Yahoo! April 13, 2000
IFAW Urges CITES to Reject Cuba's Proposal to
Re-Open Hawksbill Turtle Trade
NAIROBI, KENYA, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Proposals from Cuba to re-open the
trade in shell from critically endangered hawksbill turtles (Eretmechelys
imbricata) are being strongly opposed at the Convention on Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) meeting currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenay. Both of Cuba's
proposals would allow for the sale to Japan of its current stockpile of 6900kgs
of shell; one proposal would also allow the export of an annual quota of 500
shells to Japan.
Sea turtle scientists and conservationists worldwide fear that the re-
opening of international trade will encourage the stockpiling of shell by other
countries and the illegal killing of hawksbill turtles worldwide. A resolution
opposing both hawksbill proposals was endorsed at the recent 20th Annual
Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology & Conservation attended by 960 individuals
representing 67 nations.
In addition, more than 135 respected sea turtle experts and conservationists
from over 40 countries have also publicly opposed the Cuban proposals, signing
on to a petition drafted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW --
www.ifaw.org).
``Reopening the trade in this already critically endangered turtle will
encourage further illegal trading of shell,'' said IFAW's Sarah Tyack. ``Turtle
conservation projects throughout the Caribbean as well as the hawksbill will
suffer if the proposals are passed.''
The status of the hawksbill was elevated to ``Critically Endangered'' in
1996, and this is now the official position of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist
Group. The species has been on CITES Appendix I since 1977. International trade
in tortoise shell has been identified as the principal cause of the hawksbill's
endangerment.
Dr. Jeanne Mortimer, is widely accepted as one of the world's leading
scientific authorities on hawksbills and has been appointed as Chair of the
Hawksbill Task Force for the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group. ``Of all the
species of sea turtles, the hawksbill has experienced the longest and most
sustained history of commercial exploitation,'' said Dr. Mortimer. ``Primarily
as a result of this trade, hawksbills have declined by 80 percent or more during
the last three hawksbill generations throughout their global range.'' According
to Rhema Kerr, WIDECAST Country Coordinator for Jamaica, data obtained from
tagging, satellite tracking and genetic analysis indicate that at least 60
percent of turtles feeding in Cuban waters originate from or inhabit the waters
of at least 11 countries in the wider Caribbean.
``Caribbean hawksbills represent a resource that is shared by most countries
in the region,'' said Kerr and Cuba's proposal will undermine the efforts of
range states, such as Jamaica, to conserve hawksbills.``
For full details on the Cuban proposal visit www.ifaw.org/cites. The
following individuals are available for interview: Dr. Jeanne Mortimer Caribbean
Conservation Corporation -- 623833 in Nairobi Sarah Tyack, International Fund
for Animal Welfare (IFAW) -- 072-524000 or 254-72-524000
SOURCE: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Turtle Shell Sales Under Attack
By GEORGE MWANGI, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A plan by Cuba to sell the shells of endangered
hawksbill turtles to Japan came under attack Wednesday from conservationists who
said the proposal ignored the migratory nature of the turtles who breed in one
part of the Caribbean and feed in another.
Cuba wants the U.N. Convention on the International Trade in Endangered
Species, or CITES, to authorize a one-time sale of the shells to Japan, where
they are made into hair ornaments and other decorative items.
``Hawksbill turtles are highly migratory and extremely slow to mature. This,
combined with their complicated life history and their severely depleted
numbers, make it utterly premature to reopen international trade,'' Jeanne
Mortimer, a sea turtle ecologist, told a news conference at a 10-day CITES
conference in Nairobi.
She said DNA testing indicates that at least 60 percent of the hawksbill
turtles in Cuban waters came from nesting beaches in other parts of the
Caribbean.
Cuba has submitted two proposals to the conference seeking to reopen trade
in hawksbill tortoise shells, which was banned by CITES in 1977.
