RHC Weekend-20/21 April 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 20/21 April 2002 . *THOUSANDS GATHER TO REJECT ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION APPROVED IN GENEVA *CHILEAN LEFTIST LEADER CALLS CHILE'S VOTE AGAINST CUBA TREASON *HIGH-RANKING CHINESE MILITARY DELEGATION IN HAVANA *CUBAN MINISTER VISITS ENGINEERING COOPERATION PROJECT IN VIETNAM *HAITIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT CUBA STARTING SUNDAY *ISRAEL RELUCTANTLY ALLOWS UN FACT-FINDING MISSION INTO JENIN *ARGENTINA SHUTS DOWN ALL BANKS AMID FEARS OF A FINANCIAL COLLAPSE *BUSH BELATEDLY EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES FOR CANADIAN FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS *SCIENTIST WHO WARNED OF GLOBAL WARMING REMOVED FROM PANEL BY US, OIL GIANTS *ACTIVISTS CONVERGE ON WASHINGTON FOR PRO-PALESTINE, ANTI-GLOBALIZATION DEMO *Viewpoint: PERU - THE MOTE IN ANOTHER'S EYE? . *THOUSANDS GATHER TO REJECT ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION APPROVED IN GENEVA Havana, April 20 (RHC)-- In central Cuba Saturday thousands rallied to voice opposition to an anti-Cuba resolution approved at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva Friday. At the Santo Domingo municipality, in Villa Clara province, some 60 thousand people slammed the resolution, denouncing it as a document imposed by the United States through pressure and blackmail. The document, which the Cuban government officially rejected Friday, was approved by a narrow margin of two votes, with 21 nations against it, 23 in favor, and 9 abstentions. While not expressing explicit concern over the human rights situation in Cuba, the resolution calls for the appointment of a special rapporteur, or inspector, to monitor the issue, with whom Cuba announced that it would not cooperate. At the rally Saturday, students, workers, and mass organization representatives took turn at the rostrum to denounce the anti-Cuba resolution. The speakers denounced what they called the complicity of several Latin American governments. They specifically blamed Uruguay, which sponsored the document, but also strongly criticized Peru, Chile, and Mexico, nations that voted for it. The mass rally at Santo Domingo municipality, in central Villa Clara province, was attended by Cuban Vice President and Minister of Defense Raúl Castro as well as local government leaders. *CHILEAN LEFTIST LEADER CALLS CHILE'S VOTE AGAINST CUBA TREASON Santiago de Chile, April 20 (RHC)-- Meanwhile in Chile, forces of the left have also come out in rejection of the anti-Cuba resolution approved by the UN Human Rights Commission Friday. Gladys Marín, secretary general of the Chilean Communist Party, said the Commission singled Cuba out for attack, noting that in supporting that attack Latin American nations were undermining the badly needed unity and integration in the region. The former Chilean presidential candidate considered Chile's vote as treason, noting that President Ricardo Lagos had repeatedly stated that the Chilean government would not join in accusing Cuba on the issue of human rights. Gladys Marín warned that the vote against Cuba by Latin American nations in Geneva could create a complex situation in the relations between peoples of the continent. As for the Chileans, she said, "we will never forget what Cuba did for us for 17 years when our human rights were being brutally violated." *HIGH-RANKING CHINESE MILITARY DELEGATION IN HAVANA Havana, April 20 (RHC)-- Colonel General Li Jinai, Political Commissioner of the General Department of the Popular Liberation Army in China, arrived in Havana Friday night. Colonel General Li Jinai is heading a Chinese military delegation on a good will visit to Cuba. The high-ranking Chinese military officer was met at the airport by General Sixto Batista Santana, the head of the Political Division of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and by other Cuban military leaders. The Chinese military delegation will stay in Cuba till next April 25th. The visitors are scheduled to tour Cuban military units and places of historic, economic and cultural interest. *CUBAN MINISTER VISITS ENGINEERING COOPERATION PROJECT IN VIETNAM Hanoi, April 20 (RHC)-- Cuban Construction Minister Juan Mario Junco del Pino visited Friday the team of Cuban engineers and workers helping Vietnam rebuild a major road through the jungle. The joint Vietnam-Cuba construction venture JIV is now laying the asphalt cover of a 90 kilometer section of road, part of a prestige project to turn the former wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail into a 1,690 kilometer trunk highway linking the north of Vietnam with the south. Another Cuban venture, Quality Couriers International, is in charge of building the longest section of the new highway, a 985 kilometer stretch from northern Ha Tay province to central Kontum, a stretch that will require some 300 new bridges, according to project sources. Vietnam plans to use the new highway as a relief road for the coastal Route One, which is currently the country's only north-south trunk road and is regularly rendered inaccessible by seasonal flooding. During the war against Vietnam, US planes dropped thousands of tons of bombs on the 16,000-kilometre network of roads, tunnels and canals which the Vietnamese had been building to transport supplies from the north to south but which was never completed. *HAITIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT CUBA STARTING SUNDAY Havana, April 20 (RHC)-- Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Philip Antonio will start an official visit to Cuba Sunday. Minister Philip Antonio's visit to Cuba comes at the invitation of his counterpart on the island, Felipe Perez Roque. The Haitian foreign minister will hold talks with Perez Roque, with whom he is also expected to sign a cooperation agreement. Minister Joseph Philip Antonio and his delegation will also visit Santiago de Cuba, in the