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Cuba offers aid to Kosovo refugees
Following are excerpts from a speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro at a mass rally
in the University of Havana, May 4, 1999. After some remarks to the returning Cuban
All-star baseball team, Fidel addressed the war in Yugoslavia. Cuba’s response to the
Kosovo refugee crisis surprised many observers. Despite having severe criticism of the
NATO bombing, Cuba is offering 1,000 Cuban medical personnel to attend refugees from
Kosovo.
Fidel Castro, May 4, 1999, HAVANA—
(...)There is another more important conflict. Presently, brutal and destructive air
strikes are taking place in the very heart of Europe, which are causing devastation, death
and terror in a population of millions. Religious and ethnic conflicts have been
considerably aggravated and thus hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, also
horrified by the bombs and the war, are massively migrating.
On the eve of the next millennium Europe — that is, NATO and its members, the
United States of America included — is involved in what can be described, whether
they like it or not, as genocide. That is what results from depriving one million people
from electricity and heating services. Also from cutting off all communications, sources
of energy and transportation; destroying non-military facilities providing crucial
services to all the population and tearing to pieces all the means of life created by a
nation.
Such destructive frenzy, either by mistake or recklessness, is directly killing or
injuring thousands of civilians while trying to submit them by the destruction of their
mass media and the intensification of the psychological warfare with overpowering
technology and bombs. Unquestionably, this is a major genocide.
Europe is involved in a conflict hazardous to itself and the world. An extremely
serious precedent is being set in defiance of international law and the United Nations
Organization, and resulting in an increasingly complicated the situation.
We are of the view that in such a predicament only a political, and not a military,
solution is possible based on respect for the rights of every nation in that region, and
every religion, ethnic group and culture: a solution for both, Serbians and Kosovars. I am
deeply convinced that the problem cannot be solved by force, that the military technology
will crash against the will of any people determined to fight. I firmly believe that when
the people are willing to fight —and this is how I feel about our own people,
too— no power, regardless of its might, can throw them down on their knees.
In the case of Serbia, the aggressor thought it would be a simple walk, a three days
adventure, that the Serbians would surrender to the first bombs. Forty days have already
passed and thousands and thousands of bombs have been dropped, however, we do not perceive
any symptom of weakness in their will to fight. This we know by keeping in touch, through
cell phones—the only means of communication — with three Cuban diplomats in
Belgrade who relate to us what is happening there every day and after every night of
Dantesque bombing.
We are told by those diplomats about the extraordinary morale of the Serbian people,
in general, and particularly the people in Belgrade where planes are constantly flying at
low altitude, thundering in the sky, terrorizing and causing traumas in children
—hundreds of thousands, millions of children and adolescents afflicted perhaps for
life— youth, women and elders affected by the noise of the explosions and the
constant attacks, whose growing viciousness is also announced. Once again I insist that
that path will not lead to the solution of the problem. I firmly believe that there is no
other choice, for anybody, but to work toward a political solution which is possible on
the basis of common sense and rationality. From the beginning of the attacks we realized
that they would be useless and would only bring about a catastrophe.
We are aware of the history of World War II, the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and that
people’s long resistance. This time the aggressors do not even want to use ground
forces since they believe that their smart bombs and guided missiles can solve the
problem. But, the problem cannot be resolved with missiles, bombs or ground troops because
when the people are determined to fight they do so everywhere, from all directions, and
every house may become a fortress, every man or woman a combatant. It is not a matter of
armored divisions, artillery groups, air or navy war fleets.
We know very well how we would conduct a struggle in our country under similar
conditions and so do millions of people here; all those methods would be useless. This
country cannot be conquered by anyone; no one can conquer a country that is willing to
fight. It is wrong to try to conquer it. It already happened in Vietnam where the
Americans understood it only when they had lost over 50 thousand lives and killed 4
million Vietnamese. Well, now, they are in a similar situation there, and one that can
become more complicated if the Serbians everywhere give their support to the Serbians
inside Serbia. Then, the political situation in Russia would become untenable because the
ethnic bonds between both peoples are very strong.
Other peoples will draw their own conclusions. I think the Russians are drawing theirs
—after all that has happened to them in the past and all that can still happen to
them in the future— when they see the numberless bombs dropped by a military alliance
driven increasingly arrogant, haughty and furious by an unexpected resistance. Europe and
NATO have become the hostages of a subjective factor: the decision the Serbians might
adopt —or not— to resist to the end, although it is to be assumed that after
such destruction they are not going to be much inclined to give up. What is happening
there was obvious to us from the beginning. This does not mean that we are against
anybody’s rights; we support both, the rights of the Serbians and the Kosovars’
rights.
When we were recently informed that Guantanamo Naval Base would be used to accommodate
20 thousand Kosovar refugees, we immediately agreed, and I think it is the first time that
we have agreed with anything the United States of America has done in that base. It is not
that they requested our permission or agreement, actually they simply were kind enough to
communicate to us that they would do that. They explained their purposes, they said it
would be for a limited period of time while the conflict was settled, and so on. The least
they expected —they do not know this country— was our reply.
We said that we did not only agree that 20 thousand Kosovar refugees were sheltered
there but also that we were willing to cooperate as much as possible in providing care for
those refugees, that we offered our hospital services if required, our doctors and any
other cooperation within our capabilities.
Finally, they were not sent in and it was a clever thing to rectify that decision
because they would have been much criticized. The truth is that none of the NATO
countries, which have dropped so many bombs there, really want to receive refugees. There
is much xenophobia and selfishness in the West. They had said they would receive from 80
thousand to a 100 thousand but they have only received a few thousands because they do not
want to have Kosovar refugees in their own territories, so they have done nothing
significant. Anyway, it was a political mistake but we were informed and we said that we
agreed.
There is something else. There is this international humanitarian organization known
as the Saint Egidious Community which cares for refugees; it sustains relations with the
Catholic Church and works mostly in supportive actions every time there are refugee
problems.
Although we strongly condemn the brutal and genocidal attacks against the Serbian
people, we also share in the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of refugees dragged to
such condition by a series of longstanding factors, not only historic in nature but also
associated to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, a country that had lived in peace for 40
years after World War II.
Those who disintegrated Yugoslavia and stirred up the national ethnic and religious
conflicts are greatly responsible for what is happening there now. Many of Europe’s
statesmen and public figures are aware of Europe’s responsibility in that process.
Those who so lightly agreed to use all their sophisticated and overwhelming military
technology against what was left of the former Yugoslavia bear a great responsibility for
what is going on there and the misery of those hundreds of thousands of refugees.
As for solutions, we advocate solutions for all the parties involved: refugees,
citizens of Kosovo, Serbians and people of other nationalities living there, and all the
nations that make up what is left of Yugoslavia today. That is, from the humane point of
view our sympathies are with all the suffering people there. In this token, when several
weeks ago, in the first days of April, we were visited by leaders of the Saint Egidious
Community and they explained to us what they were doing to provide care and assistance to
those distressed refugees, for which purpose they had about 30 medical doctors, —this
happened a few weeks ago but I have not mentioned it before, I am doing it for the first
time— we said to them: Look, we do not have abundant resources but we have a human
asset. If you needed medical personnel to care for those hundreds of thousands of refugees
living in deprived camps, our country would be willing to contribute with one thousand
physicians, absolutely free of charge, to care for the Kosovar refugees.
Based on a longstanding experience we know that language is not a barrier. A six
months old baby speaks no language at all, however, he/she can be cared for by a doctor.
This offer we made to the leaders of the Saint Egidious Community on the night of April 5,
that is, 12 days after the onset of the NATO attacks."
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