UN General Assembly condemns US embargo of Cuba

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, and for the 18th consecutive year urged the US to lift the sanctions that have been in place against the communist island since the 1960s.

The 192-nation assembly voted 187-3, with two abstentions, to adopt yet another resolution calling for the US embargo to be struck down.

The repeated UN demands over the years have failed to have any effect on Washington, which insists that Cuba loosen its grip on human rights and adopt a democratic form of government before it dismantles the embargo.

Although US President Barack Obama has made some overtures to improving relations since taking office in January, he recently extended the nearly-half-century-old embargo another year.

Cuba claims it has lost more than $90 billion in trade and commercial profit since the embargo started in the early 1960s.

The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and the representatives from Israel and Palau were the only three members to vote against the non-binding resolution.

The European Union members' representatives voted to condemn the embargo.

Rice told the assembly that a "new era" had started since Obama moved into the White House, noting the "constructive" steps to improve relations, including talks on migration and postal services; the granting of wider permission for family visits and remittances; and increased US donations to and telecommunications with Cuba.

Rice said the steps had not been recognised by Havana.

"We are ready to engage with Cuba to address bilateral issues," Rice said.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington that the US has the sovereign right to act within its own national interest and apply sanctions on Cuba.

Kelly also noted exceptions that allow humanitarian goods to flow into the communist island, including $717 million in agricultural and medicinal products, wood and other items in 2008.

"Sanctions on Cuba are designed to permit humanitarian items to reach the Cuban people while denying the Cuban government resources that it could use to repress its citizens," Kelly said.

"This yearly exercise at the UN obscures the facts that the United States is a leading source of food and humanitarian relief to Cuba," Kelly said.

The US embargo was reinforced in 1996 by the US Congress' Helms-Burton Act, which asked other governments to also pass laws prohibiting trade links with Cuba. That law was the only US law specifically cited in the UN General Assembly resolution for its violation of "the sovereignty of other states" and "the freedom of trade and navigation".

The US is the only government in the Western Hemisphere that does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller told the assembly that, for the 18th consecutive year, the Mexican government "rejects the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba, and restates its opposition to the use of coercive actions that are not supported by the UN Charter".

The UN economic bloc of developing countries known as G77, currently headed by Sudan, called on the US "to heed the increasing call by the international community to bring an end to the five-decades-old embargo and to fully adhere to the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of a sisterly countries."

--DPA

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( 555 Words)

2009-10-29-02:49:03 (IANS)

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