Third Anniversary of Historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Third Anniversary of Historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration
Speech at 3rd Anniversary of June 15 Joint Declaration, London, June 13, 2003
The Situation in the DPRK and the Struggle of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean People

More Than One Million March in Havana Against European Union Provocations
We Will Not Concede One Iota of Our Sovereignty: President Fidel Castro
Slanderous Campaigns Only Strengthen Our Decision to Struggle: President Fidel Castro
Massive Cuban Response to European Capitulation
Cuba Withdraws from Agreement on Spanish Cultural Centre in Havana
For Your Information: European Union Policy on Cuba

A reception to mark the third anniversary of the historic June 15 Joint Declaration of north and south Korea was co-hosted by the New Communist Party and RCPB(ML) on June 13. Activists and friends of the two parties attended.

Guests of honour were Ri Si Hong, Chargé d’Affaires at the newly-opened DPRK Embassy in London, and Ha Sin Guk, 2nd Secretary at the Embassy. The reception was decorated with photos of the meeting between Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung in June 2000 and banners to mark the anniversary.

Ri Si Hong addressed the reception, and toasts were given by the New Communist Party’s president, Eric Trevett, RCPB(ML) National Spokesperson Chris Coleman, and Dermot Hudson, speaking for the Society for Friendship with Korea (SFK).

By Chris Coleman, National Spokesperson, RCPB(ML)

Comrades,

Our Party is very proud to be jointly organising, with New Communist Party, this celebration of the Third Anniversary of the historic June 15 Joint Declaration. And we are very pleased to join in welcoming the comrades from the newly opened Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in London.

It is indeed a cause for celebration. The signing of the June 15 Joint Declaration which followed the North-South Summit meeting between Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jong in June 2000 was a truly historic event in the struggle for the reunification of the Korean homeland. It remains a historic event, it remains the way forward for the Korean people themselves to reunify their country and, if anything, its significance is enhanced rather than diminished by the current dangerous circumstances.

I had the privilege to be in Pyongyang with our Central Committee delegation in October 2000, just a few months after the signing. The excitement and optimism were tangible. Our delegation saw both on TV and in the flesh the 63 returning long-term political prisoners from the Korean War. Wonderful old men who had refused to yield an inch to their captors. We were informed of the North-South Ministerial meetings already taking place. And we heard numerous tales of the warm response to the Joint Declaration in the South. Within a week of our visit Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, was in Pyongyang. And we later heard that Clinton himself had planned to visit and seal full normalisation of relations between the US and DPRK, only for the electoral shenanigans in Florida to intervene. Within weeks too, among others, Britain had agreed full diplomatic relations with the DPRK, an important advance which bore the welcome fruit last month of the opening of the DPRK Embassy in London.

The signing of the Joint Declaration was indeed a great victory. In it the Korean people declared to the world that reunification should be settled independently by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation itself, not by foreign forces. It was a blow to the schemes of imperialism. It was a victory for the policies of Kim Jong Il on the path laid down by the great leader Kim Il Sung.

Its importance is not diminished by subsequent events. Within months, of course, George W Bush was in power and had taken an immediate hostile stance to the DPRK, reversing the Clinton policy and attempting to block all North-South progress. A year later, despite the very proper and generous response of the DPRK to the September 11 events, Bush declared the DPRK part of his "axis of evil". Within months the DPRK was listed by the Pentagon as liable to nuclear pre-emptive strike, in violation of the 1994 US-DPRK Agreed Framework and contrary to Clinton’s October 2000 declaration of "no hostile intent". This hostile stance has intensified since then and has reached new heights following the invasion of Iraq by US and British forces. That invasion, of course, was an undoubted war crime, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and the international norms agreed in 1945 to guarantee a world free from fascism and war. It signalled that the US, shamefully supported by Britain, intended to resolve all issues by military force in the course of imposing the imperialist dictate on the whole world. Now the US is threatening nuclear pre-emptive strike against the DPRK, as well as Iran. It is conducting a massive new arms build-up in South Korea and has openly divulged plans for nuclear precision strikes against the DPRK’s underground military facilities using newly developed nuclear weaponry, as well as bypassing the de-militarised zone for a direct attack on Pyongyang. At the Evian G8 Summit the US manipulated a declaration accusing the DPRK of violating international law, in particular the Safety Accord of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with its nuclear programme. This charge is, in fact, quite unfounded, as the DPRK had previously quite properly withdrawn from the NPT in order to safeguard itself. On the contrary, it is the US which violates the NPT with its development of new nuclear weapons and threats against non-nuclear states.

