arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7215 * Fax: 212-689-9073

STATEMENT BY THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA,
H.E. AMBASSADOR BRUNO RODRIGUEZ PARRILLA, BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
UNDER ITEM: "MEASURES TO ELIMINATE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM"
NEW YORK, 1 OCTOBER 2001

Official Translation - Oct 2, 2001

Mr. President,

In a speech delivered just two days ago before one hundred thousand
countrymen, President Fidel Castro stated:

"The unanimous shock suffered by all peoples of the world on
September 11, due to the insane terrorist attacks against the
American people, has created exceptional conditions for the
eradication of terrorism without the need to unleash a useless and
perhaps endless war.

"Terror has always been an instrument of the worst enemies of Mankind
bent on suppressing and crushing the peoples' struggle for freedom.
It can never be the instrument of a truly noble and just cause."

He went on, adding:

"Many seem not to have realized yet that, on September 20, before the
United States Congress, the end of independence was decreed for every
other state -- without exception -- as well as the end of the United
Nations' role.

"Cuba was the first country to speak of the need for an international
struggle against terrorism just a few hours after the tragedy brought
on the American people on September 11. We also said that: 'None of
the present problems of the world can be solved by force. [...] The
international community should build a world conscience against
terrorism. [...] Only the intelligent policy of seeking strength
through consensus and the international public opinion can decidedly
uproot this problem [...] this unimaginable event should serve to
launch an international struggle against terrorism. ...] The world
cannot be saved unless a path of international peace and cooperation
is pursued.'

"I harbor no doubts that the Third World countries -- I dare say
almost everyone of them without exception, despite their political
and religious differences -- would be willing to go alongside the
rest of the world in this struggle against terrorism as an
alternative to war.

"For these people, saving peace with dignity, with independence and
without a war is the cornerstone of the struggle that we should wage
together for a truly just world of free peoples."

Mr. President,

Instead of war, it is necessary to organize international cooperation
in order to launch effective global actions, in accordance with
International Law, the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant
international conventions, based on the extraordinary power of
consensus and the sovereign and united will of all States.

Cuba has expressed: "It would suffice to return to the United Nations
Organization the prerogatives that it has been deprived of and let
the General Assembly, its most universal and representative body, be
the center of that fight for peace -- regardless of its limitations
due to the arbitrary veto right of the Security Council Permanent
Members, most of them also a part of NATO -- and for the eradication
of terrorism with total and unanimous support from the world opinion.
[...] It is indispensable to return to the United Nations its role in
the attainment of peace."

The United Nations Organization is precisely the universal coalition
we need to fight terrorism. No amorphous and unpredictable
coalition, NATO or any other military organization, or group of
States -- no matter how powerful it might be -- could replace the
United Nations in a global and legitimate action against terrorism.
The United Nations should not give up its functions or prerogatives
in the face of something imposed from any country, nor should it
indulgently serve hegemonic interests.

The United Nations alone can address in a deep, calm, resolute and
forceful way, the serious challenges of a globalized world, including
terrorism as a matter of urgency.

The United Nations counts on the universal involvement of States; it
has a historical and moral authority, as well as principles and rules
accepted by all; and it is also entitled to adopt and codify
standards. It can act upon all areas, and its countless and various
bodies have great potential.

We support the Secretary General's statement that: "This Organization
is the natural forum in which to build such a universal coalition.
It alone can give global legitimacy to the long-term struggle against
terrorism."

The United Nations even has the prerogative to use force to defend
the principle of collective security. However, this exceptional
prerogative must be used with extreme prudence and responsibility.

Mr. President,

The United Nations has made great efforts to fight terrorism, as
proven by the existing Conventions and other recently adopted
instruments, as well as the many resolutions adopted by the General
Assembly and other bodies.

To move forward, we must address -- with total honesty and avoiding
hegemonic interests or national ambition -- all forms and
manifestations of terrorism in every corner of the world, including
-- without exception -- State terrorism.

The overwhelming political will of States to fully implement
international instruments must prevail without any double standards,
or political selectivity, without treating differently those who live
in affluent societies and without allowing States and their armed
forces -- especially the most powerful ones -- to act in disregard of
legislation and International Law.

Mr. President,

We share the calls for prudence and moderation coming from all
regions. One cannot respond to the September 11th terrorist attacks
with vengeful acts of war that would result in increasing violence
and barbaric acts, which we can't think of today. The solution cannot
be to pass legislation or decrees that authorize extrajudicial
executions, or to let States kill foreign citizens, or to act
covertly in other countries disrespecting laws and borders, or to use
force within other States. That would divert the world from its
purpose to eliminate terrorism, and would mean the end of collective
security mechanisms. It would mean the rule of force and the
beginning of the end of the so often proclaimed rule of law.

