Frank Calzón. Published Wednesday, April 25, 2001 in
the Miami Herald
Sovereignty cannot be used to excuse cruelties.
South Africa sided with Russia, China, Syria, Vietnam, Algiers, Saudi Arabia
and Cuba recently in an unsuccessful effort against a resolution criticizing
Fidel Castro's abysmal human-rights record. The vote took place at the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Pretoria says that its vote was due to Castro's support for Nelson Mandela
during his courageous stand against apartheid. But South Africa surely can make
concessions to Havana without squandering the moral standing gained by the
country's struggle for human dignity. Castro's rule is far closer to the regime
overthrown by Mandela and his followers than today's South Africa with its
multiparty system, free press and independent labor unions.
South African President Thabo Mbeki's statements about Castro go well beyond
the necessities of diplomacy. Yet South Africa's gratitude does not extend to
financial matters. According to The Johannesburg's Sunday Times, Pretoria has
suspended credit guarantees for trade with Cuba until Havana settles its $13
million debt to South Africa. Castro made no payments last year.
Financial matters aside, Mbeki's position on human rights at the United
Nations is most lamentable: Pretoria also voted to keep off the agenda any
discussion of human rights in China. Pretoria ignored the victims who hope for
the kind of international support that facilitated the transition to freedom in
South Africa.
Does Mbeki know that most Cubans in prison are black? That blacks are
seriously missing from the upper ranks of Castro's government? That Cuban blacks
remain among the most destitute Cubans? That Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa, a former
commander of Cuba's Army's in Angola, was executed by Castro on trumped up
charges? That Castro would not allow the International Committee of the Red
Cross to visit Cuba's political prisoners and that a growing number of Cuba's
democratic opposition is black?
What about Castro's apartheid? The hotels, beaches and restaurants that
tourists patronize are off limits to Cubans. Shouldn't South Africans insist
that Cubans be given the same rights granted to foreigners?
Mbeki should be concerned about these issues: Cubans are not allowed to
organize independent labor unions. Strikes are banned. Foreign investors do so
in joint ventures with the regime, not with Cuban entrepreneurs. Foreign
companies cannot hire their own workers. Investors pay the government between
about $10,000 a year per worker, and the regime then pays the worker $180 per
year. Anyone who asks about collective bargaining is fired and reported to the
police.
If this reminds you of South Africa's apartheid, it is for a reason:
Despotism is the same everywhere, and no rhetoric about "anti-imperialism''
can mask its deeds.
Mbeki should join Czech President Vaclav Havel and Mexican President Vicente
Fox when they say that sovereignty cannot be used to excuse human-rights
violations. Those living in freedom should not forget the men and women
suffering unspeakable repression in China, Burma, Sudan, Tibet and Cuba.
Years ago, many apartheid apologists argued that the United States had to
ignore Pretoria's repression because South African soldiers had died on the U.S.
side during World War II. It was wrong then, as it is now, to claim that
defending freedom in one place excuses supporting tyranny elsewhere.
Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba
in Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 