Press conference given by Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Pérez Roque at the Foreign Ministry, to the national and international media, on the voting at the Commission on Human Rights on 18 April 2003

(Translation of the Council of State transcript)

José L. Ponce ( Presenter) - Good morning. Welcome, colleagues, to this press conference by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, arranged to explain the voting at the 59th session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

The Minister will make an introductory speech and explain the results. He will then take questions from the floor.

As always, please say who you are and use the microphones when you ask your question.

We have 76 journalists from 64 media representing 24 countries, plus our own press which is fully represented.

I will now hand over to the Minister.

Felipe Pérez - A good morning to all the foreign correspondents accredited in Cuba and to the members of the Cuban press corps.

As has been reported, yesterday the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva considered three documents which were voted on by its 53 member states.

The day before, discussion had started under Agenda Item 9 of a draft resolution submitted by Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay, the debating of which was affected by amendments proposed by Cuba and last-minute amendments tabled by Costa Rica. The addition of flagrant violations of procedure by the U.S. and Costa Rican delegations and, especially, the confusion within the U.S. delegation and certain of its accomplices caused by the amendments submitted by Cuba, created a situation of chaos, confusion and disorder in the middle of the debate, leading to the decision to postpone it for 24 hours.

The debate reopened yesterday and, as mentioned, produced three voting rounds: the first was on the Costa Rican amendment, which is really a U.S. amendment; in other words, it reflects their interests and was drafted by the U.S. delegation and handed to the Costa Ricans for them to present it.
This text was overwhelmingly rejected by the Commission, with 31 votes against, 15 in favor and seven abstentions.

The text in question tried to take advantage of the manipulation and major media campaign surrounding the legitimate judgments that were handed down in Cuba to punish mercenary operations or violent acts of terrorism against vessels, with the objective of getting the Commission to censure Cuba. That was the U.S.'s aim.

Then came the Costa Rican amendment, which included text denouncing Cuba, albeit less directly; but it did say, "Calls upon the government of Cuba to ensure full respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular for the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial, and expressing its deep concern about the recent detention, summary prosecution and harsh sentencing of numerous members of the political opposition, urges the government of Cuba to release immediately all those persons." In other words, it does not express denunciation, but the text obviously implies this perception.

The Commission rejected this text, with twice as many votes against as in favor: 31 nations voted against including the text, 15 were in favor and seven abstained.

The 15 countries that agreed that this text be included were the 10 nations of the Western group, which includes the United States and several EU countries; Costa Rica, number 11; South Korea, number 12; Poland, number 13; Japan, number 14; and Croatia, number 15. That is, the 10 countries of the Western group, the United States, its European allies, plus Canada and Australia, 10; plus two Eastern European countries, formerly socialist, Poland and Croatia which formed part of Yugoslavia, 12; Costa Rica, 13, and two close allies of the United States, Japan and South Korea. These were the 15 countries.

For the rest, of the 53 nations making up the Commission, the 31 that voted against and the seven that abstained did not agree with including this text.

The text submitted by Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay was also put to the vote. Costa Rica had initially withdrawn as a sponsor, in order to put forward the amendment, but when the amendment was rejected, it hurriedly asked for the floor so as to reassume its role as sponsor of the draft resolution entitled "Human rights situation in Cuba".

That text -- about which we said in advance in an editorial in the Granma newspaper that we knew the United States was well placed to get it through, based on the pressures it exerted and the composition of the Commission -- was approved with 24 votes in favor, 20 against and nine abstentions.
Cuba stood by its amendment, submitted the previous day, calling for the lifting of the U.S. blockade on Cuba, in the knowledge that various countries that are against the blockade would not support it; but above all, to highlight the double standard, the weakness of a group of U.S. allies eager to condemn Cuba, but which lack the courage to recognize the blockade against Cuba as a violation of human rights.

The Cuban amendment on the blockade, as mentioned, was approved by 17 countries, with 26 against and 10 abstentions. It met our objective of showing the hypocrisy of some of those who readily denounce Cuba but lack the courage to vote, there in Geneva, proclaiming the blockade as a violation of the Cuban people's human rights.

Now, what conclusions do we want to draw about these events? In the first place, Cuba sees Washington's attempt to get Cuba condemned at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva as an abject failure.

