US lines up action against Cuba in UN rights body

[Robbien]

GENEVA, 31 (AFP) - The United States confirmed that it would seek international censure of Cuba's human rights record by presenting a resolution at the United Nations' top human rights forum. "The United States is introducing and offering a resolution on the human rights situation in Cuba," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Lagon said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the UN human rights commission.

The resolution, part of perennial sparring between Washington and Havana, would look at past actions by the 53-member commission and examine "whether Cuba has been acting upon them," he added. It will also seek an extension of the mandate of the UN Special rapporteur examining the human rights situation in Cuba, Catherine Chanet.

European and Latin American countries were likely to back the move before the meeting ends on April 22, according to Lagon.

The Commission last year narrowly voted to adopt a resolution criticising a crackdown on dissidents in Cuba, which had been proposed by Honduras and backed by Washington.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said two weeks ago that he believed the United States would not get the support it needs this year to pass the motion.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/apr05/01e5.htm

doesn't this appear as if the US couldn't get someone else to propose the resolution and is doing it itself?

[Say_What]

1. Yep. That's exactly what happened. The US has always been able

to get another country in the region to act as a shill for the *resolution*. If I remember correctly, last year it was Uruguay and a year or so before that it was Checkoslovakia. This year nobody will do it and the US is forced to go it alone. There's been a lot about this on Prensa Latina. Many of the Caribbean and LatAm countries are showing solidarity with Cuba on this issue.

Not sure if you're aware, but Cubanet is a US-funded Miami propaganda machine. ;-)

<clips>

Argentinean Organizations Demand Pro-Cuba Vote in Geneva

Buenos Aires, Apr 1 (Prensa Latina) Members of the Argentinean Movement of Solidarity with Cuba asked the government to reject the US anti-Cuba motion at the UN Commission on Human Rights and denounced it as a political gambling to justify the blockade.

The activists met at the Foreign Ministry with Federico Villegas Beltran, director for Human Rights, and Cecilia Villagra, head of the office for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The information supplied on Cuba´s human right achievements were contrasted to the gross violations the US perpetrates at its illegal naval base in Guantanamo, eastern Cuba, against war prisoners who are denied their real status.

They also denounced the manipulation of visas to relatives of the Cuban Five jailed in the US for fighting all sorts of terrorism practices against their country.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={6A024729-EA57-401C-8813-9C2F11D3D858}&language=EN

[Robbien]

2. Didn't know for sure, but it did appear

to me that CubaNet was very biased in favor of the US. The part of the CubaNet article I did not post here was painting a very rosy picture of how everyone will support the US in the anti-Cuba resolution. Thanks for confirming my suspicions about CubaNet.

Prensa has a new article out today which is a stark contrast to the CubaNet article

US Moves its Puppets to Achieve Anti-Cuban Resolution at CHR
http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7BA57FF4A9-D724-45A1-9440-F31EDA112CDD%7D&language=EN

Geneva, Apr 2 (Prensa Latina) United States moves its puppets to the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) to try to repeat an anti-Cuban resolution, which aim justify the top officials´ trip to make pressure on the members of this UN Forum. The US delegation is almost made up of 50 members to the CHR that although it is officially headed by Senator Rodolph E. Boschwitz and the ambassador Kevin E. Moley it also holds outstanding post in the staff.

Matthew Waxman, who was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense of US detainees in the antiterrorist struggle, is here with the mission of counteracting the denunciations on US soldiers´ tortures in Iraq and the military base they occupy in the Cuban territory of Guantanamo.

Another one to show his credentials was the Department of State Deputy Undersecretary Mark Logan who led a press Conference Friday reiterating the decision to impose a resolution against Cuba concerning human rights. The media gave a rather weak answer to the call and a Foreign Correspondent accredited here considered "it as the same thing over and over."

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has recently denounced that it is vital for the United States to achieve the same manoeuvre in Geneva with the aimed to justify the blockade to the Antilles.

A Resolution bill presented by Cuba against that policy that lasted for over 40 years, has received 179 votes in favor at the UN General Assembly leaving Washington almost in solitary.

However, the White House Resolution was hardly decided for one vote of difference last year after pressures that included a vast mobilization from the Department of State and the embassies in different parts. Many other "personalities", including the counterrevolutionary groups and the so-called dissidents are included in this list of supporters of Washington´s plan against Cuba at the UN CHR.

But for this time there is a surprise since other new Cuban Americans have already arrived at this venue with a completely opposed objective for which they have addressed the auditorium to denounce Bush´s restrictions of trips and family remittances to the neighbour island again. "We have decided to come here since it was necessary to tell the commission and the world about Bush´s cruel measures against the Cuban family", an activist of the group that gather Christian women in Miami against those regulations told Prensa Latina.

The anti-Cuban Project is expected to be voted on April 14 or 15. The CHR has become a platform of a struggle imposed by United States that gives this UN organ less credibility.

[Say_What]

3. Those last couple of paragraphs are good. Should be an interesting

couple of days. We'll have to keep an eye out on what's happening.
:evilgrin:

From the article:

But for this time there is a surprise since other new Cuban Americans have already arrived at this venue with a completely opposed objective for which they have addressed the auditorium to denounce Bush´s restrictions of trips and family remittances to the neighbour island again.

"We have decided to come here since it was necessary to tell the commission and the world about Bush´s cruel measures against the Cuban family", an activist of the group that gather Christian women in Miami against those regulations told Prensa Latina.

The anti-Cuban Project is expected to be voted on April 14 or 15. The CHR has become a platform of a struggle imposed by United States that gives this UN organ less credibility.

[Say_What]

4. USAID Cuba Program Grantee Activities

Here's a few of the 17 listed. Descriptions of Cuba Program Grantee Activities at the website...

<clips>

American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS)

Center for a Free Cuba (CFC)

Cuba Dissidence Task Group (CDTG)

Cuba Free Press (CFP)

CubaNet

Florida International University - International Media Center (FIU-IMC)

International Republican Institute (IRI)

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/pubs/program_report/appendix_a.html