Korea, however, is not Iraq, and the DPRK quite rightly will not disarm and allow itself to be conquered. North-South ministerial meetings go ahead, as well as other developments according to the June 15 Declaration. Voices are increasingly raised in the South for US withdrawal. Most importantly, following the Army-First policy of Kim Jong Il, North Korea has built itself into an impregnable fortress. Quite justly, it has declared that the US arms build-up in the South will be answered by a powerful deterrent force, and any pre-emptive attack will be met by a prompt retaliation to destroy it at the initial stage of war.

It can be said therefore that the US would be very unwise to attack the DPRK. At the same time it must be recognised that wisdom and appreciation of the catastrophic consequences of action are not hallmarks of the US administration, or the Blair administration, come to that. The threat of war, even nuclear war, being ignited on the Korean peninsula is thus very real.

However, we have full confidence that the firm and just stands of the DPRK, backed by the progressive forces of the world, are the surest guarantee of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. As communists, our support primarily is in the struggle for revolution and socialism here, of which an important part is in the front ranks of the anti-war movement, giving it direction and perspective, and campaigning against the Blairite policies of war abroad and attacks on the rights and interests of the people at home. We have great work to do in propagating the truth about the DPRK and its positions, in supporting in particular the demand for immediate bilateral talks between the DPRK and the USA and a non-aggression treaty between the two. Above all we must step up our campaign for US withdrawal from the Korean peninsula, the main block to all progress.

The June 15 Joint Declaration remains historic, the way forward for the Korean people themselves to bring about their long-cherished reunification. It is the way through all the current dangers. It is a cause for celebration and optimism and we wish all the Korean people success in its implementation. Thank you.

The present-day situation on the Korean peninsula has become very acute due to the nuclear threats and moves towards aggression and war on the part of the United States.

As is known, the DPRK and the United States met in Beijing in April for talks on the nuclear issue, but there has been no positive change in US policy, and, on the contrary, the United States is getting increasingly undisguised in its machinations of aggression and war against the DPRK.

The DPRK has already made clear its position that, if the United States is really willing to make a bold switch in its Korea policy, the DPRK will not stick to any particular format of talks.

It is the United States that is the main party accountable for the outbreak of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula and responsible for the escalation of tension through which it has brought the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war over the so-called nuclear issue. Therefore, the key to the solution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is whether or not the United States is actually willing to make a change in its Korea policy.

The DPRK’s position is that the US must resume bilateral talks with it, which could be followed by the multilateral talks proposed by the US.

Since there certainly exist issues of concern to be addressed by the DPRK and the United States bilaterally, there is every reason for the DPRK and the United States to sit face-to-face for frank discussions on each other’s policy. This would open the way for the multilateral talks and enable the multilateral talks have a fruitful outcome.

Unless the United States is willing to make a change in its Korea policy, it is obvious that any format of talks will prove meaningless.

If the United States is really interested in the solution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, the United States must desist from sticking to the format of talks as a precondition, drop its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK and assume a correct standpoint and attitude.

Some pronouncements are coming out from within the US administration to the effect that "all the options, including pre-emptive strike against North Korea, are not off the table", and such provocative hawkish statements are now being carried into practice.

The United States has moved its aircraft carrier battle group and offensive military forces from Iraq to the vicinity of the Korean peninsula, while massing a huge number of aggressive forces around the Korean peninsula, and is continuing provocative war manoeuvres against the DPRK.

Despite the severity of the situation, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people are ready to deal with it, in line with the "military-first" politics they have adopted under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, and are standing steadfastly to their principles in defence of independence and socialism.

WDIE expresses its support and solidarity with the people of the DPRK as they stand against the attempts of the United States to stifle the DPRK and strive to build a prosperous socialist country and further the just cause of the reunification of the Korean nation.

On the morning of June 12, more than one million people marched past the Spanish and Italian embassies in the Cuban capital Havana to protest against the provocations and blackmail of their governments along with the European Union. Led by Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Embassy of Spain in downtown Havana and Minister of the Armed Forces Raúl Castro at the Italian Embassy in the Miramar district on the other side of the city, a sea of people marched for nearly three hours, waving Cuban flags and carrying banners denouncing the provocations of the European Union.

On June 5, the EU issued a communiqué condemning the executions in Cuba of three armed individuals who had hijacked a passenger boat, as well as the detention of some 70 individuals found to be conspiring with US diplomats in Havana to subvert the constitutional order in Cuba. The EU announced it would limit high-level bilateral government visits, reduce cultural exchanges, invite so-called dissidents to organised European national ceremonies in their Havana embassies and review the common position of the EU toward the island. The declaration by the 15 European countries crowned a stage of continuous pronouncements and threats against Cuba, made at a moment when the island is facing plans by the US government and its Miami henchmen to fabricate a pretext to launch a military attack against Cuba.

