Business Day. March
30, 2001.
HAVANA Straying onto turf avoided by President Thabo Mbeki, Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has vigorously defended Cuba's human rights record, as
well as its political system which the US classifies as "totalitarian".
At the close of Mbeki's three-day state visit to Cuba, Dlamini-Zuma asked: "Would
you rather be lying in the gutter with a vote, or a poor person in Cuba?"
SA's ties with Cuba, strengthened by a series of cooperation agreements this
week were based on "shared values", Dlamini-Zuma said. The texts of
the agreements were not released.
Human Rights Watch, in its latest report on Cuba, found that "hundreds
of peaceful opponents of the government remained behind bars (last year), and
many more were subjected to short-term detentions, house arrests, surveillance,
arbitrary searches, evictions, travel restrictions, politically-motivated
dismissals from employment, threats and other forms of harassment".
Dlamini-Zuma asked: "Who is Human Rights Watch?"
When it was put to her that the group and others, such as Amnesty
International, which shared its assessment of Cuba, helped focus condemnation on
apartheid, she replied: "They were not our supporters."
Earlier, Mbeki refused to be pinned down on how SA would vote on a
resolution before the UN Human Rights Commission condemning Cuba's practices.
Dlamini-Zuma said she expected SA would vote against it.
She urged reporters to ask the Cuban government about "how they make
their laws you'd be amazed by how democratic it is." A good way to judge if
a country cared for its people, she said, was to see how it treated its children
and mentally ill. In both respects, Cuba was exemplary, she argued, saying that
she had visited a mental hospital in Havana, and was impressed by the use of
sports and music therapy instead of drugs.
Some of Mbeki's advisers had hoped to get through the visit without any
on-the-record comments on the human rights situation, citing continued
uncertainty about the Africa policy of the US administration and the degree to
which President George Bush might feel indebted to the anti-Castro lobby in
Florida.
Dlamini-Zuma was adamant, however, that ties with Cuba, based on Castro's
support "during difficult times", would not in any way be influenced
by the US, and she did not intend to discuss the visit with US Secretary of
State Colin Powell when they meet next month.
Asked how SA would respond if the US took action under the Helms-Burton Act
which allows for penalties against foreign companies operating on land
confiscated by the Castro regime against SA companies operating in Cuba, she
said: "We will cross that bridge when we come to it."
Meanwhile, Sapa reports that Cuba expressed support for SA's fight for less
expensive AIDS treatments. A joint statement stressed the importance of low-cost
treatment for AIDS sufferers and endorsed SA's landmark court battle with 39
large drug companies to facilitate access to cheap medicine.
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