east, to meet with Haitian medical students there. Dozens of Haitian students study medicine and other careers in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city on the island, also considered to be Cuba's most Caribbean of territories. *ISRAEL RELUCTANTLY ALLOWS UN FACT-FINDING MISSION INTO JENIN New York, April 20 (RHC)-- As Washington finally took heed of international outrage over the Israeli army's devastation of Palestine's Jenin refugee camp, Israel has reluctantly allowed a United Nations fact-finding mission to enter the area. Though the US government had threatened earlier Friday to veto an Arab-drafted resolution that expressed shock at reports of a massacre in Jenin, observers are affirming that Washington is evidently worried about further inflaming tensions in the Arab world and has been reluctant to use its veto power in the Security Council in the past few weeks. The Security Council approved three resolutions in March and early April demanding an immediate cease-fire and an Israeli troop withdrawal from West Bank cities "without delay." Washington's decision to not hamper an investigation into what occurred in Jenin coincided with the affirmation by a US envoy that a "terrible human tragedy" has occurred at the refugee camp. Assistant secretary of state for the Near East, William Burns, told Reuters news agency while touring the camp's flattened center, that "it's obvious that what happened here in the Jenin camp has caused enormous human suffering for thousands of Palestinian civilians." Burns, the most senior US official to visit the camp since Israeli forces pulled out on Friday, reportedly stopped occasionally to gaze at refugees digging furiously at the wreckage of their homes in search of missing loved ones and cherished possessions. Meanwhile, the first live Palestinian has been pulled from beneath the rubble in Jenin. A 19-year-old youth reportedly survived 9 days of burial, and told rescue workers that his entire family was beneath the rubble and that some could still be alive. The Israeli army is reported to have bulldozed three and four-story buildings that were full of people. *ARGENTINA SHUTS DOWN ALL BANKS AMID FEARS OF A FINANCIAL COLLAPSE Buenos Aires, April 20 (RHC)-- Argentina has closed all the country's banks, suspending operations and transactions indefinitely amid fears of a financial collapse. As rumors of the imminent measure spread, huge crowds gathered outside banks as people tried to cash their salary checks and get money from automated teller machines. A BBC correspondent affirmed that there is a total loss of confidence in the system and signs are that the situation will get even worse. Argentina's banking system has lost close to 10 percent of its total deposits since the start of the year, with many savers launching successful court challenges to government-imposed restrictions on withdrawals. It's estimated that Friday alone some 350 to 400 million dollars were withdrawn from the banking system due to judicial orders. The measure comes as Argentinean authorities debate an International Monetary Fund proposal that would force the country to slash thousands of public-sector jobs, a move that analysts say would impose further economic hardships on an already impoverished nation. With observers predicting more riots among Argentineans already frustrated at the growing levels of unemployment and poverty, President Eduardo Duhalde desperately called on the population to prepare for the worst - insisting that the government could not allow the banking system to explode. The closure of banks came as in the poor Argentinean province of San Juan workers were still occupying government offices demanding payment of their salaries, a day after police dispersed protesters in Jujuy Province using teargas. *BUSH BELATEDLY EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES FOR CANADIAN FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS Washington, Ottawa, April 20 (RHC)-- US President George W. Bush has finally expressed condolences to the families of Canadian soldiers killed and wounded by friendly US fire in Afghanistan, following a wave of angry reaction in Canada to Bush's perceived insensitivity. As Canadians massively questioned what they called the tendency of American soldiers to shoot first and ask questions later, on Thursday they waited in vain for a public comment from the US president during his five press conferences the day after the friendly fire tragedy took place. Finally, late Thursday a Canadian journalist asked Bush about the incident, upon which the president is reported to have coldly stated that he had spoken the previous evening to the Canadian prime minister to offer his condolences. Subsequently, the White House issued a brief statement deploring the loss of lives due to the error of a US pilot, but in Canada the statement was also perceived as being devoid of any real heartfelt sentiment. Between Thursday and Friday, Canadian radios, news dailies, TV chains and the Internet were full of angry comments about Bush and Washington. Canada's Globe and Mail news daily reported Friday that Canadians across the country continued to voice their rage and sadness. Among the more than 1,200 e-mail messages the news daily said it received Thursday evening alone, one demanded the withdrawal of Canadian soldiers from Afghanistan, insisting that "those war-hungry Americans who are just trying to stimulate their own economy and satisfy the many special interests of the elite" should fight "their own damn war." Canada's Toronto Star in an article entitled "How Could This Happen?" also reflected the grief and anger of Canadian society. *SCIENTIST WHO WARNED OF GLOBAL WARMING REMOVED FROM PANEL BY US, OIL GIANTS Geneva, April 20 (RHC)-- The head of the international scientific panel on climate change, which has called for urgent action to curb global warming, was deposed Friday after a campaign by the White House, Exxon-Mobil and other