Havana is asking to sell Japan about 15,000 pounds of shells stockpiled
under a turtle management program between 1993 and last month. It also wants an
annual export quota for future sales to Japan.
The turtle now figures on CITES' Appendix I, which bans all trade. Moving it
to Appendix II would allow limited trade.
``If the Cuban population is downlisted, many individual turtles will have
an Appendix I listing at their nesting beaches, but an Appendix II on their
foraging grounds around Cuba,'' Costa Rican conservation Didier Chacon said.
He said the practice - known as split-listing - is discouraged because of
difficulties in enforcing conservation laws.
Jamaican turtle expert Rhema Kerr said Cuba's proposals would undermine
efforts to protect the hawksbills in countries like Jamaica, where the turtles
spend part of their lives.
An adult turtle can weigh 132 pounds and has a hawk-like beak and thick
patterned shell plates. The reptiles are distributed in 60 countries around the
globe.
Elizabeth Kemf of the World Wildlife Fund said the ban should not be lifted
because import controls in Japan were inadequate.
``The status of the turtle populations in the Caribbean is unclear and
regional management is patchy,'' she added.
Kemf said the turtles are also vulnerable because of their good quality
meat. The ease with which they can be caught makes them an especially desirable
food in coastal communities around the world.
Cuban Boy Tells Father in Video He Wants to Stay
WASHINGTON, 13 (Reuters) - Wagging his finger at the camera, 6-year-old
Elian Gonzalez told his father in a home video released by his Miami relatives
on Thursday that he did not want to return to Cuba with his surviving parent.
``Papa, I don't want to go to Cuba. I want to stay here,'' the child at the
heart of an international custody dispute said in Spanish on a grainy video
aired on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' program.
ABC said it was unclear whether the boy, shown sitting cross-legged on a bed
and chewing gum, had been coaxed by the relatives about what to say on the
video, which was first shown on the Spanish language Univision network.
Elian has lived with his Miami relatives since he was rescued floating on an
inner tube last November off the Florida coast. The child survived a shipwreck
that killed his mother and 10 others only to be thrown into a custody war
between his Cuban father and the Miami relatives, who want to keep him in the
United States where they say he would have a better life.
The relatives have been strongly criticized by the boy's father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, for parading the child in front of television cameras in a bid
to win over public opinion not to return him to communist Cuba.
In a series of interviews with ABC television last month, Elian drew a
picture of the traumatic shipwreck in which his mother died and told the
network's anchor, Diane Sawyer, that he wanted to stay in Miami.
Sawyer came under fire for interviewing the boy, who is seen by many as a
pawn in the war between Miami-based Cuban exiles and the government of Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
Late on Wednesday U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the Miami family
to hand the child over at an airport near Miami at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Thursday
so that he could be reunited with his father, who is waiting in Washington,
D.C., for his oldest son.
The relatives have said they will not take the child to the airport.
Cuban Boy Fears Being Sent Back on Raft
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Elian Gonzalez, who survived a shipwreck that killed
his mother only to be thrown into a custody war, is afraid he will be sent back
to Cuba with his father on a boat, a nun close to the boy said on Thursday.
The 6-year-old's Miami relatives, who refuse to give up custody of the
child, have been ordered to hand him over later on Thursday at a Miami-area
airport so he can be reunited with his Cuban father who is in the Washington
area awaiting his son.
Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, a close friend of the Miami relatives looking
after the boy, said Elian was petrified he would be forced to return to Cuba on
a raft.
The child spent 50 hours floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast
before he was rescued by two fisherman last November. The boy's mother and 10
others drowned after their rickety boat capsized while on a disastrous voyage
from Cuba to the United States.
Sister Jeanne told television morning shows on Thursday Elian woke up
screaming this week fearing he would have to make a similarly horrific journey
back to Cuba with his father.
``He woke up (on Wednesday) and was so upset as he thought he would have to
go back on a raft,'' Sister Jeanne told ABC's ''Good Morning America'' program.
