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Yahoo! March 27,
2003.
Resolution at top U.N. human rights body avoids condemning Cuba
By Jonathan Fowler, Associated Press Writer. Wed Mar 26,
1:14 PM ET
GENEVA - In a move likely to displease the United States and attacked by
campaigners, four countries on Wednesday presented a resolution to the top U.N.
human rights body that shies away from condemning Cuba.
The annual meeting of the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission has
censured the communist island for its lack of democracy and free speech every
year over the past decade except 1998.
But the draft produced by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay simply
asks Cuba to accept a visit by a U.N. monitor who was appointed earlier this
year by Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"While the commission is congratulating itself, Cuba is cracking down,"
said Rory Mungoven, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch. "In the past week,
while the international community has been preoccupied with Iraq, Cuban
authorities have made scores of arrests."
French jurist Christine Chanet was nominated by Vieira de Mello in January.
Her post was created following a U.S-backed resolution which was only narrowly
passed by the U.N. body last year.
This year's proposed resolution — on which the commission will vote
next month — says the U.N. body should express "satisfaction"
over Chanet's appointment.
Following a future visit by Chanet to Cuba, during which Havana should "provide
all the facilities necessary for her to be able to fulfill (her) mandate, the
commission should "consider this matter further" at its session in
2004, the draft says.
A spokesman for the U.S. mission to U.N. European offices in Geneva refused
to be drawn on whether Washington was unhappy with the wording, saying only that
the United States supported the efforts of the sponsoring nations to address the
human rights situation in Cuba.
Last week, Cuban state security agents began arresting scores of dissidents,
accusing them of conspiring with American diplomats in Cuba to encourage
opposition to the communist government.
"The commission condemned Cuba last year and they should not relax the
pressure now," Mungoven told The Associated Press.
However, even though it avoids condemnation, the resolution will likely
anger Cuba, which insists its rights record is good.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said recently Havana would not let
Chanet visit because it considers her post was created by a "spurious and
illegal" vote brought about by U.S. arm-twisting.
"The United States needs a resolution against Cuba like a fish needs
water," Perez Roque told reporters in Geneva last week. Washington is
running out of ways to justify its 40-year-old embargo against Cuba, which most
other nations oppose, he said.
"There is no need to consider the Cuba case at the U.N. Human Rights
Commission," he said. "No country has the moral authority to judge
Cuba."
Cuba insists it respects human rights by guaranteeing its people broad
social services such as free health care and education, and that rich nations
that fail to protect the poor are in no position to preach.
Wives of Cuban dissidents detained in crackdown visit husbands, say they
are in good health
HAVANA, 26 (AP) - The wives of several anti-government activists arrested
during Cuba's crackdown on political dissidents visited their husbands Wednesday
and said they appeared to be in good health.
Gisela Delgado, the wife of Hector Palacios, a leading organizer of the
Varela Project reform effort, said her husband was holding up well after six
days in jail.
"He looked a little tired ... but seemed okay," she said.
Delgado and four other wives were allowed to visit their husbands at Villa
Marista jail in Havana for the first time since their detention.
Cuban state security agents have arrested 75 people, many of them
independent journalists and leaders of opposition parties, in one of the
harshest crackdowns on dissent on the island in recent years, according to human
rights organizations.
Cuban authorities have accused the dissidents of conspiring with American
diplomats in Havana to encourage government opposition. Cuba has said it will
try the dissidents, who are accused of being traitors.
The arrests, which began last Tuesday, have drawn widespread condemnation
from international human rights groups.
Delgado and the other wives said they were concerned about what kind of
legal defense their husbands might receive.
"Getting a fair trial with impartial lawyers will be impossible in
Cuba," Delgado said.
EU condemns arrest of dissidents in Cuba
ATHENS, Greece 26 (AP) - The European Union on Wednesday condemned a
crackdown against political dissidents in Cuba, joining calls from international
human rights groups for their immediate release.
"The European Union is deeply concerned at the arrests of dozens of
independent journalists and opposition members by the Cuban authorities," a
statement said.
The statement was issued in Greece which holds the current presidency of the
EU.
"The European Union condemns those arrests and demands that those
persons, whom it considers prisoners of conscience, be released without delay,"
it said
"Violations of fundamental civil and political rights will be monitored
very closely by the European Union and they will continue to influence the
Union's relations with Cuba."
At least 75 people have been arrested since the crackdown was launched last
week, according to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation.
