Cuba's ten truths

In a very strong statement to the UN General Assembly meeting 
in New York last week the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 
Republic of Cuba, Felipe Pirez Roque, denounced the present 
unjust and dangerous world situation.

He said in his opening remarks that, "Every year at the United 
Nations we go through the same ritual. We attend the general 
debate knowing beforehand that the clamour 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 their 
arrogance and 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 Cuba will now tell some truths:

First: After the aggression on Iraq, there is no United Nations 
Organisation, 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 near 60 
years. It pales, it pants, it feigns, but it does not work.

Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? 
President Bush.

Withdraw troops

Second: US troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq.

After the lives of over 1,000 American youths were 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 people in revolt is to recognise 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; the Security Council will not be democratised 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 defence of the sacred interests of our peoples, of our 
right to development and peace. Let us revitalise the Non-Aligned 
Movement. Let us strengthen the G-77.

Objectives not accomplished

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 endeavoured 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 endeavoured 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 reversing 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 [in addition to the 30 million to-date].

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$68.4 billion in ODA [overseas 
development aid], 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

Hypocrisy and double standards must cease. Sheltering three 
Cuban-born terrorists in the United States is an act of 
complicity in 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$68.4 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.

Optimistic

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 October 28, 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, the menacing language, and 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.