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----- Original Message -----
From: NY Transfer News
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 7:12 AM
Subject: Radio Havana - WASHINGTON AND LONDON STRONGLY CRITICIZED FOR AFGHAN
PRISON MASSACRE
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 29 November 2001
WASHINGTON AND LONDON STRONGLY CRITICIZED
FOR AFGHAN PRISON MASSACRE
Geneva, November 29 (RHC)-- The United States and Britain are facing
growing international pressure to explain their role in the deaths of
up to 400 Taliban prisoners who were killed by U.S. warplanes and
Northern Alliance forces at an Afghan prison.
While Washington was forced to apologize for the high death toll, the
United Nations said its High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary
Robinson, would question the action during a visit to London.
Robinson said she would call for Northern Alliance forces that have
abused human rights to be barred from Afghanistan's future
government.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International called for an urgent inquiry into
how the estimated 400 prisoners were killed, after witnesses said
they had seen about 50 bodies lying in the courtyard, their hands
tied behind their backs.
According to the official story, they were killed in an uprising that
got out of control. Eyewitnesses reported that when the bombs by U.S.
warplanes failed to stop the prisoners, gasoline was poured into the
lower chambers of the prison-fortress and set on fire. As the Taliban
prisoners of war tried to escape the flames, a tank reportedly mowed
them down.
Also on Wednesday, Washington admitted that a CIA agent was killed in
the fighting and five U.S. Special Forces were injured by U.S. bombs.
One report claims that the CIA agent entered a cell with a large
number of prisoners to interrogate them, along with another CIA
operative. According to survivors, when one prisoner was asked why he
was in Afghanistan, he replied: "To kill people like you," and threw
himself on his interrogator. The CIA agent reportedly then shot four
prisoners dead before being overpowered and killed. The other agent
fled and called in U.S. warplanes, as the prisoners overpowered their
guards and the revolt began.
In other news, the Pentagon is also investigating a Reuters report
which said a senior Pashtun commander admitted executing 160 captured
Taliban soldiers after a battle last week in the town of Takteh Pol,
in southern Afghanistan, in the presence of U.S. military personnel.
A Northern Alliance commander is quoted as saying that nearly 160
prisoners were made to stand in a long line and Alliance soldiers
used light machine guns on them. The commander added that seven or
eight U.S. military personnel, who had been filming the fighting,
tried unsuccessfully to prevent the killings.
In an unrelated incident, the Pentagon has announced that during a
recent drop of humanitarian aid on Afghanistan, a woman and her child
were killed when a supply load landed on their house.
*US PRESSURES FOREIGN AIRLINES FOR LISTS OF PASSENGERS BEFORE US ARRIVAL
Washington, November 29 (RHC)-- Washington has informed foreign
airlines that their passengers arriving in the United States will be
put through extremely rigorous and lengthy searches if the airlines
do not provide manifest lists. According to recently signed
legislation, the passenger lists will help authorities identify what
they call "potential terrorists."
The new aviation security law, signed by President George W. Bush
last week, requires foreign carriers to cooperate. Under the law,
airlines had two months to begin the electronic transmission of
passenger lists for all flights to the United States. But Customs
officials have sent letters to the airlines saying that they must
comply earlier, by today - Thursday -- or else customs inspectors
will search "all hand-carried and checked baggage on every flight
arriving in the United States." According to authorities, the
searches could add hours to the clearance process for overseas
travelers.
U.S. Customs sent the ultimatum to 58 carriers, including Saudi
Arabian Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Pakistan International
Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Aeroflot and Air China.
For more than a decade, U.S. officials have been encouraging airlines
to participate in an automated system used to compare biographical
data on international air travelers with lists of so-called
"suspected terrorists" and criminals. The lists are compiled by law
enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The computer system, operated by the Customs Service, is known as the
Advance Passenger Information System. Customs officers have used the
system to check the names of 57 million travelers who entered the
United States on 387,000 flights last year. Those passengers
accounted for 85 percent of the 67 million air travelers arriving in
the United States.
More than 90 carriers have been voluntarily supplying data on
passengers. Airlines collect the information at the time of departure
and send it to the Customs Service and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service while the flight is en-route. Customs
authorities check the names against several databases, including the
Interagency Border Inspection System and the files of the National
Crime Information Center, maintained by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Suspects can be arrested or pulled aside for further
questioning after they land in the United States.
Under the new aviation security law, airlines no longer have a
choice. For each passenger and crew member, they must provide the
full name, date of birth, citizenship, sex, the number of the
passport and the country where it was Issued, the visa number or
green card number and other information as U.S. officials deem
necessary to ensure what they call "air safety."
Viewpoint:
*CUBA PREPARES FOR ANNUAL TOURIST RUSH AFTER HURRICANE MICHELLE
The Cuban tourist industry, key in the reactivation of the island's
economy, was hit hard by Hurricane Michelle, especially in the center
of the country.
Tourism installations were especially hard hit in Cienaga de Zapata,
a swampy area on Matanzas' southern coast and in the Carnarreos
Achipeligo, specifically, one of the island's premier resorts, Cayo
Largo del Sur. After evacuating the tourists, a group of local
service workers, stayed on braving the storm protect the buildings.
At the height of the dangerous Class-4 hurricane they were left
essentially incommunicado. Fortunately, no one was injured.
After the disastrous passage of Michelle, those workers joined forces
with others from different provinces to quickly begin recovery
efforts on lovely Cayo Largo, which boasts 25 kilometers of glorious
white sand beaches.
The ferocious storm almost did away with an ambitious development
plan underway on the southern key over the past three years, under
which the resort's hotels were to be remodeled.
Engineers, architects, technicians and construction workers have so
far renovated almost 400 of the key's existing hotel rooms.
As part of the plan, a new hotel was to open each year. At the end of
the year 2000 the Sol Club Cayo Largo opened its doors, bringing the
key's room capacity to a few more than a thousand. By 2003 that
figure is expected to triple.
Cuban tour officials in Cayo Largo say that bookings for the nine
weekly flights to the key are satisfactory. Those flights come mostly
from Canada, Germany, Italy and Argentina.
Recovery workers are laboring feverishly to re-open facilities in
time for the upcoming high season and the first vacationers will most
likely be lodged at the Sol Club Cayo Largo, which is operated
jointly by Cuba and the Spanish hotel chain, Sol Melia.
And even though all the hotels on Cayo Largo were severely damaged,
vacationers have already begun arriving on excursions from Havana and
Varadero Beach. In that way, a portion of the tour resort can be used
immediately: its beaches and its nautical activities, at least until
the hotels can open their doors.
Despite the serious damage done by Michelle and the undeniable impact
of the international economic crisis aggravated by the events of
September 11th in the United States, Cuba is working quickly and
efficiently to insure that it will be able to cope with tourist
demand over the busy winter months.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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