Cuba Welcomes US Court Ruling on Elian

The Cuban government cautiously welcomed a US court ruling on Friday that rejected a request by Elian Gonzalez's relatives for a rehearing of the case and urged its citizens to keep up a nationwide campaign to bring the boy home.

"The Atlanta court ruling is favorable for Elian and his family," said a government statement broadcast on state television.

Earlier on Friday, a 12-member appeals court in Atlanta ruled unanimously that it would not look at the case again and the order barring the departure of the six-year-old Cuban boy and his father will be lifted at 4 p.m. Wednesday and it will not grant any further motions for their stay.

"Any further request for stays or for injunctive relief should be directed to the Supreme Court," said the court's ruling.

Elian's relatives in Miami and their ultra-right supporters in the United States were certain to use the five days granted them to appeal to the US Supreme Court in a bid to delay and obstruct Elian's return to Cuba, said the Cuban government statement.

"For that reason it is our elemental duty to continue the struggle with more force and intensity than ever," it said.

A rally of 400,000 people has been scheduled for Sunday in the eastern city of Holguin. The statement announced that rally would go on.

Even when Elian finally returns to Cuba, the nation will maintain its patriotic campaign to seek an end to US hostile immigration and sanction policies toward the island, said the statement.

Elian, who survived a migrant boat disaster last November in which his mother and 10 others died, has been in the United States after he was picked up by a fisherman off the coast of Florida.

His father Juan Miguel Gonzalez wants to take his son back to Cuba, but his relatives have been trying to prevent Elian from being sent back to Cuba with the help of many anti-Cuba people in Miami, Florida.

The relatives cared for Elian until he was seized from their home on April 22 in a government raid and reunited in Washington with his father.

The Cuban government insists that Elian's tragedy resulted from the US immigration policy for Cubans and the long-running US economic embargo against Cuba. It has staged a seven-month patriotic campaign of marches, rallies and TV programs to demand the return of Elian to the Caribbean island.



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