By Harold Olmos. Associated Press Writer. Posted at 10:57
a.m. EDT Thursday, April 12, 2001.
Chinese president heads to Cuba, silent on crew's release
BRASILIA, Brazil -- (AP) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin headed for Cuba on
today, ending a 19-hour Brazilian visit that turned suddenly low-key after his
country released the 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane.
Jiang left the Brasilia Air Base this morning for Havana, the fifth stop on
a six-country Latin American swing.
Jiang made no comment on the end of the diplomatic standoff between his
country and the United States. The Chinese embassy in Brasilia had said
Wednesday that he would speak at the Air Base on his arrival from Montevideo,
Uruguay. But Jiang merely smiled, greeted Brazilian and Chinese officials and
left in a motorcade for his hotel.
The embassy released a communique about his visit that said nothing about
the plane incident, and Jiang did not mention it in his speech at a state dinner
offered by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Still, China's state-run Xinhua news agency later reported Jiang as saying,
while still in Uruguay, that, "the incident has not been fully settled.''
"We hope that the U.S. side will adopt a serious attitude toward
China's standpoint on the incident and handle it properly,'' Jiang was quoted as
saying.
Diplomatic sources said that Cardoso had received a telephone call late
Tuesday from President George W. Bush asking him to "transmit U.S.
concerns'' to Jiang over the dangers the standoff represented for relations
between Washington and Beijing.
Cardoso also received a letter from Washington on Monday with a similar
request, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
China on Wednesday released the American crew, held on Hainan island in
southern China, but said it would hold the plane pending further talks. The end
to the stalemate came after the Bush administration sent China a letter saying
the United States is "very sorry'' for the plane's unauthorized landing
last Sunday and the death of a Chinese pilot.
During the bilateral meeting, China announced it would buy 40 ERJ145
regional jets from Empresa Aeronautica Brasileira, or Embraer, in a deal worth
dlrs 1.2 billion, diplomats said. Brazil is China's largest trading partner in
Latin America, with trade topping dlrs 2.3 billion last year.
At dinner, Jiang said he would work for "a progressive strengthening of
Sino-Brazilian relations that will favor not only both countries but also other
developing nations.''
Cardoso responded by saying China's joining the World Trade Organization was
"a benefit for the world economy and a significant gain for the defense of
developing nations' interests in that organization.''
During his travels in South America, Jiang has only spoken twice about the
standoff. On Tuesday, he said China's position was "sufficiently clear''
and appeared to stand by earlier demands that the United States apologize.
Earlier, in Santiago, Chile, he called for the Bush administration to
apologize and accept responsibility for the collision.
Jiang opened the 12-day trip in Chile last Thursday. From Cuba he heads for
Venezuela, the last stop on his tour.
Miami lawmakers press for censure of Cuba by U.N. group
By Carol Rosenberg . crosenberg@herald.com. Published
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Miami's Cuban-American members of Congress returned home Tuesday from a
48-hour campaign blitz of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, and
declared themselves guardedly optimistic that a Czech-sponsored censure of Cuba
could pass next week.
A draft resolution circulating in Geneva on Thursday contained a
straightforward condemnation of the Cuban regime and called for "political
pluralism,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Absent from the language, according to fellow Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart,
was any parallel complaint about the U.S. embargo of Cuba, which had been
considered.
This is the first year that the Cuban-American members of Congress went to
Geneva to join the annual duel with Cuban island diplomats over the resolution.
On one side, exiles, U.S. officials and human rights groups advocate tough
language to deliver a public relations blow against the Fidel Castro government.
On the other side, the Cuban government tries to rally support among Non-Aligned
Movement nations to condemn the U.S. embargo.
In the past, the commission sent representatives to Washington for field
inquiries.
But this time, the two Miami members met delegates from 30 of the 53-nation
member delegations, and "we were very happy with the meetings,''
Ros-Lehtinen said.
U.S. officials arranged the meetings.
The commission could vote on a Cuba resolution April 19 after a Holy Week
break.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque told the commission last
month that there were "no human rights abuses in Cuba.''
Tuesday, Ros-Lehtinen said the draft language "points out the hypocrisy
of the nation of Cuba, the regime of Cuba,'' while underscoring that Cubans
should be allowed free and open contact with outsiders.
Díaz-Balart also praised the commitment of the Czech and Polish
delegations toward winning censure of Cuba. During the 24-day detention in Cuba
of two Czech activists for meeting with dissidents in January, some
Cuba-watchers had wondered whether their release was won with a
behind-the-scenes promise of less Czech fervor in Geneva.
But Díaz-Balart said he was unable to detect "any diminution of
intensity'' in the Czechs' championing of the resolution -- a role they have
played for years because of their moral authority as a former East Bloc country
that had a smooth transition to democracy.
"If that was Castro's intent, I think it completely backfired,'' he
said.
Since 1990, the U.N. human rights panel has condemned Cuba 10 times. It
rejected a U.S. motion in 1998, however.
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