From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Radio Havana Cuba-21 January 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 21 January 2002 . *FIDEL WELCOMES FOREIGN MINISTERS OF PERU AND NEW ZEALAND *SOUTH AFRICA-CUBA WORKSHOP BEGINS SESSIONS IN HAVANA *FOREIGN INVESTMENT HELPS FOSTER DEVELOPMENT IN HOLQUIN PROVINCE *MATANZAS THERMOELECTRIC PLANT UNDERGOES REPAIRS *COLOMBIAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT REACH LAST-MINUTE AGREEMENT *US HAS LITTERED AFGHANISTAN WITH UNEXPLODED CLUSTER BOMBS *YASSER ARAFAT VOWS TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE FOR A SOVEREIGN STATE *SOUTH CAROLINA ACTIVISTS PROTEST CONFEDERATE FLAG AT STATE CAPITOL *Viewpont: TWO VIEWS ON ECUADOR . *FIDEL WELCOMES FOREIGN MINISTERS OF PERU AND NEW ZEALAND Havana, January 21 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro had separate meetings on Sunday with the Foreign Ministers of Peru, Diego García Sayán, and New Zealand, Phillip Golf. García Sayán delivered a letter to President Fidel Castro from his Peruvian counterpart, President Alejandro Toledo and also thanked the Cuban leader for the island's cooperation in training Peruvian experts in areas like health and sports. The top Peruvian diplomat traveled to the island invited by his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque. During his stay in Cuba, which concluded Sunday afternoon, various agreements were penned aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Lima and Havana. While on the island, the Peruvian foreign minister had a very packed agenda, which included official talks with other high-ranking Cuban officials and visits to places of historical, scientific and social interest such as the Latin American School of medicine. Also on Sunday, President Fidel Castro received the Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Phillip Golf and his delegation. During the talks in a cordial, friendly atmosphere, the Cuban leader and the top New Zealand diplomat exchanged information on the situation in both countries, as well as their respective views on different international issues and other topics of common interest. Phillip Golf is the first minister from New Zealand to visit Cuba since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1999. During his stay on the island, which concluded also Sunday afternoon, Phillip Golf, who is also New Zealand's Minister of Commerce and Justice, met with officials in the island's Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation and the Foreign Ministry. The New Zealand foreign minister signed the first cooperation agreement with his Cuba counterpart Felipe Perez Roque aimed at boosting trade and cooperation between the two nations. *SOUTH AFRICA-CUBA WORKSHOP BEGINS SESSIONS IN HAVANA Havana, January 21 (RHC)-- Experts from Cuba and South Africa are participating, from today in an international workshop to review the possibilities for bilateral cooperation in the area of biotechnology and related sciences. Speaking with reporters in Havana, the South African delegates expressed their interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation in this scientific area, in which Cuba has significant achievements over the past three decades. The event, which runs through Friday, includes conferences, seminars, plenary sessions and visits to centers of scientific interest in the Cuban capital. *FOREIGN INVESTMENT HELPS FOSTER DEVELOPMENT IN HOLQUIN PROVINCE Holguín, January 21 (RHC)-- The presence of foreign investors in the eastern Cuban province of Holguín has fostered the development of important economic sectors, among them the production of nickel, the brewing industry and tourism. According to Isidro Perez Mollinea, official from the Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation in Holguín, those mixed ventures are working extremely well, based on relations of mutual respect and understanding. There are currently two mixed enterprises established with foreign capital in Holguín -- Niguel de Moa and Bucanero Beer. According to an article in Options, the Cuban weekly business magazine, there are also two other economic associations operating with foreign capital, as well as three contracts for management production. The article also highlighted the growing potential for future investment operations in Holguín, primarily in the steel and fishing industries, as well as new possibilities in the tourism and nickel sectors. *MATANZAS THERMOELECTRIC PLANT UNDERGOES REPAIRS Matanzas, January 21 (RHC)-- Matanzas' Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant began on Monday a three-month repair and modernization process. The repairs and modernization works, at a cost of over 25 million dollars, are aimed at creating the conditions for the plant to operate with Cuban crude oil, surpassing the current levels of half a million tons a year. At the time, when the Matanzas thermoelectric plant resumes operations in April, it should be ready to generate up to 90 percent of the demand for electricity on the island, using Cuban crude oil. It would also save tens of thousands of dollars by substituting imported