[Marxism] Perez Roque statement to UN General Assembly (text)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Essential summary of the Cuban government's take on
the world situation today, the impact of Wasington's
war of aggression and occupation of Iraq, and what's
now confronting the rest of the world, particularly
the countries of the Third World in light of Iraq.)
======================================================

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Second: US troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq.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 accomplished. 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 million 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 three times what we owed and now our debt is
twice 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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