CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by the delegation of Cuba at the 246th meeting of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country. New York, 20 May 2010.

 

Mr. Chairman,

Cuba has requested the inclusion of an item on the agenda of the 246th meeting of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, concerning questions relative to the security of missions and their personnel.

In various Notes Verbales to the United States Mission, most of them circulated in the heart of this Committee, we have expressed our deep concern about the repeated failures by US authorities to comply with their obligations to provide proper protection to diplomatic Missions and their personnel, as well as to guarantee the proper performance of their diplomatic functions.

The Permanent Mission of Cuba, through notes verbales 110, 131, 171 and 186, has detailed the dangerous incidents occurred against the Cuban Mission and its personnel on 28 February, 18 March, 27 March, and 1st April 2010, respectively. For its part, and in this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba sent Note Verbale RS/610, dated 12 April 2010, to the US Department of State.

Some of the common elements in these reiterated and dangerous incidents are the following:

-           A group of people gathers in front of the entrance of the Cuban Mission, thus blocking the entry into the building. Preferably, they do it in moments of greater flow of personnel, consequently preventing the normal development of the diplomatic activities. 

-           This group of people shouts offensive slogans and, with threatening gestures, urges the personnel of the Mission to come outside, with the sole purpose of provoking a physical confrontation.  

-           They place objects in the doors and windows of the building. They have even tried to put them inside the Mission through the door. This affects the integrity of the Mission and its personnel, who, as it is known, have been victims in the past of violent attacks organized by terrorist groups, the members of which walk freely by the streets of the United States.

As a single response to the concerns timely expressed by Cuba to the host country, we have only received a Note Verbale in relation to the first incident occurred on 28 February. So far, we have received no reply from the US authorities regarding the denunciations made due to the two dangerous events that took place on 18 March or those occurred on 27 March, and 1st April.

In Note HC-33-10, dated 17 March 2010, the US authorities expressed, generally and ambiguously, that, besides regretting any inconvenience and taking its responsibility seriously, they believed that the New York City Police Department responded to these incidents in an appropriate and forceful manner, by moving the demonstrators to a more suitable location in front of the Mission of Cuba. They also expressed they would work to ensure that an adequate level of protection is provided to the Mission of Cuba and its personnel.

Apart from the reply sent, in due course, by the Mission of Cuba, we wish to stress that the Mission of Cuba is not concerned at the time or way of acting of the New York Police Department, or the legal character of these allegedly spontaneous demonstrations; but at the need for the US authorities to act with the necessary diligence in order to prevent the security of the Mission of Cuba and its personnel from being compromised, as well as for us to be allowed to perform our diplomatic functions as it is right and proper. 

Let me highlight that this behavior of the US authorities, which allows these dangerous groups to act with total impunity in their territory, is not an isolated or new occurrence. In any case, the rise in these incidents and in their dangerousness speaks for itself about the inefficiency of the measures taken by the host country since 28 February 2010, if they have really felt motivated to take one.    

In this regard, we would very much appreciate information on the concrete measures taken or to be taken by the US authorities to prevent these incidents from happen again, or worst, from resulting in more alarming events.

Once more, Cuba warns this Committee and the host country about the inconvenience of the unilateral withdrawal of the police protection from the Mission of Cuba, in November 2007; and calls upon US authorities to demand the compliance with the procedures established by themselves, in their Note Verbale HC-33-95, dated 9 June 1995. These regulations can be found enclosed with the statement circulated by Cuba.

We reiterate in the heart of this Committee that the Government of the United States will be the sole responsible for any violent incident as a result of the unpunished behavior enabling these agitators to threat the security of the Mission of Cuba and its personnel, as well as to hinder its normal performance.  

We call for the US Government to strictly comply with its international legal obligations, both under the United Nations Headquarters Agreement and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961, and I quote: The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity, unquote.

Thank you

(Cubaminrex- Embacuba ONU)

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