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U.N. Human Rights
commission approves resolution against Fidel Castro regimen.
"The public vote, ... at the annual session of the 53-state U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, was 21 in favor to 17 against, with 15
abstentions.
The United Nations top human rights body on Thursday backed a call by
the United States to keep pressure on Cuba by renewing the mandate of a
special investigator into alleged abuse there.
The public vote, one of the most politically charged at the annual
session of the 53-state U.N. Commission on Human Rights, was 21 in favor
to 17 against, with 15 abstentions.
The European Union, which has been seeking to improve ties with Havana
after a two-year rift over the jailing of dissidents, co-sponsored the
U.S. resolution.
"The Cuban government has failed to take the steps that would guarantee
its own people the most basic human rights," said U.S. delegation member
Lino Piedra.
"Instead they have persisted in imposing a totalitarian state that
deprives the people of the right of expressing dissent without incurring
a decades-long prison sentence," he said.
But Cuban delegate Juan Antonio Fernandez blasted the resolution as
"hypocrisy," adding decisions of the Geneva-based Commission amounted to
a "farce."
Attacking Cuba at the commission was a "sick obsession of successive
U.S. administrations," he added.
The resolution called on Cuba to cooperate with the special U.N. envoy,
French magistrate Christine Chanet, who recently urged the Communist
state to free all political dissidents, grant freedom of expression and
lift restrictions on travel.
Havana has yet to allow the official, first appointed in 2003, to visit
the Caribbean island state where leader Fidel Castro has governed since
1959.
Of the 12 Latin American states on the commission, only Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico voted in favor of the resolution. With
the exception of Cuba, which opposed it, the others abstained.
Source:
La Nueva Cuba
Reuters, Ginebra, Suiza
Abril 14, 2005
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