Sister Jeanne said the family had to take the boy to see his 21-year-old
cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez, who was being treated for stress at a nearby
hospital, to convince him that he would not be sent back to Cuba on a boat.
Elian and his Miami relatives, who took him in after he was rescued, spent
Wednesday at the nun's home where they met U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno who
made a last-ditch effort to get the Miami family to hand over the boy in an
orderly manner.
The relatives have said they will not deliver the boy to an airport near
Miami at 2 p.m., as ordered by Reno. But a family lawyer, quoted by local media
in Miami, said the relatives would comply with the law if Justice officials came
to get the boy.
Vatican Offers Elian Handover Site
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican said today it has offered its embassy in
Washington as a site for the handover of Elian Gonzalez to his father.
The U.S. government plan in the international custody case has been to fly
6-year-old Elian from Florida to a neutral site in Washington for a meeting with
his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. After that, care of the boy would be entrusted
to his father.
A one-line Vatican statement said it was making its embassy available ``at
the request of the two parties'' involved for the ``delivery of the boy to his
father.'' It did not provide further details.
The government has ordered the boy's relatives in Miami to bring him to an
airport outside Miami for a flight to Washington this afternoon. The boy's
relatives, however, have vowed to defy a government order to surrender him.
Elian was rescued by two fishermen while clinging to an inner tube in the
Florida Straits in November. His mother and 10 other people fleeing Cuba drowned
when their boat sank.
His Miami relatives have been caring for him ever since.
Doctors: Key for Elian Is Love
By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - What is the psychological impact on a 6-year-old boy of
going from the relative deprivation of life in Cuba to Toys R Us and back again?
In the case of Elian Gonzalez, ``impossible to predict'' but perhaps minimal
in a boy who is otherwise quite normal, say two doctors invited by Attorney
General Janet Reno to recommend how to facilitate his return to his father.
Since Elian was plucked from the ocean off Miami, he has been lavishly
supplied with toys - and the world's attention.
``The most important thing is the love of his family. These things are a
distraction,'' said Dr. Lourdes Rigual-Lynch, a Montefiore Medical Center
psychologist and pediatrics professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
``We think that he will know this story, but it will not be an essential
part of his being,'' added Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg, a professor of psychiatry at
Cornell University Medical College.
The two doctors, along with Dr. Jerry Wiener, professor emeritus of
psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington University, were hand-picked by
Reno to offer guidance on how to end the four-month crisis.
The two New York doctors met with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in
Washington on Sunday. They were joined by Wiener the next day in a meeting with
Lazaro Gonzalez, the father's uncle who has had custody of Elian since he was
plucked from an inner tube four months ago.
The Miami relatives, and many members of Miami's Cuban exile community,
argue that Elian deserves to have a better life in the United States. But all
three doctors offered clear support for the view of Reno and the Clinton
administration that Elian should go home to Cuba with his father.
In a joint interview Wednesday, Rigual-Lynch and Kernberg said they found
Elian to have two ``loving families,'' his father and stepmother in Havana and
the extended family of paternal uncles and cousins in the United States. They
predicted he will remain close to both after returning to Cuba.
``What is really impressive to us, and what we did not expect to find, was
such a commitment and fondness and longing of this father for his son,''
Kernberg said.
``By returning to a more settled life in Cuba he will be able to grieve for
his mother. So far there have been too many distractions,'' she said.
Both doctors had kind words for the Miami relatives, especially Lazaro
Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter Marisleysis. She was thrust into the role of
surrogate mother to the cousin she had never met and has been hospitalized for
stress.
Wiener said from Washington that he judged Lazaro Gonzalez to be ``somewhat
angry and volatile.''
Lazaro, he said, was adamant that the two families could not meet except on
his terms, did not seem to understand that Elian's return to Cuba was all but
assured, and raised questions about his nephew's fitness as a father despite
there being ``nothing that seemed to substantiate that.''
