Although the approval of the resolution is unlikely to alter the Cuban
government's behavior in the realm of human rights issues, the action
carries heavy symbolic weight, returning Havana to the U.N. body's
unofficial list of major violators and mandating a review at next year's
assembly.
A crucial factor in the outcome appeared to be Cuba's recent crackdown
on dissidents, as well as the Cuban government's style of lobbying in the
assembly, where one Latin American envoy described Carlos Amat, Cuba's
ambassador to U.N. agencies in Geneva, as ``undiplomatic.''
``People gave Cuba a break last year and now they go around putting
more dissidents in jail,'' the diplomat said.
``We know what communism does, and we don't believe anyone else should
suffer it,'' said a Czech diplomat. Czech President Vaclav Havel and
former Polish President Lech Walesa were once dissidents jailed by their
regimes.
The commission's action represents a return to the usual pattern of
condemnation against Cuba. U.S.-sponsored resolutions against Cuba were
approved from 1991 to 1997, but last year's version was rejected in a
surprise 16-19 vote with 18 abstentions.
Washington took a back seat this year, letting the Czech Republic and
Poland -- democracies that were once Communist satellites of the Soviet
Union -- take the lead on the Cuba debate while U.S. diplomats lobbied
strongly in the background.
The latest resolution was worded far more softly than previous U.S.
versions, merely urging Cuba to release political prisoners and noting
abuses such as a recent law on dissent and the sentencing of four peaceful
dissidents to prison. Nevertheless, U.S. officials were pleased.
``Two countries of dissidents speaking up for dissidents sent the
right signal,'' said Harold Koh, assistant secretary of state for human
rights. ``This sends a message . . . that human rights in Cuba
have to be respected.''
Amat, leader of the Cuban delegation, called it ``a moral victory to
lose by one vote in the face of the blackmail and pressures known to have
been applied against countries'' by U.S. diplomats. Shifting votes
Mexico, Peru and Venezuela switched from abstentions in 1998 to
pro-Cuba votes this year, however, with a Mexican envoy telling the
commission on Friday that the resolution unfairly singled out Cuba for
criticism and lacked balance because it failed to condemn the U.S. embargo
of the island.
El Salvador switched from a vote against Cuba in 1998 to abstention this
year amid rumblings that Havana offered it clemency for two Salvadorans
sentenced to death in Cuba on terrorism charges in exchange for the vote.
Salvadoran diplomats declined comment on the reports.
Canada, Japan, South Korea and all European nations voted against Cuba,
while Russia again backed Havana. African and Asian nations again voted
for Cuba or abstained, although Morocco switched from abstention to a vote
for the Czech-Polish resolution.
The Czech-Polish resolution broke with past U.S. resolutions in not
calling for the appointment of an official to investigate Cuban violations
of human rights, but it urged Cuba to permit visits by all commission
representatives to look into broad categories of human rights abuses
across international boundaries.
Cuba has not allowed international Red Cross representatives to visit
its prisons for the past several years, despite dissident reports of
severe food and medicine shortages and occasional physical abuse.
Approval of the resolution was hailed by groups and individuals
critical of the Cuban government's human rights record:
U.N. panel puts Cuba on rights abusers' list
Crackdown on dissidents tipped
balance