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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Castro warned Hussein about 'mistakes'
Fidel Castro says he tried to persuade
Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait in the 1990s,
but adds that this year's U.S.-led war imposed
'law of the jungle.'
By Alexandra Olson, Associated
Press. The Miami Herald. Wed, Dec. 24, 2003.
CARACAS - Cuban leader Fidel Castro said
he repeatedly warned Saddam Hussein to leave
Kuwait after the 1990 invasion but that
the former Iraqi dictator's ''mistakes''
did not justify the U.S.-led war this year.
Castro, who was in Venezuela to meet with
leftist President Hugo Chávez, said
he tried on numerous occasions to persuade
Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, warning
the Iraqi leader that Arab nations, in addition
to Western countries, would turn against
him.
Castro also called Hussein's invasion of
Iran ''absolutely unjust,'' during an interview
late Monday with Venezuela's state-run television
station, Venezolana de Television.
''The other big mistake that never should
have been made was the occupation of Kuwait,''
he added, wearing his olive-green fatigues
for the interview on Venezuela's La Orchila
island.
''We made great efforts [to persuade Hussein]
to rectify,'' he said.
TWO LETTERS
Castro said he sent two letters to Hussein
to try to ''persuade him that it was a mistake
and he should withdraw'' from Kuwait "or
there would be a war with a coalition [of]
Arabs, NATO, Muslims, everyone, because
Kuwait was a country recognized by the United
Nations.''
In the 1980s, Hussein waged an eight-year
war against Iran that killed hundreds of
soldiers on both sides. He invaded Kuwait
in 1990, but a U.S-led coalition drove his
army out.
But Castro said the American-led preemptive
strike this year had imposed an international
"law of the jungle.''
''What protection is there for medium,
small countries?'' asked the communist leader,
who has accused the United States of seeking
a pretext to invade Cuba. "They haven't
even found weapons of mass destruction.''
Chávez sat in on the interview,
hugging and thanking Castro at the end.
JOINT INITIATIVES
In a visit surrounded by secrecy, Chávez
and Castro discussed joint initiatives to
provide healthcare and education for the
poor.
Until the interview, there had been no
official confirmation of where the two leaders
met.
''The encounter was very lovely. We ate
Cuban food for lunch and had a Venezuelan
breakfast,'' Chávez said. "There
wasn't an important issue we didn't touch.''
It was Castro's fourth visit to Venezuela
since Chávez took office in 1999.
Previous visits between Chávez and
Castro had been more public, with the two
leaders playing baseball together, hosting
a talk show and celebrating birthdays.
Pilot gets 7 years for dropping anticommunist
leaflets in Vietnam
Posted on Fri, Dec. 26,
2003.
RAYONG, Thailand - (AP) -- A Vietnamese-American
pilot was sentenced Thursday to seven years
and four months in jail for hijacking a
small plane in Thailand and flying illegally
over Vietnam to scatter anticommunist leaflets.
Ly Tong, a former bomber pilot in South
Vietnam's air force who has staged similar
stunts in Asia and in Cuba, was originally
sentenced to 11 years but Judge Pairath
Noonpradej of the Rayong Provincial Court
reduced the punishment to reward his cooperation
in the trial.
Ly Tong was arrested in November 2000 after
he returned from his audacious mission to
drop the leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City,
just before then-President Bill Clinton's
visit to Vietnam.
He claimed he did not hijack the plane
but bribed the pilot with $10,000 to turn
over control of the plane and help him dump
the leaflets.
The time Ly Tong spent in detention since
Nov. 17, 2000 will be deducted from his
jail term, which means he will serve only
about four years, said the prosecutor.
Ly Tong, 55, said he will not appeal but
will apply for transfer to a U.S. jail to
serve the remainder of his sentence under
a U.S.-Thai agreement.
''I am frustrated but I don't care anymore.
All I needed was a verdict so I can get
a transfer to USA,'' Ly Tong told reporters.
Ly Tong, branded by Vietnam's government
as a ''dangerous international terrorist,''
has many admirers among Vietnamese who fled
communist rule in their country.
During the final days of the Vietnam War,
Ly was captured by North Vietnamese troops
after his plane was shot down. He escaped
a prison camp in 1980 and was granted asylum
in the United States.
In 1992, he wrested control of a Vietnam
Airlines jetliner that took off from Bangkok,
Thailand, and forced the crew to fly him
over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly dumped 50,000
leaflets before jumping out a cockpit window
and parachuting into the city. He was arrested
and was sentenced in 1993 to 20 years in
prison.
After serving six years, he was freed.
In January 2000, he rented a plane in Miami
and flew over Havana, showering Cuba's capital
with leaflets calling for the ouster of
President Fidel Castro.
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