occupying forces
in Iraq?

Cuba does not accept being accused at this Commission in a high-handed, politicized and discriminatory manner. It does
not accept the fact that only Third World countries are always the accused at this Commission.

Cuba does not accept, therefore, the request to receive a representative of the High Commissioner. It is nothing personal
against the appointed official. It is against the spurious mandate that brought such request into being.

We also reject the politicized and partial report distributed by the Personal Representative of the High Commissioner. She
has ended up acting as an instrument at the service of the US Government.

Cuba vindicates the right to enforce its laws to defend itself from the aggression. Cuba vindicates its right to prosecute the
mercenaries that cooperate with the blockade and the aggressive policy of the superpower that wishes to reconquer and
subdue its people.

Cuba will not surrender, Excellencies, or accept pressures or fall for naiveté.

Let the attacker be condemned and not the attacked! Let the blockade, the lies and the aggression against Cuba come to
an end!

Thank you very much!

In view of the recommendations made at the International "Against Terrorism, For Peace and Justice" Symposium, the undersigned,
members of the "In Defense of Humanity" network of networks, have reviewed the denunciations, proposals and reports submitted
by the 681 participants from 67 countries who met in Havana on 2, 3 and 4 June 2005, and make a call to create a movement against
terrorism that will denounce and condemn the age of terror spawned by the United States in our hemisphere, affecting us since the
second half of the 20th century.   [Editor Note : Read, The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour M. Hersh, to easily see the proofs.]

The moving testimonies of victims and their relatives and the well-documented reports of respected jurists, statespeople, journalists, economists and other intellectuals committed to the defense of human rights, allowed us to reconstruct the history of terrorist actions, committed with impunity, which numerous US administrations perpetrated in Souther Cone countries, Central America and the Caribbean, in complicity with Latin American and Caribbean leaders, armies and police forces.

The people have a right to know the truth. Those who wage a genocidal war in the name of a war on terrorism must not be allowed to cover up their systematic use of the most perverse of terrorist methods against the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. There is an urgent need to break the silence which shrouds the past, present and forseeable future of this criminal policy.

It is impossible to suppress the intimate, proven and documented ties of international terrorsits to the US White House,State Department and intelligence services. One cannot forget the atrocious consequences of Operation Condor, that International of Terror, as Nobel Prize for Peace recipient Adolfo Pérez Esquivel would call it, nor those of the dirty war waged in Central America and the Caribbean. The crimes of those who have worked for the CIA and of the high officials of successive US administrations cannot go unpunished.

George H. W. Bush, father of the current US leader, must be held accountable, as ex CIA director, for the creation, with Cuban born terrorists, of CORU, an organization responsible for the assassination of ex Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Orlando Letelier and the murder of US citizen Ronnie Moffit, the midair bombing of a civilian plane with 73 people on board and other crimes against humanity. The same terrorists collaborated with Pinochet's DINA, and other repressive bodies of South American military dictatorships, in the planning and execution of Operation Condor. Then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger must also be held accountable for these genocidal crimes.

The close ties of Florida's current governor, Jeb Bush, to the Cuban American National Foundation and other terrorist groups based in Miami must be denounced. These organizations made a decisive contribution to the fraudulent electoral victory of his brother in the 2000 presidential elections; they financed terrorist actions against Cuban tourist facilities, actions Posada Carriles admitted to in an interview for the New York Times and American television, the latter's "pardon" in Panama and his stay in the United States the past two months; they organized and financed his escape from a Venezuelan prison and coordinated his work with the White House in Iran-Contra and US-supported state-terrorist and dirty war strategies in Central America.

Today more than ever, we must denounce this long-standing network of accomplices which sustains the impunity and the protection illegally granted by US authorities to Luis Posada Carriles, ignoring the well-founded extradition request submitted by the BolivarianRepublic of Venezuela. It is the same protection they have offered an hope to maintain for Orlando Bosch, securing impunity for his crimes.

