Human rights panel passes resolution seeking openness

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – The U.N. human rights commission narrowly passed a resolution Thursday criticizing a lack of basic freedoms in Cuba and urging the socialist government to allow international observers to inspect conditions on the island.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque responded immediately, saying that no such visitors would be allowed and calling the U.S.-backed resolution a "ridiculous piece of paper."

He also lashed out at Mexico for supporting the measure, saying that the Mexican government's vote "destroyed any small signs" of improving relations between the two nations.

In Geneva, where the commission is meeting, Cuba also presented a resolution of its own – a request that the United Nations investigate conditions for hundreds of prisoners held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

"They've been there for several years without knowing the charges against them," Mr. Pérez Roque said. "The international community has a right to know what's going on there."

Many of the prisoners at Guantánamo were captured in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said they are technically "unlawful combatants" who do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention. That means that unlike war prisoners, they do not need to be released after hostilities end.

Honduras sponsored the Cuba measure, which the U.N. commission passed by a 22-to-21 vote with 10 abstentions.

No Latin American nations voted against the resolution, although Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay abstained.

Most of the nations voting against the resolution were African and Asian. Those backing it included developed European countries and eight of Cuba's Latin American neighbors – Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Peru.

Mexican officials decided to support the resolution after President Bush phoned Mexican President Vicente Fox and asked for his backing, U.S. officials said.

Cuba has long had warm relations with Mexico. Fidel Castro took refuge in Mexico after his failed 1953 attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago in eastern Cuba. And many Mexicans admire the Cuban leader for standing up to the United States.

But relations have been strained in recent years as the Mexican government has increasingly criticized human rights conditions on the island.

With Mexico's vote Thursday, the country has clearly taken sides in opposing Cuba, Mr. Pérez Roque said.

The resolution said Cuba "should refrain from adopting measures which could jeopardize the fundamental rights, the freedom of expression and the right to due process of its citizens."

And it said the commission "deplores the events which occurred last year in Cuba." That referred to Cuban authorities' biggest crackdown on the political opposition in decades. Seventy-five dissidents, journalists and others received prison terms of six to 28 years for allegedly working with the U.S. government to try to topple the socialist government. American officials and the dissidents denied the charges.

The resolution also asked that Cuba allow U.N. human rights expert Christine Chanet to visit the island.

Said Mr. Pérez Roque: "Cuba won't cooperate with a resolution imposed by force by the U.S. government."