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Top United Nations
Human Rights Body votes 22-21 to condemn Cuba over its rights record
urges Cuba to reform.
"After the finishing of the voting a melee started in which an
unidentified member of the Cuban delegation physically assaulted Cuban
exile and advocate of Human Rights, Frank Calzón, Executive Director for
The Center for a Free Cuba, as reported by Silvia Iriondo, from MAR
(Mothers Against Repression) from Geneva by Radio Mambi, 710-AM in
Miami. The Cuban delegate punched Calzón twice in the face sending him
briefly unconscious to the floor. He was handcuffed and led away by
Swiss police".
The UN Human Rights Commission on Thursday censured Cuba's clampdown on
dissidents and urged it to accept a human rights probe.
Twenty-two countries in the 53-member assembly voted in favor of a
resolution brought by Honduras, Peru and Australia, and backed by the
United States, calling for Cuban cooperation with a United Nations
envoy, while 21 countries opposed the move.
As it happened last year, the resolution was approved by just one vote
-- 22 to 21, with 10 abstentions -- with a number of Cuba's Latin
American neighbors joining the criticism of the government of the
island's Marxist ruler, Fidel Castro, among them México, Peru and Costa
Rica. Argentina and Brazil abstained in the voting.
The mildly-worded resolution called on Cuba to "refrain from adopting
measures which could jeopardize fundamental rights" and deplored the
heavy prison terms imposed on political opponents and journalists
arrested last year but stopped short of demanding their immediate
release.
The Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights called on Cuba to guarantee
freedom of expression and religion and to begin a dialogue with Cuban
political groups and thinkers to develop democratic institutions and
civil liberties and also urged the Communist country to accept a visit
from a special U.N. investigator.
It also urged the Cuban government to cooperate with UN human rights
envoy Christine Chanet, who has criticized abuse in the country in
several reports, despite Havana's steadfast refusal to allow her into
the country. The motion, had prompted a heated diplomatic battle in
recent weeks as Washington and Havana tried to rally support from other
countries.
The motion, one of the most politically charged of the commission's
six-week annual session, was proposed by Honduras and also supported by
the European Union.
Both Washington and Havana had lobbied hard before the vote at the
53-member commission and a furious Cuba accused Honduras of acting on
the instructions of the U.S. government.
"We are outraged at the shameful role of the Honduran government,"
senior Cuban foreign ministry official Juan Antonio Fernández told the
commission.
The Cuban government has so far refused to allow the special U.N.
investigator, French magistrate Christine Chanet, who was appointed last
year, to travel to the island.
Chanet said in her first report in February that dozens of dissidents
were being held in alarming conditions, isolation cells or facilities
crammed with "common criminals."
But Cuba accused the commission of "double standards" and said that
instead of criticizing Havana it should be condemning Washington for
running a "concentration" camp at the Guantánamo naval base on Cuban
territory, where hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are
being held.
After the finishing of the voting a melee started in which an
unidentified member of the Cuban delegation physically assaulted Cuban
exile and advocate of Human Rights, Frank Calzón, Executive Director for
The Center for a Free Cuba, as reported by Silvia Iriondo, from MAR
(Mothers Against Repression) from Geneva by Radio Mambi, 710-AM in
Miami. The Cuban delegate punched Calzón twice in the face sending him
briefly unconscious to the floor. He was handcuffed and led away by
Swiss police.
Ambassador Kevin Edward Moley, Permanent Representative of the United
States of America to the United Nations and Other International
Organizations in Geneva, who was next to Calzón, furiously, said he was
pressing charges before the Swiss authorities.
Mari Simón, permanently accredited in Geneva said Calzón tried to
intervene in an ongoing discussion about affiches distributed by the
Cuban delegation depicting him as a CIA agent when the Cuban delegation
member punch him.
Cables from Reuters, Agence France Presse and other news agencies
contributed to this report.
Source: La Nueva Cuba Services
Geneva
Switzerland
La Nueva Cuba
April 15, 2004
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