Yahoo! August 30, 2000
U.S. Leaders Not Sent To Conference
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer.
UNITED NATIONS, 30 (AP) - More than 140 countries are sending top lawmakers to the first global gathering of parliamentary leaders. But the United States isn't sending anyone - and it's barred the speaker of Cuba's National Assembly from coming.
While the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which organized the conference, says all its member parliaments are democratically elected, human rights experts have questioned the democratic credentials of some participating countries - including Iraq, Congo, and Yugoslavia.
And the participation of some parliamentarians at the three-day conference, which starts Wednesday, has been challenged.
Protests were expected against the head of China's legislature, former premier Li Peng, who is the leader most closely associated with ordering soldiers to fire on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. And an exiled Iranian dissident group said Iran's delegation
includes an alleged terrorist linked to the assassination of an Iranian human rights representative in Geneva.
Despite these contentious issues, the Inter-Parliamentary Union is hoping the meeting will build a stronger relationship with the United Nations and give lawmakers who represent the peoples of the world a bigger voice in the international arena.
"We have come here with a full commitment and support to the United Nations,'' Najma Heptulla, deputy chairman of India's upper house and president of the IPU's policy-making Inter-Parliamentary Council, said Tuesday. "We want to stress that democracy is the only way for redressal of
people's problems.''
The Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments is one of several global meetings being held ahead of next week's Millennium Summit, when more than 150 world leaders will gather at the United Nations to examine the role of the 55-year-old world body in meeting the challenges of the
21st century.
In a draft declaration prepared for the conference, the speakers and presiding officers of parliaments urge all parliaments to assume increased responsibility in international relations and "make the voice of the peoples heard within the United Nations.''
While organizers tried to focus on the substance of the conference, the spotlight fell on the participants - and non-participants.
According to Heptulla, 141 countries are sending 412 lawmakers including 152 speakers and presiding officers of parliaments. More than 900 people are expected at the conference, she said.
But Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, won't be giving his scheduled speech.
The Clinton administration denied him a visa under a 1985 presidential proclamation that can deny entry if a visit is considered contrary to U.S. interests, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
"It's unfortunate because this is a conference of the presiding officers,'' Heptulla said, adding that the IPU steering committee was taking up the U.S. refusal.
Two Cuban assembly deputies are permitted to attend. But Cuban officials questioned why Alarcon was denied a visa under the 1985 proclamation while Iraq's Parliament Speaker Saadoun Hammadi was not.
As for the U.S. boycott of the conference, Heptulla refused to say whether U.S. lawmakers even responded to an invitation. She did confirm that the United States has not paid its dues, though it remains a member.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is not attending because he's going to Colombia with President Clinton and has campaign commitments, spokesman John Feehery said Tuesday. "It would be inappropriate to send someone other than the speaker because it was for heads of parliaments,'' he
added.
"We'll continue to impress on (Congression) that their participation would be good,'' Heptulla said. "We would like them to be full partners in democracy, and we are the representatives of the democracies of the world.''
That assertion, however, was called into question.
IPU Secretary General Anders Johnsson said the only two criteria for membership are whether a parliament can legislate and oversee the actions of the government.
"If they have that, they qualify as a potential member,'' he said. "We do not ask if it's a good or a bad parliament.''
Cuban Family Welcomes U.S. Protest
HAVANA, 29 (AP) - A Cuban family who has been waiting four years to emigrate to the United States said Tuesday they welcomed Washington's diplomatic protest against Cuba's alleged failure to allow all those with valid U.S. visas to leave.
The Cohen family said they were encouraged by the State Department's Monday letter of protest, which accused Cuba of putting up obstacles to legal immigration.
"We are very encouraged by the U.S. position, it gives us some hope,'' said Daisy Cohen, 57, who has been trying along with five other members of her extended family since 1996 to rejoin her son, Jose Cohen, in the United States.
The Cohens were granted U.S. visas in 1996 - two years after Jose, a former government intelligence officer, left the country in a raft - but they say the Cuban government has since refused to allow them to travel to the United States.
U.S. officials acknowledge that Cuba allows the vast majority of those granted U.S. visas to leave the country, but focused Monday's protest on 117 cases in which Cuba had not granted permission.
