Ghana votes against embargo on Cuba

Ghana, on Tuesday, November 4, 2003 at a UN General Assembly Session voted in favour of a resolution on the necessity of ending the 40 years old economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba.

A statement the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued in Accra on Thursday said the resolution was adopted by a vote of 179 in favour with Israel, Marshall Island and United States voting against it and Morocco and Micronesia, abstaining.

It said the Assembly expressed its concern that since its earlier resolution on the matter in 1991, further measures had been taken by the U.S. to strengthen and extend the restrictions, which adversely affected the Cuban people and Cuba nationals living in other countries.

In its statement, the United States delegate proffered that the draft resolution on the lifting of the embargo against Cuba constituted an attempt by that country to detract attention from its deplorable track record on human rights.

The Delegate said the embargo was basically a bilateral issue between the United States and Cuba and contended that the embargo had been imposed after the illegal large-scale expropriation of U.S. properties for which the Cuba Government had never offered any indemnification.

The embargo had been re-affirmed by successive United States Administrations as a means of continued pressure for restoring democracy in Cuba, adding, however, that the US had offered to relax its embargo in response to political and economic reforms in Cuba; the formation of independent trade unions and the conduct of free and fair elections to the Cuba National Assembly.

The delegate said President George Bush had stated clearly that if those reforms were carried out, he would prevail upon Congress to relieve trade and travel restrictions to Cuba.

However, Cuba, the Delegate said, had shown no interest in carrying out practical economic or political reforms.

The statement said Mr Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Foreign Minister, in response charged that economic, financial and trade blockade against Cuba qualified under the Geneva Convention as a crime of genocide that also violated the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

He said the only human rights violations occurring in Cuba were those United States had spawned with its mercenaries operating on Cuban soil.

The embargo, the Minister said, had affected Cuba's full realization of basic human rights, such as the right to health and education because both sectors had been acutely affected by the embargo regulations.

The Cuba Foreign Minister concluded that far from surrendering, Cubans were more united than ever and had tapped new sources of strength to preserve their sovereignty and freedoms.

In a statement delivered on behalf of the group of 77 and China, the Moroccan delegate indicated that the embargo imposed against Cuba was a unilateral action whose extra-territorial effects had no validity in international law and called on the United States to immediately lift the embargo to allow the free flow of international trade.

It recalled that the Group of 77 and China had at its 2000 South-South Summit held in Havana underscored its concern about the impact of economic sanctions on civilian population and the development capacity of targeted countries.

It is worthy to point out that support for the resolution increased by six votes, from 173 at the 57th session of the General Assembly to 179 at the current session.

The outcome of the vote basically reaffirms the continued opposition of the international community to the embargo's extra-territorial implication and its violation of the tenets of international law.