[NYTr] Cubans walk out during Bush's "arrogant and mediocre" UN speech

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Yahoo - Sep 25, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_re_us/un_cuba_protest

Cubans walk out during Bush U.N. speech

UNITED NATIONS - Cuba's foreign minister walked out of the U.N.
General Assembly on Tuesday in protest of President Bush's speech in
which he said the "long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end" on
the communist island.

The Cuban delegation issued a statement saying the decision by Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque to leave was a "sign of profound rejection
of the arrogant and mediocre statement by President Bush."

In his speech, Bush looked ahead to a Cuba no longer ruled by Fidel
Castro, the ailing 81-year-old leader who has not appeared in public in
more than a year, since ceding power to a provisional government headed
by his brother Raul.

"In Cuba, the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end," Bush
said. "The Cuban people are ready for their freedom. And as that nation
enters a period of transition, the United Nations must insist on free
speech, free assembly and, ultimately, free and competitive elections."

Cuba's U.N. Mission said the American president had no moral standing
to criticize anyone.

It accused Bush of responsibility "for the murder of over 600,000
civilians in Iraq" and for "the torture of prisoners" at the U.S. Navy
base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 300 men are being held on
suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

"He is a criminal and has no moral authority or credibility to judge
any other country," the mission's statement said. "Cuba condemns and
rejects every letter of his infamous tirade."