PRENSA LATINA MARCH 2005
A Negative Vote by the Commission on Human Rights on Guantanamo Motion Would be Very Embarrassing
Geneva, Apr 19 (Prensa Latina) It would be shameful if the UN Commission on Human Rights dismisses the Cuban motion on the situation of the prisoners held in Guantanamo, warned Alfred Zayas, UN official and international law expert.
Zayas, a Professor at the University of Geneva, said that the Cuban motion takes into account the European Parliament and the Covenants on civil and political rights, as well as Commission proceedings.
The UNCHR has a shameful history on this issue, and the Cuban initiative draws attention to the several refusals to allow rapporteurs access to the detention center the US runs at the illegal naval base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba.
Zayas explained the EU silence at two consultations on the Cuban motion about the situation of the prisoners at the US military enclave by the fact that although the Commission is located in Geneva, decisions are in reality made in the capitals of the countries on which Washington has a tight grip.
"I know ambassadors and ministers that confess their horror at the way the White House has subverted international law and corrupted human rights", he stressed.
He noted that although there is pressure on poor nations, developed states do not escape either, and he recalled the boycott on French wine and other products in response to the French rejection of the war on Iraq. "And that is all accompanied by a press drive, with a chauvinism in the worst taste," he added.
The professor said the naval base in Guantanamo has been attacked by the media in Switzerland, Germany, France and Canada, both for the situation of the detainees as well as for the military occupation, and concern over Cuba"s sovereignty and self-determination.
"We are shedding light on this in good time. Very few knew of the lease contracted in February 1903, that the US had forced on the Island from 1898," he said about the Platt Amendment. "The Bush Administration is even violating that treaty since the enclave is just for naval and coal exploitation."
"It is surrealistic to think that the lease on 73.03 miles of Cuba would grant legal status to that prison, which is also a center of torture," he added.
As a UN official, Prof. Zayas has witnessed the well-attended discussions of the Cuban motion with members of the CHR members, observer countries and non governmental organizations.
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