HAVANA -- A sea of demonstrators waving small Cuban flags marched past the Czech Embassy in Havana Tuesday in a government-organized protest of a Czech-sponsored censure of the island by the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Chants of "Traitors! Lackeys! Marionettes!" rose from the crowd, which had been bused in to a residential neighborhood in west Havana. The government said more than 100,000 people were called to take part and urged other Cubans to stay away, saying there was not enough room on the narrow streets for more.The protest was timed to a vote by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva on the resolution sponsored by the Czech Republic and Poland. Cuban officials have made no reference to Poland's role.
The commission voted 21-18 in favor of the censure, with 14 countries abstaining.
The measure expressed "concern about the continued repression of members of the political opposition and about the detention of dissidents."
It also accused Cuba's government of "continued violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms . . . such as freedom of expression, association and assembly and the rights associated with the administration of justice."
Meanwhile, China Tuesday blocked a full-scale review of its human rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Commission despite U.S. criticism.
As in previous years, Beijing mobilized support from developing countries, which dominate the 53-nation commission, to prevent discussion of an attempt to censure China for the first time. The vote on China's "no-action" motion was 22-18, with 12 countries abstaining and one absent.
Countries from Yugoslavia to Equatorial Guinea also face scrutiny by the U.N. panel. But the China measure was the toughest battle, and Washington took the unusual step of announcing well in advance -- on Jan. 11 -- that it would propose the censure resolution.
"We must acknowledge that the situation of human rights in China remains very poor," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Harold Koh. "Its human rights record has not improved and has in fact deteriorated markedly over the last 12 months."
Chinese Ambassador Qiao Zonghuai responded that Washington was engaging in an "anti-China political farce" which was "a mockery toward the commission and its members."
He accused Washington of using the commission "to make unwarranted attacks on China" and repeated Beijing's accusation that the U.S. motion "serves the needs of its domestic party politics."
Chinese officials have been keen to justify the crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, one of the points covered by the U.S. resolution.
"The United States is giving unreserved support to the evil cult in China," Qiao said.
The resolution on China cited "severe restrictions on the rights of citizens" over the past year and also protested "increased restrictions" on Tibetans' freedoms and the "harsh crackdown" on opponents of the government.
Censure by the U.N. panel brings no penalties but brings international attention to countries' records. Both sides have lobbied hard among commission members.
Chinese authorities appeared to be delaying the verdict of an anti-corruption campaigner to avoid negative publicity ahead of the U.N. vote. A court in Xinyang in the central province of Hunan confirmed today that a verdict in An Jun's trial would be announced Wednesday.
Last year, the Chinese "no-action" motion passed 22-17.
The 15-nation European Union refrained from sponsoring the China resolution but opposed the Chinese "no-action" motion.
"Little progress has been made on the ground," Portuguese Ambassador Alvaro de Mendonca e Moura said on behalf of the EU.
"Today's decision represents a sorry failure of political will," said Joanna Weschler, a representative of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The credibility of the U.N. commission has been seriously damaged by its unwillingness to censure China or even to discuss its rights performance."
"This is not surprising," said Xiao Qiang, executive director of Human Rights in China, expressing particular disappointment that the EU failed to back the resolution more strongly.
But Russian Ambassador Vasily Sidorov described the U.S. motion as a counterproductive and maintained that "one cannot ignore the positive changes" in China.
Among other motions, the human rights group condemned Iraq for its "all-pervasive repression and oppression" of its population. The EU motion was supported by 32 nations. There were 21 abstentions.
Cuba faces a motion submitted by Poland and the Czech Republic that expresses concern about continued repression of political opponents and the detention of dissidents. The communist island last year was rebuked by a single-vote margin.
A potential showdown on an EU motion expressing concern at allegations of abuses by both sides in the Chechen conflict was delayed. Commission chairman Shambu Ram Sinkhada said it will take place April 25 instead of today.
Both the Czechs and Poles overthrew Communist governments in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before that, both were close allies of communist Cuba.
"All those countries that were our friends are now betraying us," said Daniel Heredia, a 44-year-old mechanic who took part in the march. "They don't have any right to do that."
A line of closely spaced Cuban police stood on the sidewalk between the protesters and the two-story embassy where a large Czech flag waved beside a towering palm tree.
The move to censure Cuba is "directed by the United States and seconded by the hypocrisy and racism of Europe with the miserable complicity of lackeys headed by the Czech Republic," said a statement read on Cuban state television Monday night announcing the protest.
The statement charged that the action "is creating an atmosphere propitious for carrying out monstrous crimes," citing the case of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who is being held by his great-uncle's family in Miami against the will of the boy's Cuban father.
Cuban television announcers describing the march today accused the U.S. government of collaborating in the "kidnapping" of Elian by failing to act more quickly to return him to Cuba.
The Cuban statement Monday accused the United States of "making extraordinary efforts, using all its power and political and economic influence" to convince countries that voted against such resolutions in the past to accept it this time, or at least to abstain.
A similar resolution censuring Cuba was narrowly approved last year after being defeated in 1998 for the first time since 1991.