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Cuba accused the United State at the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday of systematically abducting people under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

During the afternoon debate on the report condemning forced abductions, Cuban delegate Yuri Gala said that the incumbent US administration has resorted to arbitrary detentions and other cruel treatment.

We must not forget that the United States, and particularly its ill-famed School of the Americas, played a key role in training those responsible for mass and flagrant human rights violations, Gala added.

He noted that the United States imposed and sponsored military dictatorships in Latin America for decades, and that Washington s logistical support and assistance allowed increased coordination among regional intelligence services.

That contributed to improving the exchange of information and prisoners, as well as carrying out joint assassinations, part of the well-known Operation Condor, the Cuban diplomat said.

Unfortunately, people are still abducted and held in secret places, where they are tortured or murdered, Gala said, alluding to Washington’s secret flights and illegal prison camps all over the world.

Cuba grants special importance to the need to strengthen international efforts to fight forced and involuntary abductions by taking actions and measures to prevent those horrible violations anywhere in the world, Gala said.

He called on the Council s working group to continue to follow up on the issue, adding that the General Assembly s International Convention to protect abduction victims was a big step forward.

Gala stressed that Cuba reaffirms the importance that those responsible for such acts should not benefit from amnesty, prescription, caducity, pardon or any similar measure, as impunity prevents truth and justice from prevailing.

Cuba denounced the United States to the World Trade Organization for usurpation of Cuban labels of acknowledged international prestige.

The protest referred to the systematic disregard by the US government over decisions made with the WTO and the serious consequences of incompliance of agreements on intellectual property.

Cuban representatives referred to the denial of the US Office of Patents and Labels to grant a license to renew the Havana Club label, arguing political reasons.

Six other delegations, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Brazil, India, China and Argentina supported Cuban concerns and demands while the United States has continued twiddling its thumbs for five years claiming it is trying to solve the problem.

Meanwhile projects introduced in the Senate by Florida intend to introduce cosmetic changes to laws and continue usurping Cuban labels.

The Venezuelan delegation, for its part, supported the Island s demands and said that a refusal to renew the registration of Havana Club sends an inappropriate and disturbing message since ownership of intellectual property cannot be subject to political considerations.

Finally the Nicaraguan mission stated that US incompliance risks the balance between rights and obligations by WTO members.

Cuba is due to open three ophthalmologic hospitals in Nicaragua, to provide free surgery to patients with cataracts, a project to start in this capital.

According to statements by the island’s new ambassador to this Central American country Luis Hernandez the first four Cuban physicians will open the first ophthalmologic center in the outskirts of Managua, and are expected to arrive in next days.

Hernandez, who presented their credentials on Tuesday, said that the other two clinics, with a capacity for 80 patients daily, are located in the main cities from both autonomous regions of North and South Atlantic, Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields.

These eye centers will avoid to transfer Nicaraguan patients to Havana and Caracas, as part of the Operation Miracle, which has benefited so far over 2,000 people since its beginning in the Central American nation in June.

As part of the strengthening of bilateral relations after the arrival of the Sandinista government to power, Cuba also collaborates in eliminating illiteracy, with the “Yo Si Puedo” (Yes, I Can), recalled the ambassador.

Cuba will observe the high level session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, at which Cuban Chancellor Felipe Perez Roque explained to Prensa Latina there are allies of the United States trying to draw out its formation.

“Cuba was elected with 135 votes, while the United States refrained from submitting to a secret ballot. Even so, Washington and its friends wish to prolong the construction of the council refusing to debate with the current Directive Board or its members,” he added.

“They wish to return the HRC to its status of inquisitorial court to condemn nations of the Third World while looking the other way on issues like secret jails, torture in the Guantanamo Naval base and other instances,” he added.

Perez Roque, who again referred to the ties of NAM and UNESCO, will deliver his speech on Tuesday.

Referring to relations of the European Union (EU) with Cuba, the diplomat pointed out that, “unfortunately there is no policy towards our country.”

The so-called Common Position imposed during the Aznar government in Spain “is a faithful copy of the policy of hostility of Washington towards Cuba,” he explained, although some in the European bloc realize that it is not playing a role regarding Cuba.

“We desire a broad and respectful relationship, but for that the EU must look towards Havana and not towards Washington or Miami,” he stressed.

He concluded that “Bush has no moral authority to dictate what we should do; we are an independent and sovereign state and in our land we do what we Cubans want.”

The International Committee for the release of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in the US for over eight years called for worldwide women to demand the right of visits for their wives.

That committee exhorted to carry out an international campaign of solidarity from March 8 to May 14, in agreement with International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day.

The Five, as Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez are universally known, were detained in Miami in 1998 for monitoring terrorist groups responsible of violent actions against Cuba.

Criminal activities of those anti-Cuban organizations have killed almost 1,500 people, injured over 2,000 and left considerable material losses over more than four decades.

To those unfair and excessive sentences against the Cuban Five, four life imprisonments and 74 years of hard time, is included a cruel punishment to their relatives, impeding mothers, wives and children from visiting them, the Committee stated in a document.

The International Committee for the release of the Five aims to demand visas for Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva on occasion of International Women’s Day.