CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BLASTS TIP REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000439 SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CCA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CU PGOV PHUM PINR PREL SUBJECT: CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BLASTS TIP REPORT ¶1. (U) Summary: On June 8 the Cuban Foreign Ministry released a statement about the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report that had been announced by the Secretary on June ¶4. The statement said that the report made unfounded accusations that there existed internal trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and that Cuba was a destination for sex tourism. The Ministry stated that the TIP report ignored the efforts of the GOC to avoid such social evils connected with the tourism industry and to punish severely anyone engaged in sexual exploitation. The statement stated that the government had ended such evils in 1959 with the revolution. The Foreign Ministry took the occasion to condemn the US economic embargo as the source of many the social problems in Cuba. This year's TIP report in fact documented several improvements in the suppression of prostitution and the treatment of child victims of sexual assault, but indicated that a major difficulty is that the GOC does not acknowledge a problem and provides no information on the extent of trafficking in persons within the country End summary. ¶2. (U) On June 9 the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a strongly worded statement condemning this year's TIP report. The statement occupied a half column on page 3 of the state owned newspaper Granma". The Ministry said that "for the sixth consecutive year, the government of the United States included CUBA in the list of countries that it accuses of not taking significant steps to deal with the supposed internal trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation and classifies our country as destination for sex tourism, and other serious and totally unfounded accusations." ¶3. (U) The statement noted that for the first time the US made recommendations to the GOC on how to confront the problem. The Ministry noted that if the country does not complete the recommendations of the Secretary of State, it risks losing US financial Assistance. This is something that the Ministry said has little relevance for CUBA since CUBA is subject to a embargo "applied with all force and cruelty trying to force the Cuban people to submit." Furthermore the Ministry "rejects completely the contents of this new report" that "distorts the Cuban reality in order to justify the criminal policy of the blockade, aggressions and hostility of the United States against Cuba." ¶4. (U) The statement went on to say that the report wants to denigrate the commitment of the Revolution towards women and children "recognized fully at an international level," and wants to discredit the healthy growth of the tourist industry in Cuba. The Ministry said that "the United States, and particularly the Bush administration, whose policies attempt to attack permanently the rights of the Cuban people, has neither the moral basis nor the credibility to make accusations against Cuba, never mind to make cynical recommendations about what our country should do." ¶5. (U) The Ministry represented that the United States