The arrests have been broadly condemned by international human rights
groups.
Bush Condemns Cuba Crackdown
Wed Mar 26, 1:47 PM ET
MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - President Bush on Wednesday denounced Cuba's
recent arrests of scores of government critics and called for the release of "all
unjustly imprisoned dissidents."
The president "condemns the Castro government's intensified repression
of pro-democracy and human rights critics," said a statement by White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer during a presidential trip to Florida.
Over the past week, Cuban state security agents have arrested 75 people,
many of them independent journalists and leaders of opposition parties,
according human rights organizations.
"Arrest of these dissidents comes on the heels of recent personal
attacks by the Cuban government against our diplomats in Havana," a White
House statement said.
Cuba Ballet Company Trains Elite Dancers
By Mar Roman, Associated Press Writer. Wed Mar 26,12:03 PM
ET
HAVANA - It's hot and muggy in the dance studio at Cuba's National Ballet,
but the aspiring ballerinas don't seem to notice as they twirl and execute their
moves to the piano music with scrupulous precision.
Only a few of these dancers will be chosen to be the next Sleeping Beauty or
Cinderella at Havana's elegant Gran Teatro. But all remain hopeful, keeping up
their daily ballet classes and rehearsals.
"My childhood dream was to be a ballerina, like any Cuban girl,"
says 26-year-old Viengsay Valdes, her hands on the barre.
After slipping into her first ballet slippers at age 9, Valdes went on to
become one of the few top ballet dancers in a country where the masses —
not the elite — are the true classical dance aficionados and the ballet
company is among the best in the world.
As Valdes leaves the studio, dozens of girls between 5 and 8 years old file
into the room in their colorful leotards, forming lines to await their first
ballet steps — and their first taste of the discipline that classical dance
requires.
"In Cuba, dancing is so important because it is part of our culture,"
Valdes says, referring to the island's mix of African and Spanish roots.
Funded by the island's communist-run government, Cuba's classical dance
program is world-class, training dancers for a company that has performed in 58
countries and received about 300 international awards.
Founded by Cuban's living ballet legend, Alicia Alonso, in 1948, the
National Ballet of Cuba has managed to forge its own style out of old Russian
and Western techniques.
Alonso, an 82-year-old former prima ballerina who was a principal dancer
with American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet, retains a strong grip
over the company, even though she now has trouble moving and can barely see.
A familiar figure with her proud, turban-wrapped head and wide mouth, Alonso
erected Cuba's classical dance program from the ground, training several
generations of dancers highly sought by some of the world's best ballet
companies.
After having been the company's director, choreographer and teacher, Alonso
still decides what the dancers will wear, who will go abroad, with whom they
will dance, what they will dance.
And she has counted on the support of President Fidel Castroand his
revolutionary government since the early years.
"After the revolution triumphed in 1959, Fidel knocked on Alonso's door
to offer the new government's help and he promised that he would make (ballet)
available to all social classes," says Miguel Cabrera, ballet school
historian. "The government paid for everything from the building to
rehearsals, salaries and ballet shoes."
As a top dancer, Valdes receives a government salary similar to that of an
important scientist or doctor: about $25 a month, as well as food, housing and
other government subsidies. She has toured with the Cuban ballet and as a guest
with foreign companies, giving part of her foreign earnings to the government.
"Now my target is to achieve international recognition," Valdes
says. "But I will always be linked to this ballet and to my country."
Alonso, who had worked with such great choreographers as Georges Balanchine,
Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins, started the Ballet Alicia
Alonso in 1948 in Havana. The company was renamed the National Ballet of Cuba in
1959 when it received support from the government.
The company is regarded as one of the top troupes in the world and Cuban
dancers consistently win at international competitions. Former stars include
Jose Manuel Carreno who became a principal with the British Royal Ballet and
ABT.
Court: Cuban Boy's Kin Can't Sue Reno
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer. Wed Mar 26,
2:48 PM ET
MIAMI - Miami relatives of young Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez cannot sue
former Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web sites) and other federal
officials for allegedly using excessive force when agents seized the boy from
the family's home, an appellate court has ruled.
Reno, former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris
Meissner and former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder have immunity for their
official actions unless it can be shown that they knew the agents would violate
the Gonzalez family's rights, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web
sites) said in a ruling made public Wednesday.
The family failed to meet that standard, the Atlanta-based court said,
reversing a lower court ruling.
