Censure uncertain in U.N. vote on Cuba's human rights record

By Vanessa Bauza <a href=www.sun-sentinel.com<South Florida SUN sentinel HAVANA BUREAU Posted April 17 2003

HAVANA -- At a time when Cuba has meted out severe sentences for prominent government critics and almost dismantled a growing opposition movement, it is unclear whether Fidel Castro's government will be censured by the United Nations Human Rights Commission -- as it has been for nearly a decade -- when that body votes today on the island's human rights record.

The vote, often decided by the narrowest of margins, was scheduled for Wednesday. However, the 53-member commission postponed it after several last-minute amendments were introduced, including one urging the immediate release of 75 dissidents who were recently sentenced to as much as 28 years in jail on charges they worked with U.S diplomats to undermine Castro's government.

Costa Rican envoy Manuel Gonzalez Sanz said his country introduced the amendment as a result of "serious events … which oblige us to make a more vehement appeal to Cuba with a view to achieving greater respect for human rights."

However, some diplomats and human rights activists said the amendment's harsher tone may jeopardize approval of the controversial resolution, which previously had sought only for Cuba to accept a visit from a U.N. rights monitor.

In an unexpected turn of the tables, Cuba introduced two amendments of its own: one condemning the U.S. economic embargo as a human rights violation against the Cuban people, the other calling for the high commissioner on human rights to investigate terrorist acts planned from the United States against Cuba.

Subhed can move

Rights activists and diplomats said it was far from certain that the Costa Rican resolution would be passed by the commission. For some Latin American countries with strong leftist constituencies, censuring Cuba is as much an internal policy decision as an international declaration, said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies.

"I don't know that it's going to pass," Suchlicki said. "Argentina is looking at an election, Venezuela supports Cuba, and Brazil is probably going to abstain. The key factor is how countries consider … the power of the left in their country and the elements that support Cuba. In many of these countries, Cuba has a following."

Anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq also has affected the stance of some members. Argentina's transitional president, Eduardo Duhalde, announcing in Buenos Aires that his country would abstain on the Cuba vote, said his delegation "is not going to condemn Cuba, a small country under embargo.

"We consider the vote very inopportune, given this unilateral war that has violated human rights," Duhalde said.

To some Cuban dissidents, the wording of the U.N. human rights resolution was not as important as simply having an international body scrutinize Cuba's rights record.

"A resolution in Geneva, even if it's light, always signifies moral support [for human rights]" said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which has tracked the dissident crackdown. "The Cuban government insists that it cooperates with the United Nations; one way of proving that is to accept a United Nations monitor."

Subhed can move

During testimony on Capitol Hill at a hearing of the House Committee on International Relations, which is looking into the recent dissident crackdown in Cuba, some State Department officials said a weaker resolution is better than no resolution.

"We will try to pursue as strong a language as we can, but we also want to make sure we have a victory," said Kim Holmes, assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Holmes said a victory is needed to send a message to people in Cuba that the world is watching developments on the island.

The New York Times reported that the President Bush was likely to make a public statement soon about the crackdown, and that the administration is considering a series of steps to punish the Cuban government. Among the more drastic are the possibility of cutting off cash payments to relatives in Cuba -- a mainstay for millions of Cubans -- or halting direct flights to the island, officials said.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has censured Cuba almost every year. . Last year's resolution, presented by several Latin American countries, was approved by 23 countries and rejected by 21 countries. Cuba accuses the United States of tainting the vote with aggressive lobbying.

Staff Writer Rafael Lorente contributed to this report, which was supplemented by Sun-Sentinel wire services.

Vanessa Bauza can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com