Cuba presses UN on terrorism

Cuba presses UN on terrorism

NEW YORK — The United Nations Security Council "is not and cannot be allowed to become, a secret society or private club", Cuban ambassador Ricardo Alarcon said on May 14.

Alarcon was commenting on a UN spokesperson's statement that a Cuban request for a Security Council discussion of US acts of terrorism against Cuba was being handled entirely in private consultations.

Cuba continues to build its case for the extradition of two terrorists being harboured by the United States. That demand is included in the Cuban request to the Security Council.

On May 8, Cuba presented the council with copies of secret US Justice Department documents which prove that Washington deliberately withheld crucial information in the case of two anti-Cuban terrorists who masterminded the midair bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados in 1976, which killed 73 passengers and crew on board.

Alarcon handed over a document dated June 23, 1989, and signed by Joe D. Whitley, then assistant to the US attorney general, confirming that Orlando Bosch Luis Posada Cariles jointly organised the bombing.

The existence of this and other documents was concealed when Venezuela tried the two terrorists, resulting in their acquittal.
[From Radio Havana/Pegasus.]

From GLW issue 57