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Cuba Vows to Foil US Move at UN Human Rights Meeting
Cuba has vowed to foil a US- sponsored resolution against the island at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the official Granma newspaper reported Monday.
"This year we are waging a battle, not only for Cuba, but also because winning there and confronting the Yankee motion, we are fighting for the Third World and avoiding to have a precedent in the use of a UN mechanism against our countries," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was quoted as saying.
Perez Roque left Havana on Sunday evening for Geneva, Switzerland, to participate in the annual U.N. commission meeting.
The resolution, presented by the Czech Republic and "directed by the United States" to condemn Cuba for alleged human rights violations, will be subject to vote in mid-April.
"Cuba is working to derail the resolution. We hope that a majority of commission members will see the unjust, discriminatory and selective nature of the resolution Washington is pushing against Cuba," AFP quoted Perez Roque as saying over the weekend.
Reports said that for the past several weeks Cuba has pressed its case with other Latin American countries and sent top officials around the world to rally support for its cause, especially aiming at the U.N. human rights commission's 13 new members, such as Algeria, Libya, Syria, Vietnam and South Africa.
"The situation seems quite balanced, and I am optimistic," Perez Roque said.
In 1999 and 1998, the U.N. Human Rights Commission passed a resolution criticizing Cuba for its human rights record.
The 53-member commission is holding its annual meeting in Geneva from March 19 through April 27.
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