US Govt Orders Miami Family to Hand Over Elian
By Frances Kerry
MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. government late on Wednesday ordered an end to
the 4 1/2-month tug of war over Elian Gonzalez, telling the Cuban shipwreck
survivor's Miami relatives to bring the boy to a Miami-area airport at 2 p.m.
(1800 GMT) on Thursday so he can be reunited with his father.
But the Miami relatives appeared in no mood to cooperate, saying after a
meeting in Miami with Attorney General Janet Reno that the family would not
willingly hand over the boy.
Reno said a letter containing the transfer instructions was delivered late
on Wednesday to the Miami relatives, who have been battling to keep the
6-year-old motherless child in the United States rather than send him back to
Cuba to grow up under communism.
The relatives were given the choice of accompanying Elian to Washington
where Reno promised they could meet privately with the boy's father, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez, or relinquishing him at the Opa-Locka airport and letting U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials escort him to the
capital.
The orders came after the Miami relatives failed to reach an agreement on a
voluntary handover with Reno during three hours of talks with her at the Miami
Beach home of a prominent local nun.
Elian was rescued from waters off Florida last November after surviving a
disastrous migrant voyage from Cuba in which his mother and 10 other people
died. He was rapidly embroiled in a fierce and highly politicized custody battle
pitting the Miami relatives who wanted to keep him ``free'' in the United States
against his father who wanted him back in Cuba.
Reno said the Justice Department would enforce its order, but gave no
details on how the department would respond if the family failed to bring the
boy to Opa-Locka Airport, northwest of Miami.
Enforcement Would Be 'Fair And Prompt'
``We will pursue the enforcement of the order in a prompt, fair way,'' Reno
told reporters at an impromptu news conference in Miami. Asked how the law would
be enforced, Reno said it would be ``respectful, firm, fair and prompt.''
In its letter, the INS told the family its goal was to ensure that ``Elian's
transition to his father's care is as peaceful as possible.'' Elian's father
came from Cuba to the United States a week ago and has been waiting in
Washington to claim custody of his son, expressing increasing frustration over
the delays.
The INS instructions set the stage for an end to a saga that has fired up
old enmity between Cuban President Fidel Castro and hard-line anti-communist
exiles in Miami, and presented President Clinton's administration with a major
headache.
The boy's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who has been caring for the boy,
told reporters the family would not cooperate with a handover, but a family
lawyer was quoted by local media as saying that the relatives would comply with
the law if justice officials came to get the boy.
INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the relatives would be breaking the law
if they refused to let the boy be reunited with his father.
``They said they would comply with the law. Instructions from the INS are
lawful instructions so we would hold them to their commitment to abide by the
law,'' she said.
The INS urged the family to honor its pledge to abide by the law. ``The time
has now come to carry through on that commitment, above all for the sake of a
boy who deserves to have his reunion with his father take place without any
further conflict or stress,'' the letter said.
A visibly angry Lazaro Gonzalez said after the Reno meeting that ``the
position of the Gonzalez family is that we will not turn the child over, not in
Opa-Locka, not in Washington D.C., not anywhere.'' He accused Reno of a
``traitorous act.''
A family lawyer, Manny Diaz, told reporters that the relatives were
disappointed that the government had not heeded their assertions that the child
``does not want to go back to Cuba and does not want to go back to his father.''
The family's defiance was likely to fire up supporters of the Miami
relatives among anti-communist Cuban exiles in the city, who have given
impassioned backing to the cause of keeping Elian in America.
In turn, Castro has turned the case for returning Elian home into a national
crusade. The U.S. government, which believes the boy belongs with his father,
has been in the uneasy position of being on the same side in the case as its
longtime political enemy, Havana.
'Sad Day For Freedom'
Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of several Cuban-born
members of Congress who have backed the Miami relatives in trying to keep Elian
in the United States, called the government's move a ``sad day for freedom.''