On June 11, on a special programme broadcast live on radio and television, as well as the international short-wave frequencies of Radio Havana Cuba, President Castro said that the  declaration of the European Union was "disgusting and disrespectful". He emphasised that Cuba will not bend to pressures from anyone, nor will the island's Socialist Revolution compromise its principles. He further said that no diplomatic missions or embassies of any country will be allowed to be converted into centres of subversion, referring to the EU's recent invitation to so-called dissidents to gather at their embassies.

The same day, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque gave Cuba's response to the recent position adopted by the EU member-countries, which Havana considers an attempt to undermine Cuban sovereignty. He told reporters of the national and international press that Cuba will apply the full force of the law against anyone that tries to convert their diplomatic headquarters in Havana into centres of conspiracy. In an official statement, he said the European embassies should be aware that they would be violating the Vienna Convention if they permitted their missions to be used by internal enemies of the Revolution in order to conspire to overthrow the government. He further said that any measures taken will be the exclusive responsibility of the European Union which, with complete arrogance, has adopted a position offensive to the Cuban people. Havana does not recognise the moral authority of the European Union to threaten or impose ultimatums regarding relations and cooperation, he said. 

At a previous press conference, Pérez Roque said that the EU has given in to Washington's pressure. He noted that Europe had ended up burying its differences with the United States over the war in Iraq, and did not discount that in that process Cuba could also be rendered as a victim.

On June 9, more than 7,000 people gathered at an elementary school sports field in Havana's Diez de Octubre municipality, demanding the lifting of the US economic blockade against the island, the elimination of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the release of the five Cubans incarcerated in the US for monitoring Miami-based anti-Cuba organisations. During a brief intervention after the programme, Cuban President Fidel Castro said that the nation is facing new battles ahead and that in the coming days he would address the county on what he described as important challenges facing Cuba.

Granma International, June 12, 2003

"We are disposed to live in peace, but not to concede one iota of our sovereignty, independence and dignity," President Fidel Castro stated last night on detailing the Cuban position vis-à-vis the recent European Union (EU) statement proposing measures against the island and thus demonstrating its support for the aggressive anti-Cuba policy of the US government.

Speaking on a special television programme, the president of the Councils of State and Ministers described the document of the 15 European countries as insolent and gross, and the measures laid down in it as interfering in the nation's internal affairs.

Fidel noted that the essence of the trashy document lies in the four measures laid down in it: the curtailment of top-level contacts, reduced participation in cultural events, inviting so-called dissidents to celebrations of national holidays in the European embassies and a reassessment of those countries' common position towards the island.

Referring to the EU bloc's shameless decision, he clarified that there are European leaders and countries that – as far as they can, given the pressures to which they have been subjected by the United States and various of its recent allies – have not subscribed to that position out of self-respect. He noted that he was sure that some of those leaders who signed the document had not read it properly, as if they had done so they would never have put their names to such a monstrosity.

On the measure to curtail high-level visits to Cuba, he commented that merely a few parliamentarians and officials have ever come to the island, because doing so has for a long time required much valour and independence and that sense of independence is very rare in the world. He added that if those countries fail to send anyone, that is their problem and liberates Cuba from the arrogance of some of them, particularly representatives of the Spanish government, "who believe that we are still their subordinates after their hundreds of years spent colonising the island".

The Cuban president commented that it was more pleasurable to talk with Third World representatives who are not characterised by being lackeys, "and whose interests we have defended internationally for more than 40 years, people who are like family and are grateful for Cuba's position and help".

Moving on to the reduced participation in cultural events on the island, he observed that that measure reminded him of the barbarity of German fascism that burned books not written by German authors, but, "at the end of the day, they will be the ones to lose the opportunity of appreciating and learning of the development of Cuba's cultural and educational plans".

In another part of his address, the Cuban leader qualified as naked interference the intention of European embassies accredited on the island to invite counterrevolutionary elements in the pay of the US government to their activities and maintain regular contact with them, adding that no self-respecting country would tolerate such actions. He stated that certain European countries are currently attempting to dust off a plan conceived years ago to give strength to the so-called internal opposition, as they did in China and Vietnam, "but in no manner are we going to permit that".

In relation to the reassessment of the EU common position on Cuba, Fidel noted that in the sphere of economic relations Cuba had adopted a policy of diversifying its trade, and in that context maintains relations with many nations and a secure market of some two billion dollars, meaning that it would not be convenient for Europe to adopt measures of that kind against Cuba.