Second, Cuba regards the clear rejection, by a wide margin, of the U.S. proposal submitted by Costa Rica , but which is basically in the interests and at the declared intention of the United States - as we'll see later - the overwhelming rejection of this proposal is a clear sign that the Commission on Human Rights, with the exception of a handful of nations, recognizes Cuba's right to apply its laws; recognizes as legal the measures adopted by Cuba in defense of its sovereignty, punishing, in accordance with the law and applying all the safeguards, a group of people operating in the service of and paid by a foreign power that attacks our country, and applying regrettable but inevitable sanctions against the hijackers of a Cuban vessel who used violent methods, endangering the lives of Cuban and foreign citizens, including women and children, in the course of an action characterized by international instruments as terrorism. We thus regard this crushing rejection - which genuinely surprised the U.S. delegation, with 31 votes against, 15 in favor - as a resounding Cuban victory, a sign of the international community's recognition of our rights and motives. I am very pleased at this outcome.

Third, I think it right to stress that the text was finally approved as a Resolution by a narrow margin, in the midst of a current international situation in which the United States is terrorizing the world with an imperialist policy, with open threats, virtually at the end of the war in Iraq, exactly under these conditions and despite the pressures exerted at the highest level and without the least scruple against the Commission's member states; despite all this, the text approved as a final Resolution, which was the original text submitted there by Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay on behalf of the United States, is not a condemnation of Cuba.

So I reject the idea that the Commission on Human Rights has condemned Cuba. The United States failed in its objective; the paragraph that included explicit censure was overwhelmingly defeated and the final approved text - as we'll see later - cannot in any way be seen as a condemnation, since that was not possible. The United States cannot get Cuba censured. Cuba's motives, the justice that underlies Cuba's right and the support of the international community prevent the United States and its accomplices from achieving another denunciation of Cuba.

Fourth, we want to clarify that this does not mean, nevertheless, that we accept the Resolution that was finally adopted. We reject it because, even though it does not express condemnation, it is without justification. There is not the least justification for the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva even to consider the situation of Cuba. The proposal against Cuba submitted there, which is as far as the U.S. administration could go under present circumstances, is unfounded, has no legal basis, and is achieved only because of pressures deployed by the United States all over the world to get votes for condemning Cuba, with the aid of certain allies. In no way does it signify a condemnation of our country.

In any case, we reject this exercise, we question the relevance of this Resolution. We reject the fact that three Latin American countries -- Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica -- involved themselves in this maneuver, well knowing that it is totally unfounded. It is a U.S. text serving U.S. interests. I reject the notion that it aims to establish collaboration with Cuba, as its Latin American sponsors claim. And the pronouncements of the State Department, which I will come back to later, are the proof positive of who the true authors are and that they have had to admit defeat.

Fifth, I want to leave no doubt that the use of blackmail, of pressures from senior U.S. officials, of congress people with Cuban origins who serve the interests of the Miami terrorist mob, including the use of the international financial organizations, has this year reached an unprecedented level. The fierce pressures, arm-twisting, open threats against Third World countries - as reported in an editorial in Granma newspaper yesterday - were the methods employed by U.S. diplomacy to win its pyrrhic victory based on a majority of just four votes for a text that says practically nothing.

Sixth, I wish to emphasized that, regrettably, the EU, an economic, cultural and social giant, has again demonstrated its weakness as a political force, its lack of strategic thinking, its shrinking from playing a key role in world affairs, as well as showing by its actions a pattern of double standards. While it was ready to support the U.S. amendment condemning Cuba for alleged human rights violations at the recent trials in Cuba, held in accordance with the law and applying the relevant safeguards, the Western nations, the EU, Canada and Australia voted against declaring the blockade a violation of the human rights of Cubans, when everybody knows that it is the principal violation of the rights of an entire people.

So we can see again that under present conditions and, above all, in the wake of the war in Iraq, the EU sadly lacks the ability to formulate its own independent policy towards Cuba. In any event, Cuba will remain open to relations with the EU and hopes for the day when a more mature EU, which is clearer in its objectives and responsibilities to the world, will be able to remedy the shameful inadequacies of its present stance on Cuba.