We must reveal the terrorist nature of the alliance that, against the interests of the American people, the Bush dynasty has established with the Miami mob and which dishonours the memory of those who perished on 11 September 2001 and in the name of a supposed war on terrorism. The US people, who mobilized against fascism in World War II and contributed to ending the Vietnam war, who supported the civil rights struggle and the return of Elián González to Cuba, must be informed, through all the mass media, about the criminal actions of its government.

The impunity of terrorists cannot continue. No crime can go unpunished.

BECAUSE OF ALL THIS, WE HAVE DECIDED TO INITIATE AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT AGAINST TERRORISM BASED ON THE "IN DEFENSE OF HUMANITY' NETWORK OF NETWORKS, TO UNDERTAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:
#Establish an Anti-Terrorist Observatory for the hemisphere.
#Create a data base which gathers information on these genocidal policies.
#Prepare and publish an Encyclopedia on Terrorism in the hemisphere, to include the essential concepts and categories,
    the background of the genocidal agents, repressive bodies and terrorists involved, a chronology of these criminal
    actions and a description of the national and supra-national components of the terror apparatus.
#Create a collection of works on historical memory and terrorism.
#Create the "Against Terrorism, in Defense of Humanity" Hemisphere Court, to be made up of prestigious jurists, intellectuals
    and human rights activists, to try Henry Kissenger, George Herbert Walker Bush, Jeb Bush, George Walker Bush and the
    following current or ex State Department or National Security Council officials  Oliver North, John Dimitri Negroponte and
    Otto Reich, for setting in motion and encouraging state terrorism in Latin America, the Caribbean and even the United States,
    in flagrant violation of international and US law, putting the lives of their own citizens in danger; for recruiting, training and
    financing terrorist groups and for the protection they have offered and continue to offer Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles
    and other renowned perpetrators of criminal actions that have claimed the lives of ten of thousands of innocent people.

The work of this court will be handled by four commissions: a commission for the gathering of testimonies and documentary evidence;
for research and analysis; for technical and juridical matters and for information and dissemination.

This is the commitment assumed in Havana: to defend ethical values and dignity, in defiance of brute force and terror,
and to carry out law and justice. All voices must be raised against these crimes. We shall not rest until the murderers are
tried and convicted. Silence only benefits terrorists and those who protect them. We shall not rest until the path is cleared
for truth. As Fidel has said:   "Humanity yearns for justice.".

          Havana, 10 June 2005

Francois Houtart, Belgium;
Isabel Parra, Chile;
James D. Cockcroft, USA; http://www.jamescockcroft.com/
Pablo González Casanova, Victor Flores Olea, Gilberto López y Rivas and Juan Bañuelo, Mexico;
Thiago de Mello, Beto Almeida, Roberto Amaral, Beth Carvalho, María Ciavatta and Marilia Guimaraes, Brazil;
Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Cuba;
Marcos Roitman, Manuel Talens, Jaime Losada, Alicia Hermida and Carlos Tena, Spain;
Miguel Bonasso, StellaCalloni,Ana de Skalon, Tristán Bauer, Atilio Borón, Néstor Kohan, Carlos Ruta,Luciano
  Alzaga and Marcelo Cafiso, Argentina;
Hernando Calvo Ospina, Colombia;
Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia;
Antonio Pecci, Paraguay;
Raúl Pérez Torres, Ecuador;
Gennaro Carotenuto, Italy;
Tarik Souki, Venezuela;
Samuel Blixen,Uruguay.

The above has been received at Good Works On Earth from the Cuban Mission at the United Nations.
"Public Relations" publicrelations@cubanmission.com

"How it is possible that a great international congress on terrorism, that reunited 680 students, journalists, investigators,
jurists of 67 countries, is practically unnoticed pass in great world-wide mass media?"     Gennaro Carotenuto -  From Havana.
 
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