CNN. April 21, 2000.Web posted at: 10:16 AM EDT (1416 GMT)
HAVANA (Reuters) -- Cuba, angry over European criticism of its human rights record, has called off a planned visit to Havana next week by senior European Union (EU) officials, EU diplomats said on Friday.
An EU "troika" led by Portuguese Cooperation Minister Luis Amado was due to have visited communist-ruled Cuba April 27 and 28 for talks on issues including trade and human rights. Portugal is current president of the 15-nation European bloc.
Portugal's ambassador to Havana, Antonio Carvalho de Faria, was informed by Cuba's Foreign Ministry Thursday that the Cuban government did not want the EU delegation's visit to go ahead at this time.
"The 'troika' visit to Cuba is off," a senior European diplomat told Reuters.
He said the Cuban Foreign Ministry, in its explanation to Carvalho de Faria, had cited what it called the "unfriendly" attitude of a number of EU member states which had voted in favor of a resolution criticizing Cuba Tuesday at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
The resolution, tabled by the Czech Republic in cooperation with the United States, was approved by 21 votes in favor, 18 against and 14 abstentions. France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Britain had all voted in favor.
President Fidel Castro's one-party communist government has furiously rejected the U.N. rights forum censure resolution, which criticizes Cuba for its systematic persecution of anti- government dissidents. Havana dismisses such dissidents as U.S.-backed "counter-revolutionaries."
There was no immediate official comment from the Cuban Foreign Ministry on the cancellation of the "troika" visit.
During their planned two-day stay in Havana, the EU officials were to have discussed, along with the thorny issue of human rights, Cuba's application to join a new trade and aid pact between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of 71 nations.
The new pact, which will replace the old Lome Convention, is due to be signed in early June and includes clauses requiring respect for democracy and human rights.
In June 1998, the EU agreed to let Cuba observe negotiations with the ACP, but said Havana would have to improve its human rights record. EU governments now have to agree on whether or not to allow Cuba to join the Lome successor accord.
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