Now then, I have here the statements made by Mr. King Holmes, Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, one of the prime movers of U.S. diplomacy. Mr. King Holmes, whose surname is spelled like that of Sherlock Holmes, announced yesterday - and this was published in the bulletin issued by the U.S. mission in Geneva - that the United States "strongly back a resolution introduced by three Latin American nations before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemning the violations of human rights in Cuba," referring to the proposal by Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay. So I hope that the government representatives from these countries are not going to go on saying they were motivated by the desire to cooperate with Cuba and that the text was not intended to condemn Cuba. While the end result was not censure of Cuba, that does not reflect the intention of its sponsors, but rather Cuba's battle and its support within the international community. The intentions of the main sponsor, the United States, leave no doubt as to what Washington wanted; but on top of that, the day before, Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell expressed his wish that the Commission on Human Rights would approve a declaration condemning the human rights situation in Cuba.

In a TV interview for the AP agency, Powell said he had spoken on the phone to the foreign ministers of the Commission member states to make clear the importance of a vote of censure against Cuba. How do you imagine these conversations went? A respectful tone, an argued appeal? Or, as actually happened, a series of pressures and threats, by the U.S. ambassadors in all those countries and by other very senior U.S. officials?

However, how did things work out for Mr. Powell? I must really express our regrets to the Secretary of State, for the way his plans came to nothing. Perhaps next time he'll have better luck. Anyway, Cuba is ready to do battle against any such future maneuvers, it will keep up the fight long after the present incumbents of the U.S. administration have gone into retirement.

Here is another dispatch, in this case from the France Press agency, which gives a good account of what happened there in Geneva, after the first session and the amendments put forward by Cuba, whose effect at the Commission - as our newspaper said - was "a bombshell".

The dispatch reports that on Wednesday, Washington gave up on trying to get an explicit condemnation of Cuba at the Commission, which was to vote on the issue the following day - it had already been postponed -- and indicated that in the absence of consensus, it would settle for - settle for! -- the original resolution submitted by Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

According to the dispatch, instead of pursuing a harder line explicitly condemning repression of dissidents, with scant prospects of approval, U.S. officials agreed at a legislative session to support the draft resolution originally submitted.

Now I ask myself, if this text was Peruvian, Costa Rican and Uruguayan, why is it that the discussions about what was to be done were in the United States? I think the foreign ministries of those countries should explain why it wasn't the Peruvian, Costa Rican or Uruguayan congress that made the decisions, the night before, about whether to adopt this or that variant.

Mr. King Holmes, who was summoned there to find out if he had the answer to this "enigma", stated the following: "We had worked hard to strengthen it" - the resolution - "but there is a strong resistance to changing the wording.

"While the resolution itself may not have the language we hoped to achieve, it nevertheless is a slap in the face for [Cuba]." He hoped the international community would reiterate its condemnation of the human rights situation in Cuba, he added.

Because the United States interprets this text -- which the Peruvian foreign minister described last night as not condemning but rather seeking cooperation with Cuba to avoid condemnation -- as a condemnation that justifies maintaining the blockade and the policy of pressures on Cuba. The United States asked Peru to submit it.

According to Mr. Holmes, "We prefer a resolution and the personal representative of the High Commissioner...of any of the alternatives." Something is better than nothing, says the imperial official. "The important point is that we ought to ensure the personal representative of the United Nations' High Commissioner on Human Rights has a mandate to report on the situation in Cuba." The important thing was to send a clear message.

The night before, they were vacillating. I can see them sitting there debating it: "She loves me, she loves me not," picking petals. "Let's go for it." "Forget it." "What if we go for it and lose?" But in the morning, the final decision was to submit the amendment. The United States made the decision and Costa Rica accordingly stood by the amendment, which -- as we've seen -- was defeated.

Nevertheless, I believe this very clearly shows that what the United States wants, above all, is to keep the Cuba question on the table at Geneva, so it can revive it next year.

Now, what has been their reaction since the vote? The reporters asked them -- this is a NOTIMEX agency dispatch [he holds it up] -- they ask "Don't you regard what happened as a kind of defeat, for you and your allies?" The U.S. State Department spokesman -- Mr. Richard Boucher, the unfortunate one left with the task of trying to explain the disaster after the fact -- insisted that it wasn't a defeat, that the resolution told the world that there is concern over the human rights situation in Cuba. Not true: let's look at the text. I don't think they gave Mr. Boucher time to read the document, which he claimed said one thing and not another. That was what we wanted, he said, and that was what we got. Note that this is the United States speaking, not Peru, or Costa Rica or Uruguay. It is the Americans who are saying this.

In other words, it seems to me that in Geneva the U.S. administration went for the jackpot and lost its wallet. It suffered a humiliating defeat.
The international community has endorsed Cuba's right to hold trials and sentence those found guilty in our courts.