Published Thursday, September 7, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Castro denounces U.N. during historic summit
Leaders hear calls for peace, justice
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com.
UNITED NATIONS -- President Fidel Castro of Cuba appeared Wednesday before kings, generals, presidents and prime ministers to denounce the United Nations, saying his host was a worn-out institution manipulated by superpowers.
But before assailing the U.N.'s Millennium Summit, he started his speech by spoofing himself. The Cuban leader took the handkerchief he usually keeps handy during long, rambling addresses to wipe the sweat from his brow, placed it on the podium, then back in his pocket. Castro wouldn't need it:
this five-minute timed tirade would be terse.
Once the laughter died down, Castro sharply attacked the U.N. and the summit.
"There is chaos in our world,'' Castro declared. "Three dozen developed and wealthy nations that monopolize the economic, political and technological power have joined us in this gathering to offer more of the same recipes that have only served to make us poorer, more exploited and
more dependent.''
Castro criticized the superpowers, saying it was their colonialism that causes the poverty and wars they now seek to eradicate. The countries, he said, keep spending money on arms and luxuries while 80 percent of the world's six billion people live in poverty.
"The dream of having truly fair and sensible rules to guide human destiny seems impossible to many,'' Castro said. "However, we are convinced that the struggle for the impossible should be the motto of this institution that brings us together today.''
Aside from his speech, Castro kept uncharacteristically quiet throughout the day, listening and mingling with the other world leaders, taking a back seat to Middle East peace talks and ambitious goals such as eradicating disease and poverty.
He spoke up in the early evening during his alloted slot, nestled between the leaders of Rwanda and Portugal.
SPEECHES, PROTEST
The summit was convened Wednesday with a farewell speech by President Clinton, who addressed the largest-ever gathering of world leaders by pressing for peace in the Middle East and support for the United Nations.
The event included speeches by Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of protest by thousands of members of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, traffic-snarling motorcades and heavy security. Inside, it was a whirlwind who's who of diplomacy.
"My friends,'' Clinton told the world's leaders, "the bloodiest wars in human history belong now to another century. We have a chance for a fresh start. Can we seize this chance for peace? The answer is not waiting to be revealed; it is waiting to be created -- by our actions.''
The purpose of the Millennium Summit is to chart the course of the United Nations in the 21st Century -- particularly its efforts to forge peace. But the irony was lost on no one: Clinton's morning address occurred just hours after U.N. aid workers were killed in West Timor.
Even Clinton acknowledged that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's summit goals -- ending poverty, disease and war -- have been dubbed "lofty.''
ANNAN'S APPEAL
"The problems seem huge,'' Annan said. "But in today's world, given the technology and the resources around, we have the means to tackle them. If we have the will, we can deal with them.''
Clinton hoped the summit would be an opportunity to make headway on a looming deadline for peace in the Middle East. Sept. 13 is the date on which Arafat has long said the Palestinians would establish an independent state on the West Bank, though diplomats have suggested the move might be
deferred.
The two sides have difficult issues to resolve, including the final status of Jerusalem, which both claim as part of their historic homeland.
Clinton implored the U.N. members to aid the peace process. "To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and peace, to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years, let me say to all of you: They need your support now more than ever to take the
hard risks for peace,'' the president said.
Arafat said the Palestinian Central Council would make a decision about statehood within days.
"Let this summit be the beginning of the end of the greatest and most difficult refugee tragedy in the world,'' Arafat said. "May it be the beginning of the end of the historical oppression that befell the Palestinian people, and signal a new chance for life for the Palestinian
people.''
Putin in his address to the summit called for an international conference to be held in Moscow that would ban the militarization of space -- a response to American proposals for an anti-missile defense system.
U.S. CALLED 'ROGUE'
North Korea, meanwhile, denounced the United States as a "rogue state,'' claiming the government was responsible for allegedly ordering the searching of members of the delegation as they switched planes in Germany.
The incident on Tuesday prompted North Korea to call off the summit trip by No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, who had been scheduled to meet South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.
When the hoopla of the summit ends, Annan wants the United Nations to monitor how every world leader is implementing the high goals in the summit declaration. The declaration, expected to be adopted Friday, asks the General Assembly to review "on a regular basis'' the progress made in
implementing its provisions. And it asks Annan to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly.
"I am telling the world leaders not only to come here and approve a plan of action,'' Annan said, "but that I would expect each and every one of them to go back home and begin to do something about it.''
This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.
U.S. Cubans revile Castro
Summit draws global protests
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com
NEW YORK -- Two blocks from where Fidel Castro spoke to the United Nations, a somber congregation of Cuban exiles marched and chanted Wednesday, insisting that the Cuban president was not welcome.
About 100 anti-Castro demonstrators rubbed shoulders with Iranians, Chinese, Pakistanis and other groups, transforming historic tree-lined Dag Hammarskjold Plaza into a global village of protest while world leaders addressed the U.N.'s Millennium Summit.
Protest leaders, disappointed that more demonstrators could not attend, said they were confident their message was getting through.
"We have to let the American people know that the world community should not allow this criminal to parade himself around New York with impunity,'' said Maria Werlau of New Jersey, an organizer.
Jorge Acosta, a translator from Miami, had just finished the long drive up the East Coast: "Anywhere Castro goes, I drop everything -- I have to be there.''
Behind him, demonstrators carried posters with the names and faces of political prisoners, and those executed in Cuba. One photo held by Sylvia Iriondo of Mothers and Women Against Repression had a special meaning.
It showed a smiling Armando Alejandre, who demonstrated here in 1995, the last time Castro came to the United Nations. Less than a year later, Alejandre and three others were killed when Cuban jets shot down two Brothers to the Rescue planes.
"This protest is for him and all the other martyrs and victims of Castro,'' Iriondo said.
The anti-Castro demonstrators shared a chunk of the plaza with more than a thousand members and backers of Falun Gong, a religious sect facing persecution in China, and a boisterous group of Iranian and Pakistani nationals denouncing their governments.
"But that's fine,'' Acosta said. "We all share the same cause of ending human rights abuses and tyranny.''
Protesters then marched down Lexington Avenue to within one block of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. They chanted "Shame'' and "Remember Pinochet,'' a reference to the former Chilean leader who was detained in Britain on charges of human rights abuse. Citing the Pinochet case
as a precedent, Castro's opponents have called for his arrest while he is here.
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, a leader of the Democracy Movement in Miami, noted that Castro has rarely left Cuba in recent years.
"He feels more unsafe traveling because there is a new world order of justice, and he is worried,'' Sánchez said.
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