Cuba alleges pressure from US distorted summit document

granma.cu: Cuba has revealed irregularities and a lack of transparency in the negotiating process for the approved document to be submitted to a summit of heads of state and government here that is beginning at the close of this edition, Prensa Latina reports.

Abelardo Moreno, deputy foreign minister, affirmed during the closing of the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly that the document contains omissions and distortions of issues previously agreed upon or which do not appear, and that this is the result of pressure from the United States.

Likewise, Moreno criticized one of the paragraphs in the section titled "Responsibility for protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity." He stated: "The positions adopted in these paragraphs do nothing to guarantee the prevention of the double standards, politicization and selectivity that have up until now characterized this organization's human rights agencies."

The deputy minister described as negative the non-inclusion of the disarmament issue, at least in language similar to that used in the Millennium Summit, and warned that it "could create a disastrous precedent for the UN's work."

Lastly, Moreno commented that it was shameful that the paragraphs related to development, particularly trade, should be so weak that they fail to reflect Third World interests.

After three weeks of heated discussions on issues of development, human rights, terrorism, disarmament and a new interventionist concept known as responsibility for protection, the select group of negotiators concluded their proposal without even the substance of the original draft presented six months ago.

Cuba has already charged that the attention of the UN General Assembly has been diverted toward a supposed reform that, far from making it more democratic, seeks to subject it even more to the interests of the powerful. Link