energy companies to get him replaced. At a plenary session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Geneva, Robert Watson, a British-born US atmospheric scientist who has been its chairman since 1996, received 49 votes against the 76 obtained by a candidate more to the US's liking - in what has been called a behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign by Washington to persuade countries to vote against Doctor Watson. The US campaign came to light after the disclosure of a confidential memorandum from the world's biggest oil company, Exxon-Mobil, to the White House proposing a strategy for his removal. This included the removal of former President Bill Clinton's appointees on the US delegation in Geneva and their replacement by officials more sympathetic to the needs of the oil industry. Steve Sawyer, a Greenpeace climate change specialist, told the British news daily The Guardian that "even the most cynical would be shocked by the heavy-handed tactics of the US delegation's bald display of their fossil fuel-backed politics." Kate Hampton, international climate coordinator for the London-based Friends of the Earth, said "the fossil fuel industry of the US government will be celebrating their success in kicking out Bob Watson" - adding that "the Bush administration and its friends would rather shoot the messenger than listen to the message." *ACTIVISTS CONVERGE ON WASHINGTON FOR PRO-PALESTINE, ANTI-GLOBALIZATION DEMO Washington, April 20 (RHC)-- Caravans of buses began arriving in Washington D.C. Saturday morning to participate in what is expected to be the largest ever pro-Palestinian demonstration in the United States. Protesters will also be targeting the International Monetary Fund and World Bank gathering in the US capital, as well as Washington's terrorism policies. Early Saturday police had not blocked a protest outside the offices of the Citibank, despite having banned demonstrators from going near the financial institution. A group of about 100 chanted outside the firm "Drop debt not bombs." Leading up to the protest, representatives of dozens of nongovernmental organizations gathered late Friday to thrash the IMF and World Bank for failing to promote debt reduction for poor countries. Marie Clarke, coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network, cited a new report by the Bank that found that debt reduction was being held up by the IMF's insistence that governments comply with structural adjustment programs to make those countries more attractive to private and foreign investment. Among other measures, they are designed to cut government spending, liberalize trade and financial regimes, privatize state-owned companies and expand exports - which numerous critics say are to the detriment of the poorest sectors of developing countries. On Thursday, the Washington-based advocacy group Africa Action released a new report entitled "Hazardous to Health: The World Bank and IMF in Africa" which found that government budget cuts forced on African nations in the 1980s resulted in major cutbacks in health systems that had managed to sharply reduce infant mortality rates over the previous two decades. It found that in 42 of the continent's poorest countries, spending on healthcare fell by some 50 percent during the 1980s even as the same countries were forced to greatly increase payments on their foreign debts. While the Bank claims that it has become more sensitive to the needs and vulnerabilities of the poor and modified programs accordingly, NGOs gathered in Washington say they have seen no real substantial changes in the two agencies' pro-market policies in recent years. *Viewpoint: PERU - THE MOTE IN ANOTHER'S EYE? The vote against Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission Friday comes at a time when, ironically, the Cuban people are immersed in an effort to consolidate one of the most important human rights of all: free access to culture and education. In fact, Cubans are trying to turn the entire nation into a huge "University" because they know that full access to knowledge and learning is the only way to truly be able to enjoy human rights. Currently, there is at least one center of higher education in each of the island's 14 provinces, and several massive programs have been recently implemented such as the construction of arts schools and community culture centers in every municipality, as well as the creation of training schools for teachers, arts instructors and social workers who will eventually pass on their knowledge to many others. Unfortunately, the educational panorama in Latin America is very different. For example, in Peru - where government authorities are concerned with the situation of human rights in Cuba - the rate of students who quit school is alarming. Only 54 percent of Peruvian adolescents finish their junior high and high school education, among other reasons, because their parents lack the necessary financial resources to afford it. Over one million children begin their regular elementary and high school courses in Peru annually. However, some 700 thousand did not register this year. What is more, they massively desert schools and wind up in an underground economy that has become the only alternative for Peruvians in view of the lack of employment. While in Cuba schools are being repaired and new ones are being constructed so that there will be no more than 20 students per classroom, in Peru, education authorities have "begged" the government for funds to construct new schools and to stop the deterioration of the existing ones. Actually, Peru is in the 118th place in the world regarding GDP funds earmarked for public education and, what is worse, measures to improve the critical situation are not on the horizon. As the saying goes, Peru seems "to see the mote in another's eye and not the beam in its own." (c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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