On one of Miami's Cuban exile radio stations, Radio Mambi, angry callers to
late-night talk shows denounced the government move. Many callers urged people
to converge peacefully on Lazaro Gonzalez's house in Little Havana in coming
hours to show support.
Some callers suggested staying away from work and keeping children away from
school on Thursday in protest at the government. One female caller wept,
sobbing, ``Elian cannot go away.''
The relatives' home has been besieged by media and supporters for weeks,
with tensions rising over the past few days as the government became
increasingly determined to reunite Elian with his father. On Wednesday night,
Lazaro Gonzalez denounced what he said were government plans to ``attack'' his
home to take Elian away.
Before Reno's personal intervention in the case, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who
has been staying with his second wife and their infant son at the home of a
Cuban diplomat, urged the government to issue orders to the relatives on the
handover.
Hometown Exhibit on Elian
By JAMES ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
CARDENAS, Cuba (AP) - It began with the poems, letters and signs deposited
on the museum steps: Discarded tributes to Elian Gonzalez. The donations kept
coming - and Elian's plight became a national cause - so the museum set up an
exhibit for the child hero.
Eventually, when it's all over, the exhibit will be stowed away, its
artifacts another chapter in Cuba's tumultuous history with the United States.
``When he returns, all this will be taken down and will go into the Elian
collection,'' said Raul Raventos, an aide at the Oscar Maria de Rojas Museum in
Elian's rural hometown of Cardenas, about 90 miles east of Havana.
A mandatory stop for visiting dignitaries and journalists as well as
Cardenas residents, the exhibit chronicles Juan Miguel Gonzalez's fight to
regain custody of his son. It also shows mementos of a simple past that was
shattered when Elian left Cuba with his mother and others in an illegal attempt
to reach Florida. Eleven people, including his mother, were killed when their
boat sank.
There are photos of the smiling child at the nearby resort of Varadero
Beach, images of Elian in Miami captured by newspaper photographers and CNN,
letters from classmates, signed tributes by the Mothers and Grandmothers of
Cardenas. There are children's marbles games and photos of Fidel Castro
surrounded by residents, letters from Gonzalez demanding justice for his son.
And then here's the pinata - ``a symbolic pinata,'' Raventos says - bearing
a portrait of Mickey Mouse, a not-so-oblique reference to Elian's
much-publicized visit to Walt Disney World and Cubans' anger at what they call
the 6-year-old boy's commercialization.
For the moment, the pinata, traditionally loaded with goodies for children,
is empty. ``We'll fill it when he comes,'' Raventos said Wednesday.
On a wall, local artists painted a mural depicting the Caribbean island of
Cuba as a brilliantly colored garden - and a hand, unmistakably Uncle Sam's,
plucking a prized flower: Elian. Schoolchildren's wooden desks occupy much of
the room.
Soon, Raventos hopes, the exhibit will be dismantled - perhaps shrunken to
lesser spaces in the colonial structure, one of Cuba's first museums. It houses
Chinese and French porcelain vases, oil portraits of Spanish Queen Isabella II,
Masonic Lodge medals, exotic butterflies, firearms used by rebels fighting the
Spanish occupation in the 19th century, an elaborate horse-drawn funeral hearse
from times past.
For now, the curious tour Elian's exhibit, inspecting each photo, each poem.
One, penned by sixth-grader Daneysis Leon Garcia of the 13th of May School,
reads:
``Elian, trust in your fatherland
In those of us who are here
Have
faith in your comandante,
Do not stay over there.''
Reno Rejected by Elian's Family
By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Attorney General Janet Reno ordered Elian
Gonzalez's Miami relatives to bring the boy to a Miami-area airport Thursday
afternoon after she failed to persuade them to end the wrenching 41/2-month
custody struggle.
Reno took the extraordinary step of coming to Miami to meet for 21/2 hours
with the six-year-old boy's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who later defiantly
said he would not relinquish custody of the boy.
