CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Juan Antonio Fernández, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cuba, at the Human Rights Council , in response to the report of the so-called Special Representative for Cuba . Geneva , 12 June 2007

Mr. President,

This farce is about to come to an end. Soon the curtain will come down to put an end to this grotesque spectacle. It will carry with it the hypocrisy, double standards and complicities which plunged the defunct Commission into discredit.

The mandate of the so-called ‘Special Representative' is a heavy burden inherited from the old Commission. Her ‘situation reports' deserve no credibility whatsoever.

The Special Representative has been juggling on a tightrope; she has been the instrument of the moment. The Cuba she is trying to present to us is the media image projected by the big misinformation transnationals, an image that is artificially concocted in the laboratories of the CIA and the White House.

But the hard-headed reality is quite different. It is a reality that does not appear in her reports. It is the reality of a Cuba that labours and builds; a Cuba that sends legions of doctors to save lives and heal the pain, from the highest peaks of the Himalayas and the African plains to the poor mountains of Caracas; a Cuba that takes the torch of education to those who do not know how to read or write, from neighbouring Haiti to the distant Oceania and its native peoples. It is the Cuba of rebellious nature, the Cuba that resists, the Cuba that no one has been able to bring to its knees, the Cuba that dissents from the unjust world order, the Cuba that dreams, grows and fights for a better world for all.

The Special Representative would have much more to say about Cuba but, not wanting to upset the powerful, she prefers not to do so.

She could, for instance, join us in our fight to close down the concentration camp and put an end to the torture and humiliation of hundreds of people in the territory illegally occupied by the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo .

She could also add her voice to the voice of those who strongly condemn the recent release in the United States of the most dangerous terrorist and murderer in the entire Western hemisphere -Luis Posada Carriles- who is responsible, among other crimes, for the mid-air explosion of a Cuban civilian airliner, an act that claimed the lives of 73 innocent people.

She could even join the huge global campaign and the tireless struggle of our people to vindicate the cause of five Cuban courageous young men who are unfairly and cruelly being kept prisoners in the United States for fighting against terrorism and for defending the lives of the Cuban people.

But we already know that she prefers not to do any of that.

Mr. President,

In any case, this practice represents the past and our eyes are now fixed on the future. This is why Cuba voted in favor of Resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council. It is for this reason that Cuba submitted its candidacy to the Council and established its commitments to this body and was elected by 135 votes in favor, more than two thirds of the Members of the United Nations General Assembly. It is for all of this that Cuba has worked throughout the year in a constructive manner and in a spirit of cooperation.

It is also for this reason that the second year of life of the new Human Rights Council should start off by throwing overboard this heavy burden. Cuba hopes that the final outcome of the process of institution building of the Council will reflect the broader interests of the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement. Cuba reaffirms its commitment to this new body and its mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, and it will work to put an end to double standards and to unfair and politically motivated selectivity. Cuba is also ready, as successive generations of Cubans have done throughout our history, to continue its struggle until we achieve full justice.

Thank you very much.

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