*EPF308 03/28/01
Text: Tahir-Kheli Response to Cuba at Human Rights Commission
(Calls foreign minister's allegations "outrageous") (700)
The United States requested the floor at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva March 27 to reject an allegation made by the Cuban foreign minister that there are no human rights abuses in Cuba.
Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, the head of the U.S. delegation to the Commission, said the statement delivered earlier the same day by Felipe Perez Roque illustrates "how far outside the accepted norms of human rights the current rulers of Cuba have placed themselves and the lengths to which they are prepared to go to hide the truth."
She called the Commission's attention to the fact that between 200 and 300 political activists "languish in Cuban jails" and noted that Cuba also has refused to allow U.N. human rights investigators to even enter the country.
Tahir-Kheli said a series of allegations made against the United States in the same speech were "too absurd and outrageous to merit a response."
In his speech, Perez Roque accused the United States of carrying out a "genocidal" blockade against Cuba and of scheming to weaken Cuba in order to annex it.
Following is the text of Tahir-Kheli's statement:
(begin text)
Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli
Head of U.S. Delegation, U.N. Commission on Human Rights
Reply to the Cuban Foreign Minister
March 27, 2001
Mr. Chairman:
The statement that the Foreign Minister of Cuba made to members of the Commission this morning illustrates more clearly than anything I can say how far outside the accepted norms of human rights the current rulers of Cuba have placed themselves and the lengths to which they are prepared to go to hide the truth. The allegations regarding the United States are too absurd and outrageous to merit a response, and I will not dignify them with one.
There is one aspect of the Minster's speech, however, which both deserves and requires a response. It is his categoric assertion that, and I quote, "there are no human rights abuses in Cuba."
In response to that, Mr. Chairman, I would call the Commission's attention to a few simple facts:
-- Last December 10, the Cuban government celebrated International Human Rights Day by detaining over 200 activists across the country in an effort to stop several planned celebrations.
-- Early this year, two Czech citizens, one of whom is a sitting member of the Czech parliament, were thrown in a common prison for meeting with a Cuban political activist and a Cuban independent journalist.
-- Between 200 and 300 political activists languish in Cuban jails.
-- The most recent report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights confirms the existence of these human rights violations, noting "the systematic practice of the Cuban state of discriminating against citizens subject to its jurisdiction for political reasons and the lack of freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Last year (1999), was a bad year for peaceful opponents, independent journalists and trade unionists, and human rights activists who sought, by various means -- all peaceful -- to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, movement and peaceful protest. Trials and prison sentences continue to be used to harass people for reasons linked to rights recognized in international human rights instruments."
-- The Committee Against Torture's most recent report on Cuba calls attention to "serious violations of the Convention (Against Torture) with regard to arrest, detention, prosecution, access to counsel and imprisonment of individuals."
-- Cuba has also refused to allow the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on the Question of Torture and on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression even to enter the country.
-- For these and many other reasons, the Commission voted to support the Cuba resolution brought forth by Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999 and 2000. Accordingly, the Commission found that Cuba violated the "freedoms of expression, association and assembly and the rights associated with the administration of justice."
I submit, Mr. Chairman, that these facts regarding Cuba's human rights record speak for themselves.
Thank you.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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