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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 5:05 pm Post subject: Mr. Felipe Perez; Statement at the UN, Sept. 2004. |
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Another view on our current situation...
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STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. FELIPE PÉREZ ROQUE,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA,
AT THE 59TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL
ASSEMBLY. NEW YORK, 24 SEPTEMBER 2004.
Mr. President:
Every year at the United Nations we go through the same ritual.
We attend the general debate knowing beforehand
that the clamor for justice and peace
by our underdeveloped countries will be ignored once again.
However, we persist. We know that we are right.
We know that one day we will accomplish social justice and development.
We also know that such assets will not be given away to us.
We know that the peoples will have to seize them from those who deny us
justice today, because they underpin their wealth and arrogance
on the disdain for our grief.
But it will not be always like this.
We say so today with more conviction than ever before.
Having said this and knowing - as we do - that some powerful ones,
just a few, present here will be chagrined, and also knowing
that they are shared by many, Cuba will now tell some truths:
First:
After the aggression on Iraq, there is no United Nations Organization,
understood as a useful and diverse forum, based on the respect
for the rights of all and also with guarantees for the small States.
It is living through the worst moment of its already forthcoming 60 years.
It pales, it pants, it feigns, but it does not work.
Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? President Bush.
Second: US troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq.
After the life of over 1,000 American youths was uselessly sacrificed
to serve the spurious interests of a clique of cronies and buddies,
and following the death of more than 12,000 Iraqis,
it is clear that the only way out for the occupying power
faced with a revolting people is to recognize
the impossibility of subduing them and to withdraw.
In spite of the imperial monopoly over information,
the peoples always get to the truth.
Someday, those responsible and their accomplices
will have to deal with the consequences of their actions
in the face of History and their own peoples.
Third:
For the time being, there will be no valid,
real and useful reform to the United Nations.
It would take the superpower, which inherited the immense
prerogative of governing an order conceived for a bipolar world,
to relinquish its privileges. And it will not do so.
Since now,we know that the anachronistic privilege of the veto
will remain; that the Security Council will not be democratized
as it should or expanded to include Third World countries;
that the General Assembly will continue to stand ignored
and that at the United Nations there will be more actions
driven by the interests imposed by the superpower and its allies.
We,as non-aligned countries,will have to entrench ourselves
in defending the United Nations Charter - because, otherwise,
it will be redrafted with the deletion of every trace of principles
such as the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention
and the non-use or the threat to use force.
Fourth:
The powerful collude to divide us.The over 130 underdeveloped
countries must build a common front for the defense of the sacred interests of our peoples, of our right to development and peace. Let us revitalize the Non-Aligned Movement. Let us strengthen the G-77.
Fifth:
The modest objectives of the Millennium Declaration will not be met. We will reach the fifth anniversary of the Summit in a worse situation. We endeavored to halve by 2015 the 1.276 billion human beings in abject
poverty that existed in 1990. There had to be a yearly reduction
of 46 million poor people. However, excluding China,
between 1990 and 2000 extreme poverty rose by 28 million people.
Impoverishment does not decline, it grows.
We wanted to halve by 2015 the 842 million starving people recorded
in the world. There had to be a yearly reduction of 28 million.
However, there has barely been a reduction of 2.1 million
hungry people per year.At this rate,the goal would be attained by 2215, two hundred years after what was envisaged - and only if our species survives the destruction of its environment.
We proclaimed the aspiration to achieve universal primary education
by 2015. However, more than 120 million children, 1 in every 5
in that school age, do not attend primary school.According to UNICEF,
at the current rate the goal will be accomplished after 2100. We endeavored to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate
in children under five years of age.
The reduction is symbolic: out of 86 children who died per 1,000
live births in 1998, now the figure is 82. Every year,11 million
children continue to die of diseases that can be prevented or cured,
whose parents will rightfully wonder what our meetings are for.
We said that we would pay attention to Africa's special needs.
However, very little has been done.
African nations do not need foreign advice or models,
but financial resources and access to both markets and technologies.
Assisting Africa would not be an act of charity, but an act of justice; It would be tantamount to settling the historical debt
resulting from centuries of exploitation and pillage.
We undertook to put a halt to and start reverting the AIDS pandemic
by 2015.However, in 2003 it claimed nearly 3 million lives.
At this rate,by 2015 some 36 mil. people will have died of this cause.
Sixth:
Creditor countries and the international financial agencies will not seek a just and lasting solution to the foreign debt. They prefer to keep us in debt; that is, vulnerable. Therefore,
even though we have paid off US$ 4.1 trillion in debt service
over the last 13 years,our debt increased from US$ 1.4 trillion
to US$ 2.6 trillion. It means that we have paid 3 times
what we owed and now our debt is 2 ice as much.
Seventh:
We,as underdeveloped countries,are the ones that finance
the squandering and the opulence of developed countries.
While in 2003 they gave us US$ 68.400 billion in ODA,
we delivered to them US$ 436 billion as payment for the foreign debt.
Who is helping who?
Eighth:
The fight against terrorism can only be won through cooperation
among all nations and with respect for International Law,
and not through massive bombings or pre-emptive wars
against "dark corners of the world."
Hypocrisy and double standards must cease. Sheltering three Cuban-born
terrorists in the United States is an act of complicity to terrorism.
Punishing five Cuban youths who were fighting terrorism,
and punishing their families, is a crime.
Ninth:
General and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament,
is impossible today. It is the responsibility of a group of developed
countries that are the ones that most sell and buy weapons. However, we must continue to strive for it.
We must demand that the over US$ 900 billion set aside every year
for military expenditures be used on development; and
Tenth:
The financial resources to guarantee the sustainable development
for all the peoples on the planet are available, but what is lacking
is the political will of those who rule the world.
A development tax of merely 0.1% on international financial transactions
would generate resources amounting to almost US$ 400 billion per annum.
The cancellation of the foreign debt incurred by underdeveloped
countries would allow these to have available for their development
no less than US$ 436 billion on a yearly basis -
money which is currently used to pay off the debt.
If developed countries complied with their commitment to set aside 0.7% of their Gross National Product as ODA, their contribution would increase from the current US$ 68.400 billion to US$ 160 billion per annum.
Finally, Excellencies,
I want to clearly express Cuba's profound conviction
that the 6.4 billion human beings on this planet
- who have equal rights according to the United Nations Charter
- urgently need a new order in which the world is not left in suspense,
as is the case now, awaiting the outcome of the elections
in a new Rome in which only half the voters will participate
and nearly US$ 1.5 billion will be spent.
There is no discouragement in our words, I must say so clearly.
We are optimistic because we are revolutionaries.
We have faith in the struggle of the peoples and we are certain
that we will accomplish a new world order based on the respect
for the rights of all; an order based on solidarity,
justice and peace, resulting from the best
of universal culture and not from mediocrity or gross force.
About Cuba, which cannot be detoured from its course by blockades,
threats, hurricanes, droughts or human or natural force,
I will not say anything.
Next 28 October, for the 13th time, this General Assembly
will debate and vote on a resolution about the blockade
imposed against the Cuban people.
Once again, morality and principles will defeat arrogance and force.
I would like to conclude by recalling the words spoken right here 25 years ago by President Fidel Castro:
"The noise of weapons, of the menacing language,
of the haughtiness on the international scene must cease.
Enough of the illusion that the problems of the world
can be solved by nuclear weapons.
Bombs may kill the hungry, the sick and the ignorant,
but bombs cannot kill hunger, disease and ignorance.
Nor can bombs kill the righteous rebellion of the people."
Thank you very much.
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