After a vote by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights against Cuba, a Cuban diplomat runs up behind activist Frank Calzón and punches him on the head.

From Herald Staff and Wire Reports

GENEVA - The United Nations' human rights branch condemned Cuba's record for the fifth straight year in a narrow vote Thursday that wound up with a Havana diplomat punching and knocking out a Cuban-American activist.

After the vote by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Cuba announced it will soon propose its own resolution to condemn U.S. human rights abuses at the Guantánamo Bay prison for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

Witnesses said a young Cuban diplomat ran up behind Frank Calzón, head of the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba, after the vote and punched him on the head, briefly knocking him out.

U.S. Ambassador Kevin Moley, who saw the incident, said security guards captured the attacker. Cuba's ambassador arrived and asked for his release, saying the man was a member of his delegation. But the assailant was held by U.N. security.

"It was a vicious punch Moley told The Herald in a telephone interview. "If you act that way in the U.N. . . . God forbid, what do you do in your own country where there is absolutely no accountability?

Calzón was taken to the U.N. infirmary and gave a deposition to authorities, although he could not provide many details. ''All of a sudden I passed out,'' he said.

Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy said he did not see the incident but had heard ''there was a provocation'' by Calzón against a female Cuban diplomat "and he received the due response from our Cuban delegation.''

''It is unacceptable for a delegation member to behave in such a way,'' said U.N. spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva, who added that U.N. officials were ``shocked.''

This was the worst of many skirmishes between Havana diplomats and Cuban-American activists that have marred the rights commission's annual meetings.

LARGELY SYMBOLIC

The resolution urging Cuba to protect the ''fundamental rights,'' of its people and accept a commission inspection visit was largely symbolic; Havana has long refused to accept such visits.

It said the 53-member body ''deplores the events which occurred last year'' -- the 75 dissidents sentenced to up to 28 years in prison on charges of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's communist system.

But even in the face of such a crackdown, the resolution was approved by a 22-21 vote, with 10 abstentions, underlining criticisms that the human rights commission votes on Cuba are little more than cat fights between Havana and Washington -- which each year lobbies strongly for the resolution's passage.

Voting for the resolution -- officially submitted this year by Honduras -- were Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, the United States and several European countries. Russia, China and most African countries voted against.

Abstentions by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay brought a rejoinder from White House special envoy to the Americas Otto Reich. ''We find it difficult to believe that democracies such as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay find an abstention on the human rights issue to be moral,'' he told The Herald.

Similar resolutions on Cuba have been approved every year since 1992, except for 1998, at the commission's six-week spring meetings in this Swiss city.

In Havana, about 20 members of the unofficial Party for Human Rights in Cuba announced they would stage a 12-hour fast to show their support for the resolution. ''The passage of this resolution represents a very positive way in which the international community [expressed itself] against Fidel Castro's totalitarian system,'' party leader René Montes de Oca said.

Anti-Castro activists in the United States also welcomed the resolution. ''This . . . is an act of justice and solidarity with political prisoners and activists who every day sacrifice their personal safety to confront repression,'' the Cuban American National Foundation said.

WORDS NOTED

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque told a news conference the vote was ''a pyrrhic victory'' for Washington because the resolution 'does not use the words 'condemn Cuba,' it does not use the word 'scold,' it does not use the word 'reprimand.' ''

After the vote, the Cuban delegation announced it would file a resolution alleging human rights abuses at the Guantánamo prison and urging commission experts on torture, judicial independence and arbitrary detention to investigate.

Herald staff writers Andres Oppenheimer, Juan O. Tamayo and Susana Barciela contributed to this report.