Cuba Permanent
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HAVANA (IPS)�The Cuban parliament has paved the way for a lawsuit against the United States based on accusations that the nearly 40-year-old economic embargo against the island constitutes an act of "genocide" against the Cuban people.

The lawsuit would invoke international conventions signed by both the United States and Cuba and would be based on a Proclamation by the Cuban parliament.

The proclamation, approved by Parliament Sept. 13, could be brought before an international institution with the authority to take on such a suit, said Remigio Ferro, president of the Supreme People�s Court.

Mr. Ferro added that the case was not likely to be accepted, however, by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the statute for the creation of which was approved in June 1998 in Rome.

The ICC will be subject to the decisions of the United Nations Security Council, he pointed out, and thus to the decisions of the United States itself as a permanent member enjoying veto power.

"The attempt was to create a foundation of facts and arguments revealing the embargo as an act of genocide, an offense that can be tried by a national court, because although it is an international crime, it is contemplated by the national legislation of almost all countries," said Mr. Ferro.

According to Cuba, the embargo imposed in 1960 has caused more than $65 billion in economic losses and has seriously affected the living standards, health and nutrition levels of the Caribbean island�s population of more than 11 million.

A 1997 study by the Washington-based American Association for World Health found that the embargo against Cuba has had a devastating impact on the health of Cuban women, children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

Following a year-long study, nine doctors from the American Association for World Health found that the tightening of the embargo in 1992 resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of patients lacking essential drugs and the number of doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment in Cuba.

They said the declining availability of food, medicines and such basic supplies as parts for 30-year-old X-ray machines was taking "a tragic human toll" in Cuba.

The report pointed out that as most major drugs were developed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies, Cuban doctors had access to less than half of the new medicines available on the world market.

The parliamentary proclamation vindicates the right of "Cuban courts to try and sanction, in their presence or absence," those accused of "a grave, systematic genocide that has continued for 40 years."

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, approved in 1958, describes genocide as the "intentional subjection" of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group to conditions that lead to their total or partial physical destruction.

Signed by the United States in 1948 and by Cuba in 1949, the convention also stipulates that anyone found guilty of genocide, whether a government official or private individual, is subject to punishment.

Havana also bases its case on the Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, dating back to 1949 and ratified by 188 states, including Cuba and the United States.

The convention declares that each signatory state is to permit the free transit to another country, even enemy territory in time of war, of medical supplies and other provisions needed by the civilian population.

Article 54 of the convention prohibits subjecting civilians to hunger as a method of war.

Not even in time of war is it permitted to block access by civilians to food, medicine and other indispensable provisions, points out the parliamentary proclamation now circulating around UN offices and among influential U.S. personalities.

Moreover, the United States and Cuba "are not at war," and "diplomatic offices are even maintained in Havana and Washington."

If the lawsuit is filed, it will be complementary to a suit filed in Cuban courts in July demanding $181.1 million from the United States for the deaths of 3,478 people and the permanent disability of 2,099.

The president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarc�n, said U.S. hostility towards Cuba did not arise after the 1959 triumph of the revolution headed by Fidel Castro, but dated back to the 19th century, because of the keen interest of U.S. officials in gaining control over the island.

The proclamation also cites several declassified U.S. documents that proposed "measures of economic warfare" back in 1959.

An official State Department document dated April 6, 1960, states the need to deprive Cuba of money and supplies and diminish real salaries in order to cause "hunger and desperation," and trigger the overthrow of the government.