Geneva, March 19: Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque has reiterated
once again that Cuba rejects the report presented on human rights in the
island presented at the Geneva Human Rights Commission.
The document, made public by the High Commissioner's representative,
Christine Chanel, has been distributed among the delegations attending this
session of the Human Rights Commission currently under way in the Swiss
city.
Pérez Roque said that Cuba does not accept being charged in such an
arbitrary, politicized and discriminatory way in the HRC, nor does it
tolerate the fact that the Third World nations are always the focus of the
commission's statements.
Later during his speech, Pérez Roque commented that Costa Rica will possibly
present the US resolution condemning Cuba, and noted that Costa Rica is one
of the countries that does not vote against Israeli violations of the rights
of the Palestinian people.
Regarding the position of the European Union, the Cuban minister questioned
the "hypocrisy and double standards" of the EU, which is incapable of
confronting White House manipulations to discredit Cuba.
He also asked whether the EU would present an initiative against human
rights violations at the Guantánamo Naval Base, where the United States is
illegally holding hundreds of people seized during the war on Afghanistan.
The Cuban delegation also denounced the inclusion of well-known terrorist
Luis Zuñiga Rey in the US delegation. Cuba's permanent representative to
Geneva, Iván Mora, delivered a letter to Australian Mike Smith, current
president of the HRC, urging Zuñiga's immediate withdrawal.
"We have asked for an enforcement of the rules to prevent the consummation
of such a flagrant violation of the ethics, credibility and practice of this
commission," Pérez Roque stated.
Cuba, Zimbabwe and Syria all responded to statements by the Swedish Foreign
Minister Laila Freivalds, who criticized the situation of human rights in
those countries. On behalf of Cuba, Rodolfo Reyes observed that a racist
hatred of the Third World in that Nordic country was once again making
itself felt in the HRC.