He highlighted that the EU member countries to have signed this fascist-style statement have themselves suffered fascism and its barbarities and that it is sad to see that by subscribing to that document they are co-operating with the fascist US government in its policy of aggression towards Cuba, which it has included on the list of the so-called terrorist countries, "when for more than 40 years we have been the victim of thousands of attacks by terrorists organised and financed by US governments".

In that context the Cuban president stated that if "one day, in its stupidity and crazy warmongering, the US administration should bombard our cities and our children, young people, women and old people, it would suffer for those actions and millions of them would die, and if that should happen we will say now that those mainly responsible would be those who signed that repugnant document backing aggression of Cuba".

Fidel berated José María Aznar, president of the Spanish government, for leading the vocals in the creation of that shameful document and his subordinate position to the government of his US counterpart, as well as his close relations with the anti-Cuban terrorist mafia of Miami. He likewise defined as servile the attitude of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for joining Spain in this anti-Cuban conspiracy, adding that the Italian leader is virtually without ethics and has been charged with corruption.

The leader of the Revolution made it very clear that not all the European countries or their representations have adopted a similar attitude to Cuba and that it is known that many diplomats are embarrassed and distressed at their governments' attitude.

He warned that in addition to what is stated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) statement in the case of European countries that apply the measures laid down in the document, no Cuban government official will attend official activities in their embassies, and neither will any of their diplomatic personnel be invited to any official Cuban activity, and if their officials' mission is to have relations with the groups in the pay of the United States, then they are surplus to requirements.

The president clarified for certain people who have come to believe that such measures could asphyxiate or bring Cubans to their knees, that what it will do is to "multiply our energy and capacity to fight all the harder". He affirmed that they will not be able to destroy the Revolution, and that "the glory of our people will grow even more, as we have demonstrated that not even the greatest power in the world has been able to defeat us in these 44 years of Revolution, not even with the dissolution of the Socialist camp, the disappearance of the Soviet Union, or the intensification of the economic blockade".

He likewise noted that they could not even halt the social plans and programmes being undertaken by the country.

Fidel announced that measures are to be taken in the next few days to recoup the building that functioned as the Spanish Cultural Centre so that it would genuinely serve those ends and not others, as has been the case. He added that monuments to outstanding intellectual figures – such as Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado and Pablo de la Torriente Brau – who fought against Spanish fascism, are to be raised facing that country's embassy.

"Any attempt to pressure Cuba with any kind of measure will be in vain, and nobody can make us lose any sleep," Fidel affirmed.

Radio Havana Cuba, June 13, 2003

Cuban President Fidel Castro says that the slanderous campaigns against the Cuban Revolution only strengthen the people's decision to struggle. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Third International Culture and Development Congress, Fidel Castro referred to the pressure campaign by the European Union against the Cuban Revolution. 

The ceremony, which took place at Havana's Karl Marx Theatre, was held before more than 800 delegates from 50 countries and 17 international organisations. The Cuban leader spoke about the double standards of the European Union, which "never said anything about the thousands of men and women assassinated by the counterrevolutions in Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, Vietnam or Chile".

The leader of the Cuban Revolution referred to the recent European Union measures against the island, which calls for a limitation of high-level bilateral government visits, the reduction of cultural exchanges and a review of its "common position" toward Cuba. He said that the measures were not consistent with the EU's position regarding other issues – pointing out that Europe knew perfectly well how nuclear weapons were taken to South Africa and Israel, violating all United Nations non-proliferation treaties, yet did nothing to sanction those countries.

Referring to the current state of world affairs, Cuban President Fidel Castro said "there is not a single atom of freedom, democracy or human rights [in many countries]," but added that "the time is approaching when humanity will be able to reach its objectives".

In another part of his speech on June 12 at the closing of the Third International Culture and Development Congress, the Cuban leader strongly criticised a recent US State Department report that places Cuba on a list of countries allegedly trafficking in people. He said such an accusation is an insult to the people of Cuba and that US Secretary of State Colin Powell "should be ashamed of himself" – insisting that Washington should change the report to reflect reality.

Assuring that "everything this country has done, it has done for the children", Fidel Castro affirmed that the social programmes of the Cuban Revolution are more than obvious and "are moving at the speed of light". He stressed that Cuba has managed to maintain the greatest purity possible and attributed Havana's inclusion on the State Department list to "the huge lack of culture and shame" of US authorities.

Radio Havana Cuba, June 13, 2003

Cuba's resounding answer to the European Union's capitulation to Washington was heard around the world as a million people marched on Thursday in front of the Spanish and Italian embassies in Havana. We are no longer living in the times of Julius Caesar, Nero or Mussolini. Cuba is no longer a colony, but rather an independent, sovereign nation, responsible for its own actions, a right it won with the blood of its people. 

