Cuban Foreign Minister offers condolences to Indonesia for earthquake
Campaign News | Friday, 2 June 2006
Cuba is sending 135 doctors to help recovery
JAKARTA 1 June: Visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque expressed his country's condolences Friday to the tens of thousands of victims of Indonesia's devastating earthquake.
Perez Roque also invited Indonesia's president to attend a summit of the Nonaligned Movement in September in Havana.
"Unfortunately my visit here is at the same time as the earthquake," he told a news conference. "President Fidel Castro asked me to convey to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and thepeople of Indonesia our deepest condolences."
The May 27 earthquake on densely populated Java island killed more than 6,200 people, injured at least 30,000, and left 647,000 homeless.
Perez Roque said a 135-member Cuban medical team would arrive in the Central Java town of Solo later Friday to join relief efforts for quake victims. The group will bring two field hospitals, he said.
Cuba is expecting more than 60 world leaders to attend the summit, he said.
The Nonaligned Movement is a grouping of nations that attempted to stay neutral during the Cold War. More than 50 members are in Africa, with the rest mostly in Asia and Latin America. Summits are held every three years, most recently in Malaysia in 2003.
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