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Cuba hails U.S. absence from U.N. rights
panel
GENEVA, Switzerland, 20 (AP) -- Cuba on
Tuesday welcomed the opening of the new
U.N. Human Rights Council, praising its
own election as a founding member of the
47-nation body and the exclusion of the
United States, which declined to stand as
a candidate.
Cuba -- which has been criticized by the
United States and rights groups for its
record -- said its victory in the May election
was a reward for its humanitarian work,
including the contributions of its doctors
in 70 other countries and cost-free surgery
by Cuban eye specialists for patients from
elsewhere in the Caribbean and Latin America.
U.S. officials in Geneva said they were
not immediately able to comment.
"Today is a particularly symbolic
day. Cuba is a founding member of the Human
Rights Council, and the United States is
not," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe
Perez Roque said. "The absence of the
United States is the defeat of lies; it
is the moral punishment for the haughtiness
of an empire.
"The election entailed a demanding
assessment. Each one got what they deserved,"
Perez Roque added.
The first meeting of the council, which
replaces the discredited Human Rights Commission,
runs through June 30.
The United States opposed the creation
of the council, saying it didn't do enough
to improve upon the commission, and it declined
to run for a seat. However, Washington has
promised to work for the council's success.
The election of council members came at
a time when the United States was conducting
"an unjust and illegal" war in
Iraq, which was "concocted to steal
a country's oil and give away sumptuous
contracts to a group of cronies of the president,"
the Cuban foreign minister said.
Human rights groups say they are still
concerned about the makeup of the new council.
Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won
seats despite their poor human rights records,
although others -- notably Iran -- were
defeated.
Many countries accused of rights violations
who had been members of the old commission
did not even seek seats on the council,
including Sudan, Zimbabwe, Libya, Congo,
Syria, Vietnam, Nepal, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Russia -- criticized for its actions in
Chechnya but never condemned by the now-defunct
commission -- said that no country is absolutely
free of human rights violations.
"Even now, every day we hear about
the violations of human rights in this or
that country, and sometimes those violations
are of a gross and systematic nature,"
said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander
Yakovenko, who made no mention of Chechnya
in his speech to the council Tuesday.
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi
said his country is making greater efforts
to promote social justice and protect disadvantaged
groups.
"China is the world's largest developing
country. It faces numerous problems left
over from the past and mounting pressure
posed by a vast population, shortage of
resources and environmental degradation,"
Yang said. "This means that progress
in human rights and other areas in China
will be a long-term endeavor."
Turki al-Sudairy, Saudi Arabia's minister
for human rights, said his country was eager
to become a member of the council because
of its "sincere and emphatic desire
to promote and protect human rights."
Saudi Arabia bases its laws and traditions
on Islamic Sharia law, which "treats
all persons equally and advocates tolerance
and harmony among all mankind," Al-Sudairy
told the council.
"My country has made considerable
progress in its endeavors to promote and
protect human rights through the adoption
of measures and procedures consistent with
the particularities and requirements of
society rather than with theories and concepts
imposed on it from abroad," he said.
Cuba's Alarcon denies 24 imprisonments
By Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated
Press Writer, June 14, 2006.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The head of Cuba's
parliament denied his country had imprisoned
more than two dozen journalists because
they spoke out against his government in
a rare interview that was broadcast Wednesday
at a Hispanic media convention.
"Those reports are fairly exaggerated,"
said Speaker Ricardo Alarcon, saying those
who were imprisoned were not independent
journalists but were agents of the United
States.
He also blamed the U.S. embargo for the
lack of Internet access in his communist
country and denied reports that President
Fidel Castro, 80, suffered from a disease
such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.
"I would say that Fidel Castro is
very, very strong and healthy. More than
you would imagine," Alarcon said. "He
doesn't have any of those diseases that
are from time to time attributed to him."
About 2,000 people listened to him by satellite
broadcast at the 24th annual National Association
of Hispanic Journalist Convention.
Alarcon waved a photocopy of what he said
were declassified U.S. Department of State
documents showing the CIA had paid journalists
to promote anti-Cuban government propaganda
for nearly five decades.
