BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS

UNITED NATIONS - Washington failed in its objective of using the February 24 shootdown by the Cuban air force of two hostile aircraft over Cuba's territorial waters to gain international support for further punitive measures against Havana.

On June 27 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a resolution on the incident that was a far cry from what Washington was seeking.

One month later, on July 26, the U.S. government got a watered-down version of the resolution it wanted passed by the United Nations Security Council. In an article headlined "UN won't punish Cuba in downing of planes," the July 27 New York Times said, "Unable to gain international support for strong action against Cuba over the shooting down of two civilian planes in February, the Clinton administration got backing today for only a mild resolution of regret over the incident."

The ICAO resolution reaffirmed "the principle that States must refrain from the use of weapons against civil aircraft." It also said that "each Contracting State shall take appropriate measures to prohibit the deliberate use of any civil aircraft registered in that State or operated by an operator who has his principal place of business or permanent residence in that State for any purpose inconsistent with the aims of the Convention on International Civil Aviation."

Members of Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group led by Cuban counterrevolutionaries with a long record of terrorist actions, piloted three Cessna aircraft that repeatedly violated Cuba's airspace February 24. Two of the three planes were shot down after ignoring unambiguous warnings by Cuban air traffic controllers and air force jets. The third plane, piloted by the group's head, José Basulto, returned to Florida. The Cuban government reports that this invasion of Cuban airspace was the 10th such violation over the past 20 months. Washington has acknowledged many of these violations but refused to stop them.

The ICAO resolution did not condemn the Cuban government for the action it took on February 24, nor did it state that the two planes were downed in international waters. The White House had campaigned fiercely for inclusion of both such provisions.

Washington has used this claim to justify passage of the so- called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act - also known as the Helms-Burton law - which escalates its economic war on Cuba. It was also hoping to use the conclusions of the ICAO to press for further sanctions, such as a UN resolution demanding reparations to the families of those killed during the downing.

The ICAO resolution took note of a report by the ICAO secretary general, which was based on an investigation by an ICAO commission and concluded that Havana downed the two "civilian" planes over international waters, not in Cuba's airspace. The resolution said the investigative report would be forwarded it to the United Nations Security Council. But the ICAO council refrained from approving that report.

Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, headed Cuba's delegation at the June 26-27 ICAO council meeting in Montreal. In a press conference after that meeting he said that Washington failed in its quest to assure a condemnation of Cuba. Cuban delegates also said that U.S. secretary of transportation Federico Peña acknowledged before the vote that the final resolution was substantially different from what his government pushed for.

"The Americans made very strong efforts to express condemnation of Cuba in the resolution," said Abelardo Moreno, a spokesman for the Cuban consulate in Montreal. "The final resolution shows very clearly that the Americans cannot manipulate the ICAO council."

On June 20 U.S. undersecretary of state Peter Tarnoff had held a press conference at the White House where he quoted from the investigative report, which ICAO council members had not seen yet. "While Mr. Tarnoff was meeting with journalists at the White House," Alarcón said at a June 24 press conference in Havana, "representatives of sovereign states on the ICAO council in the city of Montreal were wondering what had just been published that morning in the Miami Herald and reprinted in other U.S. media announcing Tarnoff's press conference and referring to the report," which they themselves hadn't received.

Cuban authorities cooperated fully with the ICAO investigators and allowed them to interview Cubans involved with the incident. Washington, on the other hand, stonewalled for two months and refused to provide pertinent radar data to ICAO. Besides U.S. officials, the ICAO team interviewed only one person: José Basulto. The evidence in its report allegedly substantiating the claim that the planes were downed over international waters comes from eyewitness reports from crew members of a fishing vessel and cruise ship that supposedly were close to the scene at the time. But ICAO investigators acknowledged at the hearings in Montreal they never interviewed a single crew member or passenger of these vessels. Their information came from assertions by the U.S. authorities.

While the U.S. government had announced it would quickly push for a vote to condemn Havana at the UN Security Council, the result of the ICAO meeting in Montreal seemed to slow them down. The big business press carried virtually no news coverage of the results of the Montreal resolution. Alarcón and other Cuban diplomats waited for 20 days in New York before the Security Council was convened.

The Security Council finally approved a resolution with 13 votes in favor. Russia and China abstained. This document endorsed both the ICAO resolution and the findings of the investigative report and "expressed deep regret over the loss of four lives." It described the February 24 incident as an "unlawful shooting down by the Cuban air force of two civilian aircraft." And it called upon Cuba "to join other states in complying with their obligations" under international aviation provisions.

But even this resolution stopped short of calling for punitive measures against Cuba.

Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and part of the Cuban delegation at the Security Council, spoke at a celebration of the July 26 attack on Moncada, which marked the start of the Cuban revolutionary war in 1953.

He described the UN Security Council as a "den of thieves dominated by the U.S." during his address at the July 27 event, sponsored by the group Casa de las Américas. "We don't like the Security Council resolution, because it's based on distortions and lies," he said. "But even there, at the most undemocratic UN body, the United States didn't quite get what it wanted.

"Standing transparently with the truth and determined to defend our sovereignty and independence at any cost is the best weapon we have against the most powerful empire on the earth."  
 
 
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