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Yahoo! March 27, 2002. By Naomi Koppel, Associated Press
Writer.
GENEVA - Any Latin American country that gives in to U.S. pressure to
sponsor a resolution condemning Cuba's human rights record will be a "Judas,"
the Cuban foreign minister said Tuesday.
Felipe Perez Roque told the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission that any
country that made such a move would be acting out of lack of courage to stand up
to Washington rather than real concern about the human rights situation in Cuba.
"The U.S. government, including its highest authorities, is making
frantic efforts in Latin America, using a lot of stick and a little carrot, to
get one or several countries in our region to agree to play that infamous role,"
Perez Roque said.
"We trust that no Judas will now appear on the Latin American scene."
The Czech Republic has sponsored resolutions against Cuba at the commission
for the past two years, but this year it has decided not to do so. So far, no
other country has come forward.
The United States, which in the past brought the motion itself, has said it
will not do so this year as it was not re-elected to the commission for this
year's session. However, diplomats say it has been actively seeking another
country to sponsor the resolution.
There was no immediate reaction to Perez Roque's speech from the U.S.
delegation, but Washington has made it clear that it considers the human rights
situation in Cuba under President Fidel Castro to be a matter of high concern.
State Department spokesman Phil Reeker said Cuba was "the only country
in the hemisphere that cannot be considered part of the democratic family."
Perez Roque said the commission — which is in the second week of its
annual six-week session — needs to be changed. He pointed out that last
year the meeting criticized the human rights situation in 18 countries, but none
of them was an industrialized nation.
He said the United States should be criticized for — among other things
— starting wars; planning to use nuclear weapons; failing to sign the Kyoto
Protocol on global warming ; imposing "arbitrary" tariffs on steel
imports; upholding rules that deny AIDS patients access to drugs; and
condemning corruption in other countries even as the scandal surrounding Enron
Corp. rages at home.
"Why do we not demand that it cease to look for the mote in its
neighbor's eye when it cannot see the beam in its own?" Perez Roque asked.
The United States also is the regular sponsor of a resolution criticizing
human rights in China — a resolution that is defeated every year. No
country has yet come forward to spearhead that resolution this year.
The European Union , which points to the situation in the Russian republic
of Chechnya as its highest concern, has said it would consider supporting a
resolution on China, but will not sponsor one itself. | 
