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Cuba withdraws Guantanamo resolution at UN Human Rights body
Geneva, Apr 23: Cuba withdrew a resolution from the top UN human rights body calling for an investigation of treatment of terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo, avoiding a showdown with the United States.
Geneva, Apr 23: Cuba withdrew a resolution from the top UN human rights body calling for an investigation of treatment of terrorism suspects at the US naval base at
Guantanamo, avoiding a showdown with the United States.
Citing US "threats and blackmail," Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mora Godoy told the UN Human Rights Commission he would not ask for a vote on the motion, which claimed widespread rights abuses against detainees.
Washington is holding more than 600 individuals from 44 countries at the base, a US-controlled enclave on the easternmost end of Cuba. Havana likely feared the Commission would fail to back its attempt to condemn the United States, said US delegation head Richard Williamson, who called the Cuban resolution a "stunt."
"They tried to withdraw and do it gracefully. But a loss is a loss is a loss," Williamson told reporters. Mora Godoy accused the United States of "fascist practices," saying US bullied other governments on the 53-nation commission to ensure the failure the resolution.
He accused US officials of threatening specially those countries whose citizens are held at Guantanamo to block the detainees' release or transfer to justice authorities in their homelands. In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said, "We are going to continue pursuing this issue. We will bring back this project at the appropriate time. The issue is alive."
Bureau Report
Washington is holding more than 600 individuals from 44 countries at the base, a US-controlled enclave on the easternmost end of Cuba. Havana likely feared the Commission would fail to back its attempt to condemn the United States, said US delegation head Richard Williamson, who called the Cuban resolution a "stunt."
"They tried to withdraw and do it gracefully. But a loss is a loss is a loss," Williamson told reporters. Mora Godoy accused the United States of "fascist practices," saying US bullied other governments on the 53-nation commission to ensure the failure the resolution.
He accused US officials of threatening specially those countries whose citizens are held at Guantanamo to block the detainees' release or transfer to justice authorities in their homelands. In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said, "We are going to continue pursuing this issue. We will bring back this project at the appropriate time. The issue is alive."
Bureau Report