UN adopts 17th resolution urging end to US embargo on Cuba
UN: The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a
resolution urging the United States to end its unilateral embargo
against Cuba, the 17th consecutive year that an overwhelming majority in
the assembly have supported the measure.
The resolution, entitled “Necessity of ending the economic,
commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America
against Cuba,” cleared the 192-member assembly with a vote of 185 for,
three against and two abstentions. The United States, Israel, Palau
voted against the resolution. Marshall Islands, which cast the “no” vote
last year, and Micronesia abstained.
During the three-hour plenary session of the General Assembly,
representatives from many countries and groupings criticized
Washington’s embargo and sanctions against Cuba for almost half a
century.
“Seven out of 10 Cubans have spent their entire lives under this
irrational and useless policy, which attempts with no success to bring
our people to their knees,” Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque
said.
“The blockade is older than Mr. Barak Obama (U.S. Democratic
presidential candidate) and everyone in my generation,” said Roque, who
was born in March 1965. Branding the embargo on Cuba as “a genocidal and
illegal policy,” the Cuban foreign minister said direct accumulated
damages caused by the blockade exceeded 93 billion U.S. dollars, almost
twice the size of Cuba’s gross domestic product, citing “very
conservative estimates.”
He urged Washington to end its “brutal economic war on a global
scale” and spare the Cuban people of more prolonged suffering.
Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who spoke on behalf of
the Group of 77 and China, condemned “the use of economic coercive
measures designed to prevent countries from exercising their right to
decide their own political, economic and social systems,” urging all
countries “not to recognize the unilateral, extraterritorial laws which
have imposed sanctions on other states and foreign companies.”
“The embargo against Cuba contravenes the fundamental norms of
international law, international humanitarian law, United Nations
Charter, and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among
states,” Ashe said, “Its continued imposition violates the principles of
the sovereign equality of states, and of non-intervention and
non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs.”
The representative of Guyana, who spoke on behalf of the Caribbean
Community (Caricom), expressed concern and solidarity with the people of
Cuba.
“When viewed in light of Cuba’s own sacrifices, and selfless
assistance to other states in times of crisis, such an embargo seems
particularly ill-conceived,” he said.
South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo hailed Cuba’s extension of
friendship and solidarity to other people around the world.
“It is not unusual to find Cuban doctors and Cuban nurses in many
parts of Latin America and Africa,” Kumalo said, “Cuba’s outstanding
work in the areas of health, education, and biotechnology is recognized
by the international community.”
New York, Thursday, Xinhua
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