CUBA'S JAKARTA EMBASSY REACHING OUT TO NAURU

S E C R E T SUVA 000146 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2037 TAGS: PGOV TBIO CU NR SUBJECT: CUBA'S JAKARTA EMBASSY REACHING OUT TO NAURU Classified By: Amb. Larry Dinger. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (S) Jakarta-based Cuban Ambassador Jorge P. Leon Cruz advised the Nauru Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in a February 9 letter that he is prepared to travel to Nauru in March to present his credentials. No date for the proposed visit by Leon was given. The letter, left openly visible on a desk in the ministry, was seen by chance by Embassy's political officer. ¶2. (SBU) In July 2004, Cuba sent 11 doctors to Nauru, but the cooperation was ended prematurely some 18 months later. Nauru's medical infrastructure has deteriorated seriously in recent years with the decline in Nauru's phosphate industry. Today there are no more than three resident medical doctors, including the country's health minister, caring for a population of 9,200. The lack of adequate public health facilities has become a political issue for the government. In September last year, Nauru's Health Minister warned other countries considering hosting Cuban doctors to select their doctors carefully and spell out expectations explicitly to avoid misunderstandings. Language difficulties and the island's isolation were said to be among the problems that ended the program. Still in need of help, Nauru briefly hosted a pair of Israeli physicians in 2006, and there have been discussions about more such temporary postings. ¶3. (C) Cuba also currently maintains diplomatic relations with Fiji and Kiribati among the South Pacific small island states. In 2006 Cuba dispatched ten doctors to the main hospital on Kiribati's capital island Tarawa and opened a one-man embassy, manned by a charge. Originally there were to have been 35 doctors, but after the first group objected to being posted to remote outer islands without electricity and telecommunications, where they would have been underutilized and living under primitive conditions, the plan was scaled back to ten. Many of the ten are young interns. ¶4. (SBU) Nauru, which receives no U.S. assistance, had an 80 percent voting coincidence with the United States on the six (out of eleven) "important" votes taken during the 2005 UN General Assembly. However, it did not vote with the United States on the annual Cuban embargo vote. ¶5. (C) Comment: None of our contacts on Nauru have mentioned any renewed interest in hosting Cuban doctors, though the need for medical personnel remains. Effectively bankrupt and in need of help on numerous fronts, Nauru is unlikely to refuse help if Cuba can offer it. End comment. DINGER