Armed federal agents removed Elian, then 6, from the family's home before
dawn on April 22, 2000, five months after he was rescued from the Atlantic
Ocean. His mother and others died trying to reach Florida by boat.
He had been turned over to his Miami relatives pending a ruling on whether
he would be returned to his father in Cuba, but then the family balked when the
government decided he should be returned.
Reno ordered the raid, and within hours Elian was reunited with his father.
They soon after returned to Cuba.
The family alleged the agents used excessive force. People who were at the
house said they were kicked, punched, thrown to the ground, gassed with pepper
spray and tear gas, held at gunpoint and restrained.
The court emphasized that it was not ruling on whether excessive force was
used.
Holder, now in private practice in Washington, D.C., said he hoped the
ruling would help put the issue to rest. Reno and Meissner did not immediately
return phone calls.
Armando Gutierrez, who served as a spokesman for the Gonzalez family, said
the ruling was "a bad decision and I hope that the lawyers appeal it."
US sets free 11 Cubans who sought asylum after hijacking
Wed Mar 26, 9:40 AM ET
MIAMI (AFP) - US authorities have released 11 Cubans who requested asylum
after they landed in a hijacked plane March 19 in Key West, Florida's
southernmost point, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said.
Sixteen other passengers and crew of the twin-engine DC-3 propeller
passenger plane who had not asked for asylum were repatriated to Cuba on
Saturday.
One other person remained in custody, but a bureau spokesman who announced
the releases Tuesday could not say whether the detainee was seeking asylum.
The six hijackers who commandeered the plane at knifepoint on a flight from
the Isle of Youth, off the southwest coast of the Cuban mainland, to Havana,
remained in custody and could be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Judge Hugh Morgan ruled Tuesday that each of the accused hijackers could be
released on a 25,000 dollar bond pending trial, but federal lawyers have asked
for a 48 stay of the ruling while they appeal the decision, Bureau spokeswoman
Jacqueline Becerra said.
Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) on Sunday asked if the
United States planned to put the six hijackers in a "gilded cage," and
wondered how their treatment would compare with the spartan conditions meted out
to al-Qaeda and Taliban members confined at the US base on Guantanamo, Cuba.
"So, are they going to send them to the base as well, or will they put
them in a gilded cage," Castro said on a state television interview
referring to the hijackers, whom he branded as "terrorists" for their
act of air piracy.
Hijacked Cuban DC-3 going on the auction block in Key West
Tue Mar 25, 6:40 PM ET
KEY WEST, Florida - A decades-old Cuban airliner ordered seized by a
Miami-Dade Circuit court days after it was hijacked to the Florida Keys will go
on the auction block next month.
The blue and white, twin-engine Douglas DC-3 was seized Friday for Ana
Margarita Martinez, the ex-wife of a Cuban spy. She wants to collect on a $27.1
million court award she won against the Cuban government under an anti-terrorism
law.
The auction will be April 28 with no minimum bid set, Monroe County
sheriff's officials said Tuesday.
The plane was flying on a domestic route over the communist island last
Wednesday when six passengers, some armed with knives, forced the pilots to
divert the flight to the United States. None of the 31 passengers and crew was
seriously hurt. The plane landed under U.S. military escort and the accused
hijackers surrendered to police. They face federal air-piracy charges.
Martinez won the punitive damages in 2001, when a judge ruled she was used
as a political pawn by her ex-husband, Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque, and the Cuban
government. Posing as a defector, Roque had infiltrated Miami groups opposed to
the communist rule in Cuba. He returned to Cuba before he was indicted in
absentia of being part of a Cuban spy ring.
Martinez's attorney, Fernando Zulueta, did not return a call seeking comment
on the estimated value of the plane.
DC-3s haven't been made since the mid 1940s, said Mike Dockery, president of
Saber Cargo Airlines in Charlotte, North Carolina. Saber has a fleet of four
DC-3s, Dockery said.
A DC-3 with no records or apparent historical value would likely be worth no
more than $25,000, Dockery said.
"The DC-3 market has depressed because most of them are used in freight
hauling," Dockery said. "This one is in passenger configuration. If it
had log books and ... and it was in great condition it might be worth $300,000
or $400,000."
The Cuban government has asked U.S. authorities to return the plane.
In January, a Cuban biplane flown to South Florida by eight defectors was
also seized by the court and auctioned to satisfy Martinez's award. She ended up
buying the aging Antonov AN-2 Colt herself for $7,000 in hopes of selling it
privately for more money. | 