fuel. *COLOMBIAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT REACH LAST-MINUTE AGREEMENT Bogotá, January 21 (RHC)-- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the government of President Andres Pastrana reached a last minute agreement late Sunday night, keeping the country's peace process alive. The agreement, announced at a joint news conference by government peace commissioner Camilo Gomez and rebel leader Raul Reyes, canceled the government-declared deadline for reaching a ceasefire, which had been set for midnight last night. The two negotiators read out a 12-point communiqué in which they agreed to immediately begin talks aimed at signing a ceasefire deal by April 7th. The accord also calls for the participation of an international verification commission to mediate disagreements and monitor each side's compliance with promises made at the peace table. In addition, Colombia's political parties and civic leaders will be invited to the peace talks over the next few weeks to participate in the negotiations. James LeMoyne, the U.N. special peace envoy for Colombia, praised the agreement, saying it is "a defined structure to begin discussing real themes." He noted that while the road ahead is not free of obstacles, at least there is a real chance to achieve peace in the future. The government also agreed to discuss the issue of paramilitary forces. Known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, paramilitary troops do not enjoy political recognition by the Pastrana government and have no formal place at the peace table. The group frequently works alongside the military and has been responsible for numerous massacres of civilians. *US HAS LITTERED AFGHANISTAN WITH UNEXPLODED CLUSTER BOMBS Kabul, January 21 (RHC)-- Thousands of Afghans who fled their homes during the war cannot go back because their houses, fields and villages are littered with unexploded remnants of U.S. cluster bombs. Some experts say that nearly 20 percent of the "bomblets" dropped by war planes failed to explode on impact. According to a British-based, non-governmental de-mining organization -- the Halo Trust -- the small canisters with white parachutes are silent killers. A spokesman for the NGO, Robert Gannon, told reporters that the unexploded cluster bombs are particularly dangerous for children, who often mistake them for toys. He said that over the past several weeks, seven children have been killed while playing with bomblets in a village near Mazar-I-Sharif. Eyewitnesses say that ten cluster bombs hit the village in October, scattering an estimated 2000 bomblets -- many still active. Each cluster bomb releases 202 BLU-97 bomblets, which look like yellow soda cans and spread shrapnel over a wide area when they explode. The bombs, used during U.S. bombing campaigns in the Gulf War and Kosovo, have been widely criticized by human rights groups because so many fail to explode. A recent report by Human Rights Watch noted that when bomblets fail to detonate on impact, they essentially act as land mines that can explode from a simple touch. The Washington, DC-based organization has called for a moratorium on the use of cluster bombs. Examples of the dangerous situation are evident in Denar Kheil, one of more than 100 cluster-bomb sites in the country identified by the United Nations Mine Action Center in Afghanistan. According to the UN agency, there was little danger to civilians when the anti-personnel bombs were dropped, because residents had fled to refugee camps in Pakistan or Iran to escape the fighting. But now the bomb-infested areas prevent thousands of displaced persons from returning home. The UN Office of High Commissioner for Refugees is reportedly hard at work resettling Afghans in areas cleared of mines and bombs. But many, unaware of the dangers that are littered throughout fields and villages, are returning on their own. Relief agencies are issuing dire warnings, urging families to check first with authorities before trying to get back home -- to see if their old neighborhood has been turned into a giant minefield. *YASSER ARAFAT VOWS TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE FOR A SOVEREIGN STATE Ramallah, January 21 (RHC)-- The President of the Palestine National Authority Yasser Arafat says he will continue to fight for a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, even if it costs him his life. Speaking to a group of Palestinian intellectuals in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he has been surrounded by Israeli military forces, the Palestinian leader said it was not the first time, nor the last time, that his people have been under siege. He recalled Tel Aviv's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Israeli forces besieged the Palestinian leader and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was defense minister at the time. Yasser Arafat said his cause is just and that he and the Palestinian people would not back down from their legitimate rights. And he also said that despite difficult times, he would continue to seek peace with Israel -- but not at the cost of selling out Palestinian autonomy. Over the