Cuban Govt Reacts to Latest UN HRC Vote

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

AIN, via Granma Internacional Digital - April 19, 2002

Official Note

A NEW MORAL VICTORY FOR CUBA:

With Coercion and Brutal Pressure, US Imposes Resolution
in Geneva by Slight Margin

At around noon today, the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC) approved
the resolution drafted by the United States and presented by Uruguay,
Peru and some other Latin American countries. The vote count was
close: 23 in favor and 21 against, with nine abstentions.

The balloting was preceded by very intense U.S. pressures and
blackmail aimed at the HRC member states, particularly the African
countries. In this regard, top officials of the U.S. government,
including President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and
National Security Council Secretary Condoleezza Rice, threatened to
deny the African governments funds from the so-called new initiative
for African economic development, block new credits and leave them
with the scant amount of assistance they currently receive. They even
threatened to promote internal destabilization in African countries.

But despite the coercion and brutal pressure, the United States was
only able to manage a slight two-vote margin, which is overwhelming
proof that there are still many countries in the world that defend
justice and truth, supporting the prestige of Cuba and its
Revolution.

A total of 30 countries - 57% of the 53 members of the Commission -
voted against the resolution or abstained, thereby refusing to back
Washington's designs and attempts to justify its policy of blockade
and aggression, maintained for more than 43 years against our
country.

The result of the voting was as follows:

Votes in favor of anti-Cuba resolution: Argentina, Austria, Belgium,
Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, France,
Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Uruguay.

Votes against: Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Cuba, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Togo,
Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zambia.

Abstentions: Armenia, Brazil, Ecuador, Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Swaziland, Thailand and Uganda.

After more than six months of pressuring on the part of the United
States and the inconceivable attitude exhibited by several Latin
American countries who bowed to U.S. interests, the voting results
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that our people, with their
unyielding determination, have once again attained an important moral
victory.

Cuba and its Revolution are morally fortified by this confrontation,
better prepared for continuing to wage the battle of ideas that will
lead our people to victory over the genocidal blockade, the murderous
laws and the policy of hostility and aggression through which the
United States tries to break our spirit of independence and our
sovereignty, and obliterate the paradigm of social justice that Cuba
represents for billions of the planet's inhabitants. (AIN)

(c) 2002 Granma International Digital. All rights reserved.
 
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