That was the message heard in the streets of Havana yesterday, as Cubans expressed their disgust over the actions of the European Union against Cuba. The crowd was clear on Cuban's feelings of solidarity and friendship with the peoples of Europe despite the betrayal of their governments. 

The next morning newspapers around the world headlined the island's astounding response and the words of Cuban President Fidel Castro who stressed that the European Union governments will be responsible for the consequences of signing on to a document that opens the way to a US aggression against Cuba. The president of the Spanish government, José María Aznar, who is being called here the "Little Fuhrer", was singled out during the march as one of those most responsible for the anti-Cuba document. That was confirmed by Friday's edition of Madrid's El Mundo newspaper, when it noted in a headline that Aznar is in fact leading the European Union's move to toughen its position against Cuba. On the other hand, billionaire media magnate and Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, constantly up on charges of corruption and abuse of power, was referred to by marchers as "Benito Burlosconi", a play on words in Spanish characterising the Italian politician at the same time as a fascist and a buffoon.

And Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, gave the perfect ending to an emotional day when he spoke at the closing ceremony of the Third International Congress on Culture and Development. The event's participants, among them distinguished European, North American and Latin American intellectuals, were represented by Chile's Volodia Teitelboim, when he said that Cuba is a symbol of cultural freedom and the right of peoples to determine their own destinies. 

Finally, President Fidel Castro concluded the long day by noting once again the fundamental principal that Cuba has maintained for more than 40 years, which is that without a doubt and in spite of all the power of empires that rise and fall, in the end it is ideas and not militaries that impose lasting power.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) sent an official note on June 13 to the Spanish Embassy in Havana, informing it of the Cuban government's decision to withdraw from the agreement that led to the opening of the Spanish Cultural Centre in the Cuban capital. "Under the accord signed May 16, 1995," reads a MINREX communiqué issued on June 14, the two governments agreed that the centre's objective was to promote the values of Spanish culture "on the basis of respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of Cuba".

However, the Spanish Cultural Centre, far from promoting Spanish culture, has developed a programme of activities that have nothing to do with the purposes for which it was created, in frank defiance of Cuban institutions and law, MINREX pointed out. 

According to the MINREX note, the site that until now housed the Spanish Cultural Centre, also known as Palacio de las Cariátides (Caryatids Palace) – a property of the Cuban government – will be turned into the "Federico García Lorca Cultural Centre" to pay homage to Lorca and all the Spanish writers who died as victims of fascism in 1936. From now on, concludes the note, the centre will be given to that task of promoting true Spanish cultural values.

For Your Information:

Statement of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, June 11, 2003

Once again the European Union has decided to kowtow to the US government over the subject of its policy towards Cuba.

The European Union, ignoring usual diplomatic practices, published a communiqué on the morning of June 5 in which they announced punitive measures against Cuba and told the international community that they had sent a letter to Cuban authorities. This only reached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that afternoon.

This did not take the foreign ministry by surprise: we were very well aware that Europe most probably, hoped that the aforementioned document be seen in Washington before it was seen in Havana.

They are very conscious in Europe that their decision to join in the US government's attacks against Cuba will be seen as more proof of their contrition and repentance over the differences that arose over the war in Iraq between "Old Europe" – as Mr Rumsfeld called it – and the imperial Nazi-fascist government which is trying to impose a dictatorship on the rest of the world.

The new statement signed by the Fifteen is the culmination of a stage of continual pronouncements and aggressions against Cuba made at the very time when our country has had to deal with the cunning plans which people in Miami and Washington are hatching to try to come up with pretexts for a military attack on our country.

That escalation included:

March 25, a Note from the Presidency protesting the fair sentences handed down by Cuban courts on a group of mercenaries in the service of the US government;

April 14, a new Statement from the Union's Foreign Relations Council, proposed by the Spanish foreign minister, in which the mercenaries are referred to as political prisoners and Cuba is crudely threatened with steps that would affect "plans to increase cooperation";

April 18, another protest Note from the Presidency which repeats the threats against Cuba;

April 30, at the request of a Spanish commissioner the European Commission's College of Commissioners decides to postpone indefinitely any consideration of Cuba's application to join the Cotonou Convention. Therefore, given Europe's treacherous behaviour, Cuba decided for the second time to withdraw its application which it had made because unanimously urged to do so by the Group of African Caribbean and Pacific Countries.

Later, on May 27, there was another attempt to deliver a protest Note, but our Foreign Ministry refused to accept it because it thought this now constituted intolerable inference in Cuba's internal affairs.

And, lastly, this new Declaration appears and Cuba first learns about it from the foreign press and not from the European Union itself.