``We will not turn this child over, not in Opa-locka, not in any `locka,'''
he said, referring to the government's demand that Elian be brought to the
airport in Opa-locka, outside Miami. ``They will have to take this child from me
by force.''
Reno told the family to bring Elian to the airport Thursday at 2 p.m. She
said a plane would take the boy, and whatever relatives wanted to come, to
Washington for a retreat at a neutral site with the boy's Cuban father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez. No Cuban diplomats would be present.
She said if the family did not show, ``We will enforce the order,'' but she
did not elaborate. ``It would respectful, firm, fair and prompt,'' she said.
``An agreement among the family is the best solution,'' Reno said. ``An
agreement is still possible, but it remains elusive.''
Reno met with Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, and
other relatives at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, the nun who
was host of a January meeting between Elian and his grandmothers from Cuba.
Elian attended the meeting, moving from lap to lap at the table.
Manny Diaz, an attorney for the family, said Reno and Immigration and
Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner heard ample evidence during
the meeting that Elian does not want to go back to Cuba but refused to take that
into account.
He said he would seek a federal court injunction to block the government
from instructing the family how to hand Elian over.
O'Laughlin described the meeting as cordial and said Elian left the room
only when the subject matter was too sensitive. ``He was precious with her,''
O'Laughlin said.
``She was very respectful and they were very honest,'' O'Laughlin said.
``The pain of this family and their understanding of the pain of Juan Miguel was
very evident. They have expressed over and over again their ... desire to be a
loving family, whole again.''
Elian and his relatives had left their politically charged Little Havana
neighborhood for O'Laughlin's gated home earlier in the day, but headed back
home early Thursday.
Elian, clinging to an inner tube, was rescued by two fishermen on
Thanksgiving after his mother and 10 other Cubans drowned when their boat sank.
His Miami relatives have been caring for him ever since and have been
fighting in court for him to have an asylum hearing. But the Clinton
administration has ordered Elian back to his father in Cuba, saying only he can
speak for the boy on immigration matters.
A federal judge affirmed that decision, but the family has appealed.
Elian's father, who met with Reno after coming to America last week,
remained in Bethesda, Md. He indicated Wednesday - the day after a meeting in
Washington with the Miami relatives was scheduled and abruptly canceled - that
he was through negotiating.
Later, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and their infant son were guests of
honor at a reception at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington.
In Havana, Ricardo Alarcon, the senior Cuban official who has advised the
father, criticized the Miami relatives for delaying the transfer, saying they
were showing ``a total lack of respect for American society,'' and ``making fun
of the U.S. government.''
When O'Laughlin first got involved, she said she had no opinion about
whether the boy should be returned. But after the grandmothers' visit, she said
Elian should stay in the United States - drawing bitter criticism from the Cuban
government and the grandmothers.
If Elian's relatives were hoping for a quieter setting in Miami Beach, they
only partially succeeded.
While Reno met with the family, dozens of police and federal agents kept
watch over about 200 demonstrators. Several waved a Cuban flag bigger than a
king-sized bedsheet.
Even before Elian arrived at the house, a crowd chanted ``Elian! Elian!'' in
anticipation. The demonstrators were forced to keep a greater distance than on
Lazaro Gonzalez's narrow street. Police kept them across a four-lane road,
behind a median and a barricade.
``Reno, coward, Miami has had enough!'' some shouted. Reno left in a
motorcade that included 12 police motorcycles and a dozen cruisers.
At Lazaro Gonzalez's house, protesters were starting to acknowledge that
Elian may be heading back to Cuba. But the attorney general's visit to Miami
gave some a ray of hope.
``Right now she's not the Cuban-Americans' best friend, but that could
change between today and tomorrow,'' said Rolando Millet, 39. He held a sign:
``America get ready for a miracle.''
