U.N. Keeps Pressure on Cuba Over Human Rights

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Thu April 17, 2003 02:15 PM ET By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' top human rights body kept up the pressure on Cuba over its rights record on Thursday by urging the Communist state to accept a visit by a U.N. envoy to probe alleged abuses.

But the 53-state Human Rights Commission spurned a tougher resolution from Costa Rica, backed by Washington and the European Union, demanding freedom for some 75 dissidents recently handed lengthy jail terms on the Caribbean island.

Presented by four Latin American countries -- Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Uruguay -- the approved text merely called on Cuba to accept a commission decision taken last year that the envoy should visit.

Cuba has so far refused to let French magistrate Christine Chanet into the country because it says the U.N. should focus instead on the U.S. Guantanamo naval base, where Washington is holding captives whom it suspects of terrorism.

Mexico, one of 11 countries on the commission to back the call for the envoy's visit, said the "procedural" measure aimed only at winning cooperation from Cuba, where Marxist leader Fidel Castro has run a one-party state for more than 40 years.

"The Mexican vote will be consistent with its principles not to condemn or to criticize Cuba," said Mariclaire Acosta, Mexico's Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Democracy.

But Cuba, which sees the vote as interference in its domestic affairs, lashed out at the four Latin American countries behind the resolution, calling them "disgusting lackies" who had bowed to "shameful" pressure from Washington.

"The sole object has been to concoct a pretext to justify the genocidal blockade and policies of aggression that the United States has practiced for 40 years," ambassador Jorge Ivan Mora Godoy told the commission ahead of the vote.

POLITICALLY CHARGED

Votes on Cuba are traditionally among the most politically charged at the annual meetings of the 53-state commission, with Latin American countries, even those most closely aligned with Washington, feeling that they have to tread carefully.

Argentina and Brazil both abstained, while Venezuela joined Cuba in voting against the motion. It was approved by 24 votes to 20, with nine abstentions.

Thursday's decision came only after the Costa Rican amendment condemning the recent jailing of dissidents for up to 28 years, and another draft presented by Cuba attacking the U.S. economic embargo, were both defeated.

The move by Costa Rica caught its U.S. and EU allies off guard and forced a 24-hour delay in the vote on Cuba, which had initially been set for Wednesday.

European diplomats, who had previously lobbied hard and unsuccessfully with Latin American countries for a stronger text, feared that the late maneuver by Costa Rica could have pushed more votes into the Cuban camp on the main resolution.

But in the end the margin was wider than last year, when Cuba lost by just two votes.

U.S. ambassador Kevin Moley welcomed the vote but said he would have preferred a more critical resolution to reflect "the egregious violations of human rights that have taken place since this commission began."

He was referring to both the jailing of the dissidents and last week's execution of three men who hijacked a Havana ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States.

A number of countries, including Russia and China, backed Cuba's demand that the commission also condemn the U.S. economic embargo as a human rights violation, saying such an amendment would add "balance" to the resolution.