This unheard of display against our country has been all the more noticeable because of Europe's proverbial wisdom about keeping respectfully silent when it suits it and even in being a tolerant bystander to behaviour and acts far worse than those of which Cuba is now being groundlessly accused. How, for example, are we to judge its silence over the US army's crimes against the Iraqi civilian population?

It's too much. After exhausting her patience and capacity for dialogue and tolerance, Cuba feels obliged to reply to what it considers to be the European Union's hypocritical and opportunist behaviour.

In its most recent Declaration, "the European Union laments that Cuban authorities have ended their de facto moratorium on the death penalty."

Cuba will not go into great detail about the extraordinary reasons, explained more than once, that forced it to take energetic measures against three armed hijackers who had criminal records who threatened to kill dozens of hostages, including several European tourists. Cuba has never heard a word from the European Union condemning the death penalty in the United States. It has never seen the European Union spearhead a motion in the Commission on Human Rights condemning the United States for inflicting the death penalty on minors, the mentally ill and foreigners who were denied their right to meet with their consuls. Cuba has never heard the European Union criticise the 71 executions that took place in the United States last year, including the executions of two women. Why does the European Union condemn the death penalty in Cuba and not in the United States?

Therefore Cuba does not take the Union's lament seriously; it knows it is replete with hypocrisy and double moral standards.

The Declaration quotes verbatim from the letter delivered to the Cuban foreign ministry in which it repeats the same arguments the US government uses. It is once again seeking to disguise as "opposition members" and "dissidents" the mercenaries who, in the pay of the US government, hope to play their part from inside Cuba in the US government's goal of overthrowing the Cuban revolution.

Later on, the European Declaration appeals to Cuban authorities to ensure that the prisoners do not suffer unduly and are not exposed to inhuman treatment. Cuba will make no attempt to comment on this offensive appeal. All it will say is that it is a despicable thing to do.

Cuba will not repeat the arguments it has used over and over again. It will only point out that it has never heard the European Union say one word of censure about the hundreds of prisoners – some of whom are Europeans – who the United States is holding, in violation of the most basic norms about human rights, in the naval base in Guantanamo which they force on us against our will. The European Union has never said a word about the thousands of prisoners that the United States has kept locked up since September 11, often simply because of the way they looked or because they are Muslims. These people do not enjoy even the most basic legal safeguards, nor have they been tried and their names have not even been published.

Four measures have been announced.

First: Limit bilateral high-level government visits.

We must remember that in the last five years not one European Union head of state or government has visited Cuba.

Not even the king of Spain, Don Juan Carlos I, whose natural charm and modesty have earned him the respect of the Cuban government and people, could carry out his official visit; the head of the Spanish government, José María Aznar, who, according to the constitution must give his approval, was categorical. "The King will go to Cuba when it's his turn."

What is more, only two of the fifteen's foreign ministers have visited Cuba since 1998: Mr Louis Michel, of Belgium in 2001 – he made a genuine effort to expand relations – and Mrs Lydie Polfer from Luxembourg, in 2003.

No one else in Europe – and they have even less desire to do so – wanted to upset Washington. Meanwhile in 2002 alone, 663 high-level delegations from the rest of the world visited Cuba, including 24 heads of state or government and 17 foreign ministers.

Second: To reduce the participation of member States in cultural events.

On this unheard of decision by educated and civilised Europe we will only say that its authors should, at the very least, be ashamed of themselves.

To make artists and intellectuals, both European and Cuban, and our people who benefit from cultural exchanges, into the particular victims of aggression is such a reactionary measure that it seems inconceivable here in the 21st century.

The first indication of this absurd policy had come from the Spanish government in April when it cancelled the Spanish delegation's participation in the "La Huella De España" (Traces of Spain) festival whose mission is to pay homage to the culture of this sister nation. And to that is added the fact that the Spanish Cultural Centre in Havana, far from promoting Spanish culture in Cuba, the purpose for which it was created, has, in open defiance of Cuban laws and institutions and in flagrant violation of the intent of the agreement that set it up, programmed a series of activities that have nothing to do with its original function.

In the next few days Cuban authorities will take the appropriate measures to convert this centre into an institution that truly meets the noble aim of popularising Spanish culture in our country.

Third: To invite Cuban dissidents to national holiday celebrations.

This decision, which will, to all intents and purposes, turn European ambassadors in Havana into Mr Carson's hired hands, and which will put the embassies of the European Union's member countries at the service of the US Interests Section's subversive work – something that up until now only the Spanish embassy has done openly – formalises the European Union's intention of defying the Cuban people, their laws and institutions.