Terrorist acts are usually carried out by extremist groups, and even
by individuals. Faced with an event of this nature -- however grave
-- the right to self-defense must not be invoked by a powerful State
to unilaterally unleash a war resulting in global and unpredictable
effects, and the death of an unthinkable number of innocent people.
Instead, that right must be exercised as the right of all to the
common defense of all. The South countries would eventually be the
potential victims of actions of force if today we accept war under
the pretext of struggling against terrorism.

Cuba supports the many ongoing initiatives and those under
discussion, which might contribute to UN actions, including those
submitted by the Non-Aligned Movement, such as the call for a high
level conference on international terrorism, the creation of an
international cooperation center, and the negotiation of a
comprehensive convention on international terrorism. We are also
willing to consider constructively other initiatives that might
contribute to the struggle against terrorism and might have the
legitimacy invoked by the Secretary General.

Mr. President,

While the Security Council has made specific efforts and adopted
several resolutions in the past, terrorism has been an area in which
prudence has prevailed. In the few cases where specific acts of
terrorism have been addressed, this has been addressed in the direct
interest of some of its Permanent Members.

However, Cuba asked the Security Council to act when the Cubana
Aircraft CU 455 was blown up in flight, killing 73 people on board in
1976; draft resolution S/23990 submitted by Cuba was not even
considered.

I have now reviewed that draft resolution once again, comparing it to
the one the Security Council adopted last Friday night, and I have
found that although ours was more moderate, it proposed some of the
concepts and measures contained in the recent one.

In its preamble, the Cuban draft considered the suppression of acts
of international terrorism essential for the maintenance of
international peace and security; it emphasized the need to deal
effectively with terrorism; it reaffirmed that every State had the
duty to refrain from organizing, instigating, assisting,
participating in and consenting terrorist acts within its territory.
Our text took note that one Permanent Member of the Security Council
had stated that it had evidence in its possession relating to that
act. It also took into account the fact that the mastermind of the
terrorist act, Orlando Bosch, resided in the territory of that same
State, where, by the way, he still lives; and that the other
mastermind, Luis Posada Carriles, had been doubly employed -- after
the appalling crime -- by the Government of that State. The Cuban
draft resolution also urged the involvement of the Council in the
struggle against international terrorism, invoking Chapter VII of the
Charter.

The Resolution did not request the use of force or sanctions, but
simply asked the Council to condemn the bombing of the passengers'
aircraft in flight; to indicate the obligation to clarify the crime
and to punish the guilty parties. It asked the State concerned to
provide all the information and evidence in its possession relating
to the past and current residence of the terrorists who were in its
territory, and to adopt effective measures to prevent its territory
from being used to prepare, organize and carry out terrorist acts
against Cuba. And it asked the Council to keep that matter under
consideration.

After Cuba spoke, the Permanent Member concerned took the floor for
five minutes only to state the following: "I frankly cannot help but
wonder why we are here ... By meeting today ... we lose our most
valuable commodity: time." And that was the end of the meeting.

However, the Security Council has recently adopted -- after a quick
and poorly transparent negotiation -- a resolution that orders States
to work on urgent legislative modifications, that demands immediate
reports and creates a sort of antiterrorist general staff.

The Council has decided to fight terrorism in many different areas,
from economic and financial areas to illicit drug trafficking, border
control, money-laundering, forgery of documents, traffic in explosive
materials, nuclear, chemical, biological and other weapons. It also
deals with issues relating to transnational organized crime, weapons
of mass destruction, communications technologies, and the exchange of
intelligence information on individuals and entities that practice
terrorism.

To implement that resolution, it is necessary to previously identify
those persons and what is to be considered a terrorist act. It's
possible to imagine where those interpretations will come from.

The Security Council has been pushed to give legal support to
hegemonic and arbitrary decisions made by the ruling Power, which
violate the Charter and International Law, and that trespass on the
sovereignty of all States. To achieve that, it usurps once again the
functions of the General Assembly -- the only body whose universal
composition and democratic method could legitimize such far-reaching
decisions. The Council uses the unbelievable method of turning into
mandatory for all States some of the rules contained in conventions
against terrorism, to which is up to the State alone whether they
want to be signatories or not.