past 16 months, more than 1000 people have been killed -- more than 800 of them Palestinians. *SOUTH CAROLINA ACTIVISTS PROTEST CONFEDERATE FLAG AT STATE CAPITOL Columbia, South Carolina, January 21 (RHC)-- Civil rights activists will begin picketing border crossings into the U.S. State of South Carolina next month, in a new wave of protests aimed at removing the Confederate battle flag from the state's capitol building. According to officials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), South Carolina removed the flag from atop the statehouse dome and re-raised on the statehouse lawn -- the result of a compromise reached by the state legislature after a six-month economic boycott of the state led by the NAACP. But many civil rights activists continue to oppose flying the Confederate emblem, which they associate with slavery and discrimination, on state grounds. Today, a holiday to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the NAACP held a rally in South Carolina's capital of Columbia to formally announce its action plan. The civil rights group said that in the next 30 days, NAACP members would set up "informational pickets" on interstate highways just inside the South Carolina border. Dwight James, the executive director of the organization's South Carolina chapter, said the NAACP would also staff information booths at rest stops and start a billboard campaign. The state highway patrol said it was aware of the group's plans but would not comment on how it would respond to the roadside picketing. The state NAACP launched its boycott in January 2000, when the Confederate flag flew atop the statehouse dome along with the state flag and the U.S. flag. The Confederate flag was first raised over the capitol in the early 1960s during the centennial of the Civil War. By April 2000, a spokesman for the state's tourism board estimated the boycott had cost South Carolina $20 million in tourist revenues. The next month, the legislature passed a compromise bill and the Confederate battle flag was moved that summer. But the NAACP said the legislation did not go far enough, calling the flag an offensive symbol of racism, associated with bigotry and oppression. *Viewpont: TWO VIEWS ON ECUADOR Officially, Ecuador is emerging from the general crisis, which has made the country ungovernable over the past five years. In 2001, the Gross Domestic Product grew by 5.3 per cent, the largest registered in Latin America. The South American nation also managed to lower inflation and its soaring unemployment rate. On the surface, these successes appear to be linked to the dollarization of Ecuador's economy, a measure applied since 2000 by the government of Gustavo Noboa. According to Economy Minister, Carlos Julio Emanuel, dollarization stabilized the economy, pushed up the GDP, reduced inflation and sparked an increase in investment. Last Tuesday, in his annual report to Congress, Noboa spoke about his economic policies and announced that during the last year of his term, the economy will be more competitive and open to entering international markets and attracting more foreign investment. "Closed economies run by the state fail," he stated. The problem is that Noboa's optimistic view is in sharp contrast to that of many sectors of Ecuadoran society. This is reflected in a private survey done by the Cadatos-Gallup company. According to that public opinion poll, only a third of Ecuadorans agree with their leader. The leader of the National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organizations, Pedro de la Cruz, declared that Noboa "lives in another reality, not in the reality of our country." De la Cruz explained that though inflation has dropped in sucres, the national currency, it remains in the clouds in dollars, which is more serious. What's more, he warned that speculation is out of control, especially in the prices of basic necessities, some of which have tripled. "Noboa stated that the jobless rate fell from 16.8 to 9.5 per cent, but what he doesn't say is that is because the majority of Ecuador's skilled labor force have left the country." Since January 2, students have mounted huge street demonstrations in a number of cities, though the largest have taken place in Quito, the capital. Police have violently attacked the demonstrators. On January 11th, 16 year-old, Damian Ponce was shot to death as he demonstrated against the government economic policies in the central Andean city of Cuenca. The political-social situation could quickly deteriorate after the break off of talks between the principal labor organizations and business, so that another wave of strikes can be expected. But perhaps the worst thing is that an International Monetary Fund mission arrives next week to examine the state of the national economy in the framework of negotiations to sign a new Letter of Intent. Of course, the Ecuadoran president thinks things are going just fine in his country and as he put it: relations with the IMF couldn't be better. But what about relations with the Ecuadoran people? (c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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