Cuba calmly but firmly issues a warning to European embassies and to local US government mercenaries that it will not tolerate provocation or blackmail. The mercenaries who try to turn the European embassies in Havana into centres for conspiring against the Revolution should be aware that the Cuban people will be quite capable of demanding that our laws be rigorously applied. European embassies should be conscious of the fact that they will be failing to meet their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations if they allow themselves to be used for subversion against Cuba.

The responsibility for any measure that Cuba may have to take to defend its sovereignty and the consequences of these measures will lie exclusively with the European Union, which, with unmitigated arrogance has taken a decision which profoundly offends the Cuban people's sensibility and decorum.

Fourth: Re-examine the European Union's Common Position on Cuba.

This last point is Mr Aznar and the Spanish government's way of announcing, from this moment on, its hopes of making the wording of the so-called Common Position on Cuba tougher. The Position, it is worth remembering, was imposed by Spain on the rest of the European Union in 1996.

On November 13 of that year, under the headline: "Spain proposes that the European Union cut credit to and cooperation with Cuba" the Spanish daily El País reported that:

"In Brussels tomorrow, the Spanish government will propose to its partners in the European Union that they implement a strategy of economic harassment of Fidel Castro's regime(....) The package Aznar is proposing closely follows the line of current US policy. The plan Aznar's government wants to push through entails cutting off the flow of cooperation and credit from the Fifteen and raising the level of the dialogue with the anti-Castro opposition.

"(...) The measures planned by Aznar ... envisage a complete break in Spanish Cuba policy."

This proposition would be added to the measures reported on by the newspaper that day – these includes Aznar's attempt to cancel cooperation between the fifteen countries and Cuba, the end of business agreements and the elimination of the scarce, expensive and short term credits that Cuba used to receive at that critical time in special period.

Dialogue with the opposition. Each of the fifteen European ambassadors in Cuba would appoint a diplomat who had specialised in setting up a high level dialogue with groups that oppose Castro. The European governments would invite these groups to maintain high level permanent contacts with them.

"This package would be made formal through an EU 'common position' and would be directly inspired by the US policy of harassment trumpeted abroad by itinerant US ambassador, Stuart Eizenstadt."

According to El País, and this was later confirmed by what happened: "This US diplomat has gone around the European foreign ministries stressing the need for the European Union to abandon its current strategy" towards Cuba.

"Eizenstadt has also promised that if the fifteen members of the Union go along with the US way of seeing things, Washington will 'grant' its partners successive postponements in the application of the Helms-Burton Act which tightens the blockade on Cuba and harasses European companies investing in Cuba."

El País ended by saying: "Spain, which used to be the mainstay of an autonomous way of doing things would thus become, if its initiative was successful, the spearhead of the opposite tendency."

And Mr Aznar's initiative was successful. The Common Position sprang from it as did later on the shameful European Union's Understanding with the United States over the Helms-Burton Act in which European governments agreed to bow to the conditions imposed by the United States in return for a US promise not to sanction European companies. This new campaign of the European governments against Cuba also stems from Aznar's initiative.

Mr Aznar, obsessed with punishing Cuba and now a minor ally of the Yankee imperial government, has been the person mainly responsible for the fact that the European Union has not developed an independent and objective approach to Cuba and today is the man mainly responsible for its traitorous escalation in aggression, just when our little island has become the peoples' symbol of resistance to the threat that the United States may impose a Nazi-fascist tyranny on the rest of the world, including European peoples – who were recently unrecognised and humiliated when their stalwart opposition to the war in Iraq was ignored – and even on the American people themselves.

Cuba knows that the Spanish government has been funding the annexationist and mercenary groups which the superpower is trying to organise in our country – just as the US government does, following the dictates of the Helms-Burton Act.

How can we explain Mr Aznar's interest in "promoting democracy in Cuba" if he was the first and only European head of government to support the fascist coup in Venezuela and offer his "support and availability" to the ephemeral "president" of the Venezuelan coup?

Nevertheless, Cuba places no blame on the noble Spanish people, nor on any of the other European peoples. Quite the contrary. Cuba is aware of how much warmth and admiration it arouses in many of the citizens of those countries – in spite of the loathsome media campaigns- which send us almost a million visitors every year. Cuba knows how much solidarity it arouses in Europe and throughout these years has received a helping hand from thousands of European non-governmental organisations, civic associations and town councils.

Cuba is aware that the European peoples – giving an exemplary ethical and humane lesson – opposed the war in Iraq, which the European Union could not, however, avoid, divided as it was by the betrayal of the rest of Europe lead by the Spanish government and humiliated by a superpower which went so far as to announce that it would launch a military attack on the Hague if a single US soldier was brought to trial at the International Criminal Court there.