Some of those cases involve medical personnel, who by Cuban law are not permitted to emigrate until four years after filing an application; the Cuban government argues it has invested too much in their education to let them leave under normal rules.
Other cases, like that of the Cohens, involve the families of people the Cuban government considers dissidents linked to the exile community in Miami. While Jose has spoken publicly about his family's case in Miami, his wife, Lazara Brito, denies the family has strong political convictions.
The atmosphere of tension between the two countries mounted with Tuesday's announcement that the United States had denied a visa to the president of Cuba's National Assembly, preventing him from attending an international conference of parliamentarians in New York.
The United States denied the visa to Ricardo Alarcon, a top Cuban official, on the grounds his visit would be contrary to U.S. national interests. It was not immediately clear whether that decision was linked to Monday's diplomatic protest.
U.S. Denies Visa to Cuban Diplomat
By Barry Schweid, Ap Diplomatic Writer.
WASHINGTON, 29 (AP) - The Clinton administration has denied a visa to the president of Cuba's National Assembly, preventing him from attending an international conference of parliamentarians in New York, two U.S. officials said Tuesday.
But two Cuban assembly deputies will be permitted to attend the conference.
The Cuban denied a visa, Ricardo Alarcon, said the United States showed "contempt and lack of respect'' for the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
He wrote Anders Johnsson, secretary general of the conference, on Saturday asking for a review of the U.S. action.
Alarcon said last week in Havana that he submitted an application in July and was to have taken a flight Friday to attend the four-day meeting, which opens Wednesday.
Suspecting he would be denied the visa, Alarcon accused the U.S. government of "rudeness'' and interfering with the conference.
More than 140 countries are expected to send delegations, including many legislative leaders.
The visa was denied under a 1985 presidential proclamation that authorizes denying entry to the United States if a visit is considered contrary to U.S. interests, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
Alarcon's personal assistant, Alberto Gonzalez Rodriguez, also was denied a visa.
However, visas were approved for assembly deputies Ramon Pez Ferro and Ada Martinez. They are not senior Cuban officials and therefore were considered qualified for entry under the proclamation, one of the U.S. officials said.
A spokesman for Cuba's diplomatic office here, Roberto Garcia, said the United States was violating its international obligations in barring Alarcon.
A State Department spokesman, Philip Reeker, declined to identify which Cubans were denied visas and which were receiving them. He said he was bound by the "confidentiality'' of the visa process.
However, Reeker confirmed that "we have authorized issuance of visas to some Cuban officials who applied to travel to this Interparliamentary Union event'' and "determined not to issue visas to some people that had applied.''
In New York, Najma Heptulla, president of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, which is the overseeing body of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, called the U.S. decision to bar Alarcon unfortunate.
"This is a conference of presiding officers,'' she said.
Heptulla said the United States, meanwhile, had not paid its dues "and we are working on it.''
Cuba and the United States have limited diplomatic relations, but Cuban officials have been permitted to travel here to attend U.N. meetings in New York and to staff the small Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington.
The parliamentary group is not a U.N. organization and therefore the United States is not required by agreements with the United Nations to issue visas to individuals attending the group's events in News York, the official said.
Coincidentally, Alarcon is scheduled to be the host of a formal session of the parliamentary union in Havana in April.
Only Monday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright accused Cuba of arbitrarily denying exit permits to Cubans with U.S. visas, thereby separating families and forcing would-be immigrants to attempt high-risk escapes by boat.
In a statement, Albright said Cuba's actions violated agreements with the United States, international standards and "fundamental human decency.''
She said she ordered a formal protest lodged with Cuba's diplomatic office in Washington. "The government of Cuba is increasingly obstructing the safe, legal and orderly migration of individuals from Cuba,'' Albright said.
Already-bumpy relations with Cuba declined amid a protracted and touchy U.S. dispute with Cuban-Americans last spring over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
The boy was spirited from Cuba by his mother, who died at sea, and taken home by his father after a lengthy legal battle with emigre relatives in Florida. The Cuban government cited the incident in June when it indefinitely suspended immigration negotiations with the United States.
Unlike Elian and his mother, the 117 Cubans cited in the U.S. complaint had visas to go to the United States but were prevented from leaving Cuba.
In 16 cases, the denials separated families, while in 17 cases, physicians and other professionals were blocked from leaving, Reeker said.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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