Outside the convention, more than a dozen
women dressed in black protested Alarcon's
interview with Colombia University journalism
professor and New York Times contributor
Mirta Ojito, herself a Cuban exile.
Blanca Rosales, 57, held a poster of 24
journalists imprisoned in Cuba, including
her son, Normando Hernandez. He has served
three years of a 25-year sentence for writing
articles critical of the Cuban government,
she said.
"I want to know why (Alarcon) was
given an opportunity to speak instead of
independent journalists who can give the
point of view of those who are suffering,"
she said. "What crime have they committed
except to speak the truth, except to practice
their profession as journalists?"
The choice of interviewing Alarcon, a former
United Nations ambassador who has been by
Castro's side for more than 40 years, received
criticism in South Florida, home to the
largest community of Cuban exiles in the
U.S.
Ojito, who was a teenager when she was
part of the 1980 Mariel boatlift that brought
thousands of Cubans to the United States,
quickly dispensed with the small-talk with
Alarcon during the convention's keynote
event.
Alarcon took issue with Ojito's statement
that more Cubans than ever were fleeing
the island for the U.S., including many
of Cuba's most talented natives.
Talented people also move from Mexico,
he said, adding that many others would like
to come to the U.S. but are unable to get
visas.
"The U.S. doesn't offer the same policy
to millions of Latin Americans who would
like to do the same," he said.
While the speaker defended the Cuban government
he was less sure of what would happen if
the U.S. lifted its 46-year embargo.
"I cannot imagine how the situation
would be," he said.
Cuban Cigar Company Will Continue Fight
for COHIBA Trademark in U.S.
HAVANA, June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite
a setback in the U.S. Supreme Court, CUBATABACO,
the Cuban cigar company, announced today
that it will continue to fight for the rights
to the COHIBA trademark in the United States.
COHIBA is Cuba's most renowned cigar brand,
but cannot be sold in the U.S. because of
the U.S. economic, commercial and financial
blockade against Cuba.
Cubatabaco made its announcement in response
to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 19, 2006
order denying review of a lower court ruling
that, in the absence of specific U.S. government
permission, the U.S. blockade bars Cubatabaco
from obtaining judicial protection of its
COHIBA trademark in the United States. Cubatabaco
will now pursue its pending application
for U.S. government permission from the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control, which administers the U.S.
blockade.
In its amicus curiae brief filed in the
Supreme Court, the United States specifically
acknowledged that Cubatabaco could pursue
this option. If granted, U.S. government
permission would allow Cubatabaco to seek
judicial protection for its COHIBA trademark
despite the blockade.
Cubatabaco is attempting to stop General
Cigar Co., Inc., a major U.S. cigar company,
from using the COHIBA trademark for cigars
in the U.S. In April 2004, Judge Robert
W. Sweet, of the United States District
Court in New York, issued a judgment in
Cubatabaco's favor, after finding that that
the Cuban COHIBA was "famous"
among U.S. consumers before General Cigar
began using the trademark. Without reaching
the merits of Judge Sweet's ruling, the
court of appeals in New York vacated the
district court judgment on the ground that
a U.S. government license was needed to
grant relief to Cubatabaco.
In seeking U.S. government permission,
Cubatabaco will emphasize the United States'
international obligations to protect "well-known"
trademarks, such as COHIBA, under the Paris
Convention for the Protection of Industrial
Property, a multilateral treaty, and TRIPs,
a WTO agreement. Cubatabaco will also emphasize
reciprocity: Cuba has permitted hundreds
of U.S. companies to register and maintain
over 5,000 trademarks in Cuba.
Cuba's world-famous COHIBA is generally
considered Cuba's finest cigar, and is made
entirely of Cuban-grown tobacco. The Cuban
COHIBA consistently attains the highest
ratings in U.S. cigar publications, ranking
well ahead of General Cigar's Cohiba-labeled
Dominican cigar.
The Cuban COHIBA always bears the famous
Cuban COHIBA trade dress, which Cubatabaco
indisputably owns in the United States.
Cubatabaco will vigorously defend against
any infringement of its COHIBA trade dress.
General Cigar has no right to use the Cuban
COHIBA trade dress and has no access to
genuine Cuban tobacco, which is responsible
for the unparalleled quality of the authentic
Cuban COHIBA.
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