Reno Gets No Deal From Relatives on Elian
By Frances Kerry
MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno intervened personally on
Wednesday to try to end the 4 1/2 month tug-of-war over Cuban shipwreck survivor
Elian Gonzalez, but failed to get an agreement on his custody handover from the
Miami relatives battling to keep him in America.
Reno flew in from Washington and held about three hours of talks with the
Miami relatives in an effort to persuade them to cooperate in turning over
custody of the motherless 6-year-old to his father.
But Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, a prominent local nun who hosted the talks at
her Miami Beach home, said afterward that Reno had reached no agreement with the
Miami relatives, who have cared for Elian since he was rescued from the waters
off Florida last November and are resisting sending him back to Cuba to grow up
under communism.
``It is very difficult to know how it will unfold at this point,'' said the
nun.
O'Laughlin said Reno would talk later on Wednesday night or on Thursday
morning with lawyers for the Miami relatives.
During her meeting with the relatives, Reno did not hand over a letter that
has been drafted by justice officials instructing the family to hand over
custody of Elian on Thursday morning at a Miami area airport, O'Laughlin said.
It was not clear whether authorities planned to press ahead with delivering
those instructions.
Father Grows Frustrated
But as Reno flew in to talk with the relatives, the child's frustrated
father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has been in the United States for the past
week waiting to get custody of Elian, urged the government to get tough on the
relatives.
``It is time for the Justice Department to instruct (Elian's great-uncle)
Lazaro Gonzalez to follow the law and do the right thing. This son needs his
father,'' the father's lawyer, Gregory Craig, told reporters in Washington,
claiming that Elian was being harmed by the delays.
The child was rescued at sea off Florida after surviving a disastrous
migrant voyage from Cuba in which his mother and 10 other people drowned.
He was taken into the home of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and quickly
became caught up in a fierce and highly politicized tug-of-war. The Miami
relatives tried to prevent him being sent back, and fought and lost in court an
immigration service ruling that he should be returned.
His father demanded his return and President Fidel Castro took up the case
as a national crusade.
O'Laughlin said the Miami relatives had suggested to Reno that Juan Miguel
Gonzalez come from Washington to Florida for a family meeting.
But the father could well balk at such an offer after his lawyer denounced
the relatives for failing to hold to what Craig said was an agreement to come to
Washington on Wednesday to hand over Elian at a family get-together.
``Have Mercy Reno''
Reno's trip to her hometown was aimed at trying to convince the Miami
relatives, who have impassioned backing in trying to keep Elian ``free'' from
many of the city's anti-communist Cuban exiles, that Elian would be best served
if the handover were made in a cooperative spirit.
But a huddle of supporters of the Miami relatives outside the nun's home
hoped for a last-minute change of heart, greeting her with placards saying
``Have mercy, Reno,'' as she went into the house to meet with the relatives
shortly after 6 p.m. (2200 GMT).
Elian and his Miami relatives sought to escape the stress of the
media-besieged Little Havana house where they live and gathered earlier in the
day at the home of the nun, who is president of Miami's Barry University.
The nun hosted a brief and tense meeting in January between Elian and his
grandmothers and later came out on the side of keeping the child in Miami.
Justice Department officials said before the meeting they would wait before
sending the handover instructions to the family. ``The timing of the letter is
now dictated by the progress she (Reno) feels is being made,'' one official
said.
Elian Too Stressed To Get Dressed
O'Laughlin told reporters earlier Elian was so stressed he was ``having
difficulty getting dressed.'' The relatives seemed to be growing reconciled to
handing the boy over, she added.
``I think the family is becoming more reconciled and facing what perhaps
could be pain,'' O'Laughlin said.
The latest draft of a letter to the relatives said the boy will be
transferred from his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez to another family member at the
Opa-Locka airport near Miami, Justice Department officials said.
Joan Brown Campbell, a Methodist church leader who has helped Elian's
father, told reporters earlier the father was becoming increasingly impatient
and would ask Reno to issue an order for his son to be returned to him
immediately.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is staying at a Cuban diplomat's home in
Washington with his second wife and their infant son, attended a private
reception at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington on Wednesday evening.
