Alan Rickman joins protest as Guardian publishes letter on Human Rights and Cuba
Campaign News | Tuesday, 29 March 2005
Movie star joins Harold Pinter and Hanif Kureishi in trying to stop US manoeuvre in Geneva
London, Mar 28 (Prensa Latina) Hollywood film Star Alan Rickman has joined playwright Harold Pinter and a growing list of British personalities to protest against United States' anti-Cuba attacks by joining the movement "Let"s stop a new anti-Cuba manoeuvre".
On Easter Saturday, the UK daily newspaper The Guardian published the letter protesting the activities of the US at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
More than 2000 intellectuals around the world have denounced the US motion at the UN Commission condemning the Caribbean Island for human right abuses, another step in the escalation of anti-Cuba actions.
Rickman, who joined renowned Britons Hanif Kureishi, Caryl Churchill, April de Angelis, Elyse Dodgson and Ian Rickson, is one of the most prestigious stars of theatre and movies in Britain.
He has worked with Bruce Willis (Die Hard), Kevin Costner, (Robin Hood), and Liam Nesson (Michael Collins), plus the Harry Potter sequel.
Kureishi is one of the most outstanding British dramatists from the generation of rock stars David Bowie and Billy Idol; Churchill (playwright); April de Angelis (playwright); Elyse Dodgson and Ian Rickson, executives from the Royal Court Theatre.
Other intellectuals joining the drive are Ann McLaren, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Sciences, from Cambridge University.
http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7B4C59494C-E906-4AFC-B05E-2FD6B9860B68%7D&language=EN
London: Saturday, March 26, The Guardian newspaper today published the letter from intellectuals calling on governments around the world not to support the US resolution against Geneva.
Harold Pinter and Tariq Ali are alongside Nobel prize winners who have signed the letter which has now gathered some 5,000 signatories from around the world.
Here is what the Guardian published:
Human rights and Cuba
Saturday March 26, 2005
The Guardian
At the 61st session of the UN human rights commission in Geneva, the US is again trying to pass a resolution against Cuba by placing other member states under duress.
The US wishes to condemn Cuba to justify the intensification of its blockade of the island and other aggressive measures that violate international law. The commission should represent all members of the United Nations and work for the respect of the rights of all men and women of the world. But at the last commission, in 2004, it was not possible even to debate the atrocious violations of human rights in the US prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
The government of the US has no moral authority to elect itself as the judge over human rights in Cuba, where there has not been a single case of disappearance, torture or extra-judicial execution since 1959, and where despite the economic blockade, there are levels of health, education and culture that are internationally recognised.
The UK and all those represented in the commission should not permit it to be used as a means to legitimise the anti-Cuban polices of the Bush administration at a time when the war policy of Washington makes possible an eventual escalation that could have very grave consequences.
Harold Pinter, Tariq Alí, José Saramago, Rigoberta Menchu, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nadine Gordimer, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Ernesto Cardenal, Alice Walker, Ramsey Clark, Danielle Miterrand
Full list of supporters at www.lajiribilla.cu/2005/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1445897,00.html
