Radio Havana Cuba Jun 11

http://www.radiohc.cu/homeing.htm

Cuba Denounces as "Hypocrisy" and "Cowardice" European Union Punitive
Measures Against Havana

Havana, June 11 (RHC) - Cuba has denounced as "hypocrisy" and "cowardice"
the punitive measures against Havana announced last week by the European
Union. In a televised press conference Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Pérez Roque said the EU has once again decided to curry favor to the
United States government over the issue of its policy towards Cuba -
demonstrating its contrition and repentance over the differences that arose
regarding the war in Iraq. The punitive measures, said the foreign minister,
are all the more noticeable because of Europe's proverbial wisdom about
keeping respectfully silent when it suits it and even in being a tolerant
bystander to behavior and acts far worse than those of which Cuba is now
being groundlessly accused.

He pointed, as just one example, to the EU's silence over the US army's
crimes against the Iraqi civilian population. In reference to EU
condemnation of the death penalty in Cuba - taking note of the extraordinary
circumstances in which Havana was obliged to take such an energetic measure
against three armed hijackers with criminal records who threatened to kill
hostages, including European tourists - Pérez Roque said that Cuba has never
seen the European Union spearhead a motion in the Human Rights Commission
denouncing the United States for inflicting the death penalty on minors, the
mentally ill and foreigners who were denied their right to meet with their
consuls.

Regarding the EU appeal concerning the treatment of persons who have been
incarcerated in Cuba for pro-US subversive activities, the foreign minister
said the European Union has not issued one word of censure about the
hundreds of prisoners - some of whom are Europeans - who the United States
is holding, in violation of the most basic human rights norms, in the naval
base in Guantánamo which is forced on Cuba against its will. The European
Union, he continued, has never said a word about those locked up in US
prisons following the September 11 attacks who were deprived of their most
basic legal safeguards.

The Cuban foreign minister said that the EU's decision to join in with
Washington's aggressive policy against Cuba has been welcomed with great joy
and loud applause not only by the US government, but also by the mercenaries
who are still working for the US government inside Cuba and by the
spokespersons for the Miami terrorist groups. Pérez Roque said that the EU's
decision to begin inviting so-called "dissidents" to their embassies in
Havana will convert those diplomatic installations into the hired hands in
the US Interests Section's subversive efforts - something that up until now
only the Spanish embassy has done openly.

He said Cuba knows that the Spanish government has been funding the
mercenary groups that Washington is trying to organize on the island, and
also pointed to the recent anti-Cuba policies of Italy's rightwing Silvio
Berlusconi government. Pérez Roque noted that Italy has taken a unilateral
decision to suspend development cooperation with Cuba worth close to 40
million Euros that will affect aid credits for the improvement of Cuban
irrigation systems and increase food production, the repair of homes,
schools, drinking water, electricity and sewage systems, as well as the
enhancement of services for the physically impaired and senior citizens,
among other projects. He said this is the highly strange way in which the
Italian government is preparing to defend the human rights of the Cuban
people.

Cuba's top diplomat said that the Ministry of Foreign relations reminds the
European Union that Cuba is a sovereign country that won its full
independence as the result of a long and painful process that included more
than 50 years of struggle against a corrupt neo-colonial society which
established itself in Cuba after the shameful agreements in which Spain
ceded Cuba to the United States behind the backs of Cuban patriots. In
related news, Cuba's mass organizations have called Cubans into the streets
Thursday morning to protest in front of the embassies in Havana of Spain and
Italy - the two European countries most actively supporting Washington's
anti-Cuba escalation.

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U.S. Secretary of State's Declarations on Cuba Meet Stiff Opposition

Santiago de Chile, June 11 (RHC)-- The statements made by U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell regarding Cuba have met stiff opposition in the Chilean
capital. The president of the Chilean Communist Party, Gladys Marín, said
that the U.S. secretary of State is "a liar" and rejected his declarations
against Cuba.

During a news conference in Santiago de Chile, Gladys Marín accused the
United States of using and abusing international agencies to impose its
hegemonic policies around the world. The Chilean Communist leader said that
Washington is trying to use Cuba as a pretext to install an anti-terrorist
plan throughout Latin America.

Speaking before the General Assembly of the Organization of American States,
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called for the inclusion of Cuba on the
agenda, saying it was time for a "regime change" on the island.

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More than 25,000 Africans Educated in Cuba

Luanda, June 11 (RHC)-- Over the past three decades, more than 25,000
African young people have received their education in Cuba and 3000 more are
currently studying on the island -- including 1000 in Cuban medical schools.

In an interview with the magazine Africa Today, widely distributed on the
continent in Portuguese-speaking countries, Cuban Ambassador to Portugal
Reinaldo Calviac also said that Cuba is currently helping 21 nations, 12 of
them in Africa, despite the economic blockade imposed on the island by the
United States.

He cited Angola, Guinea Bissau, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where 400 Cuban
doctors are working. Calviac, who has worked as a diplomat for nearly 12
years in Angola, also noted that Cuban doctors treat patients in the most
remote areas of the African continent and offer their services totally free
of charge.

Cuba's ambassador to Portugal -- in the interview published in the magazine
Africa Today -- emphasized that Cuba has offered the United Nations 4000
doctors for a program to combat AIDS in Africa.


-Radio Habana Cuba