Castro Demands 'Nuremberg' Trial for Financiers
By Jason Webb
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro began a Third World summit on
Wednesday by demanding a ``Nuremberg'' trial for financiers, but more moderate
African and Asian leaders emphasized fair access to world markets and debt
relief.
Forty-two presidents or prime ministers from 133 member nations began the
presidential phase of the summit on the third day of the five-day meeting in
Havana. The G77 is staging its first presidential summit as poor countries
realize they must forge a unified voice to seek what they describe as a fair
deal in the World Trade Organization and on debt relief.
The 73-year-old Castro, who took power in a revolution in 1959, said a world
economic order dominated by the rich was criminal for insisting the poor pay
ever-swelling debts and for pushing down prices of their commodity exports.
``We need a Nuremberg to put on trial the economic order that they have
imposed on us that every three years kills more men, women and children by
hunger and preventable or curable diseases than the death toll in six years of
the Second World War,'' said Castro, referring to the historic trials which
sentenced many Nazi leaders to death.
Castro, dressed in a double-breasted suit rather than his usual military
fatigues, called for the International Monetary Fund to be ``demolished'', and
for a one-percent tax on speculative financial transactions. He also proposed
that the rich pay more for oil to finance cheap fuel for the poorest.
A division has arisen at the summit between combative countries like Cuba
and Malaysia proposing radical overhauls of the world economy and others
favoring negotiated solutions with the North, said Indonesian President
Abdurrahman Wahid.
``If we quarrel about approaches to be made, then all will face losses,''
Wahid said, warning that poor country infighting could scuttle chances of a
united voice within major international institutions.
Crippling Debt Burden
Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who is chairing the summit, said the
World Trade Organization had to allow access for poor country exports to rich
country markets, and urged constructive dialogue with the North to reduce the
crippling debt burden.
The leader of Africa's most populous nation wanted action to control
volatile financial markets, representation for the Third World on world
financial institutions, and more power for the United Nations -- where poor
countries are the majority.
In contrast to Castro, Nigeria's leader, who took power last year after 15
years of military dictatorship in the country, said the Third World shared part
of the blame for its plight.
``We must ask ourselves a number of critical questions about our different
histories, and only after we have been through such a critical examination can
we confidently point out the failures of the industrialized countries who have
reneged on their commitments and promises for official development assistance,
speedy debt remission and a fair international trading regime,'' Obasanjo said.
He went on to call on those present -- who included Pakistan's military
ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- to consolidate their democracies, adding that
this would encourage investment and make rich countries more likely to reduce
debt.
Speaker after speaker, including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and
South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, called for the explosive growth in
information technology to be shared with the poor South.
``This technology is far less capital-intensive than old industrial
technology and therefore may enable poor countries to leapfrog some of the long
and painful stages of development that others had to go through,'' said U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is from Ghana.
Annan later began a series of closed-door meetings with several summit
delegations, including Arafat, Musharraf, and Vietnamese President Tran Duc
Luong. With Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen, Annan discussed plans for trials
over atrocities committed under the former Khmer Rouge regime.
Musharraf promised Pakistan would establish a South Institute of Technology
to foster the spread of knowledge among poorer nations. Like Nigeria's Obasanjo,
he wanted rich country banks to do more to ensure that corrupt leaders do not
secretly move their ill-gotten gains out of their countries.
Castro compared the world to a ship in which a minority enjoyed ``luxury
cabins'' serviced by mobile phones, Internet and abundant food and medicines;
but 85 percent traveled in conditions he compared to those on the slave ships
that transported Africans to the Americas.
``This boat seems to be heading to crash into an iceberg. If that happens,
we will all sink,'' he said.
At the request of the Haitian delegation, the assembly briefly rose to its
feet and applauded in a show of support for Cuba's fight for the return of
6-year old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez from relatives in the United
States.
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