The Security Council, a hostage of the veto right, could only
exercise a selective, capricious, arbitrary and ineffective
dictatorship, instead of the moral leadership required for a
comprehensive struggle against terrorism in a globalized world.

Terrorism cannot be eliminated if some terrorist acts are condemned
while others are silenced or justified. It is an ethical imperative,
for example, to put an end to the use of the veto to prevent
international actions from protecting the Palestinian people against
the countless State terrorism acts they are suffering.

It is Cuba's opinion that any use of force against terrorism will
require explicit and previous authorization of the Security Council,
as provided by the Charter. Cuba also believes that neither of the
two resolutions adopted by the Council in the wake of the September
11 attacks could be invoked to unleash unilateral military or force
actions.

Despite some arbitrary methods and decisions of the Security Council,
our country, as always, will cooperate in good faith with the Council
in accordance with the Charter, and will enforce its own legislation
adopted by our people in a sovereign way and according to
international law, and which strongly and firmly opposes any act of
terrorism, whoever its perpetrator might be, as well as other serious
international crimes being committed in the world.

We can so state with the moral strength given to us by the fact that
our finances are transparent and our banks do not [accept] any
laundered or illegitimate money; that our institutions do not
illegally sell information or technology or tolerate the traffic in
arms or dangerous substances; and that our borders do not protect
transnational crime.

The specific measures put forth in the resolution adopted by the
Security Council and that Cuba agrees with, must be applied first of
all to the large banks in which, as everyone knows, money is
laundered.

I must categorically state that Cuba will never participate in any
military action.

Mr. President,

I have here with me today the memory of 3,478 Cubans who have died as
a result of acts of aggressions and terrorist acts, and the claim for
justice of 2,099 people who have become disabled as a result of those
acts.

I have -- among others -- the memory of Felix García, a diplomat of
the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, who was murdered here in New
York, exactly on 11 September 1980. His murderer was arrested,
together with Luis Posada Carriles, last November in Panama, in the
midst of an Ibero-American Summit, when, with the purpose of
assassinating President Fidel Castro, they were planning to blow up a
university auditorium where thousands of students were expected to
gather. Posada Carriles and his group have neither been extradited
nor sanctioned. There are reasons to fear their escape before being
sentenced or to fear total impunity.

In the '90s alone, a total of 68 acts were perpetrated against Cuba;
33 of them took place over the last five years.

Our country speaks with the moral position of not having committed
any terrorist act ever, not even the attempt to kill -- in an act of
legitimate self-defense -- the direct perpetrators and masterminds of
abominable crimes, financed and carried out by the Cuban American
National Foundation and other mob groups in Miami against our people.
However, bombings, assassination attempts against Cuban leaders and
attacks against vital targets of our economy have been organized with
total impunity from abroad over the last few years.

Only the consideration and respect of our people for the victims of
the September 11 attack, as well as the seriousness of the current
situation that brings us together to seek for constructive solutions,
encourage me to contribute to the spirit of this debate with our
silence on the origins of terrorism against Cuba, by not making
specific reference to the real causes, the accomplices, the actual
responsible people, the flow of financing, the venal courts that
absolve criminals, and the territories where terrorist organizations
acting against Cuba are based.

I share the hope that the September 11 tragedy will lead to
reflection and, in line with the desire of the US people, to changes
in those policies that encourage and, in essence, justify terrorism
against my people. Terrorism against Cuba must be brought to an end.

I must state that, in the face of impunity, Cuba has all the right to
defend itself against terrorism. The five Cuban youth, who are
unjustly incarcerated and suffering humiliating treatment in Florida,
do not repent of having saved heroically the lives of Cuban and
American citizens.

As President Fidel Castro stated, "Cuba, with a moral authority of
being the country that has suffered the most and the longest from
terrorist actions, the one whose people are not afraid of anything
because there is no threat or power in the world that can intimidate
it, claims that it is opposed to terrorism and opposed to war.
Although the possibilities are now remote, Cuba reaffirms the need to
avert a war of unpredictable consequences whose very authors have
admitted not to have the least idea of how the events will unfold.
Likewise, Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate with every
country in the total eradication of terrorism.

"Whatever happens, the territory of Cuba will never be used for
terrorist actions against the American people and we will do
everything within our reach to prevent such actions against that
people. Today we are expressing our solidarity while appealing to
peace and calm."

Finally, the President of our country, expressing the unanimous
sentiment of our people, stated:

"Our independence, our principles and our social achievements will be
defended with honor to the last drop of blood, if we are attacked!"

Thank you very much.