Cuba has only feelings of friendship and respect for the European peoples but cannot allow their governments, trailing along behind the Spanish government's commitment to the groups of Cuban born terrorists who operate in Miami and to Bush's government, to be a part of setting up mercenary groups in Cuba whose purpose is to help Yankee attempts to destroy the Cuban Revolution and annex our country to the Unites States.

The European Union's decision to join in with the US's aggressive policy against Cuba has been welcomed with great joy and loud applause not only by the US government, whose secretary of state said: "The United States will be able to join with the European Union in a common strategy against Cuba," but also by the mercenaries who are still working for the US government inside our country and by the spokespeople for the Miami terrorist groups.

The so-called Council for Cuba's Freedom, a Miami group of Batista supporters which has recently been demanding that President Bush decrees a naval blockade of Cuba, said: "We are glad that Europe is joining in with the pressure," and the terrorist Cuban-American National Foundation was extremely happy and emphasised that "it was time that the European countries realised".

The DPA news agency gave this title to its report: "Rejoicing in the exile community over the European Union's decision on Cuba" and said that extremist Cuban groups reacted enthusiastically and that the top story on Miami Spanish language TV stations' evening news broadcasts was the European Unions decision. The news bulletins focused their coverage on the measures that the EU will take.

It's obvious whose needs are met by the European Union's statement and why the Miami terrorist groups are so happy, groups that are responsible for bombs attacks on European interests in Cuba and even for the death of a young Italian, Fabio di Celmo. It is quite clear why those who are today demanding that the US government tighten the blockade and step up military aggression against our country are clapping their hands.

Cuba, for its part, will defend its right to be a free and independent nation with or without European support and will even stand up to the connivance between certain governments and the fascist clique that today rules the United States.

Cuba does not look upon all European governments equally and is well aware which ones are the chief instigators of this unwonted provocation.

Moreover, it must be said that the conduct of the Italian government headed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is giving a helping hand to the Spanish government's conspiratorial activities.

Italy took a unilateral decision to suspend its development co-operation with Cuba which this year might have been worth almost 40 million Euros. This included cancelling:

An aid credit for 17.5 million Euros which would have helped to improve irrigation systems and increase food production in Granma and Havana provinces.

An aid credit of 7.4 million Euros for the Plaza del Cristo in Old Havana. This money would have made it possible to repair the homes of some 500 families, two schools and drinking water, electricity and sewage services for those living in the neighbourhood.

A donation of 400,000 Euros to set up a Senior Citizens Care Centre in the old Belén Convent. This would have provided services to some two hundred older people and would have been managed by the Office of the Historian, local Public Health authorities and the Sisters of Charity order.

A donation of 6.8 million Euros though the United Nations Development Programme which would have been used to support local basic social services such as education, health, care for the physically challenged and senior citizens.

A donation of 6.8 million Euros, through UNDP, which was to have been used for buying equipment for the eastern provinces, basically for the health and food production sectors.

A donation of 534,000 Euros which would have financed a cooperation and exchange programme between the Italian University of Tor Vergata and the University of Havana.

This is the highly strange way in which the Italian government is preparing to defend the human rights of the Cuban people.

This ridiculous role the Europeans are playing would make one laugh were it not for the serious problems this escalation entails.

And we must state very clearly:

Cuba does not recognise the European Union's moral authority to condemn it and much less to issue it with a threatening ultimatum about relations and cooperation. Cuba has taken decisions that only the Cuban people and the Cuban government are competent to judge, these decisions are absolutely legitimate and rest solidly on our country's laws and Constitution.

The European Union, which unlike Cuba is not blockaded nor militarily threatened by the United States, should look with respect on the Cuban people's struggle for its right to independence; it should keep discreetly silent when it knows that it has often kept its mouth shut when it is looking after its own interests; when it knows that it has never adopted a common position on the repressive Israeli regime; when it knows that it opposed the Commission on Human rights even looking at the threat that war posed to Iraqi children’s right to life.

Finally, the Ministry of Foreign relations reminds the European Union that Cuba is a sovereign country that won its full independence as the result of a long and painful process which included more than half a century's struggle against a corrupt neo-colonial society which established itself in our country after the shameful Paris Agreements in which Spain ceded Cuba to the United States behind the backs of Cuban patriots.

Cuba has won the legal right, recognised by international law, to decide for itself, exercising its full sovereignty and with no foreign interference, the economic, political and social system which best suits its people.

Cuba does not accept the interfering and disrespectful language of the latest European Union Statement and asks it to refrain from offering solutions that the Cuban people did not ask it for. Cuba, however, reiterates its respect and admiration for European peoples with whom it hopes to strengthen honourably and in a dignified manner the most fraternal and sincere relations as soon as History sweeps away all this hypocrisy, rottenness and cowardice.