Central Europe
Online, March 1, 2001.
PRAGUE, Mar 1, 2001 -- (CTK - Czech News Agency) Poland will not take part
this year in the preparation, together with the Czech Republic, of a resolution
condemning human rights violations in Cuba, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes writes
today.
Poles were angered by the fact that the Czech Foreign Ministry has
additionally included in a draft resolution a formulation clearly denouncing
economic sanctions against Cuba, without consulting Warsaw on the matter, the
paper says.
"I don't have official information on Poland's position but there are
certain signals indicating that Poland is considering not to take part (in the
preparation of the resolution). If this happens it would weaken our negotiating
positions," Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Palous told Mlada fronta Dnes.
According to several independent sources, Poles informed the Czech side on
their decision last Friday and Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski
confirmed it to his Czech counterpart Jan Kavan in Brussels at the beginning of
this week. Chairman of the Senate foreign committee Michael Zantovsky (Civic
Democratic Alliance, ODA) said on Monday, citing diplomatic sources, that the
Czech Republic proposes in the draft resolution to distance itself from economic
sanctions against the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro.
The opposition right-wing Quad Coalition, of which the ODA is a member, has
asked Kavan not to take further steps until a consensus of Czech democratic
political parties on the issue is achieved. According to Zantovsky, the Foreign
Ministry sent the text of the draft resolution to several other countries before
consulting Poland on it.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ales Pospisil told CTK that this year's
resolution should point to the fact that general economic sanctions are
counter-productive.
"The Czech foreign policy has not changed in this respect because we
declared absolutely clearly in 1999 and in 2000 that we consider general
economic sanctions counter-productive. Unfortunately, we have not managed to
have this view reflected in the previous resolutions on Cuba. We firmly believe
that there is a bigger chance of pushing this view through this year, especially
thanks to cooperation with the European Union," Pospisil said.
"It is hardly possible to abandon this condition now even if is was
hypothetically to lower the possibility of having a resolution in such a wording
approved," he added.
((c) 2001 CTK - Czech News Agency)
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