By IANS
United Nations : Cuba’s delegation staged a walk out at the UN General Assembly during a speech by President George W. Bush that criticised Havana on human rights, Spanish news agency EFE reported Wednesday.
A Cuban diplomat said afterward that the US head of state was in no position to pass judgement on other nations.
“Bush is a criminal and has no moral authority or credibility to judge any other country,” the Cuban delegation said in a statement to EFE.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque is representing Cuba at the UN General Assembly.
The Cuban team walked out of the General Assembly Tuesday when they heard Bush’s references to lack of freedom on the island.
“In Cuba, the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end,” the US president said, referring to the ailing Fidel Castro’s delegation of power to his younger brother Raul.
“The Cuban people are ready for their freedom. And as that nation enters a period of transition, the United Nations must insist on free speech, free assembly, and ultimately, free and competitive elections.”
Bush, who used his address to extol the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed six decades ago, mentioned other countries, such as Iran, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, against which Washington has already announced new sanctions.
A Cuban statement said it staged the walk out at the General Assembly as a “sign of deep rejection of President Bush’s arrogant and mediocre address.
“Bush is responsible for the murders of more than 600,000 civilians in Iraq, authorised the torture of prisoners at the (US) naval base in Guantanamo (on Cuban soil) and the kidnapping of people, clandestine flights and secret prisons,” the statement said.
“Cuba condemns and rejects every letter of his despicable diatribe,” the text added.