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Cuba
cheers end to U.N. abuse monitoring
Yahoo! News. By Will Weissert,
Associated Press Writer, June 20, 2007.
HAVANA - Cuba on Wednesday cheered the
new U.N. human rights watchdog's agreement
to stop monitoring alleged abuses on the
island, with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque saying the decision left the United
States "hanging and we yanked away
the ladder."
The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva
agreed Tuesday to discontinue investigations
into the rights situation in Cuba and Belarus,
but to continue monitoring Israel. The move
drew immediate fire from the U.S., which
has crusaded to focus attention on the human
rights situation in Cuba.
At a news conference, Perez Roque called
the decision "a resounding, undisputed
and historic victory" that "defeats
the manipulations of the United States against
Cuba in Geneva."
"I can understand the annoyance of
the Bush regime. I can understand its feelings
of frustration that, in the end, a little
island in its way has won victory and gained
the support of the international community,"
Perez Roque said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack
earlier issued a statement that the United
States was "disappointed" by an
agreement it considered "seriously
flawed."
Cuba has refused to allow visits to the
island by most international rights monitors,
including those assigned by the previous
U.N. rights watchdog agency.
Cuba says it respects human rights more
than many wealthy nations do by guaranteeing
broad social services including largely
free health care, housing and education,
and heavily subsidized food and transportation.
The foreign minister said the government
has made "enormous advances in economic,
social, cultural, civil and political rights."
"That doesn't mean we don't recognize
imperfections and we don't have goals and
dreams that are much higher than what we've
accomplished," he said of human rights.
"But we believe that no one in the
world can say that their situation is perfect."
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